ONBOARDING
thoroughly onboard a new hire. And new hires also must be com-
Get On ... And Stay On How to Establish New Sales Hires for the Long Haul
HENRY CANADAY
“Most firms declare victory too early,” says one sales consultant. “Onboarding a salesperson isn’t truly finished until you are 100% sure the salesperson will stay with you.”
Onboarding means much more than just getting the new rep a desk, laptop, and password to the CRM system. This consultant says onboard- ing is one of the four crucial steps to building an effective sales organiza- tion. These steps are recruiting, on- boarding, ongoing management, and retention. Miss one crucial step and the rest will fail – or at least be much harder to achieve. What exactly is true onboarding? The consultant says it means the new hire achieves proficiency in attitude, knowledge, skills, and activities and ultimately gets results. Each of these areas can, in turn, be broken down into its components. For example, reps may need knowledge of one and then several products, then knowl-
edge of their markets and custom- ers, then knowledge of competitors’ strengths. Activities include reach- ing out to prospects, connecting to decision makers, participating in first meetings, converting prospects to opportunities, writing proposals, and, finally, closing. Onboarding is not finished until
new reps have achieved complete proficiency in all components of all areas. For more complex professional sales, that typically takes 15 months. If you hire an experienced rep who has worked in your market, you might save some time. On the other hand, some new reps require 18 months to reach full proficiency. The consul- tant emphasizes that you must be prepared to stay at it for a while to
mitted. Although it may include tak- ing classes, onboarding is not train- ing, the consultant says. Each new rep should be given a very detailed list of the proficiencies that must be attained, and then it is the new rep’s responsibility to attain them – asking for help from managers or others if necessary. Thorough onboarding is methodical and sequential. A good onboarding program sets specific quarterly goals in each major area of proficiency. The consultant emphasizes skills, knowledge, and activities early in the process, then ramps up the push to reach sales goals only later. “Don’t expect [new reps] to close in the first three months,” he says. Lucky breaks – such as a big sale closed early in the onboarding pro- cess – can actually be damaging; they may mislead young reps into thinking they have learned everything neces- sary to achieve such results regu- larly. Because new reps are often so eager, prospects rarely mistake them for sales veterans, even after a big sale. But if the lucky new rep has not learned, for example, how to prepare a winning proposal for a complex sale, it will be difficult for the new rep to replicate these results over the long term. Proficiency does not mean mastery of sales or even that the rep is now a “mature” salesperson. For example, if your best reps sell $5 million annu- ally, and your average veteran sells $2 million per year, the new rep may sell only $750,000 in the year to achieve “proficient” status. Yet this rep is fully on board when you know they can grow into a steady performer, even if it will take them another year or two to hit your sales veterans’ numbers. Onboard your new reps patiently
and thoroughly and you will have solid performers – or at least reps thoroughly capable of solid perfor- mance. And that makes ongoing management and retention highly feasible and much easier.
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