According to a recent 2016 Sales Enablement Survey, one of the top goals of sales leadership today is to decrease new salesperson ramp-up time to full productivity by implementing methods and processes that eliminate wasted time and assure the proper leadership engagement early on to support training and development.
Many of today’s sales managers bring on a new sales professional and then become too busy or get sidelined with other priorities... dropping the ball on the new hire’s on-boarding, orientation, and training. Overlooking the opportunity to decrease the “ramp-up” time of the new sales professional is a massive miss... does this happen to your organization?
At GDI, our research shows there are 3 critical steps to assure the best on-boarding process. These are:
1. Accurately define the sales role so the “right” people are hired and developed for the position.
2. Structure the on-boarding program to target the most important metrics that allow for early sales performance and success.
3. Require sales leadership involvement to monitor, coach, and lead the on-boarding plan and process.
As today’s sales arena becomes more competitive and complex, the “right” sales professional wants to get up-to-speed quickly to perform for the company and for their own benefit. If a company can define Top Performance sales and also develop an effective, process-oriented on-boarding and orientation program, a sales professional can be performing in the role within 60-90 days. Even in the most complex roles where high-tech equipment or solutions are required, arming a sales professional with the metrics for success, product/service support & training, internal experts and resources, and providing them with the tools and leadership to get started are advantages that should not be delayed.
In addition, require their direct manager to spend time focused on their development, support and engagement needed to move ahead. Once a solid foundation is in place, the “right” top performers will do what they do best…get out and start making introductions, learning and moving toward new business development with confidence and success.
As a side, as leadership of high performing companies are defining top performance standards, the technology, tools, and solutions to attract, select, and hire better sales professionals who FIT will decrease this ramp-up time. At GDI, we are seeing that many VP’s of Sales, Presidents, and CEOs are modifying the sales recruitment process to be more sales-leadership centric to recruit the right people who bring the skills, characteristics, motivators, and attributes needed to FIT the role.
Having Top Performance defined with a targeted process to hire the right people is #1. Having an effective on-boarding model that supports the position promotes on-going success, optimizes leadership efforts and will assure retention of your most valued asset... the sales professional.
How does your company hire Top Performers? How do they on-board and lead the team? Please leave a comment with how you are decreasing your ramp up times and what changes you have noticed.
GDI Blog