Ways To Set Your New Hires Up For Success During Onboarding 

Sales Onboarding 101: 5 Ways To Set Your New Hires Up For Success

Sales onboarding is a critical employee intake process that helps shape new hires for success. This process, which runs for several months, helps a company neophyte learn everything there is to know about the organization and its roles in its growth.

While the best onboarding practices apply to most organizations, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. An effective onboarding plan involves several factors, most notably, the company’s culture and goals, as well as grooming the new hires’ success.

It’s highly challenging to spend months setting fresh employees up while expecting them to help the company grow as soon as possible. But here are some ways that can help your organization strike a balance between the two.

Reasons why new hires fail to perform

Of all the business industries, call centers have the highest turnover rates. On a global scale, it’s estimated that 30% of new call center hires leave even before reaching their first year. (1) A 2013 survey sought to understand the reasons for onboarding challenges and came up with the following results:

• Poor understanding of the organization (69%)
• Mismatch with the organizational culture (65%)
• Challenges in establishing meaningful connections (57%)
• Lack of understanding of business model (48%)
• Decision-making issues (31%)
• Disagreement with organization strategies (28%)
• Inexperience or lack of skill (26%)

(2)

Ways for a winning sales onboarding program

In the sales onboarding process, it’s crucial to create a strategy that encourages new hires to know what the organization is about while providing them with the proper tools and training. With that being said, you can start with a sales onboarding checklist as you continue to establish the best practices for your company.

Additionally, onboarding managers can reduce the challenges involved in the employee intake process through the following tips:

1. Introduce the business well

To be effective in sales, your fresh sales team members have to receive proper orientation about the company, why you do what you do, and explain in detail what they’re going to sell. In addition, as each company has its own sales processes and rules, the onboarding manager will have to impart all this critical knowledge to freshly-hired sales agents.

Introduce three critical areas of learning: technical, cultural, and political. The first element refers to the business basics mentioned earlier, while cultural knowledge refers to the distinct roles and values that make the company unique. Political learning, meanwhile, covers decision-making processes and who’s who in the organization. (3)

2. Set clear expectations and goals

Setting expectations early on will help new sales reps understand what they need to do or contribute to their goals. Getting this correctly from the get-go will generate positive outcomes early in the onboarding process. Don’t forget to make these expectations doable and realistic, especially since you’re hiring employees during the pandemic.

Make some adjustments, like allowing eight instead of targeting ten successful deals worth USD$ 200 per agent per week, as you would have pre-pandemic. Consider dividing onboarding plans and milestones into specific timeframes to make this more organized.

3. Train and coach your sales team

Remember that the company is responsible for providing employee support. So, you need to make your new sales reps feel part of the team through coaching. After knowing what’s expected of them, the sales onboarding manager should clarify that new hires can also expect support from the management.

At this sales onboarding stage, new hires have to know what they have to do to meet the goals and expectations, how they’re supposed to accomplish these objectives, and which roles they play in their growth. Make sure to train your reps how to sell your products distinctly and read and handle different types of customers to lead them towards conversion. (3)

4. Provide them with the right tools

A thorough understanding of the product provides new hires with the confidence to sell all types of audiences. As such, it’s crucial to have open discussions about the sales process, the product, and other topics. Doing these things helps provide new sales reps with a deeper understanding of their role in the company.

Additionally, equip your sales team with the right tools to optimize their performance and strategies. For call centers with sales teams, it’s crucial to have recordings for training and present how the company handles specific types of sales calls. These may include customer relationship management (CRM) software and an efficient lead generation and management process, among many others.

5. Make meaningful connections

Besides coaching and training, strive to establish meaningful interactions by pairing veteran sales members with fresh hires. Doing this can help make new hires feel part of the team. At the same time, during the first week of the onboarding process, schedule briefings per department to explain what they do and how the new sales reps can turn to them for questions or support. Organize informal get-togethers and lunches to connect on a personal level. (4)(5)

Final thoughts

The onboarding process should provide a new employee with a glimpse of the company culture and facilitate seamless employee integration while teaching them how to do their job well. An onboarding program manager for sales must educate new hires, understand their challenges, equip them with the right tools, and make them feel well-integrated into the company.

References

1. “The Global Call Center Report: International Perspectives on Management and Employment”, Source: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/74325/GCC_Intl_Rept_US_Version.pdf
2. “How Transition Advisors Accelerate Executive Onboarding and Integration”, Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-transition-advisors-accelerate-executive-michael-watkins-1/
3. “7 Ways to Set Up a New Hire for Success”, Source: https://hbr.org/2019/05/7-ways-to-set-up-a-new-hire-for-success
4. “The Four Cs: Onboarding that Saves Time and Reduces Costs”, Source: https://www.ies.ncsu.edu/blog/the-four-cs-onboarding-that-saves-time-and-reduces-costs/
5. “Onboarding 101: How to Set Your Employees Up for Success”, Source: https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2019/08/07/onboarding-101-how-to-set-your-employees-up-for-success/