Without Sales Process, How Do You Onboard New Salespeople?

When executives learn the business case for effectively onboarding their salespeople, they are fired up! The dream of salespeople getting up to speed faster and experiencing sales performance levels that the company has never seen before has them laser-focused on launching an onboarding development initiative.

Department heads are gathered in the conference room for the onboarding kick-off meeting. The project leader begins the session by asking for the process salespeople should follow to schedule meetings with prospects. The room goes silent.

She moves on and asks for the step-by-step sales process to convert a prospect into a client. Other than a cricket chirping, not another sound is heard.

She tries again and asks for the company’s objection handling guide. The group looks at one another, but no one utters a word.

How do you effectively onboard salespeople when there is nothing to onboard them into? (poor grammar intentional) If you are expecting some magic to come from my lips, you are going to be disappointed. It cannot and should not be done.

Before you bring a salesperson into your company, document the processes, policies and tools they need to optimally perform for the company. Do those things and you get three great outcomes:

1. They sell how you want them to sell.

2. They get up to speed faster.

3. They perform at peak levels.

See you next time on the Sales Management Minute.