Sales Onboarding Best Practices

In 2019, 58% of sales teams will be increasing in size. Onboarding and hiring often seem like constant processes in the sales industry due to growth and high turnover rates. In fact, one in five employees leaves a job within the first 45 days – often before their job has come into full swing.

Reasons may include a rep feeling disconnected from their team, not getting enough feedback from their manager, and feeling overall disengaged or unsuccessful in the role. Almost 60% of reps expect to miss quota this year (Salesforce), and this can be attributed to less than adequate onboarding process at sales organizations.

If you can improve rep productivity with successful onboarding, satisfaction and engagement will likely also increase, thus making it less likely that rep will quit or be let go. To do so, having an established and engaging onboarding process is essential.

Replacing employees can be a long, expensive process. So, here are some sales onboarding best practices to help build a stronger team:

Sales Onboarding Best Practices

Proper Knowledge and Training:

The truth is that most of the information taught during initial sales training is lost with the first 45 days. To solve this, a sales manager must consider onboarding to be a recurring training process during the first few months of a new hire joining their team.

Throughout the process, make sure to restate the value of what you are selling, reinforce your messaging, and relate the value of your product to specific clients and industries. Technical terms are important, but managers should also ensure that their reps are on board with the company culture and values. Further, meeting with experienced reps is another way for new hires to better assimilate and truly understand the sales process and value of your messaging.

Frequent Check-Ins:

Training new hires isn’t a one-and-done event. Managers should provide feedback for new reps, whether it be positive reinforcement or further coaching. Doing so can only benefit your team; in fact, 54% of companies with onboarding programs reported higher employee engagement (Society For Human Resources Management).

The more engaged your reps feel the more productive they will be. And implementing technology that allows reps to see their progress daily is the most efficient way to so. Sales Performance Management tools with leaderboards and dashboards provide an incentive for reps and let new hires know where they stand and where they need to be. Most importantly for onboarding they also let managers see when new hires are struggling, and when and how they need to step in with further coaching and training initiatives.

Sales Onboarding Success

Taking these steps to build an onboarding program will undoubtedly ensure higher employee satisfaction and retention at your organization. Research shows that 69% of employees are more likely to stay at a company for three years if they have a positive onboarding experience (Society For Human Resources Management). So, make it a priority to put the proper process, planning, and technology into your onboarding program to build a more successful and united sales team.

Learn how you can improve onboarding and increase the productivity of your sales team with Gryphon.