From the recruitment process through the first year of employment, the sales onboarding process can help substantially improve the success of new hires on your team. Having an effective sales onboarding checklist can ensure that every new team member receives the training and support they need to ultimately be successful with your business.
What is sales onboarding?
The sales onboarding process is the process that takes new sales reps through the process of joining your company. It includes everything from the preboarding process—when you will confirm the job offer, provide essential information about what new members of your team should expect, and help employees connect with other team members—to the process you will take team members through in their first year of employment, as they develop a deeper understanding of your company and the role they are expected to fill.
Effective onboarding is key to bringing new salespeople onto your team. It will make them feel appreciated, prepared, and like comprehensive members of the team.
The benefits of effective onboarding for sales team members
Your onboarding process can have a significant impact on the way employees ultimately perform with your company. From their first day on the job, employees not only form an opinion of your company (including evaluating the company culture) but also consider how successful they can be in their roles. When your onboarding process falls short, it can interfere with salesperson effectiveness, leaving them struggling to keep up. But here are some key benefits of getting it right—and keeping all the steps organized with a sales onboarding checklist:
1. Improve employee retention rates
Effective onboarding that follows sales onboarding best practices is essential to improving your employee retention. When employees do not receive the information and support they need during onboarding, they may struggle to feel like a competent, prepared part of the company. Salespeople may end up floundering as they struggle to get to know the products. They won’t understand your workflow or adapt to your specific company culture. As a result, they may leave the company more quickly than they would have otherwise.
2. Increase salesperson knowledge
Salespeople need a great deal of knowledge about your company and your products to sell them effectively. Without adequate knowledge, they may struggle to share exactly what customers need or to close the deal. On the other hand, with effective onboarding practices, you ensure that your new salespeople have the information they need to sell your products effectively. That means more informed salespeople who are better positioned to increase sales.
3. Make new salespeople effective members of your team sooner
When you do not have an effective onboarding process guided by a step-by-step sales onboarding checklist, it can slow down the process of integrating new salespeople into your team. They may struggle to keep up with their responsibilities or to get out on the floor and start interacting with customers.
Furthermore, new sales hires may not have the tools they need to guide customers through the system, use your CRM, and more. On the other hand, a strong onboarding process can help bring them on board and prepare them to function as strong employees sooner.
4. Strong onboarding builds deeper connections between employees
Sales onboarding best practices include fostering a great culture from the start. New employees coming into a company need to feel like they are a connected part of the team. As part of your sales onboarding program, facilitate relationships between new sales team members and the other members of your team. That strong sense of connection can improve company loyalty, raise engagement, and make employees more satisfied with their work.
5. A good sales onboarding program can help you attract better talent
When you have a strong sales onboarding program, it’s much easier to attract top talent in sales. High-performing salespeople want to work in organizations where they are appreciated for their contributions. When you put the time and effort into training and onboarding them correctly, you’re better able to draw in new team members.
The onboarding process: key details you should include
When you put together your onboarding process and sales onboarding checklist, it’s critical to include all the right elements. This includes both the right stages and the right sales onboarding best practices.
Preboarding
During the preboarding, or pre-onboarding, process, you work with new team members to encourage them to get excited about their new job. Your sales onboarding checklist may include things like:
- A welcome email
- Assigning a mentor
- Offering information about the new role
- Sharing the dress code
- Offering access to the employee handbook
- Letting employees know what to expect on their first day
- Sharing information about the company’s mission
Keep in mind that the preboarding process is about preparing the employees and getting them ready to jump in. Before a new salesperson officially joins your team, you don’t want to bog them down with job requirements, sales training, or other job-related duties.
Documentation
Your human resources (HR) department likely has several steps that new salespeople will need to go through before they’re ready to become official team members. That may include things like:
- Filling out tax withholding documentation
- Setting up direct deposit
- Making sure any required certifications are current
- Getting benefits information set up
Handling those vital steps is key to ensuring that salespeople get paid on time, that their withholding records are correct, and that all steps of bringing them into the team have been handled.
Teambuilding
As part of the onboarding process, you must bring your salespeople onto the team. They may need to:
- Be assigned a mentor.
- Learn about how to contact other members of the team, including sales managers. They should also know what to do about any problems they may encounter.
- Connect with other salespeople.
Find opportunities for your new salespeople to connect with the team members.
Role-specific training
New salespeople may need to be updated in a variety of areas. Sales onboarding best practices include giving new hires specific information that’s relevant to their new role. Role-specific training may include:
- Product knowledge, including a deeper understanding of customer pain points and how your products can address those concerns
- Information about the sales tools your team uses
- Buyer personas used by your company, including how to identify the ideal customer
- Information on how to close deals or follow up with interested customers who have fallen out of the sales funnel
- Comprehensive sales training
- Information about your company’s specific sales cycle
- Examples of successful sales and sales processes
- Company goals, including overall sales goals and how you will measure sales department success
- Information about your sales leaders, their performance, and how they handle sales calls or other scenarios
Your training may include hands-on opportunities, including roleplay, assessments, and even mock sales calls to help employees develop a better idea of your company’s expectations. Hands-on learning often increases employee engagement, which means you may be able to improve sales team learning and get them on the floor faster. If you have sales enablement plans or training, this is the time to introduce them to new employees. Keep in mind that training sessions should be broken, when possible, into easy-to-digest segments that are easy for employees to follow.
Information about metrics and expectations
New sales employees need to know how to perform their roles effectively. They may also need training in how the company will measure their success and performance. Explain:
- How you will measure competency
- What milestones you expect new team members to reach and when
- The expected ramp-up time as a new employee adjusts to the company
When you set clear expectations, your salespeople are often better prepared to measure their own success. Also, they are frequently more satisfied with the company as a whole.
Share information about the company’s best sales team members and how their performance compares to the average member of the team. You may also want to provide templates that will help guide new team members through the sales process or make connecting with potential customers easier.
Check-ins
Once your employee has completed initial training with your company, that doesn’t mean the onboarding experience is over. Ideally, you want a 30-60-90 day plan for your new employees that includes outreach strategies for your sales management team and regular check-ins to monitor new employee progress and gauge performance.
Make sure you compare your new employee’s performance to the overall sales team’s, especially during slower quarters or more difficult times. If you have set clear sales goals, measure the new team member’s performance against the rest of the sales department to get a better idea of their performance and whether they are prepared to move forward or need further training to excel in their roles.
Develop a comprehensive sales onboarding plan with Docebo
This sales onboarding checklist is just the beginning. With Docebo, you can find templates and tools that will allow you to design and implement a comprehensive sales onboarding plan. We also have resources that cover sales onboarding best practices. Our LMS system makes it easier to manage employee onboarding, including providing employees with vital sales training to help them achieve their goals. Download our sales onboarding checklist today to start working toward a more comprehensive onboarding solution for your salespeople.
