Once you’ve made the decision to hire a new sales representative, what’s the next step? Many owners and sales managers make the mistake of throwing the new recruit into the fray without proper support, giving them only a company presentation and a phone to navigate their way through inaccessible customers. At our company, we understand that a successful onboarding process is crucial for sales managers. After all, nobody wants to invest their time and money in a new sales department member who will quickly burn out.
To help you get started on the right foot, we’ve created a list of essential materials to aid in the onboarding process. Let’s take a closer look at the steps involved in effectively integrating your new sales representative.
Sales representative onboarding process
The onboarding process for a new sales representative typically involves a series of steps designed to ensure that the new hire is properly integrated into the company’s sales team and has the necessary knowledge and resources to perform their job effectively.
Here are some of the key components that are typically involved in the onboarding process for a new sales rep:
Introduction to the company culture. This step involves introducing the new sales rep to the company’s mission, vision, and values, as well as the sales team’s goals and objectives. It is essential for the new hire to understand the company’s overall strategy and how their role fits into it. This can help the new hire feel more connected to the company and motivated to contribute to its success.
Product and service training. The new sales rep should receive training on the company’s products and services, including their features and benefits. Additionally, industry-specific knowledge may be required to effectively sell the company’s products or services. This training should cover the details of the products or services being sold, how they solve the customer’s problem, and how they compare to the competition.
Sales training. The new sales rep should be trained on sales techniques, including prospecting, lead generation, sales presentations, objection handling, and closing techniques. This training will help the new hire develop the necessary skills to effectively sell the company’s products or services. It should include role-playing scenarios to practice the techniques and provide feedback.
On-the-job training. Shadowing experienced sales reps or working with a mentor can help the new sales rep gain hands-on experience in the field. This type of on-the-job training can be valuable in helping the new hire learn the ropes and develop the skills necessary to succeed in the role.
Access to tools and resources. Providing the new sales rep with access to the necessary tools and resources to perform their job is critical. This can include access to customer data, sales collateral, and CRM software. Making sure the new hire has access to everything they need to do their job will help them feel more prepared and confident. Below we describe all the necessary materials for new sales representatives.
Performance monitoring and feedback. The new sales rep’s performance should be monitored and feedback provided regularly to help them improve their skills and achieve their sales targets. Regular check-ins with the new hire can help identify areas where they need additional support or training. Positive feedback can also help build the new hire’s confidence and motivation.
A list of materials for onboarding a sales manager
To help your new sales representative get up to speed and close their first deals quickly, we recommend providing them with a variety of materials. While company presentations, brochures, and product pamphlets can be helpful, they are not enough.
Here is a list of materials that can aid in the onboarding process:
Presentation materials. These should include a presentation of the company, products, and services.
Letter templates. Do you have sales letter templates? Do you collect statistics on which letter is best received and gets more positive feedback from potential customers? Great! Share these templates with the new sales rep, it will save a lot of time further.
Documentation templates. This refers to all the working documentation for the transaction: contracts, sample invoices, attachments, supplemental agreements. Turn it all in as one set.
Records of the best conversations. It’s important to equip the new hire with the best conversations where customers made their buying decisions. By listening to the conversations of the best managers, the newcomer will understand how to behave in telephone conversations with the customer, what style of communication and argumentation suits him best. If you do not have a collection of the best calls yet, it’s time to start collecting them.
The list of benefits. An important point that many people forget. Create a list of key benefits for each audience of your products and services. This should include a comparison with your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. 99% of the companies we are fortunate enough to work with do not have such a document.
Conversation scripts. The newbie needs to know how to communicate with the customer. Provide him or her with conversation scripts. These should include the following:
- a script for handling an incoming call;
- a script for calling in response to an inquiry from the web site;
- a script for handling objections, questions, and fears;
- a script for “nudging” the customer in different situations of the transaction;
- script of working with negativity;
- script of cold calling;
- a script for working with “thinking”;
- and so on.
FAQ about products, terms, concepts. Every company has its peculiarities. Concepts, terms, abbreviations and acronyms. A manager must learn all the language patterns he does not understand in order to be skillful in a negotiation.
Sales books. Have not you put together a collection of the best sales books that every sales manager should read? If not, we recommend that you do so. A book is a great tool for training and improving a manager’s skills.
Sales videos. This includes training videos from your ROP as well as videos about products, companies, successful projects, recordings of webinars, etc.
Customer base. Of course, the newbie should make their first contacts to work on. Then, when your sales wolf has tasted first blood, you can let him get into cold calling. At the beginning of the road, it is very risky to do this because of the lack of experience, knowledge, a fine understanding of the market and the customer’s pains.
This is not a complete list of materials for the adaptation of the sales manager, but if you start, the quality and speed of adaptation of the employee will grow. By the way, it is impossible to conduct sales without a clear system. We are talking about a CRM sales management system. On the basis of CRM, you can hardwire all the steps, scripts and templates and save managers time on routine tasks.
That’s why CRM implementation is one of our main business areas. We understand that if there is no coordinated system with measurement of all indicators and tracking of inquiries/calls, burdening the sales department with new advertising requests is like pouring water into a sieve. If you need CRM integration advice or would like a free consultation, please let us know.
Overall, a well-designed onboarding process is critical for the success of a new sales representative. By providing the necessary training, resources, and support, companies can ensure that their new hires are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to excel in their role.
