Four critical steps to stop your newly-hired sales rep quitting . . .
Tom Mallens
Director at Renegade RevOps | Build, Scale & Grow a High-Performance Sales Team | Sales training, Coaching & Management Development Programmes ????
Just like a sales rep should have a strong pipeline of profitable new opportunities . . . sales managers should have a strong pipeline of new sales talent.
Recruiting, hiring and onboarding are cornerstone activities of good sales management, making sure there are always talented people on hand to help grow the sales team.
It's a critical activity. The cost of getting hiring decisions wrong and onboarding salespeople who don't work out and leave early is HUGE.
Depending on exactly how you calculate the numbers, the cost of recruiting, interviewing, hiring and onboarding a new salesperson who doesn't work out can easily hit between ￡75,000 and ￡300,000 per rep.
The harsh reality is that in many companies, their onboarding program contributes directly to new reps leaving.
Let's pretend . . .
Imagine a newly hired rep called Dave. Dave was highly successful with his last company where he sold to the same type of prospect as his new employer albeit to different contacts.
Dave's manager believes his contacts from his previous company will generate warm leads to his new prospects.
On Dave's first day he spends part of the morning with HR signing documents and reviewing company policies. The rest of the morning is spent reading product brochures and reviewing presentations before his manager takes Dave and his entire team out for a welcome lunch.
The rest of Dave's first week is spent learning the features and benefits of the products he will sell, shadowing a couple of colleagues on sales calls (not the top performers, of course, they’re too busy) and role-playing with his manager.
The role plays are mostly objection handling sessions that leave Dave feeling very uncomfortable about selling to his new prospects and his manager feeling frustrated that Dave doesn’t “get it” even though he supposedly has experience.
At the end of his first month, Dave has had some success but not as much as he or his manager thinks he should.
So far no warm leads materialised from Dave's old contacts, which bothers his manager, but Dave hasn’t talked to his old contacts yet because he feels he needs to get established and really understand what he's talking about first.
At the end of his second month, Dave is in a groove. He is making more dials and going on more sales calls than most of his team, although he was embarrassed in a weekly sales meeting when the sales director put him on the spot to do his elevator pitch and criticised him when he stumbled.
That one incident aside, month two has been pretty good so he’s surprised when his manager tells him he needs to step it up in their Friday one-on-one meeting.
Greg’s manager says they are concerned that his closed business for month two is the same as month one and his pipeline report shows few opportunities advancing through the funnel.
After a painful discussion, which leaves Dave feeling demotivated, he and his manager agree that his manager will accompany him on sales calls for at least one week.
At the end of his third month, Dave's closed sales are up but he is very frustrated.
His manager kept jumping in on their joint calls and got angry in front of a prospect when the prospect revealed at the end of their meeting that a key decision-maker wasn’t present so they couldn’t move forward as agreed.
Two weeks into month four, one of Dave's contacts from his old world calls to offer him a senior sales role in their company. The base salary isn’t much higher than what Dave is making with his current company, and the benefits are the same, but Dave leaps at the chance to start over.
When Dave gives his manager notice that he’s leaving, his manager is shocked and asks why. Dave's response is “more money.”
Dave's story is, unfortunately, all too common. However, by following the following four steps, you can significantly improve onboarding, which means your new reps sell more, faster.
Step 1: Make sure everyone is on the same page
One of David Sandler’s rules for sales, and communication in general, is “no mutual mystification.”
When an employee is brought on board, both parties should understand each other’s expectations not only for company policies but also when both of you expect to be performing duties like making prospecting calls and going on meetings without managerial support.
Step 2: Have an onboarding timeline documented
The onboarding timeline relates directly to a new hire's role and role performance. For example when is the rep expected to:
Without documentation reps are left in the dark and managers are frustrated that they aren't performing.
Step 3: Set clear expectations for performance
Performance expectations are a separate issue from the onboarding timeline. What behaviour is expected of the rep in week one, week two, week six, week 12 and so on? Specifically, what's the number of calls, number of meetings, number of networking events, and number of other sales-related behaviours?
These behaviour expectations will be captured in the rep’s prospecting plan (also known as a “cookbook” because it gives a clear recipe for success).
Initial behaviour expectations should come from data the manager has on the rest of the sales team (e.g. percentage of calls that become meetings . . . that become closed sales).
This is one reason why capturing data on reps' day-to-day behaviour is so vital. As soon as a reliable relationship between early-stage behavioural inputs and closed business is established, forecasting becomes significantly easier.
Step 4: Roleplay safely
Gutsy managers will take on the role of the salesperson with their new hires because role plays are one of the best opportunities for a manager to model the behaviour they expect.
This also takes the pressure off a new hire to get it right away.
Employees quitting to pursue other opportunities can’t be prevented . . . but by setting clear expectations upfront, you will significantly reduce your turnover of talented salespeople you want to hold on to.
Tom Mallens is training director at Birmingham-based Sandler Training, Heart of England*.
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*He's also somewhat obsessed with exercise. You can get his book 'The Lean & Mean for Life Formula' on how middle-aged men can lose 10kg and within 90 days >>>?here.