If you have hired strong sales people only to lose them shortly after they started with your company, you likely either selected a person that didn’t belong in your company (an issue with the hiring process) or you have an issue in your sales on-boarding process.
Great sales people achieve a strong track record by making good career moves and selecting employers who can effectively leverage their good talents. If the rep realizes that they have made a mistake by joining an employer that will not set them up to succeed, then the rep will quickly admit that they made a mistake and move on.
If your organization is able to hire great sales talent only to be unable to retain them, then you are wasting your investment in recruiting and your sales numbers are likely suffering.
If you answer yes to any of the following questions, you may have new sales hire on-boarding problems and should not be surprised if you lose good sales people before they are able to contribute to the success of your sales function.
- Do you have a structured on-boarding process?
- Are all the reps tools and equipment available and set up prior to their arrival (phone, CRM login, etc)
- Do you map out what new hire development and support activities will be undertaken to ensure the rep becomes productive as quickly as possible?
- Do you provide training to new hires on your organization, products, the market, sales systems, branding and marketing strategy, tools and support?
- Do you have them shadow other reps on calls?
- Do you have the new hire conduct role plays to test comprehension of your selling methods and protocols?
- Do you set specific goals by day/week/month and quarter both in terms of revenues as well as activities?
- Do you meet with the new rep regularly during the first few weeks to discuss questions and review progress?
- Do you pair your new rep with an internal buddy or mentor to answer questions and help accelerate the learning process?
- Do you test new reps to determine the degree to which they have retained critical information and learning?
- Do you have the new rep develop a 30-60-90 day sales plan which you review in detail regularly to ensure it is being achieved?
- Do you hold them accountable for meeting all goals that have been defined?
- Do you have both formal and informal ways to make sure you are meeting the career expectations of your rep and do you act upon the feedback?
- Do you have a formal way to garner feedback from anyone that departs from you so that you can proactively address problems before you lose any other strong sales performers?
Doing some or all of these new hire on-boarding activities will ensure that you don’t lose the sales talent that you have made a big investment to recruit. To learn more about structured on-boarding programs, check out our new sales hire on-boarding guide: The First 90 Days – Your Guide to Making New Sales Hires Produce Fast
To your success!
Image courtesy of artur84 | freedigitalphotos.net
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Eliot Burdett
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)
- 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
- How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader – September 15, 2021
- Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021
