10 Actionable Tips for Creating Your Sales Team Development Plan + Budget [“Sales Shot” Workshop]
10 Actionable Tips for Creating Your Sales Team Development Plan + Budget
[“Sales Shot” Workshop]
Onboarding
7 Hacks to Improve New Sales Rep Onboarding
When was the last time you learned something new as a sales leader? If you’re struggling to find an answer, that’s a problem.
In fact, the problem is with our entire system of onboarding. Too many organizations see learning as an event, not a career-long process. So once the onboarding phase is complete, training stops, and sales reps are expected to figure things out on their own.
But ask yourself this: how many salespeople know how to do their job perfectly and meet quotas consistently after a three-month training period?
Don’t worry. I’ll wait.
Of course, that expectation is silly. Maybe that’s why 62% of companies consider themselves ineffective at onboarding new sales hires.
No one—and I’m including myself—masters their job so quickly. We become proficient at sales, management, coaching, and leadership a little bit every day. Then one day, we wake up, and suddenly we’ve arrived!!! (That is until it’s time to upskill again.)
So if you’re relying on a single onboarding phase to create perfectly competent reps, you’re missing the point. The goal of onboarding should be not competence, but confidence—which will motivate them to keep learning over their whole career.
Not only that but with salesperson turnover at 1.7X higher than other fields, building confidence and empowering your reps to continually improve is a powerful tool to aid in retention.
So how do you do onboarding the right way? Here are seven hacks that we’ve learned over our years of experience.
1. Focus on confidence, not competence
I alluded to this already, but too many sales onboarding initiatives start out with the wrong goal. When you try to get reps to a certain competence level within 60-90 days, they just end up drinking from the fire hose, and very little of that knowledge sticks.
So instead of the unrealistic goal of hitting quota within 90 days, make sales confidence your primary onboarding goal. Train the reps in a smaller number of high-impact topics, then send them out feeling like they’re ready to tackle the world.
THEN set up future training for them to continually upskill over the next months and years. If your reps are already confident, they’ll be anxious to improve themselves and will drink it all in!
2. Cover six primary competencies
Here are the six main competencies where you’ll have the most impact:
- Product. Not the history (no one cares—except maybe your investors). But how do you sell it? What problems does it solve? Emphasize benefits, not features.
- Systems. What resources do you have in place to support your reps? How do they access them? Where can they go with questions?
- Process. What are the top five questions a rep will get from customers, and how should they address them?
- Acumen. Reps need to know certain basic industry and business terminology to sell in their territory. What do they need to know to be effective on day one?
- Sales. You may think you’ve bought experience, but in today’s market, you can’t count on that. What basic sales competencies do reps need to have a solid grasp of?
- People. Who are the reps going to be working with on a day-to-day basis? Don’t just toss them over the wall—help them get to know their team.
3. Cut off the talking head
No one learns anything from a talking head (and those that do probably aren’t in sales). Salespeople learn by doing. So don’t just talk at them—get them engaged in the material and using it.
This is why it’s important to not only train your reps but also your managers. Managers are responsible for building a development culture in your organization. Your managers need to be trained on how to coach so they can help reps better develop their skills.
4. Hire reps in groups
If you want your salespeople to work as a team, hire them as a team. Training reps in groups is a great way to encourage more engagement with the material—and especially offline side discussions. Getting an entire cohort on board with the same material will only help everyone row in the same direction when they get onto the sales floor (or “virtual” sales floor).
5. Work with third-party professional trainers
According to Aberdeen, 45% of best-in-class sales organizations use third-party sales trainers. With good reason—if you’ve hired a cohort of 20-25 reps, a single sales manager just doesn’t have the bandwidth to coach and train them all, especially in a virtual world.
Professional sales trainers, on the other hand, will be able to get down in the mud with the reps, spending focused time on getting them up to speed and building their confidence. Remember: it’s important during onboarding to not only get the rep to process new information but encode it into their brains and bodies so they put it into practice.
(Psst! If you’re searching for inside sales training vendors, check out what you should be looking for here.)
6. Leverage the Voice of the Customer
Your reps are going to be working with customers eventually. So why not incorporate the Voice of the Customer into your training? One great tip is to have a library of pre-recorded, model sales calls that you can pull up and walk through new hires with. These calls should demonstrate top objections and (most importantly) how reps should respond to them.
7. Build a nest
If your goal is to build rep confidence, then it’s a good idea to have a safe place for them to go. (No, salespeople aren’t all tough as nails—we have a human side too!) Pairing reps with a designated nesting manager—usually a high-performing rep looking to move into management—can help them build confidence and skills. Keep in mind that a nesting manager is someone who’s purely developmental in focus. They’re not pulled in to save deals. They’re just about coaching people.
Final thoughts on improving training + ramp time
Never underestimate the importance of a strong onboarding program. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. If you want reps to have a solid, lasting relationship with your company, then onboarding is the perfect chance to start that relationship on the right foot.
And don’t be afraid to put some effort into it. Because if you do, you’ll definitely reap rewards down the road.
Ready to improve new sales rep onboarding?
We’ve got your back! Contact us today to learn how you can incorporate training into your sales rep onboarding process to speed ramp time and improve retention.
How to Hire and Retain Top Sales Reps and Managers
Help! I’m hiring salespeople, but where do I find them? Well, probably not in the stack of resumes from your recruiting department. Or maybe you already know that and hence the Google search bringing you here. Great sales talent is near impossible to find these days and will continue to be difficult in the coming years thanks to shifting employment rates, aging demographics, and increases in sales hiring. Your ideal candidate profile with a few years of experience in your industry and a college degree isn’t coming to you. So, what do you do?
Here are a few creative strategies and tactics to consider when hiring salespeople:
Get Ready to Win
It’s a seller’s market, not an employer’s market so every candidate you do happen to find will be comparing you to other potential offers. You are competing with other companies, so make sure now that your…
- Website reflects a great culture
- Glassdoor reviews are positive
- Employees and customers have posted good things
- Website reflects diversity (they won’t apply if they don’t see it)
- Your process moves 2x faster than it used to. If it takes you 4 weeks to hire, they’ll accept elsewhere
- Social presence is engaging, recent, and active
- Pay and benefits are at, or above, market rate
- Company social causes exist and are enticing
- Job descriptions aren’t wish lists. Keep them short to fill the funnel (key for females)
- Career growth and development opportunities are plentiful
More than ever, employees are shopping employers and the new generations care less about pay and more about career growth, development opportunities, and social causes. Ask yourself: How would they look to their followers if they joined your company? Will their friends think they went back to the dark ages? Or will they have FOMO because the company is totally GOAT?
(If you don’t know what either of these terms mean, it’s OK, I had to look up one of them too. But maybe get a 20-something in recruiting to do the social checks for you 😉)
Get More Candidates
OK, got this all delegated and you’re ready to win the battle? Now it’s time to fill the pipeline. Like any smart sales leader, you know better than to have just one source. Here are some great actions to try this year:
- Repurpose a sales headcount to shop LinkedIn for passive candidates
- Start a program at local colleges BEFORE they graduate or go to career fairs
- Partner with sales colleges to volunteer to speak or judge role plays
- Grant a massive bonus for referrals
- Comp (or measure) managers for finding their own talent
- Go talk to employees in service, marketing, product, delivery who might try sales
- Try community college or tech school career fairs (is a 4-year degree totally necessary?)
- Use social networks to post (e.g. is there a local mom’s group?)
- Try advertising a contest, scholarship, or other promotion for sellers/leaders and use it as a marketing funnel (it’s a lead list! Call it!)
- Find your favorite person each week (Restaurant server? Your kid’s teacher?) and recruit
If these seem like desperate measures, then I’ve hit the mark. This is not a time for passive recruiting. Anyone great at selling who isn’t employed already is probably not your hire.
Improve Your Selection
Got folks in the funnel but need help choosing a better fit?
Listen, I made some HORRIBLE hiring decisions my first year in every new position. Bet you have too. It’s critical to remember that your hiring process needs to be a documented and rigorous pipeline just like your sales funnel. Here are a few questions to help:
- Is the screening aligned to the job (e.g. phone screens for phone sales?)
- Do you have defined gates to pass to the next stage?
- Are you involving multiple decision-makers?
- Are you looking for experience and skill? Or behavior and aptitude (pick the latter)?
- Who’s doing the heaviest lifting and how can you put less on your managers?
- Do candidates have a great idea of what to expect? Could a job shadow help?
- Are your managers aligned on the definition of a good candidate?
- Can managers hire their own teams (trust me, don’t do it for them)
- Do your screening tools help you increase the pool vs. decrease (your resume screener or profile tool may be weeding out today’s definition of good)
- Have you trained managers on how to interview?
I know, overwhelming – especially with your rag-tag group of new and tenured managers (just guessing). I got your back on this one with our new Sales Bar eLearning course, “Hire Like a Rockstar”, that will help your entire team define good, create a rubric of criteria, and align interview questions + scoring to make consistently better hires. You’re welcome. 🙂
![SALES TEAM RETENTION [INFOGRAPHIC]](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/3471041/919bf4d3-fb8e-4f9a-b406-209898c4dd34.png){kind=small}
Keep the Talent You Find
Finally, we can’t address keeping your sales team afloat if there’s a hole in the boat. The best way to staff your team is to keep the ones you have. Remember, you make your number every month on the backs of your B players. Work like hell to keep your A, B, and C players coming to work and grow. Here’s what’s most important in this fight:
- Monthly sales training opportunities. That’s right, several hours a month is table stakes, and a pass to LinkedIn learning isn’t impressive anymore
- Monthly call coaching. Yes, monthly. Make sure your managers are trained on how to do call coaching well and are doing it consistently
- A documented career path with clarity on how and when they’ll move up
- Opportunities to move up within 18 months (average lifespan of a new rep)
- Access to leaders. Manager meetings, skip levels, feeling close to executives
- Company social causes. Volunteering together or a pet charity with hands-on opportunities
- Work/life balance. Kids these days (did I just type that?) are uber-focused on having a full life, less stress, and chances to be with family and friends
- Basic tech stack. They’re used to a great CRM, engagement tool, call recording, data sources, and more. If you’re using Excel spreadsheets, you’d better rock the rest of this list
- A mission to believe in. Listen, even if you sell floor wax, be sure every employee knows how they’re helping change the world
- A mentor and/or buddy. Having a great friend and/or confidant at work is a leading indicator of employee engagement.
They have choices, and as soon as they choose you, someone else is recruiting them.
Need to train newly hired sales reps or managers?
We’ve got your back! Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps and managers.
Onboarding Sales Reps: 10 Hacks to Improve Training + Ramp Time [“Sales Shot” Workshop]
Onboarding Sales Reps: 10 Hacks to Improve Training + Ramp Time
[“Sales Shot” Workshop]
Why Your Salespeople Are Quitting (and How to Retain Them)
Whether you believe in “The Great Resignation” or not, one thing is for sure, there has been a record number of people quitting their jobs in the past year.
It seems like every month this year we received more emails bouncing back and letting us know that “John is no longer with the company.” The more of these responses we got, the more we wondered what was the true cause of this unprecedented mass exodus (and if there is anything we can do to make it stop).
To get to the root of the issue, we surveyed thousands of sales professionals to find the true cause of attrition amongst sales teams and to learn what reps and managers want most from their employers. We received responses from every level of the corporate ladder, from individual contributors up to CEOs. Some of the responses were obvious, some were rather surprising.
Spoiler Alert: Higher compensation is NOT the golden ticket to fixing the retention problem.
In our data, we learned that 63% of reps and managers started a new job within the last year. Yikes, that’s a lot of job changes! Most leaders cited the #1 reason their employees leave was due to lack of competitive compensation. However, both reps and managers listed a lack of training and development as their #1 reason for departing. Looks like we, as leaders, need to make some adjustments to improve sales team retention.
The next surprising stat we found was about coaching. The manager responses state that over 86% of managers were regularly coaching their reps. While the rep responses showed the majority of reps desire MORE coaching than what they’re currently receiving. To us, this communicates that while there may be coaching happening, what’s really missing is quality coaching. Coaching is one of our favorite topics (and the one we have seen provide the greatest impact). Recently, we hunkered down and gave some insight on how to master call coaching and how both reps and managers can prepare for an upcoming call coaching session.
While there were certainly areas where reps and leaders didn’t align, there was one area where all salespeople saw eye-to-eye. At each rung of the corporate ladder, the survey responses told us that reps and managers both want and need more ongoing sales training and leaders agreed that their reps and managers need more training. Sounds like this might be an easy area of opportunity for retention!
Want more insight? Make sure you grab your free copy of our survey results below!
Want to know how to retain your salespeople?
Download our Sales Team Retention Infographic to learn why reps and managers are quitting and how leaders can better retain them.
How to Hire a Great Sales Manager
Hiring Sales Managers vs. Promoting Reps to Management
Raise your hand if you’ve promoted the wrong rep to sales manager before. Yeah, no sales leader in the world can keep both (or either of?) their hands down. And it’s so painful, right? Because they were SO GOOD at the job and so ambitious and all over you about it. Honestly, you kind of HAD to right? For risk of losing them? And how’d it end up?
I really hope you didn’t lose your top rep AND a manager within a year. But that’s how the story usually goes when I’m commiserating with my fellow sales leaders. It’s like the million-dollar elephant in the room…the right of passage every great leader endures.
So you’re in the club (welcome, leave your t-shirt size in the comments). Now, how on Earth do we stop making that mistake? I believe the key is to understand why your top reps are so darn good. Because it’s the same reason they’re terrible managers.
Top reps are in the winning business.
Doesn’t matter what industry. They’re in the “try harder” business. The “don’t give up until you get the “W” business.” They get up faster, they get up better. They make ten more calls. They do NOT take a no for an answer or a loss lying down. You might not let them date your daughter, but you want 10 more on your team.
Never put this guy (or gal) in charge.
Because management isn’t the winning business. Management is the people’s business. I love how Jack Welch said it:
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself.
When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
— Jack Welch
If we can agree that the top reps are hard-wired for competitiveness and selfishness, and KILLING your number, then we can agree we need to go in a different direction for a top manager.
Hint: have this conversation immediately when these bulldogs ask about management because they will. They’re ambitious and they want more money and prestige like always. Try something like, “Why on EARTH would you want that crap job? I hire those guys to tend to my real superstars – you. The money is worse, the hours are longer, and you’ll always have to play by the rules.” That should hold them off for a while. If that doesn’t work, put them in charge of mentoring the newbies for a year or two and see if they get sick of it.
Now, how do you find and hire the REAL management superstars? Here are my Factor 8 tips for hiring sales managers. Hope you’ll share yours as well!
- They’re a “B” level rep. These folks hit quota consistently but seldom outperform. If you had to guess, they have the effort and attitude and pretty good skills, they just lack the killer instinct to be an “A” level rep.
- They love to teach or mentor the newbies. Not sure if they’re a great mentor? Assign someone to them and see how they like it.
- They speak in KPIs. This means they know what really contributes to and indicates a win outside of dials. Try asking, “What trends have you found in your business?”
- They’ve got a process. Whether it’s how they attack leads, own their day, manage an account, or whatever. Try asking “How do you attack your account book/territory?”
These last two questions can help indicate a more strategic viewpoint. We’re looking for someone who sees the SCIENCE of sales vs. the ART. The science can be taught, but the art can not (your superstar reps were born to sell. It’s an art. They’re not really sure how they even do it, but it probably doesn’t include following the rules).
- They prioritize well. Front-line management is nothing if not chaotic. Many fail their first year just under the weight of the constant barrage of questions and requests. Someone who can prioritize time and tasks has a much better survival rate. Try asking,
“What do you do first each day and why?” - They’re a tremendous listener. If 50% of us quit because of our boss (it’s a thing, Google it, Gallup cited it), then we want someone who can connect well with others. Listening is a critical engagement skill and one that’s REALLY hard to teach and change. If they have this naturally they’re ahead of the pack. At the end of the interview, give them a rating here – subtract a point every time they interrupt, break eye contact, or were clearly just waiting for their turn to talk.
- They play well with others. You don’t need all your other departments logging complaints about the bulldog manager who’s hounding the credit department. Look for evidence of sharing, learning, teaching, and relationship-building outside an immediate team member. Try asking, “Tell me 10 people you’ve met and like outside of your team.”
- They want to make things better. I ask every new manager I teach why they decided to get into management. The bad ones want the title or money, the good ones want to help others win, and the great ones see something and want to make it better. Try asking, “Tell me about your ideas for ______.”
I look forward to updating this blog annually with the ideas you share with me. Like a grocery bag “Take a bag and leave a bag” station in the park, together we will stop hiring bad managers!
Want to set your new sales managers up for success?
Contact us today to learn about our award-winning sales management training programs.
Tips for Virtually Onboarding New Sales Reps
In July, our Executive Open Bar topic was Remote Training Best Practices. This was a high-demand topic for obvious reasons with so many workforces now at home.
If you’re new to the “Open Bar,” this is a Leader-only sharing forum where friends of Factor 8 talk about what’s working, what’s not, and share challenges and best practices.
*Sorry you missed the discussion. Watch our webinar on virtual training best practices to learn what great virtual sales training looks like.
During this session, I got to put on the expert vs. facilitator hat on as most of our participants were Sales Leaders and not one on the call had a learning department helping with remote learning.
Say What!?
It’s a sad truth, but one we hear a lot. Sales Leaders are doubling as Enablement Leaders and their Sales Managers as Trainers. So let’s start here:
If you have more than 25 people onboard, it’s time to start investing in an internal enablement department. And if you have 25 salespeople, you’ll need a dedicated sales trainer or coordinator and a budget of at least $1500 / rep per year.
Sales Leaders need new hire and ongoing learning for their sales reps and their sales managers. Their jobs are too busy to hire, train, coach, and manage these teams.
OK, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, here are some tips we shared to help these busy folks:
1. Make New Hire Onboarding as Self-Paced as Possible.
A very common mistake is for leaders to assume we own 100% of the learning. We try to download everything a newbie needs in multiple video sessions and drive ourselves crazy with post-it note reminders of stuff to add between meetings. Here’s the deal: you’re working too hard and they won’t retain it.
Instead, try making a list of what a newbie needs to know and turn it into a research assignment. Have them use the website, intranet sites, knowledge centers, teammates, etc. to fill in your blanks and bring you questions for the rest. In fact, could their assignment be to create a presentation of this relevant information you could use next time? (See point 3)
Now your video hour together can be an interesting story you share, Q&A and you quizzing them on what they learned.
Expert tip: beware of boiling the ocean. Do they need to know the whole history of your product set or the three key differentiators?
2. Capture for Posterity.
Another common mistake is “Groundhog’s Day” with newbies. If you’re hiring one or two employees every few weeks or months, you may feel like you’re starting over every time. Once you’ve made your new hire assignment like above, capture a blank page as a Google doc or save it to a new hire drive so you’re set for next time. Take ten minutes now to write out instructions to go with each assignment – even save them in order like day 1, day 2, etc. Your future self will thank you.
3. Use Free Bandwidth.
Because most people retain more information by DOING vs. reading or listening to you explain something, take advantage of their bandwidth. After researching relevant company history, what if they create a five-slide PPT and present it to the rest of the newbies (and save it in Drive for the next hires). Rather than just researching your top five products, perhaps they could make a video introducing them to the market. Each assignment is a better-fit learning activity AND a future resource.
4. Make Freebies Better.
There are lots of free guru videos, live streams, webinars, etc., out there. Yeah, you’ll have to listen to some product pitches along the way, but we’re looking for free training, right? So here’s how you make what’s out there better:
- If you attended and liked it, download / upload the video replay to your new hire training folder.
- Make a list of gurus you align to. There are lots of self-proclaimed experts out there, and helping your peeps align with your culture can be as simple as telling them a few folks to follow (and who to avoid).
- Surround the free events with pre and post-meetings. You can’t expect folks to attend a live webinar and then leave with changed behaviors or habits. In fact, your team will think it’s all optional unless you work with them afterward on what to apply, how to apply it, actual examples, and some role plays. Make it even better by setting expectations before the session and coaching on the key skills afterward.
5. Outsource What You Can.
Of COURSE, they love you, their fearless leader… but you’ll do well to mix it up. What internal experts can you leverage to teach topics? And what can be instantly outsourced to expert vendors?
Hint: There are five major areas where reps need training. Only two and a half are eligible for outsourcing:
- Product. What are your products and services, when and why do customers need them, how are you different from the competition? Use product leaders, marketing folks, other reps, case studies, testimonials, customer training videos, and customer success…
- Process. Think, “How a bill becomes a law.” What do reps need to know about getting orders processed, customers served, their timecards approved… you know, it’s how to get S#$* done at your company. Use operations leaders, support departments, other reps, the intranet, and the super-tenured folks who’ve been around forever.
- Systems. Don’t assume reps know how to use your tech stack. The average rep uses over 7 tools, do yourself a favor and buy the training from your vendor vs. teaching reps every step yourself. You’ll thank yourself later when you don’t have every person using the system in different ways. Best practice is when you have a professional training team that is utilizing a practice or sandbox system and incorporating timed system drills (e.g. end of day one, look up these customers in under five minutes, and end of day five we’re adding customers in under 2 minutes…)
- Acumen. Customer, business, industry. The big 3 used to be assumed when we hired a college degree. No such luck anymore. Your reps need to understand your industry, your customers’ industries, trends, terminology, acronyms, and basic business. Want them to talk ROI with the CEO… got to teach it first. Try using videos using your own internal experts. Some vendors can help here as well (Factor 8 teaches basic business acumen and has developed custom industry acumen courses for clients to use for all posterity.)
- Sales. I know, you hired for sales experience. Haven’t met a rep yet who can walk in ready to execute your sales process with your customers and your industry… have you? Even tenured reps need updates, brush-ups, reminders, best practices and help translating their sales experience to your situation. For example, did they ever sell virtually? Were they prospecting or managing existing accounts? A BDR skill set is vastly different from an AE and Account Manager skill set (check out how our certifications target different skills and outcomes). This is one you can outsource. I know a great company 😉
If you found this blog helpful and you HAVE or ARE the training department, watch our session on what good virtual sales training. The world has progressed FAR beyond the video and narrated PowerPoint, aim higher with us and let’s help eLearning suck no more.
Tips for Successful Sales Rep Onboarding
When I was in corporate America leading training organizations, my “white whale” was onboarding. I built programs, I improved programs, I chased the ever-elusive perfect new hire training experience. Pretty dorky, I guess. But MAN what a challenge.
I measured success by ramp time. Even that requires a special report of rep success by hiring cohorts (go ask for this now, it takes a while to build). And like the old game show “Name that Tune,” I challenged myself to get each group to quota in slightly fewer weeks.
I found great success, usually to the tune of about 50-100% decrease in unproductive time – or twice as fast to quota. I did it for an outsourced IBM hardware program hiring hundreds/year, for international launches of virtual SAP teams selling software, and even for small groups of reps selling waste management services (yes, I can tell you a lot about dumpsters now).
There are many keys to success – it’s a complex animal, isn’t it? Here are a few of my favorites:
- Institute rigor. Most trainers and reps approach new hire training as a break time. Reps get lazy and trainers “fill time.” Instead, think of the final 2-3-week step of the job interview. I’m talking daily tests, on-time starts, and class stack-rankings. It fosters an achievement culture.
- Self-guidance speeds learning over hand-holding. When onboarding a remote team, the go-to move is hours of Zoom calls with experts spewing data (sadly, this is called “teaching.”). Instead, put your newbies in charge of finding information, drawing conclusions, and completing tasks. You can use recordings of past “training” + your intranet and website to complete a quiz that invites decisions or conclusions and mirrors what the customer may ask. For example, after listening to your product person give the history of your solution set, they answer questions about product features of the most recent product and how it’s different from your competitor’s solution.
- Include all key areas. Most programs go heavy on systems and products. But that is a fraction of the picture. Reps and Managers need knowledge and skills in:
- Business, industry, & customer acumen: this gives us conversation confidence
- Sales skills. Even if you hired for experience, they’ll need to flex new muscles with your services in your industry in your sales motion (e.g. the online demo, virtual selling vs. face-to-face presentations) This is the easiest to outsource.
- Process. Remember Schoolhouse Rock? How a Bill Becomes a Law? Reps and especially managers need to know how a prospect becomes a renewal – the steps and departments and people involved in the business of your business.
- Product. Make this better by teaching them how to SELL it, not it’s full history.
- Systems. Make this better with scavenger hunts and timed drills. Can they talk and order entry and multi-task at once? It’s a key success factor.
- Just in time training. Resist the temptation to deliver training for the whole job upfront. They’ll only retain about 10% of what they don’t apply immediately. And frankly, you’ll scare them more than you’ll help them. Focus onboarding on what they need their first month on the job. Drill it to build confidence and let them loose. They’ll come back for the rest. Confidence is the name of the game for new reps, so let them graduate not knowing what they don’t know.
- Synthesis. Now that you know the five categories, mix them up and drive scenarios where they use them together. The key is to mimic the job. Have them use the CRM to look up customer data, in a sales role-play where the customer is talking about a product. You know, a typical call. Bonus: have them play along while listening to real recorded calls. Tip: if you’re assigning a single-thread task, re-think how to add a layer or how to add an assignment and/or rigor to it. Don’t just attend a session, write a report, create a video, answer ten questions. You get it.
- Application. Remember, the goal isn’t a perfect quiz score, the goal should be a well-executed call. What we know and what we can do under pressure are different. Consider using a call coaching or QA form as your final test and have their manager play the customer and give them their grade.
- Voice of the customer is key. Use recorded calls, case studies, even joint interviews of customers to get a feel for your ICP and why they chose you. Recorded calls are my favorite. Play the pause game where you listen to a sales call and pause every 5-10 seconds. Ask, “What is the customer thinking” and “What would you do next?” It’s the best way to get reps into the mind of the customer – making them better sellers.
- Keep managers at about 20%. Here’s a double-edged sword. YES, we want managers involved in new hire training but they SHOULD. NOT. OWN. IT. Your managers are the busiest people in your company and by putting new hire onboarding on their plate, you’re asking that the rest of their team receive no more coaching. Managers should do a daily check-in, a few role-play tests, and expectation-setting meetings. Hire a trainer or a coach to manage the rest. Training is a professional skill and done right will triple the retention of your trainees.
BONUS: Get on the phones as soon as possible! Find the low-probability deals, the lost accounts, or data-cleansing lead projects to get reps outbounding and talking to prospects ASAP. They’ll learn more from their mistakes, they’ll find their fail points and fears and be able to address them.
Is training part of your sales rep onboarding plan? It should be!
Download our Overview Brochure to learn more about our virtual and inside sales training programs for both sales reps and sales managers.
4 Tips to Build A Great Inside Sales Team: What Makes a Good Rep
There are millions of inside sales reps in the world.
Reps know this and want to be the one-in-a-million rep that impresses their managers. Managers, on the other hand, should be honing each rep’s skills to mold a team of one-in-a-million reps.
That’s a tall order, right? It’s not as hard as you might think. It all comes down to knowing what makes a successful inside sales rep, and the best practices for training.
Three Inside Sales Lessons From A Six-Year-Old
Last week my son made his first sales call. For an inside sales thought leader, you have got to believe this was big in my house! My brave six-year-old D.J. read the school script to relatives & friends and got pledges for his APEX fundraiser.
READ: Sales Is A Confidence Sport
Watching a little human do this for the first time made ME nervous – and OH. SO. PROUD. It reminded me of a few truths we could all keep in mind when preparing new hires to take to the phones for the first time:
Don’t assume anyone can do this
ANY human will get nervous asking people for money over the phone. Let’s all keep this in mind when we ask for more dials and results. His brother BAILED after one call (and he’s the extrovert in the family!!).
Set up small wins early and celebrate BIG
The small wins he got (and we celebrated big time) energized him to make more calls. He was pulling aunties out of the woodwork! When we set up small wins early and celebrate BIG, they’ll be hooked.
Do a better job teaching rejection in new-hire training
When he got his first “no” he totally rolled with it and still wanted to make another call. Why? Because we set it up ahead of time that it would likely happen, why, and what to say. Special shout out to Uncle Shawn who agreed up front to say no to a six-year-old so we could teach this lesson (THAT wasn’t easy!). More “NO” in role plays and more help in why they happen and how to handle them.
Remember that just like a first grader, our new hires watch us to determine how to act. It’s good to show some nerves, to celebrate small wins, and to get right back up like a “no” doesn’t sting a little. I know that the next time I’m in class I’ll be a little less tough on the 23-year-old making their first calls.
By the way, my proudest moment was when he DITCHED THE SCRIPT and felt confident enough to use his own words. I can’t believe I didn’t record it!