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Onboarding or how to successfully integrate new employees sales reps ?
Un Onboarding réussi, c’est une fidélisation des nouveaux entrants et une montée en compétence accélérée !
Vous souhaitez intégrer efficacement vos nouveaux commerciaux ? Vous voulez qu’ils se sentent en confiance lors des rendez-vous, qu’ils créent de la valeur pour vos clients ? qu’ils puissent répondre aux questions de vos acheteurs sans hésitation ? Vous cherchez des solutions pour réduire le turnover de vos commerciaux ? Vous avez mis en place un programme d’Onboarding, mais vous vous demandez pourquoi la montée en compétence des nouveaux entrants est lente ? Ne cherchez plus ! Nous vous proposons un article sur l’Onboarding et comment réussir l’intégration de vos nouveaux commerciaux. Découvrez les étapes clés d’un bon Onboarding, comment évaluer son efficacité, les défis à relever pour offrir un Onboarding performant, ainsi que le rôle d’un outil de Sales Enablement dans la réussite de l’intégration de vos commerciaux.
What does Onboarding mean?
L’Onboarding fait référence au processus d’intégration d’un nouvel employé dans une entreprise. L’Onboarding est la première expérience qu’un commercial aura au sein de l’entreprise, ce qui en fait un moment important pour une nouvelle embauche. L’objectif de l’Onboarding est de familiariser la nouvelle recrue avec son nouvel environnement, la culture de l’entreprise, qu’il s’approprie sa mission et ses responsabilités et de lui permettre d’atteindre rapidement autonomie et efficacité dans son nouveau rôle. L’onboarding comprend différentes étapes distinctes, allant du pré-onboarding ou de la journée d’accueil à son coaching, en passant par sa formation et la mise en place d’un suivi régulier tout au long de la période d’intégration.
Why is Onboarding key to your company's performance?
Onboarding shouldn't be seen as a mere formality, but as a strategic lever to promote the success of new sales reps employees and, consequently, the company's overall efficiency.
An effective Onboarding process makes new sales reps employees feel welcome and supported from the moment they join the company. According to a study quoted in a Forbes article, employees who have benefited from successful Onboarding are 82% more likely to stay with the company. This is because when they are well integrated, new employees feel valued and are more inclined to get involved and actively contribute to the company's success.
Comprehensive, structured Onboarding enables new hires to acquire the skills and knowledge they need to perform effectively in their new role more quickly. A study mentioned in a HiBob article shows that companies with a strategic approach to Onboarding benefit from a 70% increase in new employee productivity. By providing them with the necessary resources and information, Onboarding helps to reduce integration time, ensuring that sales reps employees are up and running more quickly, and therefore able to make their first sales.
Un bon processus d’Onboarding contribue à créer un sentiment d’appartenance et un lien entre les nouveaux employés et l’entreprise. Lorsque les nouveaux employés se sentent intégrés dans la culture et les valeurs de l’entreprise, ils sont plus susceptibles de s’investir pleinement et de développer un engagement à long terme. Selon une étude mentionnée dans un article de la Harvard Business Review, les entreprises mettant en place un programme formel d’Onboarding peuvent bénéficier d’une augmentation de 50% de la rétention des employés et de 62% de productivité accrue au sein du même groupe.
The different stages of successful Onboarding
1. Preparing for the arrival of a new salesperson
Anticipating the arrival of a new salesperson is essential to ensure successful Onboarding. Even before his or her first day, it's advisable to prepare his or her workspace by providing all the necessary equipment, such as computer, telephone and tools specific to his or her activity. In addition, it's a good idea to send him/her information about the company, its culture and values, and the team he/she will be working with. This preparation gives the new employee a sense of expectation, and provides him/her with the initial elements needed to familiarize him/herself with his/her future environment.
2. Welcoming the salesperson, making a first impression
The welcome given to new sales staff on their first day is crucial to creating a positive first impression. It's essential to give him or her a warm welcome by organizing a welcome meeting and introducing the employees. During this meeting, it's a good idea to give the newcomer a welcome booklet and go over the company's objectives and expectations, as well as his or her role within the team. By providing a clear vision from the outset and answering questions, the company shows its commitment to the new employee's success.
3. Schedule follow-up appointments
Follow-up meetings are essential to assess the new sales person's progress and make sure they have everything they need to succeed. These meetings can be weekly or monthly, depending on the needs of the company and the employee. They provide an opportunity to take stock of tasks accomplished, identify any obstacles and provide constructive feedback. These privileged moments also strengthen the relationship between manager and sales rep.
4. Never leave your salesperson alone in these first steps
Il est primordial de ne jamais laisser le nouveau commercial se sentir isolé ou délaissé durant ses premiers pas au sein de l’entreprise. Il convient de favoriser les échanges avec les membres de l’équipe, en encourageant la collaboration et l’échange de connaissances.
Why is onboarding so important?
1. To reduce turnover and increase employee loyalty sales reps
Successful Onboarding promotes employee loyalty within the company. By providing a positive integration experience and ensuring that new sales reps employees feel valued and supported from the outset, the company strengthens their commitment to their position and the organization. sales reps who feel welcome and integrated are more likely to stay with the company in the long term, reducing the costs associated with recruiting and training new employees.
2. To develop productivity gains
Effective Onboarding enables new sales reps employees to quickly reach their full potential and get up and running faster. By providing the right training, resources and tools, the company enables each new recruit to quickly understand their role, expectations and internal processes. This reduces the time it takes to get up to speed, and increases the sales team's individual and overall productivity.
3. To enhance team and department cohesion
Onboarding not only integrates the new employee into his or her team, but also initiates relations with other departments within the company. Successful Onboarding fosters collaboration, communication and cohesion between different teams. By encouraging interaction and fostering cross-functional integration, the company strengthens synergy between departments, contributing to stronger overall performance.
4. For a better understanding and dissemination of corporate culture
L’Onboarding offre une occasion précieuse de transmettre et de renforcer la culture d’entreprise. En exposant les nouveaux commerciaux aux valeurs, aux normes et aux pratiques de l’entreprise dès le début, l’entreprise crée un alignement culturel qui favorise l’engagement des salariés envers l’organisation. Une culture d’entreprise forte et partagée favorise un environnement de travail positif, stimulant et propice à la réussite des individus et de l’entreprise dans son ensemble.
How can you assess whether an Onboarding process is effective?
A good Onboarding program for sales reps enables you to meet clear expectations, build relationships and get new recruits up to speed with sales as quickly as possible. Is your onboarding program effective? We've put together a list of criteria to help you decide.
1. Accelerated skills development
L’un des objectifs essentiels de l’Onboarding est de permettre aux nouvelles recrues de développer rapidement les compétences nécessaires à leur réussite en tant que commercial au sein d’une nouvelle entreprise. Il est donc important d’évaluer si le processus d’Onboarding permet une progression rapide et significative des compétences des commerciaux. Comment le mesurer ? En évaluant le temps consacré à l’appropriation du pitch de vente et en suivant la progression dans l’apprentissage des offres/services, la qualité du discours utilisé en rendez-vous, la capacité à répondre avec pertinence aux questions des acheteurs, les techniques de vente…
2. Sales reps efficiency improves
A good Onboarding process should have a positive impact on sales reps performance. It is important to measure whether new recruits are able to put into practice what they have learned during their Onboarding, and whether they achieve the sales targets set. Indicators such as the volume of prospecting calls made, the rate of appointments booked, the prospect/customer transformation rate, etc. can be used to assess this effectiveness.
3. New recruits ask the right questions
An essential part of Onboarding is providing new sales reps recruits with the knowledge and information they need to be autonomous in their work. Evaluation of the Onboarding process can include observing how new recruits ask relevant questions about products, customers, sales targets... This indicates their understanding of the business and their ability to adapt quickly to their new environment.
4. The new sales reps come out of the script
An effective Onboarding process doesn't just teach new recruits a sales script to recite. It must help them develop a deep understanding of buyers' needs and adapt to specific situations. Assessing whether new sales reps recruits are able to break out of the script and personalize their interactions with buyers can provide insights into the effectiveness of Onboarding.
5. Reduced turnover at sales reps
What is your turnover rate for new entrants over the first 3, 6 and 12 months? Are you doing better than your market? Has it fallen? By facilitating their integration and providing appropriate training, you create an environment conducive to retaining new entrants from the outset.
What are the challenges involved in effective onboarding?
The challenges of delivering effective Onboarding for sales reps can vary depending on a number of factors, including the specifics of the company, the working environment, and the needs of sales reps themselves.
1. Information overload
When Onboarding, it's important to provide sales reps with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed. However, information overload can be counterproductive and overwhelm newcomers. It's essential to find the right balance between imparting the necessary information and cognitive overload.
2. Lack of structure
Un Onboarding bien structuré est essentiel pour offrir une expérience d’intégration cohérente et complète. L’absence d’un parcours d’Onboarding clair et organisé peut entraîner une confusion chez les nouveaux commerciaux, affectant leur productivité et leur satisfaction.
3. Remote integration
Avec l’essor du télétravail, l’Onboarding des commerciaux peut se dérouler entièrement en ligne. Cela présente des défis supplémentaires en termes de création de liens humains, de communication efficace et d’accès aux contenus de formation. L’application de Sales Enablement peut être utilisée pour une bonne intégration à distance garantissant un accès à jour et 100% offline des supports de formation.
4. Communication challenges
Une communication claire et régulière est essentielle pour un Onboarding efficace des commerciaux. Il peut être difficile de garantir une communication fluide entre les nouveaux commerciaux, les responsables et les membres de l’équipe. Les canaux de communication appropriés doivent être mis en place pour faciliter l’échange quotidien d’informations et le soutien mutuel.
5. Further training
Onboarding should not be limited to the initial integration period. sales reps employees need ongoing training to develop their skills and remain competitive in the marketplace. Putting in place training and development modules throughout their career path is essential to ensure their long-term success.
Sales Enablement for successful sales onboarding!
Onboarding sales reps is a crucial step in building a successful sales team. To guarantee your success, it is essential to consider Sales Enablement as an essential component of this Onboarding process.
One of the main challenges when Onboarding sales reps is the plethora of information to which they are exposed, often disconnected from their role or simply difficult to memorize. According to a study conducted by Herman Ebbinghaus, around 87% of knowledge is forgotten by participants in conventional training courses one month after learning. Exposure to training content plays a key role in the successful development of your sales force. The greater the exposure, the more effective the sales reps training. By investing in a Sales Enablement application for daily use, you can continually expose your sales force to training content, even in offline mode. The result? More confident sales reps appointments, successful integration phases for new recruits, product launches mastered by all sales reps and training courses that are as close as possible to the needs of the field.
The other advantage of a Sales Enablement tool is its ability to assess skills development. In addition to combining learning with fun, the quiz format enables the salesperson's knowledge of a specific subject to be assessed. The manager can then pinpoint certain gaps and guide specific content, or simply provide personalized support to ensure the success of sales reps right from the start. All the data collected via the Sales Enablement tool can thus be used to identify best practices for successful integration and apply them to future new arrivals.
The Sales Enablement approach offers two advantages. On the one hand, it optimizes the efficiency of the Onboarding process by enabling the creation of training programs and paths dedicated to Sales and applied to their constraints in the field. On the other hand, it reduces the time it takes to ramp up skills, helping to boost sales reps 's performance more quickly. The Sales Enablement application also enhances your attractiveness during recruitment interviews, by projecting the candidate into his or her future position, and providing a recruitment experience that leaves a lasting impression. Finally, the Sales Enablement application is proving to be a real asset when it comes to retaining sales reps employees within a company. This is the case with our customer, the Adéquat Group, which has succeeded in reducing turnover among its sales reps staff by 30%.
Onboarding with Sales Enablement: what our customers say!
Franz Thibault, CEO - Thibault Bergeron "At Thibault Bergeron, we launch 30 to 40 new models of boxes, caskets or ballotins every year. We have a total of 3,000 references in our catalog. With Salesapps, the time needed to integrate new sales reps, i.e. to present the company, its offer and its new products, has been divided by four, going from an average of one month to one week".
Vianney Leveugle, Marketing & Sales Director - GEODIS "Offers are better mastered by sales reps and therefore better understood by customers, which leads to higher sales".
Sophie Saussier, Sales Support Tools Manager - Moët Hennessy Diageo "We manage around fifty brands, many of which are hundreds of years old! Between their history, hundreds of references and sales plans, there's a lot to assimilate. With Salesapps, we quickly had a 100% utilization rate. Our sales reps customers save an enormous amount of time in preparing their meetings, for example by finding the content of the training organized for new recruits".
Manon du Crest, Real Estate Market Manager - Figaro Classifieds "Gathering the offers of our five brands in the same place is very useful for our sales reps juniors, especially in telesales, where there is a high turnover. We use Salesapps as an empowerment tool rather than a monitoring tool: the more sales reps people use it, the less they consult us directly, which enables us to focus on other, more strategic subjects.
Eric Jayet, Performance Director - Groupe Adéquat "Used in the integration process and then in the sales person's day-to-day work, Salesapps has enabled us to reduce our sales reps turnover by 30% over 1 year".
See also our article on Customer Onboarding!
FAQ
What is successful Onboarding? Successful sales onboarding means effectively integrating new recruits into the sales team. This involves a tailored, structured training plan that familiarizes them with the company's culture, offers/services and different sales strategies. Good sales onboarding guarantees a rapid rise in competence, increased confidence, optimal contribution to sales growth and reduced turnover sales reps.
Why is Onboarding so important? Onboarding is crucial, as it directly influences the success and retention of new employees sales reps. A solid onboarding process promotes rapid adaptation, strengthens employeecommitment and reduces the risk of early departure.
When does Onboarding begin? The Onboarding process begins a few days before the newcomer'sarrival at the company, at a stage known as pre-Onboarding. The aim is to maintain the link established during the recruitment stages with the sales person before their official arrival at the company. This stage provides preliminary information, clarifies expectations and eases the transition to the start of the integration process. This ensures that employees are better prepared and more motivated from their first day on the job.
Who is in charge of Onboarding a salesperson? The person in charge of Onboarding varies according to the size of the company. In general, it involves the relevant manager and the human resources department. In some cases, the Sales Enablement Manager may also be involved. He or she ensures that all training content is available to the sales person, and that the ramp-up in skills is rapid and efficient.
What tools are available to facilitate Onboarding? The Sales Enablement application is one of the most effective tools when it comes to onboarding new recruits. It enables us to project sales staff into their new role right from the recruitment process, accelerating their skills development and getting them up and running in the field as quickly as possible. By pooling training content and offering tailored training, the Sales Enablement application not only promotes smooth integration and optimum performance from the outset, but also helps reduce turnover among new sales reps.
