Introduction

Hiring is one of the most critical factors in the success of any sales organization. Companies recognize this as fact and are willing to invest significant time, effort, energy & money in hiring the best Sales Reps.

Everyone wants “A-players” and everyone is competing for that small and limited talent pool.

So let’s say you are one of the lucky few and you actually do hire a great candidate. What happens next?

In our research we found that it takes, on average, 4.5 months for an Inside Sales Rep to be fully productive. That’s nearly 82 selling days! Why so long?

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Sales Onboarding

The investment in onboarding

Here’s my hypothesis:

The result is that our Reps aren’t being properly prepared to take the selling field.

So, specifically, where are we going wrong and how can we address the issue? As I see it, there are 5 key areas, gaps really, between where we are today and where we need to be.

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Sales & Marketing leaders are making a strategic investment in their hiring process and then undermining it with a tactical onboarding process.

Sales Onboarding

The 5 onboarding gaps

1. Context

2. Orientation

3. Planning

4. Investment

5. Coaching

These gaps are holding us back. These gaps lead to long ramp times.

They expose us to the risk of new hire failure. And they leave us with great Reps who just aren’t performing up to their full potential.

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Sales Onboarding

CONTEXT1.

Buying & selling has changed

But our onboarding process hasn’t.

SiriusDecisions shares that buyers are 70% through their buying process before they ever speak to a Sales Rep.

So how do Reps engage with these extremely knowledgeable buyers, when all they can talk about is their products?

Reps need to be speak to the buyer’s challenges, what they care about, how they are measured, etc.

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THE CONTEXT GAP

The context gap

Here’s a useful quote from Tom Peters:

That is what typically happens when we hire reps and then connect them to the fire hose of our products, our value proposition, our message, our features, our benefits, etc.

The buyer is conspicuously absent in all of this. 

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If you went to a play, and someone appeared on stage and proceeded to read the play - with no acting - you'd say they missed the point of theater.

“

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THE CONTEXT GAP

Them before us

Onboarding has to evolve to meet this new selling reality. Help your Reps really understand your Buyer Personas.

Put it in context for them. Help them develop a language that will resonate with your buyers. This is an investment you simply can’t ignore.

What follows is a rough sketch of how to address this context gap.

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THE CONTEXT GAP

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What if ?You let your customers do the talking?

Video interview them, asking:

• “How would you describe their role?” • “What was your life like before our solution?” • “How would you tell the

story of what we delivered?”

Record once and share many. There is no better way to arm your Reps than with these stories.

Addressing the gap

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Traditional Approach Additional Context

- A day in the life of our buyers

- Their top 3 challenges & how they address them today

- How they’re measured/comp’d

Our value proposition What’s in it for them

Our products With us/without us vision

Our sales process How our buyers buy

Our messaging Messaging by buyer persona

Our CRM Leveraging CRM

Our selling tools Selling tools by persona

THE CONTEXT GAP

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Formatted to fit your screen

This is just a small excerpt of a much larger ebook on Inside Sales Onboarding.

You can get the full ebook here:http://www.bridgegroupinc.com/inside_sales_onboarding.html

Regards,

- Trish BertuzziPresident & Chief Strategist | The Bridge Group, Inc.

@bridgegroupinc

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CLOSING THOUGHTS

About The Bridge Group, Inc.

We're an Inside Sales Consulting & Implementation firm.

We’ve helped Sales & Marketing leaders from over 180 B2B technology companies make the big decisions: on implementation strategy, productivity & performance, process, technology and tools.

More information

Phone: (978) 562-2623Email: info@bridgegroupinc.comWeb: http://www.bridgegroupinc.com

Buyers journey map (p.7) - http://laurenondemand.com/tag/b2b-lead-generation/

Tom Peters (p.8) - http://www.tompeters.com/toms_world/a_day_in_the_life.php

Road sign (p.9) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/reflexer/5293808298/

Client video (9.10) - http://www.nasuni.com/news/nasuni-blog/law-office-utilizes-cloud-storage-to-mitigate-growth/

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PHOTO CREDITS