4-Minute Read
Do you have three months to spare as your newest sales rep gets up to speed? Of course not. You need them meeting their sales goals as soon as possible. But, according to Revenue.io, 3.1 months is the average amount of time it takes new SDRs to start carrying a full quota. If you’ve finally found that rockstar sales rep, here are a few tips to get them hitting the pavement at full speed.
Avoid Gray Areas with Clear Sales Goals and Expectations
Sales goals and expectations will vary from company to company but identifying and communicating goals should always remain a priority. And, there’s no better time to introduce sales goals than right off the bat, especially in highly competitive markets.
There’s a lot to take into consideration when determining aggressive yet attainable sales goals for a new employee. They won’t know how to sell your product or service on day one but giving them an idea of what they’ll be responsible for by a reasonable deadline helps motivate them to learn.
By the way, identifying and communicating goals and expectations should be a given for all employees, not just the newbies. There’s nothing more frustrating than not knowing what you’re working towards or having the wrong number in your head. Communicating not only individual and departmental goals but company-wide goals as well helps every employee feel as if they’re contributing to the greater cause, not just punching a time clock.
Define and Document the Entire Sales Process
Starting a new employee off with a detailed onboarding plan is more than just a recommended best practice. Not only does a well-thought out plan help those responsible for training, it gives the new employee an idea of what to expect. This can be especially helpful when onboarding high performers as they tend to feel more empowered with more information.
A detailed sales onboarding plan should include everything your new sales rep needs to do their job effectively, in addition to general company processes and policies. If you’re unsure of where to start, ask current employees to document the entire process. Then, review, incorporate, and reinforce throughout the onboarding plan. With how fast things change in the sales game, it’s a good idea to review the onboarding materials with every new hire.
Tip: start the documentation process as soon as the position becomes available to allow for as much time as possible. Waiting until the last minute increases the probability something will be missed!
Optimize Technology to Foolproof the Approach
We’re big fans of using technology to increase efficiency and even bigger fans when we get to utilize DIGIDECK in the process. DIGIDECK’s Guided Selling and Preselects help us get new sales people using the right content right off the bat. These two features provide the same outcome but are slightly different.
With Guided Selling, sellers complete a simple questionnaire that automatically creates a highly customized and relevant presentation based on their answers. These predetermined questions can be whatever makes sense for your company but we typically see basic demographics such as industry or area of interest.
Preselects are slides pre-grouped together based on a commonality such as industry, geography, or sales stage. Instead of answering questions that will “pull” slides, Preselects have already been created. Sellers simply choose the appropriate Preselect to generate a new presentation for their contact.
With both features, companies can set “required” slides to be included as well as be assured all content is the most up to date, as DIGIDECK operates as a single asset source. Not only does this safeguard the content that’s going out, it helps new sales people feel confident they’re not going to mess something up.
Encourage Self-Learning
According to Jack Lawton, Sportsdigita’s SDR Manager, equipping his newest hires with the ability to self-learn is crucial to the onboarding process. After all, the faster they can grow their “knowledge bank” or the information they’ve stored and learned about the product or service, the faster their ramp-up time.
Sales leaders can encourage self-learning through:
- Maintaining a regularly updated sales intranet that’s easily shared
- Populating a folder of cold calls, inbound calls, and product or service demos completed by highly skilled reps
- Scheduling multiple blocks in the new salesperson’s schedule specifically for self-learning
- Dedicating time for the new rep to ask questions about anything they discovered or are still unclear of after their self-learning blocks.
Be Open to Suggestions
The last piece of advice we’ll leave with you is to remain open-minded. Even if your tried and true sales process is consistently successful, it never hurts to try new things. Every salesperson has a different outlook and approach to selling just like every buyer has their own unique preferences. By being open to ideas, your newest addition to the team may introduce something you haven’t thought of before. And, you might not have to wait 3.1 months for them to start hitting their sales goals!
