Week One – Orientation and Training
Setting The Stage For Success
As a sales manager you want your new sales rep to be out in the field producing as soon as possible. At the same time, you don’t want them to burn through leads simply because they don’t have a clear understanding of their product line. To ensure their success, there are several things you can do with your sales rep in their first week.
General Orientation
Provide company orientation, including values, history, department information and more.
Key Aspects of Selling
Train the new rep on key aspects of selling in your market. Discuss sales approach, your customers, the market, current trends and the competition.
Forecasting
Take time to walk through forecasting methodologies and systems. Not only will you ensure the new hire knows the standards surrounding these systems, but also your specific views regarding forecasting.
Product Training
Provide product and service demonstrations to aid in the learning process. If possible, make these demonstrations live. The more your new hire knows about the products they are selling, the more sales objections they will be able to overcome and the more sales they will close.
Call Shadow
New sales representatives perform better in the long run when they have the opportunity to see an experienced sales rep conduct a few sales calls. Have the new hire listen to several live sales calls performed by someone on your team who excels in this area and is a model representative for your company. This will allow the new sales rep to see how prospects and customers react to your product or service, as well as how objections are handled.
Presentation Shadow
Now that the new rep has an understanding of the product, they need to understand how your business presents it to prospective clients.
Take the new rep on tours of customer sites and provide introductions to key customers. Have the new sales representative shadow another rep while they present to a number of potential clients. Having the new rep listen, watch and learn as another team member interacts with a client allows you to properly demonstrate how your team presents your solution.
At the end of the week there should exist a comprehensive review to make sure that the new rep is on the same page as the sales manager in terms of goals and vision and that the rep is retaining all the new information to which they are being exposed. Read more about this phase of the on-boarding process in the free eBook The First 90 Days – Your Guide to Making New Sales Hires Produce Fast).
relpost-thumb-wrapper
close relpost-thumb-wrapper
Eliot Burdett
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)
- 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
- How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader – September 15, 2021
- Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021
