Onboard Salespeople for Retention and a Fast Start

Onboard Salespeople for Retention and a Fast Start

Jul 1, 2023 | Blog, Sales Management Coaching, Sales Team Development, Sales Team Hiring, Sales Team Management, Sales Team Performance

Close up of a typewritter with the words onboarding success on a piece of paper

Onboard Salespeople for Retention and a Fast Start

Don’t Start With Product Training.

If you ask a mediocre sales rep what they need to be successful, he or she will tell you “I need to understand the product” or “I can’t talk to prospects without understanding the ins and outs of our product,”  or worse, “how do I do a demo.”

First, please don’t hire mediocre sales people.  You can learn how to avoid this waste of time here. 

Second, product knowledge is not the first thing the new salesperson needs to be successful.  If you teach them about the product, they will talk about your product and not do their job which is to sell.  

Let me explain.  

The image above is of a typewriter strike point and ribbon.  I used this image to make a point.  A sales rep relying on product knowledge to sell is like outfitting your company with typewriters instead of computers – highly ineffective.  

Selling is about identifying issues the prospect has that your company can solve, but the issues need to be compelling, and have urgency.  How do you save the customer time, make them or save them money or reduce their risk in the market.  This is how you sell, not talking about features and benefits. 

Eventually, the sales team must understand your offerings, of course.  And you should be sharing the high level product information with the new reps in the first 30-days.  You must teach them to not sound like all the other sales people selling in your space.  

The buyers they will speak to already know your products.  The buyers have access to information about your products.  In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, the sales person was the keeper of the information.  Just like the typewriter, this old school thinking, and a crutch weak sales people use.  

You should not start with teaching product knowledge!

 

Close up of a typewritter with the words think different on the piece of paper

 

There are 3 sets of questions that you need to answer, teach and test with every sales rep during your onboarding process.  These questions are part of the STAR sales hiring process we use to help clients hire their first or next sales superstar, and I am sharing some the insights with you.


The first two sets of questions are usually easy for a business owner to answer and define.  The third set of questions are the most important for the reps to be effective in the marketplace, but are the questions that business owners and senior sales leaders gloss over.  Your salespeople need these answers.  Do not assume they will figure it out. 

 

Question 1: WHO at your company will support them?

    1. What is our organizational structure?
    2. Who can I go to for help?
    3. What kind of help can I expect?
    4. How do I get help? 

 

Question 2: WHAT expectations will you have of your salespeople?

    1. What are the expectations for me during the first week, month, quarter, year?
    2. How will I be measured?
    3. How will I be held accountable?
    4. What if I don’t measure up?
    5. What if I over achieve?

 

Question 3: WHY should the buyer work with your salespeople/company?

    1. What are all of the problems we solve?
    2. How many applications are there for our products/services?
    3. Why are we better?
    4. How are we different?
    5. What is our brand promise?
    6. How do we position ourselves in the marketplace?
    7. Who are our customers?  (they should have a list of targets)
    8. What are their titles?
    9. How do we get to them?
    10. Why will they see me? 
    11. What does the first call sound like?
    12. What is our sales process?
    13. How do I navigate the process?
    14. What are the questions I should be asking?
    15. What kind of objections will I hear?
    16. How do I handle those objections?
    17. What does our competition say about us?
    18. How do we sell against our competitors?
    19. What are their strengths and weaknesses?
    20. How do they sell against us?
    21. How do you want me presenting our solutions?
    22. How are our prices compared with the competition?
    23. How do we justify our prices?

 

You can build a successful onboarding experience for your salespeople by answering these questions for them. 

I want to thank you for subscribing and reading the blog.  The entire team at Helix Sales Development is working hard to deliver value to as many entrepreneurs as we can.  We do not and cannot work with everyone who reaches out, but we are building offerings to give you access to great tools.