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Optimize Time to Revenue with Effective Onboarding

This document is for informational purposes only. The opinions and views expressed in this document are those of Neural Impact Inc. and do not necessarily state or reflect those of Microsoft. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.

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The greatest risk to effectively onboarding new sales professionals occurs within the first two weeks of their employment. Their decision to accept a job offer, especially if it involves leaving a positive experience at another organization, is an emotional one, especially for sales professionals in the early stages of their career. If, in the early days of their onboarding journey, they “feel” they’ve made a mistake in joining your firm, there is a high probability they will experience “buyer’s remorse” and begin looking for evidence to validate their belief. And they will be lost.

A well-designed onboarding process harnesses the excitement, enthusiasm and desire to make an immediate impact that all sales professionals feel at the beginning of a new job. New hires are motivated to ‘hit the ground running’, open to learning new sales tactics, and eager to engage with prospects. Far too often this initial burst of energy is diluted by an insufficient, disorganized onboarding process.

In addition to accelerating new-hire time-to-revenue, the onboarding process must also support a hiring confirmation at the end of a 90 day probationary period. This confirmation has to be based on their demonstration of the required sales skills, as well as their industry comprehension and solution knowledge.

Therefore it is critical that Microsoft partners put as much structure and energy into onboarding new sales employees as they do into sourcing and selecting them.

The Cloud SureStep for Dynamics Onboarding Guide is designed to accelerate your new sales employees’ time to production as well as confirm your hiring decision. It builds upon the Cloud SureStep for Dynamics Hiring Guide and Cloud SureStep for Dynamics Compensation Guide.

Optimizing Time to Revenue with Effective Onboarding

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Communicate the Company Vision Senior leadership must engage with new sales employees early in the onboarding process to share the organization’s history, vision, culture, brand, and objectives, as well as the strategies and primary tactics behind them. They must clearly communicate how the sales professional’s efforts contribute directly to the overall success of the business--in terms of both immediate objectives and long-term profitability and growth.

Align Organizational and Employee ObjectivesPartners measure growth and success in financial terms, whereas sales professionals also factor in their career aspirations and personal growth goals.

Only when the objectives of both parties are aligned, understood, accepted, fairly measured and accomplished, will the employer/employee relationship flourish. Both parties must understand each other’s desired outcomes and long term growth objectives, and see the how their achievement are mutually beneficial.

When sales professionals understand and “buy-in” to their employer’s strategic objectives, and see how they align with their own career aspirations, emotional engagement is amplified. Emotional engagement is the fuel that drives motivation, especially during the early stages of a sales professional’s career when his or her goals may appear far off in the future.

Set Clear Expectations & ObjectivesSales professionals are hired for their ability to utilize the four primary competencies discussed in the Cloud SureStep for Dynamics Hiring Guide (see inset) to accurately forecast revenue and predictably deliver profitable projects.

Sales leadership must communicate, in clear terms, that each sales professional is ultimately responsible for their own career success. They are expected to make the commitments necessary to retire their quota, comply with internal business and sales processes, and continue to develop their skills and capabilities.

While sales professionals are always encouraged to ask questions, innovate and leverage their creativity, they will also be expected to CLOSELY follow all the organization’s policies, procedures and processes. Sales process compliance is not “optional”.

They must also clearly understand that at the end of the ninety day onboarding process they will be fairly evaluated to confirm they are a good fit for the role.

Laying the Foundation

Communication Skills Sales Skills Solution

Knowledge

Industry Knowledge

Business Acumen

Situational Fluency

Primary Competencies of Sales Professionals

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Structure an Effective Onboarding ProcessNewly hired sales professionals will be exposed to a substantial amount of new content over the course of their onboarding experience, and must be evaluated on how well they understand and can demonstrate what they’ve learned. To reduce the risk of losing a new employee during the onboarding process (or of not identifying a hiring mistake), hiring managers should:

1 Ensure pre-onboard housekeeping is complete

2 Design a comprehensive onboarding roadmap with milestones for the:

• first day

• first week

• first month

• 90 day confirmation3

Structure experiential learning

4 Continuously evaluate, coach & confirm

Pre-Onboard HousekeepingNew employees will be looking for confirmation that their decision to join your firm was the right one. As first impressions are lasting impressions, it’s very important to have everything prepared for the new sales hire when they walk in the door.

HR has prepared the appropriate onboarding forms: benefits selection, direct deposit authorization, security access, etc.

Business tools are prepared and ready: laptop, IT and e-mail access, cell phone, business cards, security badge, parking pass, etc.

Work site orientation is scheduled: facility tour, introductions to executives, colleagues, HR and support staff.

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Onboarding RoadmapNew hires must be provided with a comprehensive onboarding roadmap that clearly outlines their one, seven, thirty and ninety day action plans. While hiring managers will be heavily involved in many of the new-hire onboarding activities (training/coaching), they should also schedule twice-a-day checkpoints (morning and evening) during the first two weeks, then daily checkpoints for the following two weeks, then weekly checkpoints for the balance of the onboarding plan. This rhythm provides sales management with ongoing opportunities to make relevant adjustments to the onboarding plan.

On the following pages you will find sample on-boarding action plans and checklists to help manage your on-boarding process

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Objectives Partner Task New Hire Task

¨ Complete HR paperwork

¨ Executive overview

¨ Facility tour & introductions

¨ Lunch with hiring manager

¨ Review internal organizational structures, roles and responsibilities

¨ Onboarding process overview

¨ Introduce onboarding “mentor”

Human resources reviews all hiring documentation, (NDA, benefits selection, etc.).

Most senior (available) executive provides a company overview (vision/strategies) and explains how the new hire contributes.

Hiring manager introduces new employee to all department heads.

Hiring manager provides an overview of the resources that are available to the sales organization and how they are engaged.

New hire is briefed on their overall onboarding plan.

Review 7/30/90 day activities and expectations.

Facilitate introduction to the internal “mentor/coach” that will be supporting the new employee through the onboarding process. This role should be filled by a peer or senior sales team member.

New hire completes all required documentation.

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End of first day: provide an overview of key observations and share comfort level with hiring manager.

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Objectives Partner Task New Hire Task

¨ Sales Methodology Training

¨ CRM System Training

¨ Peer Shadowing

¨ Industry Knowledge transfer

¨ Solution Knowledge transfer

¨ Core Product Training

Hiring manager delivers an overview of the sales methodology, accelerated sales assets*, sales management rhythm (activity/deal/pipeline/forecast reviews) and CRM system. Also reviews the sales intranet site.

New hire “shadows” peer prospect research, qualification calls, demonstrations and proposal presentations.

Hiring manager provides an overview of industry challenges, project drivers, primary business processes and key operating metrics.

Presales or solution consultant provides a comprehensive solution demonstration as well as a review of:• competitive offerings• primary product and

solution strengths • One Microsoft differentiation

narrative

Hiring manager reviews the online training requirements (MPN, PartnerSource, ISV, etc.)

Enter a sample prospect in the CRM system, build out an opportunity profile/activities.

Familiarize with sales assets.

Complete a minimum of two half day peer shadowing sessions.

Research and document a minimum of five (5) Industry Pain Templates.

Review all customer case studies.

Review company website and all online assets.

Complete all week 1 online training requirements.

Week 1

*The Accelerated Sales Process and Assets referenced throughout the Onboarding Guide can be accessed here: http://aka.ms/cloud-surestep

End of first week: deliver a 20 minute company overview and differentiation presentation to the leadership team.

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Objectives Partner Task New Hire Task

¨ 3rd Party Product Overview / Demo

¨ Review Industry Buy-In Demonstrations

¨ Prospect Profiling

¨ Competitive Positioning

¨ Territory Planning

¨ Prospecting Calls

Presales or solution consultant provides a comprehensive overview of relevant 3rd party solutions.

High performing sales professional delivers an overview and demonstration of company “buy-in” demonstrations.

Sales manager reviews qualification criteria, prospecting scripts and profiling process.

Sales manager reviews competitive strengths, weaknesses and primary differentiation positioning.

Sales manager reviews territory plan template.

Hiring manager provides “low value” suspects/prospects for follow up. These can be outbound cold calls, nurture leads, no decisions or competitive losses, etc. Monitor and provide coaching support

Research 3rd party/ISV websites and case studies. Add/align capabilities to Industry Pain Blueprints*.

Deliver a minimum of one buy-in demonstration to sales management.

Role play profiling calls with sales manager. Configure personal prospecting scripts.

Research competitor websites and summarize strengths & weaknesses.

Begin working on territory plan.

Prepare engagement script, voicemails and follow up e-mails then begin making calls.

Week 2Sa

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End of second week: deliver a 30 minute solution overview to the leadership team.

Industry Pain Blueprint templates can be accessed here: http://aka.ms/cloud-surestep

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Assessment & Activities Checklist

¨ Comfortably facilitates prospect discovery calls

¨ Competently facilitates industry buy-in demonstrations

¨ Has a compelling online profile

¨ Creates well-structured and grammatically correct client communications

¨ Completed a minimum of three Industry Pain Blueprints

¨ Accurately configured all industry sales templates

¨ Understands and follows company sales methodology

¨ Is proactively prospecting into target industry

¨ Is CRM compliant

¨ Demonstrates comfort with the use of all sales assets:

• Engagement communication

• Sales cycle control documentation

• Case studies and testimonials

• Pre-sales resources

• Solution proposal and proposal presentation

¨ Has identified two or more active pipeline prospects

¨ Able to deliver all industry buy-in demonstrations

¨ Completed online training requirements (Microsoft & 3rd party/ISV)

¨ Understands Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) and PartnerSource resources and sales materials

¨ Understands and can clearly communicate Cloud value proposition

Month 1

Situational Fluency

(Industry Knowledge & Business Acumen)

Communication Skills

Sales Skills

Solution Knowledge

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Assessment & Activities Checklist

¨ Strong team synergy and alignment with corporate culture

¨ Accurately qualifies new marketing leads (active vs. nurture)

¨ Consistently facilitates effective and accurate discovery calls

¨ Clearly communicates industry business value

¨ Consistently engages BDM in active buying cycles

¨ Accurately identifies client business challenges

¨ Consistently identifies a prospect’s business case

¨ Completed a minimum of five Industry Pain Blueprints

¨ Consistently strong sales activity scoring

¨ Clearly demonstrates an understanding of industry-specific vocabulary

¨ Sales assets fully configured for industry

¨ Closed a minimum of three new opportunities

¨ A minimum of .5X pipeline quota

¨ A minimum of 5 new self-generated prospects

¨ Effectively delivers remote proposal presentations

¨ Consistently prepared for internal sales meetings

¨ Effectively positions cross product solutions (ERP/Office 365/CRM/Azure)

¨ Effectively positions packaged (or project) services offerings

¨ Navigates Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) and PartnerSource resources and sales materials

Month 3

Situational Fluency

(Industry Knowledge & Business Acumen)

Communication Skills

Solution Knowledge

Sales Skills

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Experiential LearningPeople learn by doing, not watching, reading or listening. To accelerate time-to-revenue, sales managers (and other resources supporting onboarding activities) need to ensure new hires are actively participating in their learning process. Providing new hires with a PC and access to online content and training is only the first step in the onboarding process. To integrate this information, sales professionals must repeatedly practice their new skills through role play and live prospect scenarios. They must also personally configure the sales assets they will be using to align with their target industry.

Provide your new hire with a full set of sales assets (alignment e-mail, demonstration plan, proposal presentation, solution proposal) that have not yet been configured for their target industry and task them with developing them over the course of their onboarding process.

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Developing Industry Competence

From the first day of orientation, new sales hires should be encouraged to view everything they learn from the perspective of an industry BDM (Business Decision Maker). Product capabilities, solution demonstrations, prospect communications and industry research should always be filtered through “Why would this matter to an executive? How would it impact business results? What operational challenges would it address? How would it increase revenue, decrease costs or lower risk?”

To think like an industry insider, sales professionals must understand:

• Industry drivers and market forces that impact competitive and/or customer behavior

• Key industry operating metrics

• Business (trigger) events that initiate BDM buying activity

• Critical operational business challenges that can be addressed with technology-enabled business solutions

The most effective way to build out this knowledge, and measure for ongoing improvement, is by developing Industry Pain Blueprints.

As situational fluency is the most important factor in driving BDM engagement and vendor differentiation, developing industry knowledge and business acumen is a critical onboarding priority.

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Building Industry Pain Blueprints

Sales professionals with a clear understanding of how 3 to 5 revenue and/or risk related industry business challenges, and 7 to 10 industry operational challenges, can be addressed through their solution set, will inevitably earn the right to executive conversations, and opportunities to re-frame, or re-set their prospects’ desired scope.

To accelerate time to productivity, new sales hires must complete a minimum of ten Industry Pain Blueprints by the end of their first three months. Industry Pain Blueprint templates map functional requirements/solution capabilities to business process, key operating metrics and external industry drivers. Further information on Industry Pain Blueprints and how to configure them can be found http://aka.ms/cloud-surestep.

New hires must rapidly develop an understanding of the industry drivers, market forces, and business challenges of their focus industry (or industries). Moving beyond product, and speaking to industry trends and insights that concern business decision makers, using vocabulary and industry references they recognize, is essential to developing rapport and trust.

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Evaluate, Coach & Confirm

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Evaluating New Hire ProgressEvaluating new hires and their progress is just as important as evaluating job candidates, so both should follow a similar approach and method. Measuring skills and capabilities, and identifying weaknesses and blind spots, over the course of a 90 day onboarding period confirms an organization made a wise hiring decision, and identifies where additional coaching or training will be required.

Coach Towards the Green Zone

While new hires should be scored on all four primary sales professional competencies noted at the beginning of this guide, the two most important, communication skills and situational fluency (which encompass business acumen and industry knowledge), should be measured separately using a standard magic quadrant model.

Hiring managers and mentors should capture their impressions at the conclusion of each onboarding activity; such as internal and external presentations, profiling/discovery calls, buy-in demonstrations, role play exercises and proposal presentations.

Utilizing the evaluation forms at the end of this section, you will be able to score each sales activity from 1 (low/poor) to 5 (high/exceptional) then plot them on a master magic quadrant template. At the conclusion of the 90 day onboarding period you will see a clear pattern emerge that either confirms or challenges your hiring decision.

Excellent

Priority Competency Ranking

Situational Fluency- Industry Expertise- Business AcumenIndustry VocabularyPersona Bias

Communication SkillsExcellent Poor

+ Creative engagement tactics and effective emotional discovery, well structures written communications.

- Limited comprehension of industry specific challenges and vocabulary. (Focus coaching and training on Industry Pain Blueprints)

+ Solid understanding of industry specific project drivers, business challenges, business processes and solution alignment.

- Ineffective qualification and remote engagement/ presentation abilities. (Focus coaching and training on role play and active listening...

Confirm Hiring Decision

Revisit Hiring Decision

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New Hire Evaluation ScoringTo accurately measure new hire progress, sales managers must observe and score them in both role play and “live” prospect interactions. The skills, activities and behaviors that should consistently be measured are:

• Engagement communications (voice/e-mail)

• Profiling/discovery call facilitation

• Buy-In demonstration facilitation

• Objection handling

• Proposal presentation delivery

Everyone supporting the onboarding process should record their impressions on a new hire evaluation form after each sales activity, with competencies rated on a scale of 1 to 5 (poor to excellent). Subjective observations should be captured as well. Evaluation forms have been developed for the primary sales activities, but others should be configured (using the sample below) for partner-specific tasks and tests.

You will find example forms and incremental guidance for evaluating your newly hired resources, beginning below with a general New Hire Evaluation Form.

New Hire Evaluation Form

Name: Role:

Scoring1 – Poor, 2 – Needs Help, 3 – Acceptable, 4 – Very Strong, 5 – Exceptional

1st Criteria – Communication Skills 2nd Criteria – Situational Fluency

3rd Criteria – Business Acumen 4th Criteria – Industry Knowledge

5th Criteria – Sales Experience 6th Criteria – Solution Knowledge

Activity: Objective:

Comments/Feedback:

Example New Hire Evaluation Form

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Engagement CommunicationsEngagement communications are engineered to establish industry credibility and draw prospects into live conversations. They encompass all e-mails and voicemails leading up the first profiling call, inclusive of the introduction e-mail, introduction voicemail, value e-mail and closure e-mail.

Engagement Communications

Name: Role:

Scoring1 – Poor, 2 – Needs Help, 3 – Acceptable, 4 – Very Strong, 5 – Exceptional

1st Criteria – Communication Skills 2nd Criteria – Situational Fluency

3rd Criteria – Business Acumen 4th Criteria – Industry Knowledge

5th Criteria – Sales Experience 6th Criteria – Solution Knowledge

Activity: Engagement Communications

Objective: Secure Live Conversation

Criteria:

Was the voicemail message crisp and concise (<20 seconds)?

Did they sound nervous or excited?

Did they propose a next step?

Would you return this candidate’s call?

Was the e-mail content aligned with the target persona?

Was the e-mail well written and grammatically correct?

Comments/Feedback:

Example Engagement Communications Evaluation Form

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Profiling CallThe purpose of the initial profiling call is to establish industry credibility, position a “prescriptive” solution approach and validate a high-level solution fit. Opportunity qualification is a secondary objective which ideally should be reserved for the discovery call.

Engagement Communications

Name: Role:

Scoring1 – Poor, 2 – Needs Help, 3 – Acceptable, 4 – Very Strong, 5 – Exceptional

1st Criteria – Communication Skills 2nd Criteria – Situational Fluency

3rd Criteria – Business Acumen 4th Criteria – Industry Knowledge

5th Criteria – Sales Experience 6th Criteria – Solution Knowledge

Activity: Profiling Call

Objective: Establish Industry Credibility

Criteria:

Did they research the prospect organization in advance?

Did they effectively credential themselves?

Did they identify the initial contact’s role in the project and selection process?

Did they ask intelligent discovery questions?

Did they identify business requirements?

Did they interrupt or speak on top of the prospect?

How well did they facilitate the call?

Did they identify measurable business pain or business process challenges?

Did they identify a BDM?

Did they propose a next step (additional discovery)?

Did the prospect agree to the next step?

Was an appropriate follow-up e-mail sent to the prospect?

Comments/Feedback:

Example Profiling Call Evaluation Form

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Mutual Discovery CallThe primary purpose of the discovery call is to clarify the high-level functional requirements, project/business drivers, business case, anticipated selection process and if appropriate, budget, project timeline and competing solutions.

Mutual Discovery Call

Name: Role:

Scoring1 – Poor, 2 – Needs Help, 3 – Acceptable, 4 – Very Strong, 5 – Exceptional

1st Criteria – Communication Skills 2nd Criteria – Situational Fluency

3rd Criteria – Business Acumen 4th Criteria – Industry Knowledge

5th Criteria – Sales Experience 6th Criteria – Solution Knowledge

Activity: Mutual Discovery Call

Objective: Identify Primary Project Driver

Criteria:

Were they prepared?

Did they ask appropriate qualification questions?

Is their phone manner clear and engaging?

Did they drive a logical discovery process?

Did they ask level II or level III questions?

Do they focus on prospect needs or selling themselves?

Did they overuse technical jargon?

Did they uncover any objections?

Did they interrupt or speak on top of the prospect?

Did they uncover WHY the prospect is looking for a new solution?

Did they use industry language and references?

Did they identify a buy-in demonstration opportunity?

Did they qualify for Cloud?

Were they credible and succinct in their explanations?

Did they identify a significant business pain?

Did they drive a respectful qualification process (selection criteria, process, timeline, budget expectations, etc.)?

Did they secure a conversation with the BDM (or other stakeholders)?

Did they propose a next step?

Would you accept another call request from this candidate?

Was an appropriate follow-up e-mail sent to the prospect?

Comments/Feedback:

Example Mutual Discovery Call Evaluation Form

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Buy-In DemonstrationThe purpose of the Buy-In Demonstration is to credential the sales professionals as “industry fluent” as well as anchor a visual image of how your organization could immediately address one of the prospect’s significant business challenges.

Buy-In Demonstration

Name: Role:

Scoring1 – Poor, 2 – Needs Help, 3 – Acceptable, 4 – Very Strong, 5 – Exceptional

1st Criteria – Communication Skills 2nd Criteria – Situational Fluency

3rd Criteria – Business Acumen 4th Criteria – Industry Knowledge

5th Criteria – Sales Experience 6th Criteria – Solution Knowledge

Activity: Buy-In Demonstration

Objective: Emotionally “Anchor” a Key Solution Element

Criteria:

Were they prepared?

Did they ask appropriate qualification questions?

Is their phone manner clear and engaging?

Did they drive a logical discovery process?

Did they ask level II or level III questions?

Do they focus on prospect needs or selling themselves?

Did they overuse technical jargon?

Did they uncover any objections?

Did they interrupt or speak on top of the prospect?

Did they uncover WHY the prospect is looking for a new solution?

Did they use industry language and references?

Did they adequately handle all objections?

Did they introduce and position the alignment e-mail and demonstration plan?

Did they secure access to the BDM?

Did they demonstrate effective communication (patience, containment/no interruptions)?

Was the prospect engaged throughout the demonstration?

Was an appropriate follow-up e-mail sent to the prospect following the demonstration?

Comments/Feedback:

Example Buy-In Demonstration Evaluation Form

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Objection HandlingUncovering hidden objections is as important as handling stated ones. Effective objection handling is conversational, not confrontational and results in increased project clarity and mutual expectations.

Objection Handling

Name: Role:

Scoring1 – Poor, 2 – Needs Help, 3 – Acceptable, 4 – Very Strong, 5 – Exceptional

1st Criteria – Communication Skills 2nd Criteria – Situational Fluency

3rd Criteria – Business Acumen 4th Criteria – Industry Knowledge

5th Criteria – Sales Experience 6th Criteria – Solution Knowledge

Activity: Objection Handling

Objective: Secure BDM Access

Criteria:

Was there a clear “ask”?

Did they specifically ask objection “surfacing”

questions?

Did they ask a minimum of three questions

before attempting to address the objection?

Did they ask layer II and layer III (follow on)

questions?

Was the objection fully understood?

Was the objection addressed to the

prospect’s satisfaction?

Did the sales professional appear

uncomfortable?

Did the prospect agree to the sales

professional’s request?

Comments/Feedback:

Example Objection Handling Evaluation Form

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For more information on building your cloud practice visit http:// aka.ms/cloud-surestep and watch Optimize Time to Revenue with Effective OnBoarding Video.

Proposal PresentationThe purpose of the proposal presentation is to summarize the overall project in both functional and economic terms, then align those with your solution set and associated business benefits. The intent is to induce a feeling of low risk.

Onboarding sales managers should immediately score each onboarding activity as well as capture their subjective feedback. Adopting this approach ensures that ongoing coaching and training focuses on the right skills and content; and ensures the entire onboarding process is structured, transparent and evidence based.

Proposal Presentation

Name: Role:

Scoring1 – Poor, 2 – Needs Help, 3 – Acceptable, 4 – Very Strong, 5 – Exceptional

1st Criteria – Communication Skills 2nd Criteria – Situational Fluency

3rd Criteria – Business Acumen 4th Criteria – Industry Knowledge

5th Criteria – Sales Experience 6th Criteria – Solution Knowledge

Activity: Presentation Facilitation

Objective: Close the Deal!

Criteria:

Did the presentation have a logical flow that followed the proposal presentation template?

Was their understanding of the prospect’s business value accurate?

Do they talk technical features or business benefits?

Did they proactively drive audience engagement, attention & involvement?

Did they consistently build the business case in the mind of the prospect?

Did they articulate a clear differentiating value proposition?

Was the prospect engaged?

Was the tone, volume and pace appropriate?

Did they sound confident throughout?

Did the session feel like a presentation or a dialogue?

Did they articulate the business impacts (positive and negative) in clear and concise terms?

Did they manage their time effectively?

Checked for & addressed outstanding issues prior to attempting close?

Did they handle all objections to prospect’s satisfaction?

Did they review the closing sequence and timing?

Did they ask for a commitment at the end of the session?

Did they secure a commitment to proceed to contracting?

Comments/Feedback:

Example Proposal Presentation Evaluation Form