How to build a great onboarding?

In a world where an SDR stays in a given company for 14 months on average (according to a study by TOPO, now Gartner), managers can’t afford providing new starters with an average onboarding experience. On the other hand, they also have to make sure their SDRs are operational as quickly as possible. A poll I conducted with my network on LinkedIn in March 2021 showed that, out of 180 participants, 34% think the ideal time for an onboarding is 1 month, and 31% think 3 months is best. Building an onboarding programme can often seem like a daunting task, especially in an ultra-competitive SaaS environment. It can often be labour- and time-intensive, especially if the right processes aren’t in place. At Silverfin, I have onboarded 10 SDRs in the past 12 months. Doing this during COVID has made me reflect on the entire process. Readers of this article should see it as a summary of the learnings I have made from peers and personal readings.

Start before the start

In my opinion, an onboarding doesn’t start on Day 0, but rather at the start of the recruiting process. It is one thing to provide the best experience possible, but you have to make sure that the people receiving it have the skill set and the drive to put in the necessary efforts and  to adapt to company culture. Sit down with HR and build an ideal persona, determine their skill set, seniority, general qualities, and clearly define their job description. As a consequence, the internal teams will be aligned throughout the interview process and will be more likely to select the best hire for the job.

Identify key stakeholders

Before even thinking about building a process, the most important is to identify the key stakeholders internally, and get their opinions on what an ideal onboarding looks like as they will be the ones supporting new joiners throughout their onboarding. At Silverfin, we identified 4 groups of people. HR Managers who can ensure we hire SDRs who will fit in the team. Senior SDRs who can provide training around objection handling and value proposition. Account Executives that can involve them in client meetings. Finally, Team Leads in each department who can give the new starter a good idea of what cross-team collaboration looks like at Silverfin. Getting their buy-in early on ensured they were prepared for their meetings with the new SDR, as well as provided some great input on the plan as a whole.

Identify gaps in the status-quo

Now comes the time to think about your plan. Where to start? I find it useful to reverse-engineer the process. Think first about your ideal end result. What knowledge will your new starter have to learn? Who will they have to meet? Which skills should they have honed? When should they start reaching out to prospects? Once you have these answers, compare this ideal state with the current situation. What is missing in the status-quo to reach the sales nirvana you identified? What strengths does your business have that you should rely on? In my case, I realised that Silverfin had developed a lot of great content to use. This was particularly useful to help explain to a non-accountant how the accounting industry works, where Silverfin fits in, what the other key players were, etc. What was missing was a more straightforward onboarding structure, particularly for the first week of a new starter. 

Build the structure

Once these exercises are done, you can finally start building your onboarding programme. SDRs usually appreciate having a clear structure in their first days, especially if they are graduates. At Silverfin, the first 5 days each have a theme and a clear schedule (more details on this in my previous article). The objective is to take advantage of the new starter’s eagerness to learn to bring them up to speed as fast as possible, as well as avoid being in a situation where they do not know what to do next. In case they have questions, your new starters should be aware of who to reach out to. Giving them a clear idea of the leadership structure, as well as the competencies of each member of their team is therefore key. Once this structure is created, arrange the core competencies into courses (using tools like Showpad or Wonderwerk). Centralisation of information and standardisation of learnings is key here to make sure that your company story and messaging is the same across the board. To ensure the learnings were made, I have added accreditations throughout the onboarding plan. This will also provide your SDRs with a clear idea of where they are now and what still needs to be done in order for them to be fully operational.

Get feedback

If your onboarding programme doesn’t allow for modifications further down the line, it is bound to fail. The question now is how to best figure out where modifications need to be done? One word: FEEDBACK. Who better than the SDRs having gone through your onboarding to provide you with pointers on what worked and what didn’t? Having end-of-day reviews with every new starter will ensure that you receive timely feedback, but will also provide them with an opportunity to ask any general questions they might have to you. At the end of the first week, I spend 30mins with the SDR to gather their impression on the overall schedule and talk them through what comes next. Examples of changes I made after receiving feedback from SDRs include more time for personal work (catching up on learnings, going through notes, etc) and more face-to-face interactions with people outside of the team.

To close this personal brainstorming, I’ll add that there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to onboardings. The main message in this article is that you cannot build a great onboarding experience if you do not collaborate with your peers and managers. Get the full picture by involving them in the building of the plan and you will see your SDRs being brought to 100% much quicker. This is also the reason why I am always eager to hear from peers in the industry. Feel free to share your experience in the comments!

Happy onboarding!