Ready, Set, Sell!
Reduce the time for your new sales people to hit their targets by improving the assimilation process
The Sales Management Challenge
OK, so you’re preferred candidate accepted the offer and starts Monday. The interview process was long, hard and tedious. But you’ve won at last. You landed the salesperson you wanted all along. Game over! What? It’s only the end of the first quarter?
Oh yes, the on-boarding process. New hire training. Let us guess. Your orientation program is either the “fire hose” version – throw everything at them in a little under a week (retention low, frustration high), or the “osmosis” program – send them out with an “experienced” rep for a few days and they’ll figure the rest out – they’re “great”, right?
The SalesForce Solution
At SalesForce, we have a solution. Our Ready, Set, Sell! on-boarding program. The Ready, Set, Sell! program is a professionally customized new sales hire orientation program designed specifically for your organization’s unique environment.
The SalesForce Ready, Set, Sell program is designed to accomplish one objective, that is to help sales people move to revenue-generation mode as quickly as possible.
How It Works
The Ready, Set, Sell! program accomplishes this by focusing on three distinct components of on-boarding a new sales rep, namely;
- What do they need to know – like the big things, sales process, CRM, meeting key people to the little things, like how to turn on the computer and where their desk is (hint: get these out of the way first) ;
- When do they need to know it – There should also be logic to the program flow; and
- Evaluating whether or not they know it. The key here is to develop a testing process, and ensure the rep knows what they are doing prior to seeing a new customer.
With the SalesForce Ready, Set, Sell! program, you should be able to minimize the time your new hire is on the bench, and maximize your chances for establishing a successful marriage that can create “Great”. Protect your investment now, and let the Ready, Set, Sell! program pay for itself by increasing revenues faster.
Do You Need It?
Ask yourself the following:
- Was there any communication between the time the offer was accepted and the start date?
- When your new salesperson walked through the door on the start date did they know where to go; was someone there to greet them; did the manager spend time with them; were ID card, workspace, supplies and equipment ready?
- Did they receive proper training on your product/service; your sales process including CRM; your competitors; your organization’s mission, vision and values, how to communicate your value proposition; your expectations in terms of targets, activities and effectiveness?
- Is your training format varied (1:1, classroom, web, job shadow/sales calls, etc)?
- Do you routinely test the new hire to ensure that they are knowledgeable in the topic before proceeding to a new one?
- Are your learning steps clearly defined, have a logical sequence and staggered over time?
- If asked, would the new salesperson describe the on-boarding experience as one that prepared them to meet their sales targets?
If your responses to any of the above lead to “No” or some hesitation, then you’ll want to consider this. The cost of a mis-hire is upwards of six times the base salary! No, mis-hire doesn’t always mean that you made a bad hiring decision, but it could mean that you have a lousy orientation program…and no, that’s not a mis-print either. 6 x base salary!! For this reason alone, assimilating new sales people is a critical skill that every sales leader must master.
Get Started
To receive a complimentary TALENT EVALUATION tool that will identify key traits of your new salesperson – WHY they perform the way that they do, HOW they will perform, and WHAT specific parts of the role they will be best at. Take a moment right now to fill in the brief form below. You'll be presented with a download box (below this text) right after you submit your request.
