How to Build Sales Confidence During Onboarding

I’ve heard from many sales leaders lately that it’s tough getting the next generation of sellers to pick up the phone.

We all know that no one wants to make cold calls, but the endless email and InMail touches and cadences that your reps are using aren’t working.

And, with the new Gmail and Yahoo email restrictions that kicked in this year, it’s more important than ever to go back to basics and get new sellers to pick up the phone.

At Factor 8, we’re focused on teaching reps tactical phone sales skills to help them build sales confidence (so they’ll pick up the phone AND feel great about it!)

Today, I’m talking about new sales hire onboarding.

When you’re bringing on someone new – especially when they’re remote – one of the most important things you can do in new hire onboarding is use call recordings.

READ: Tips for Virtually Onboarding New Sales Reps

The game has changed over the past few years. When sellers are remote, they can’t just sit next to their peers,  hear what’s happening, and learn the good, bad, and ugly.

If your company doesn’t record calls, or you’re worried about not having a specific rep’s call recordings, toss that – it doesn’t matter. You can learn so much from any call recording.

In fact, at Factor 8 in our Sales Bar, our online sales training platform, we have thousands of user-submitted recorded sales calls from all different industries, organized by skill (i.e. call intro, overcoming objections, call bridging, closing, etc.)

READ: 7 Hacks to Improve New Sales Rep Onboarding

During onboarding, break down the call and let reps listen to what it sounds like, even if it’s not a good call, because what we’re scared of is what the customer is going to say to us (and the inability to think on our feet to respond to them intelligently).

When reps hear different scenarios on sales calls 20 or 30 times, they begin to feel comfortable and that fear starts to go away and the confidence rises.

And that’s the name of the game, folks: confidence. You’ve got to have it to succeed in sales, and building it begins at onboarding.

Need help building sales confidence in your sales reps? Email me at LB@factor8.com. I’m happy to help!