It’s Monday morning and your newest salesperson is starting in an hour. What are you going to do? Show her the coffee machine and new desk and go about your business? Turn her away and ask her to come back another day?
Sometimes, it seems like it’s easier to keep doing more with less, even knowing your life would be simpler if you hire a new person, just because you don’t want the hassle of onboarding and training.
However, onboarding is a lot simpler if you think back to your own experience. Can you recall a job where the training experience was positive? What was that like? How can you repeat it for others?
Often, training a new sales hire can be a daunting task if you’re in a smaller business or department without established processes.
It’s best if you’ve just got a simple, prebuilt, uniform new hire orientation system. In order to build one, all you have to do is compile the basics. That’ll go a long way.
- Where are the supplies?
- What paperwork is required?
- What mistakes have been made in the past?
- What should your new hire know about her territory?
- And, perhaps most importantly, who can you pair the new hire up with to do a ride-along?
Orientation in sales is tough. Your team is probably made up with some fairly independent people. They’re in sales, at least partially, because they the like working on their own.
Build a new-hire orientation kit before your new-hire’s first day. It should include those basics and a whole lot more. Why did you hire this person? Share that; it’s probably a good indication of the ingredients for success. At the same time, what concerns did you have? Those are some areas for coaching.
As an aside, we offer an assessment instrument that generates an onboarding package based on the specific abilities of your new-hire AND the requirements of your position. Click here for more information.
