It has been a few weeks since we have touched on the subject of onramping of salespeople so it is time to return to this topic. All too often we see management waste an opportunity to set the proper tone with their new hire. They then spend months, even years, trying to correct bad behaviors they allowed in the first place. If you do a search on onramping or onboarding on the web, you will find many articles and all of them at some point will discuss the fact that setting the tone early is very important. So why is this a reoccurring issue for so many new hires? In my reading the… Read More
Continue ReadingOnboarding, Onramping
We call it onramping because that is truly what occurs with new sales hires. This area is often overlooked or under-served by sales managers. They often hire new salespeople, offer some product/service training and then turn them loose in the field. It is the sink or swim approach that leads to turnover. SellingPower.com reports on this fact in On-Boarding: The Most Overlooked Part of Hiring. Here is why this topic is so important: Unfortunately, great sales on-boarding programs are still the exception, rather than the norm, says Stakenas. He says that most companies are missing an opportunity in the first three to six months of a new hire’s time to… Read More
Continue Reading10 Commandments Of Onboarding
We only work in the sales arena so we refer to onboarding as onramping since salespeople need to ramp up to revenue (production) during their initial employment. That being said, CareerBuilder.com provides some excellent rules to live by when bringing a new employee on board (my editing). Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy employee. Thou shalt give a written plan of employee objectives and responsibilities. A written plan detailing objectives, strategy and expectations of future results helps diminish any confusion about a new employee’s job functions and instead opens up the floor to discuss concerns or new opportunities. Thou shalt give thy employ thy undivided attention. Thou… Read More
Continue ReadingTurnover Reflects Your Onramping Program
When you look at your employee turnover are you content or confounded? If confounded, what have you done to improve it? You may want to start by reviewing your onramping program. Managesmarter.com had an interesting article on this subject and provided the following findings: 22 percent of staff turnover occurs in the first 45 days of employment. (The Wynhurst Group) 46 percent of rookies wash out in their first 18 months. (Leadership IQ) Companies that leave onboarding (ed. what we call onramping) to chance experience failure rates in excess of 50 percent when it comes to retaining new talent. (Egon Zehnder International, 2007) More than a 50% failure rate? Ouch! I have seen… Read More
Continue ReadingMarquee vs. Mundane
I’ve been working with a handful of sales managers recently as they onramp new salespeople and I have seen a stumbling block occur more than once. The issue has to do with the sales manager’s perception of the typical sale. Sales managers, in most instances, work primarily with large, high-visibility accounts as they should. The issue that occurs is that the manager starts to view these marquee accounts as the model, or even norm, for all other accounts. What happens is that the manager loses sight of the history of activities that went into earning that customer’s business. Rarely do new salespeople fly out of the gate and close a… Read More
Continue ReadingOnramping Is Everything
This ManageSmarter.com article – On-Board Your Sales Hires Faster – hits me where I live. We ran into a serious issue with one of our customers where a salesperson we placed was terminated after 60 days. I won’t go into specifics, but this gentleman never had a chance. One anecdotal point – he never received business cards. You get the picture. We are working with our customer this week to establish a formalized onramping program for the next salesperson in this role. Much, or even all, of the problems that developed were due to this small company not understanding what needs to happen to successfully launch a new salesperson. Some… Read More
Continue ReadingObservational Management
I kid you not, this approach comes from a manager of a small company that recently hired a new salesperson. The salesperson traveled to the company for a couple days of training before his official start date. He did this on his own dime so he could accelerate his ramp-up time. The manager of the company was involved in the training since this salesperson would report directly to him (remember-small company). During the training days, there was some confusion about when the salesperson should arrive in the morning. No specific time was set, but a general schedule starting around 9am was the target. The salesperson arrived around 9:20am. A stack… Read More
Continue Reading