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Turnover in the sales ranks is a challenge for many companies, and some industries regularly experience turnover as high as 40 per cent a year. This attrition is due to a number of factors, including fit, abilities, and the front-line managers' ability to lead. But the most overlooked factor in turnover and ensuring success is the on-boarding process. The means by which you assimilate the new recruit into your culture can be the singular difference between success and failure with a new sales rep – and the return on your recruitment dollars.
The main problem in sales is that the whole process of finding and integrating on sales talent is disjointed. Sourcing, vetting, introducing reps to the team and ensuring rapid and continuous success should be one seamless process, but it's often a series of siloed activities. What should be a coordinated roadmap and execution often ends up being a series of hand-offs.
The human resources department will work with the hiring manager to develop a job description, then add some of their own spice to the mix. They will often work with a recruiting firm to source candidates, with the recruiter having no contact with the candidates' future manager and they may or may not participate in the interview process. When the recruit is complete, they hand off the candidate, offering a guarantee for a period of time in case the candidate does not work out.
HR will orient the recruit to the company, helping with policies, benefits, security passes, computer and other tools. This may include a "quick start" or "jump start" training, a week of product training, order entry, basic sales training, and an introduction to the companies' sales process. That is if they have a sales process, which is not always a given.
I remember asking a VP of sales from a sizable company about their sales process, he told me "yes we have one, salesforce.com." It's a great CRM, not a sales process. Not having a process brings a number of impediments to sales success, including improper on-boarding of reps.
When HR completes their tasks, they offload the candidate to sales, usually the front line manager. Most managers do not have a plan for new reps. Some will take some specific steps, for example, spending a bit more time with them or going on a few calls, but generally there's no overall plan. They often overestimate the employee's level of preparation.
A better plan is to have all three parties–HR, the recruiter, and the front line manager and a trainer–work together in developing and rolling out a seamless on-boarding plan, one that starts well before the offer, and lasts much longer than many current on-boarding initiatives. There should be clear objectives and milestones along the way, the timeline should be at least as long as three times the length of your sales cycle. This allows for onboarding to be phased and aligned with success elements as needed based on your sale and process, rather than an info and policy dump when they start, when it has no meaning or context.
The model I like is creating a partnership with the recruiter, HR, the manager, and myself, the trainer. As the short list is developed, we examine the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates, and begin to formulate the sales training plan with the manager before offers are made. When the rep is hired, there is no handoff. The recruiter, manager and I are already engaged. This all happens as long as a month prior to the hire's start date. These plans can be as long as year, usually much longer than the guarantee, which usually does not get triggered.
Sure, it's more work upfront, but the payoff is big: You'll benefit from reduced recruiting costs, better retention rates, improved customer satisfaction, and greater revenue down the road.
Tibor Shanto is a principal at Renbor Sales Solutions Inc. He can be reached at tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca. His column appears once a month on the Report on Small Business website.