It’s always an exciting period when a business starts hiring new employees. However, hiring new sales representatives doesn’t exactly guarantee the sales department’s success. Once the hiring process is complete, you want to engage the recruits with an effective sales onboarding program to get them up to speed with the jobs.
The right program will help the new sales reps get acquainted with the company and set them on the right path to full productivity. To ensure the success of your onboarding program, here is a detailed sales onboarding checklist that will guide you in the right direction:
Use Modern Interactive Platforms to Educate
In-person sales onboarding may not be possible for everyone. Therefore, it’s best to use interactive content formats that provide an immersive learning experience for new sales reps, even when delivered remotely. For instance, video, 3D visualization, and product walkthroughs can be used to engage participants and improve the quality of learning.
Since sales onboarding is a progressive and repetitive process, you can use these tools to deliver information in stages and break down content into smaller chunks. This will allow the recruits to process new information more effectively and give them a better chance of succeeding in your company.
Gamify the Onboarding Process
Several years ago, sales onboarding involved all-day training sessions and shadowing experienced sales reps. This technique resulted in information overload and low retention levels among companies. Fortunately, sales onboarding has completely changed for the better, thanks to advances in sales training technology.
Nowadays, companies can offer a more engaging and appealing sales onboarding experience for new reps. Using new sales training techniques like gamification, you can engage and motivate new reps throughout the process. Gamification usually involves setting actionable goals for all participants and establishing a point-scoring system to rank the best performers.
In this training format, top performers receive rewards and incentives from the company, making the entire sales onboarding program fun and accelerating the learning curve for new reps.
Use the Right Success Metrics to Gauge Efficacy
Using the right metrics of success helps you gauge the effectiveness of your sales onboarding program. This way, you can identify which parts of the onboarding process are working and which are not.
Some of the success metrics you can use to gauge the progress of the new sales process through every step of the onboarding process include comprehensive surveys and assessments.
The success of your ramp-up period will be measured by how well the new reps understand the company and its operations. On the other hand, the long-term success of the sales onboarding program will be measured by various aspects, including the ability of the company to attain its revenue targets once the new sales reps start working.
Adopt a Culture of Continuous Learning
Once new sales reps start working, they may forget about training. Therefore, it’s important to adopt a culture of continuous learning in the company, even when work commences. The sales onboarding program should not equate to the end of on-job-training.
Things are changing daily in the sales sector, especially regarding product offerings, advertising, customer relationship management (CRM), sustainability, value-based selling, and social selling.
You should promote continuous learning among your sales reps through certification programs, quizzes, and regular learning sessions. You may also recognize and reward employee development which will keep your sales reps interested in continuous learning.
Promote Self-Learning
New employees usually need help accessing the information needed from their coworkers to do their job. Consider creating a shared folder containing links and learning resources so new sales reps can access the material they need using their mobile devices anytime.
You may also include a FAQ section in your resource center where seasoned sales reps can answer questions most recruits ask during sales onboarding. This way, new sales reps can learn everything they need to perform their duties efficiently and deliver top-quality results for the company.
Wrapping Up
Businesses shouldn’t underestimate the importance of an effective sales onboarding program. The right sales onboarding program will help equip your recruits with a solid foundation, lower employee turnover, and set them up for success.
