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Onboarding or how to successfully integrate new employees sales reps ?
Successful Onboarding means newcomers stay loyal to your company and develop their skills more quickly!
Do you want to integrate your new sales reps effectively? Do you want them to feel confident during meetings, and to create value for your customers? Do you want them to be able to answer your buyers' questions without hesitation? Are you looking for ways to reduce turnover among your sales reps ? You've set up an Onboarding program, but you're wondering why it takes so long to get new recruits up to speed?
Look no further! We offer you an article on Onboarding and how to successfully integrate your new sales reps.
Discover the key stages of successful Onboarding, how to evaluate its effectiveness, the challenges of effective Onboarding, and the role of a Sales Enablement tool in the successful integration of your sales reps.
What does Onboarding mean?
Onboarding refers to the process of integrating a new employee into a company.Onboarding is the first experience a salesperson will have within the company, making it an important moment for a new hire.
The aim of Onboarding is to familiarize the new recruit with his or her new environment and corporate culture, to help him or her take ownership of his or her mission and responsibilities, and to enable him or her to rapidly achieve autonomy and efficiency in his or her new role. Onboarding comprises a number of distinct stages, from pre-onboarding or the welcome day to coaching, training and regular follow-up throughout the integration period.
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 are up and running more quickly, and therefore able to make their first sales.
A good Onboarding process helps create a sense of belonging and a bond between new employees and the company.
When new employees feel integrated into the company's culture and values, they are more likely to invest themselves fully and develop a long-term commitment. According to a study cited in a Harvard Business Review article, companies implementing a formal Onboarding program can benefit from a 50% increase in employee retention and 62% higher productivity within the same group.
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 the workspace by providing all the necessary equipment, such as computer, telephone and tools specific to the activity.
What's more, it's a good idea to send them information about the company, its culture and values, and the team they'll be working with, in advance. 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
It's vital never to let the new salesperson feel isolated or neglected during his or her first steps within the company. It's important to foster exchanges with team members, encouraging collaboration andknowledge-sharing.
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
Onboarding offers a valuable opportunity to transmit and reinforce corporate culture. By exposing new sales reps to the company's values, norms and practices from the outset, the company creates a cultural alignment that fostersemployee commitment to the organization. A strong, shared corporate culture fosters a positive, stimulating work environment, conducive to the success of individuals and the company as a whole.
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
One of the key aims of Onboarding is to enable new recruits to quickly develop the skills they need to succeed as a salesperson in a new company.
It is therefore important to assess whether the Onboarding process enables sales reps' skills to progress rapidly and significantly.
How do you measure it?
By evaluating the time devoted to learning the sales pitch and tracking progress in learning about offers/services, the quality of the sales pitch used in meetings, the ability to respond appropriately to buyers' questions, sales techniques...
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 conversion rate... can be used to assess this effectiveness.
3. New recruits ask the right questions
An essential part of Onboarding is providing new sales reps 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
Well-structured Onboarding is essential to deliver a consistent and complete onboarding experience. The absence of a clear, organized Onboarding path can lead to confusion among new sales reps, affecting their productivity and satisfaction.
3. Remote integration
With the rise of teleworking, onboarding sales reps can now take place entirely online. This presents additional challenges in terms of creating human links, effective communication and access to training content. The Sales Enablement application can be used for seamless remote integration, guaranteeing up-to-date, 100% offline access to training materials.
4. Communication challenges
Clear and regular communication is essential for effective onboarding of sales reps. It can be difficult to ensure smooth communication between new sales reps, managers and team members. Appropriate communication channels need to be set up to facilitate thedaily exchange of information and mutual support.
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's 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 in meetings, 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 fun with learning, the quiz format makes it possible to assess sales reps' knowledge of a specific subject. This enables the manager to 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 the performance of sales reps more quickly. The Sales Enablement application also enhances your attractiveness during recruitment interviews by projecting the candidate into his or her future position, and provides a recruitment experience that leaves a lasting impression.
Finally, the Sales Enablement application is proving to be a real asset in retaining sales reps within a company. This is the case with our customer, the Adéquat Group, which has succeeded in reducing turnover among sales reps 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".
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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, optimum contribution to sales growth and reduced turnover among sales reps.
Why is Onboarding so important?
Onboarding is crucial, as it directly influences the success and retention of new sales reps. A solid onboarding process promotes rapid adaptation, strengthensemployee commitment 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 in 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's in charge of onboarding sales staff?
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.
