Increase Your Topline Sales by Onboarding Effectively

Increase Sales - Mindtickle
You’ve just recruited some really promising sales reps with an impressive track record as rainmakers. On day one, HR arranges their computer, gives them a smartphone, and takes them through the company’s online onboarding portal. The following month is a blur of job-specific training workshops and e-learning, as your new reps try to get up-to-speed on your product, target customers, and industry intel. The volume of information they are scrambling to absorb is overwhelming.
Fast forward 8 months and the rainmakers appear to be going through a dry spell. Many of your sales teams haven’t met their quota and your Sales Managers complain that their reps don’t seem to understand the product, let alone the needs of their customers. And you’re left having to explain the lackluster sales results to the Board.
It’s easy to blame the recruitment process here, but it’s more likely that your sales onboarding program could benefit from a more systematic approach.

You are not alone, according to a research done by Brigade Group, 50% of new hires never meet their quota even after onboarding.

What is onboarding for sales reps?

Onboarding is about making sure that the sales rep is truly sales-ready. It’s about understanding the industry, building detailed product knowledge, getting under the skin of the customer persona, learning how to qualify a lead, and pitching to them effectively. In short, onboarding is about learning “what to sell” and “how to sell”.
While new hire orientation can be done relatively quickly, onboarding is a process that can take up to 12 months. In my experience, with a robust process, the right tools, and effective measures, it is possible to cut down sales onboarding time by at least 30-40%. In fact, I’ve seen companies with about 100 sales reps increase their revenue by 8% as a result of effective onboarding. The potential value to the top line can be even higher for smaller sales teams.
I suggest following a five-step high-level sales onboarding process:
sales onboarding framework

How do you measure if the onboarding was effective?

Following a process is one thing, but it’s only useful if you can measure and track how effective the onboarding has been for the new hire. I’ve found it to be most effective to benchmark new hires against existing sales reps. While no individual is the same, generally your existing sales reps fall into three categories:

  1. The A Players – These are your high performing sales reps who consistently exceed targets
  2. The B Players – They are just about meeting targets, and need some attention to keep them on track
  3. The C Players – These reps need some help and guidance to get them performing on quota

By predicting which category the new hires fall into, your sales managers can personalize their coaching efforts based on the needs of each individual. I’d suggest using the following 4 metrics to measure your new sales hires and the effectiveness of your onboarding program:

  1. Time to Complete Training – Where your training includes some self-paced learning modules and assessment, you can measure how long it takes someone to complete the program and demonstrate that they’ve absorbed the knowledge. This is one of the reasons using an effective online training program is particularly helpful for sales onboarding as it lets you automatically track this metric.
  2. Time for Sales Readiness – Ready to engage customers without the assistance of a more seasoned team member.
  3. Time to Close First Sales Deal – The amount of time it takes to make the first sale is a landmark measurement for both the individual and the business. However, when coupled with Time to Meet Quota, it provides a good indicator of the potential success of the new hire as well.
  4. Time to Meet Quota – At Mindtickle, we define productivity as the first month that the sales rep achieves their quota so this measurement is the most appropriate for our business. However, other industries with longer lead times or more seasonal products may consider it more appropriate to measure the first quarter in which quota is achieved instead. The important thing with this metric is ensuring that it is easy to measure.
  5. Average sales cycle (time to close deals) – In my experience, the time spent to close a deal is the best proxy for productivity. It shows how efficient the rep is in taking a customer through the sales process and getting a result. It also should be easy to measure through the tools available in your CRM.

This also helps provide a handy framework when you’re reporting upwards on how your new recruits are performing.

Using this process and measurement framework provides not only your managers with a well-structured process, but also gives your new hires the required support that will help them become sales-ready sooner and close deals faster.

So, are you ready to increase your top-line revenue?

3 Examples of Gamification for New Employee Onboarding

For most companies out there today, the new hire orientation process is often the same. An employee arrives and is instructed to watch a series of training videos or read a manual.

This is typically followed by the employee receiving additional on-the-job training for their position before he or she is let loose.

While this may seem like it is beneficial, it can be extremely boring for the employee. And believe it or not, it actually hurts both parties.

Gamification in new employee onboarding

The new employee that you have just hired has to take additional time going through copious amounts of training material. Instead of being able to put your new employee to work, you have to wait until he or she is completely finished training. Wouldn’t it be much better if you were able to help your employee through the training process while allowing them to absorb much more information?

How can this be done? Try gamification! Check out these three elements of gamification in new employee onboarding and why they may end up benefiting your business.

1. Progress & achievement – From the beginning, any small achievements that your employee accomplishes should be rewarded. While you may think this sounds silly at first, a study back in 2008 found that nearly 86 percent of new hires decide whether or not they want to stick with the company within the first six months of employment. Make your employees feel like they are valuable to your business and not simply another cog in the wheel of progress. How can this be done? Think of something simple like a digital checklist. During the new hire orientation, have your employee check off items as they accomplish them. Tasks may be as simple as “Fill out tax paperwork” or “Get photo ID picture taken.” After all, tasks are completed, send out a simple congratulations email for a job well done.

2. Leveling up – “Leveling Up” is typically a phrase that you might hear while playing a video game. The player has to accomplish a certain number of tasks before additional steps can be taken. The same can be applied to your new hire orientation. Set up a list of actionable goals that your employee must accomplish before other responsibilities can be given. For instance, you may want to have a new employee make at least ten cold calls to potential clients before he or she can sit in on sales meetings. It’s little goals like these that will motivate your employees to keep pushing towards being more productive.

3. Quests – Utilizing gamification quests is another great way to improve new employee onboarding within your company. The idea behind quests is that they can be applied to any training subject, no matter what it is. Take a subject such as safety in the workplace. Instead of having an employee watch a two-hour training video, have the employee interview other workers about their top safety tips. Then have the employee report his or her findings back and decide on which tips can be agreed upon. While you may think having your new employees watch videos or read through manuals will help understand the information, having them seek out the information is much more beneficial. It is also more enjoyable way to learn.

These are just a few of the many examples of gamification that you can implement into your company’s new hire orientation process. By doing so, you have the potential to build a team of employees that are much more engaged and productive within the workplace.

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Best Practices for New Hire Training

mindtickle_balloons_new_hire_training
So you selected your new employees; excellent, this means you’ve gotten through the hard part. Now they are about to go through the orientation program you have planned for them, but what about training?
Laura Vanderkam’s blog post on Fortune.cnn.com references a survey from Accenture that found how 77% of college students who were going to graduate in 2013 expected to receive formal on the job training. However, only 48% of the students in the class of 2011 and 2012 said they received training. Katherine LaVelle of Accenture is quoted saying, “There’s a disconnect between employers’ expectations of grads entering with relevant skills and the reality….” One of the benefits, according to LaVelle, of training new hires properly is that they will be less likely to quit quickly. This ties back to creating a feeling of commitment and trust with the new employee.
Laura references multiple new employee training examples, but the one I found most interesting was about Le Pain Quotidien. People hired as servers at the restaurant receive five days of training with a certified instructor; during these five days they are taught about “every aspect of the restaurant,” including a taste test of each meal. However, the training doesn’t stop after those first few days. Le Pain Quotidien offers training courses, such as baking and catering, to help them learn new skills while keeping the old ones fresh. This allows the employees to create a career path that is meaningful instead of being stuck as a dishwasher.

Getting started with new hire training

While it may seem beneficial to cut costs by eliminating new employee training, you are actually saving money in the future by training them now. We discussed in previous posts how new hires need to feel accepted as part of the team. The question should really be: “how are you going to train your newbies?” In his article, Ilya Pozin describes four crucial elements of new hire training, three of which I will discuss in this post.

Train for the specific types of people you hire

This tip may sound easy enough, but it can actually be quite complex. To do this, you must analyze the personality and culture of each current employee who fills specific positions or are a part of a certain department; you will then take this knowledge and apply it to the training program. For example, if a specific position tends to attract brilliant people who unfortunately have poor social skills, create a training program that builds their self-confidence and doesn’t make them feel uncomfortable. If this happens to be a position that requires a lot of social interaction, help them build proper and confident social skills.

Cross-train

People who work at start-up companies often gain a competitive edge when applying for a new job. Why is that you might ask? Well, it is not uncommon that employees of a start-up business will be required to learn varied skills and perform the functions of what would be considered a separate position in most businesses. The same benefit applies to new employees. Training them for other positions, either all at once or slowly over time, would be beneficial to everyone. This would provide better interaction and communication between the sectors of a business, while also allowing people to step up and help out when there is an overwhelming amount of work.

Remove the fear of failure

New employees often come into a situation nervous or afraid to try new things since they are not sure what will happen if their idea fails. The best way to learn is by doing, so let the new employees do something without the fear of repercussions if they get it wrong. Help them learn the ropes and point out their mistakes so they can avoid them in the future.

The Value of Mentoring and Shadowing in New Hire Training

One of the most effective ways to learn is to engage in intelligent conversation with an expert on a subject. Mentoring and shadowing are an excellent supplement to research and independent learning. In particular, online relationships, facilitated through the Internet, have evolved how professional mentoring and shadowing happens. Technology makes online mentoring and shadowing cost-effective for organizations with offices anywhere in the world.

Value of shadowing in new hire training

Whether you are taking an online or offline approach to this, Susan Heathfield provides great insight into why job shadowing is so important. Here’s how shadowing can help your new hires:

1. It “helps employees absorb the values, norms, and standards of an organization…” Think of this as if you were trying to learn a language; the only way you can truly learn is by immersing yourself in a culture and being surrounded by native speakers. The same principle applies since job shadowing allows the new employees to see how the culture and values of the business are applied in normal everyday settings.

2. The new hire can demonstrate what they learned. After the new hire is taught a skill or job function, they can demonstrate what they have learned to their mentor. This allows them to solidify the knowledge and gives their mentor the opportunity to clarify any misconceptions or fix any issues the new employee may be having.

3. What better way to create friendships than to interact with people, right? Assigning a mentor will give the new employee someone they can get to know at a personal level. On top of that, the mentor can introduce the new hire to other current employees he or she may not know yet.

4. If the mentorship is temporary, it can provide a way for the new hire to gain a “deeper knowledge about a variety of jobs and functions in the company.” Here is a scenario. You could allow the new employee(s) to mentor with one person from each section (or as many as you choose) of the company. Over the course of 2-3 weeks, the new hire(s) would learn about which position would suit them best, or the mentors could decide who would fit what position best. This would also allow the new employees to have a better understanding of the relationship between each sector of the business. Armed with this knowledge, you will be able to create a successful training environment for new employees.

What steps are you taking to create a successful training environment for your new employees? Leave us a comment and let us know!

New Employee Orientation for Retail Store Associates

Retail companies constantly invest in new technologies, website features, and in-store experiences to enhance the customer experience and boost revenue. However, to increase sales and efficiency of stores, instituting a comprehensive new employee orientation program should be at the top of the list.

New employee orientation can increase employee retention

Good onboarding leads to good retention rates. At Corning Glass Works, new employees who attended a structured orientation program were 69 percent more likely to remain at the company up to three years. Research on new employee onboarding shows that when onboarding is done correctly, it leads to:

  • Higher job satisfaction
  • Organizational commitment
  • Lower turnover
  • Higher performance levels
  • Career effectiveness
  • Lowered stress

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3 key areas to include in your retail new employee orientation program

Here are 3 key areas that you should include in your new hire orientation program in order to make your store associates successful!

1. What does your brand stand for?

Employees are your most important brand ambassadors: with prospects, with customers, and with the community. By ensuring that all employees understand and believe in the company’s mission, in its purpose and what the brand stands for, you can have a significant impact on how your brand is viewed by customers. A good brand foundation allows employees to demonstrate the brand in an inviting, relevant and truthful manner every day in their job.

Questions to get started:

  1. Share your story: How did the business start? Why are you here?
  2. What does your brand stand for?
  3. What does your brand look like?
  4. What are your vision and mission? What are your values?

2. Empower store associates with product knowledge and sales techniques:

Store associates should be empowered with product knowledge to connect with customers and provide a personalized experience. As customers enter the store armed with a wealth of information. Store associates need to be able to not only match this high level of knowledge but also add to it and provide additional value. Deloitte research shows that conversion rates increased by 9% when customers were assisted by employees who possess a high degree of product knowledge and demonstrate strong interpersonal skills. Train your new employees on product knowledge, interpersonal skills and sales techniques to provide a personalized, relevant customer experience supported by technology.

3. Train your new employees on store operations, loss prevention & shrinkage:

Ensure that your entire staff is well trained in inventory management, merchandising, loss prevention and safety practices. Every year retail stores incur a loss of more than $30B because of inventory loss due to shrinkage, theft and administrative errors. The holiday season is by far the most costly time for shrinkage. Training your employees on proactive preventative loss prevention measures can go a long way to making the holiday season profitable and successful. Your new hire training program should include training on following programs:

  • Loss prevention
  • Inventory control
  • Safety
  • Visual merchandising

By creating a comprehensive retail new hire training program, you can make a great first impression, reduce attrition, and set your team up for success starting on Day 1. Are you taking advantage of the new employee orientation or are you missing an opportunity?