Best Practices for Onboarding New Sales Reps in 2021
When is time to hire new sales rep, you have a very high bar. After a time-consuming search, you filled the opened sales rep positions and now it’s time to let them become part of the team. However, at this stage, you can’t expect your new sales reps to know anything about the product, the sales, payment, and shipping methods from day one. In this article, we are going to discuss what onboarding new sales reps are along with the best practices for onboarding new sales reps in 2021.
Sales reps’ onboarding is the process of training new sales reps with the knowledge, tools, and skills they need to work with the team towards the company’s goals.
The training includes many aspects: the company’s values, the product that they’re going to sell, the technical aspects of the sales, and also the selling tips and techniques that have been proven successful by the company experience.
The right onboarding process can help boost newly hired sales reps’ productivity. But what are the best practices for onboarding new sales reps in 2021?
Make your training product-centered
The first thing new hires and sales reps should learn about is the product they are going to sell. They need to know any aspect of it while you make sure that the core value of your product stays on the front line. In a way, on the first days of the onboarding process, it’s like you’re selling the product to the new sales reps themselves! This way, you make sure that your sales reps are passionate about the products, and there is no better seller than the one who is in love with the products they are selling. Role-playing can be important during the onboarding process, therefore you may want to have a special part in the onboarding process to roleplay and provide constructive feedback.
Partner new hired sales reps with experienced team members
Other than providing knowledge about the company and the product, the other priority you should have during the onboarding process is partnering newly hired sales reps with veteran team members. This is the best chance newly hired people in all fields and sectors have to learn the craft.
They’ll have the chance to see experienced sales reps doing their job, but they’ll also be able to start working under their guidance. New hired sales reps will have the chance of making questions, learning on the field, and even making mistakes without compromising anything within the company.
Acknowledge the change
The recent pandemic that hit the world taught us that the world can change in an instant. Not only should you be aware of the change – people stay at home more, they buy online, they’re less keen to let strangers so just sellers inside their houses – but you should also be ready to face new challenges, and so should your sales reps’ team. During the onboarding process, you should focus on flexibility: the sales prices can change, the way wraps interact with people can change, and in all these changes, computer skills can make the difference between an easy adaptation and loss of control – so, focus on those too.
Conclusion
With these three practices, you can optimize the onboarding process of your newly hired sales reps. Do not accelerate the process, take your time to boost your new sales team members’ productivity. Also, have KPIs in place to monitor their progress and productivity especially if the team needs to work from home.