This informal CPD article ‘5 steps to create an effective sales onboarding program’, was provided by Product Marketing Alliance, a company founded in 2019 with a mission of uniting product marketers across the globe.
Sales onboarding is the process of training up a new sales representative with the knowledge and skills they’ll require to succeed in their new role in your company. Depending on the seniority of your new hire they’ll require more or less sales skills training, but all new sales colleagues will require training on your specific product offerings, sales processes, and technologies.
This article will break down the five steps to craft a sales onboarding program that allows your new sellers to thrive as quickly as possible.
1. Designing an onboarding program
The first step in creating your sales onboarding program is planning how it should be structured, and what it’ll cover.
How you decide to run your program will depend on:
- Your enablement team’s size
- The number of new hires you need to onboard
- The size of your existing sales team, managers included
- Your organization’s onboarding needs and requirements
A nice place to start your plan is with a vision statement outlining the goals of the program. Think about what you want new reps to know after completing the training. This is a great reference point for the rest of your planning.
Next, it’s important to define the timeframe of your program. This could be a quick two-week course allowing your sellers to get into the action as soon as possible, or a slower two-month program allowing your new hires to better integrate with their team whale training. Your decision will depend on your organization’s goals and your resources. A short course will be time-intensive for your enablement team, while spreading training out may allow you to receive more support from sales managers.
Finally, you’ll need to decide on the specific content your onboarding program will consist of and how it’ll be delivered.
Here are some content ideas to cover:
- Product information and key selling points
- An introduction to key competitors
- A deep dive into your ideal customer profile (ICP)
- Sales processes and methodologies used at your company
- Tutorials on sales technology reps are unfamiliar with
When it comes to content delivery, you can use a combination of in-person training, virtual training, video tutorials, and written materials to train your new hires.
2. Implementing an onboarding program
Once you’ve designed your program, you can start to turn your plans into a reality — an onboarding program that your new hires can actually experience and learn from.
It’s important to note: your first attempt won’t be perfect. That’s where a minimum viable product (MVP) comes in.
This means creating the essentials for launch and then using the feedback afterward to improve your program. Helping you avoid adding unnecessary bells and whistles while getting a workable version ready to use.
For example, when creating a module on product information you might only include the value proposition in your MVP. Over time you may add in more product details into your training module as the need arises.
To ensure you’ve covered the essentials, try mapping each module to the skills and competencies you want your new reps to walk away with. This way you can check off key areas in your MVP.
Qualitative rep feedback metrics
3. Documenting your processes
The way you document and store your onboarding processes is just as important as the design. Your training is no use if sellers can’t access it!
It’s important to keep a list of how the onboarding process should look, including all videos, training sessions, assessments, and tasks a new hire will undertake (preferably in order). All these pre-recorded assets, quizzes, slide decks, and resources should also be stored in an organized way within your content management system, so reps and managers can easily access them when required.
This includes using searchable file names, implementing an ordered folder system, and ensuring the right permissions are given.
4. Measuring success
When it comes to measuring the success of your sales onboarding program, the metrics you track will vary depending on your organization and goals.
But here are some common metrics to help get you started:
- “Time-to-X” metrics: How soon reps achieve a certain milestone.
- Ramp time: The time it takes for a new sales rep to become fully productive.
- Qualitative rep feedback metrics: How reps would rate your program.
- Skill and competency certifications: Using quiz and test results to measure if reps are learning effectively.
5. Feedback and iteration
As we alluded to earlier, creating a sales onboarding program isn’t a one-and-done process – it doesn’t stop just because new reps are being onboarded.
It’s a continuous process of improvement and iteration to ensure each cohort of sales reps receives a better standard of training than the last. It’s all about adapting and changing based on feedback to ensure your new hires have the best chance of success.
That’s why gathering 360 feedback is so important. Here are some key stakeholders to collect feedback from:
- The reps actively participating in the onboarding program. (Whether they're in-house, or belong to a channel partner you're enabling.)
- Reps who have recently (<6 months) completed the onboarding program.
- Sales managers who are directly responsible for those coming out of the onboarding program.
- Sales leadership who have an overarching vision for the wider sales organization.
This full view of the sales organization allows you to adjust your onboarding program to meet company, department, and individual needs.
When making adjustments, it’s also important to reflect back on your vision statement. Ask yourself: Now that the program is rolled out, is it achieving its objectives?
Final thoughts
There’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ onboarding program, but hopefully, with the help of these five steps, you’ll be able to implement a successful training program in your organization.
We hope this article was helpful. For more information from Product Marketing Alliance, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, you can go to the CPD Industry Hubs for more articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.
