Question: Has your Sales Organisation designed and documented a repeatable onboarding process to get new sales executives market-ready in the shortest time period – and is your current onboarding process effective in preparing sales executives to be market-ready and closing deals in the shortest time period?
The Reality
According to our research at ThinkSales Global, only 31.9% of Sales Organisations have designed and documented a repeatable onboarding process to get new sales executives market-ready in the shortest time period.
In addition, 26% of companies rate their confidence as Outstanding that their current onboarding process is effective in preparing sales executives to be market-ready and closing deals in the shortest time period.
The ‘Cost of New Sales Hires’ Problem
According to Robert Kelly, Chairman of the the Sales Management Association, inefficient onboarding may affect hiring and turnover in unanticipated ways. Research conducted by the Sales Management Association suggests that by delaying firing decisions, and slowing hiring while new salespeople get up to speed, many firms report poor onboarding results coupled with both problematic staffing and high turnover rates.
In other words, in the absence of a strong, consistent onboarding process, new sales executives cost their companies hundreds of thousands – even millions – while they are getting up to speed and not yet ready to close deals.
Build a strong onboarding process
There is a solution though: Fine-tuning onboarding provides management with the confidence and flexibility to engage in speed hiring, and more quickly replace low performers.
Statistics published by Onboarding Software company UrbanBound suggest that organisations with a standard onboarding process are 50% more likely than their peers without a standard on boarding process, to retain new hires within the first 12 months.
Organisations with a standard onboarding process experience also reported a 54% greater productivity rating in new hires than those without.
These results speak for themselves:
- Successful onboarding programmes are those that have been structured and are able to be consistently implemented. Consider building yours into an Intranet or a purpose-built online platform.
- An Onboarding System can be used as a central knowledge bank repository. Blend these learnings with structured, live training, role-plays and in-field exposure.
- Besides the advantage in a quicker ramp-up time to productivity, the research suggests that a formalised and consistent onboarding process can reduce employee churn and increase loyalty, because everyone understands the company culture and what is expected from them from the word go.
Do This:
To create a successful and consistent onboarding programme, include the following elements in video and written format. Include quizzes to test knowledge and ask your other managers and top performers to add their thoughts and experiences to the knowledge bank:
- Company particulars
- Culture
- Sales organisation structure
- Back-office functions in relation to:
- New hire’s role, duties and expectations
- Product / service knowledge
- Understanding the client’s world
- Value proposition
- Industry knowledge
- Sales enablement tools
- Sales engagement process
- Selling skills
Assess the health of your sales organisation
Designed, documented and repeatable onboarding processes that are effective in preparing sales executives to be market-ready and closing deals in the shortest period of time are two of 322 measures of a world-class Sales Organisation.
ThinkSales Global is a specialist revenue engineering consultancy.
We assist our clients to deliver market-defying results through strategic and tactical intentions within a Sales Organisation Maturity Model that addresses the five key pillars of high-performing Sales Organsations, namely:
- Competitive Strategy
- Customer Engagement
- Sales Talent
- Sales Management
- Sales Enablement
How does your Sales Organisation stack up? Find out by taking the ThinkSales 5 Pillar Strategic Sales Assessment™.
This first-of-its-kind 360-degree gap analysis report enables your Sales Leadership team to assess its strengths and detect weaknesses and impediments to revenue growth across the five pillars.
Click here for more information on the ThinkSales 5 Pillar Strategic Sales Assessment™.
