Jul 11, 20218:01 PM - edited Aug 12, 202110:32 AM
HubSpot Employee
Onboarding techniques that work
Most sales jobs have very little onboarding. The new rep might get a little bit of instruction and get to do a "ride-along" with an experienced team member, but then they're usually put on the frontlines and left to fend for themselves. Have a story of an onboarding experience that went well? Share it in the comments below!
Unfortunately, this is an area where we are lacking and must do better. Our basic HR onboarding is good. Moving past that has been different for each person in each role. Not great for scaling!
I enjoyed this session as it gave me a structure to begin creating a strong onboarding process for the sales team and beyond. Thanks.
Focus on fundamentals first, sales process, buyer personas, customer journeys, digital playbook, company mission/purpose, high level messages and offerings, sales roles, then deliver further chunks of the playbook as relevant. Great motivational tactic is to showcase big wins in weekly sales meetings, that others can learn from.
With our last hire we had them focus on 1 part of the things available to sell, low dollar,repetitive, and got to know the customers on a personal basis. So when it came time for the more expensive involved part of our companies products, they were on great terms with the client who looked to them as a trusted advisor, and the sales rep had time to learn the rest of our products intimately so that they could solve all the customers pains effectively and at a fair price.
In my opinion, I consider that it is very common for the new sales person to be trained with a person who already has a lot of experience in the job market. If it is effective but also sometimes the person with a lot of experience has more work to do and there is not much attention for the complete training, in the same way it fulfills the function of training but not 100%
I think that is a really good point. The training process takes a fair amount of time to do it well. Shadowing can be useful, but in the long run you need someone training that can take the time to help the new salesperson build all of their competencies so that they can also perform like a top salesperson.
The best structure onboarding has been with a webinar/group onboarding about the company or about the topic.
After about max 4 hours, the reps go out in the "field" and practice their new learnings. And so on. It does work, in my opinion. It all starts with the hiring though.
