Increase Your Topline Sales by Onboarding Effectively

Mohit Garg on January 1, 2017

Increase Sales - Mindtickle
You’ve just recruited some really promising sales reps with an impressive track record as rainmakers. On day one, HR arranges their computer, gives them a smartphone, and takes them through the company’s online onboarding portal. The following month is a blur of job-specific training workshops and e-learning, as your new reps try to get up-to-speed on your product, target customers, and industry intel. The volume of information they are scrambling to absorb is overwhelming.
Fast forward 8 months and the rainmakers appear to be going through a dry spell. Many of your sales teams haven’t met their quota and your Sales Managers complain that their reps don’t seem to understand the product, let alone the needs of their customers. And you’re left having to explain the lackluster sales results to the Board.
It’s easy to blame the recruitment process here, but it’s more likely that your sales onboarding program could benefit from a more systematic approach.

You are not alone, according to a research done by Brigade Group, 50% of new hires never meet their quota even after onboarding.

What is onboarding for sales reps?

Onboarding is about making sure that the sales rep is truly sales-ready. It’s about understanding the industry, building detailed product knowledge, getting under the skin of the customer persona, learning how to qualify a lead, and pitching to them effectively. In short, onboarding is about learning “what to sell” and “how to sell”.
While new hire orientation can be done relatively quickly, onboarding is a process that can take up to 12 months. In my experience, with a robust process, the right tools, and effective measures, it is possible to cut down sales onboarding time by at least 30-40%. In fact, I’ve seen companies with about 100 sales reps increase their revenue by 8% as a result of effective onboarding. The potential value to the top line can be even higher for smaller sales teams.
I suggest following a five-step high-level sales onboarding process:
sales onboarding framework

How do you measure if the onboarding was effective?

Following a process is one thing, but it’s only useful if you can measure and track how effective the onboarding has been for the new hire. I’ve found it to be most effective to benchmark new hires against existing sales reps. While no individual is the same, generally your existing sales reps fall into three categories:

  1. The A Players – These are your high performing sales reps who consistently exceed targets
  2. The B Players – They are just about meeting targets, and need some attention to keep them on track
  3. The C Players – These reps need some help and guidance to get them performing on quota

By predicting which category the new hires fall into, your sales managers can personalize their coaching efforts based on the needs of each individual. I’d suggest using the following 4 metrics to measure your new sales hires and the effectiveness of your onboarding program:

  1. Time to Complete Training – Where your training includes some self-paced learning modules and assessment, you can measure how long it takes someone to complete the program and demonstrate that they’ve absorbed the knowledge. This is one of the reasons using an effective online training program is particularly helpful for sales onboarding as it lets you automatically track this metric.
  2. Time for Sales Readiness – Ready to engage customers without the assistance of a more seasoned team member.
  3. Time to Close First Sales Deal – The amount of time it takes to make the first sale is a landmark measurement for both the individual and the business. However, when coupled with Time to Meet Quota, it provides a good indicator of the potential success of the new hire as well.
  4. Time to Meet Quota – At Mindtickle, we define productivity as the first month that the sales rep achieves their quota so this measurement is the most appropriate for our business. However, other industries with longer lead times or more seasonal products may consider it more appropriate to measure the first quarter in which quota is achieved instead. The important thing with this metric is ensuring that it is easy to measure.
  5. Average sales cycle (time to close deals) – In my experience, the time spent to close a deal is the best proxy for productivity. It shows how efficient the rep is in taking a customer through the sales process and getting a result. It also should be easy to measure through the tools available in your CRM.

This also helps provide a handy framework when you’re reporting upwards on how your new recruits are performing.

Using this process and measurement framework provides not only your managers with a well-structured process, but also gives your new hires the required support that will help them become sales-ready sooner and close deals faster.

So, are you ready to increase your top-line revenue?

3 Examples of Gamification for New Employee Onboarding

Mohit Garg on November 22, 2016

For most companies out there today, the new hire orientation process is often the same. An employee arrives and is instructed to watch a series of training videos or read a manual.

This is typically followed by the employee receiving additional on-the-job training for their position before he or she is let loose.

While this may seem like it is beneficial, it can be extremely boring for the employee. And believe it or not, it actually hurts both parties.

Gamification in new employee onboarding

The new employee that you have just hired has to take additional time going through copious amounts of training material. Instead of being able to put your new employee to work, you have to wait until he or she is completely finished training. Wouldn’t it be much better if you were able to help your employee through the training process while allowing them to absorb much more information?

How can this be done? Try gamification! Check out these three elements of gamification in new employee onboarding and why they may end up benefiting your business.

1. Progress & achievement – From the beginning, any small achievements that your employee accomplishes should be rewarded. While you may think this sounds silly at first, a study back in 2008 found that nearly 86 percent of new hires decide whether or not they want to stick with the company within the first six months of employment. Make your employees feel like they are valuable to your business and not simply another cog in the wheel of progress. How can this be done? Think of something simple like a digital checklist. During the new hire orientation, have your employee check off items as they accomplish them. Tasks may be as simple as “Fill out tax paperwork” or “Get photo ID picture taken.” After all, tasks are completed, send out a simple congratulations email for a job well done.

2. Leveling up – “Leveling Up” is typically a phrase that you might hear while playing a video game. The player has to accomplish a certain number of tasks before additional steps can be taken. The same can be applied to your new hire orientation. Set up a list of actionable goals that your employee must accomplish before other responsibilities can be given. For instance, you may want to have a new employee make at least ten cold calls to potential clients before he or she can sit in on sales meetings. It’s little goals like these that will motivate your employees to keep pushing towards being more productive.

3. Quests – Utilizing gamification quests is another great way to improve new employee onboarding within your company. The idea behind quests is that they can be applied to any training subject, no matter what it is. Take a subject such as safety in the workplace. Instead of having an employee watch a two-hour training video, have the employee interview other workers about their top safety tips. Then have the employee report his or her findings back and decide on which tips can be agreed upon. While you may think having your new employees watch videos or read through manuals will help understand the information, having them seek out the information is much more beneficial. It is also more enjoyable way to learn.

These are just a few of the many examples of gamification that you can implement into your company’s new hire orientation process. By doing so, you have the potential to build a team of employees that are much more engaged and productive within the workplace.

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Best Practices for New Hire Training

Mohit Garg on October 30, 2016

mindtickle_balloons_new_hire_training
So you selected your new employees; excellent, this means you’ve gotten through the hard part. Now they are about to go through the orientation program you have planned for them, but what about training?
Laura Vanderkam’s blog post on Fortune.cnn.com references a survey from Accenture that found how 77% of college students who were going to graduate in 2013 expected to receive formal on the job training. However, only 48% of the students in the class of 2011 and 2012 said they received training. Katherine LaVelle of Accenture is quoted saying, “There’s a disconnect between employers’ expectations of grads entering with relevant skills and the reality….” One of the benefits, according to LaVelle, of training new hires properly is that they will be less likely to quit quickly. This ties back to creating a feeling of commitment and trust with the new employee.
Laura references multiple new employee training examples, but the one I found most interesting was about Le Pain Quotidien. People hired as servers at the restaurant receive five days of training with a certified instructor; during these five days they are taught about “every aspect of the restaurant,” including a taste test of each meal. However, the training doesn’t stop after those first few days. Le Pain Quotidien offers training courses, such as baking and catering, to help them learn new skills while keeping the old ones fresh. This allows the employees to create a career path that is meaningful instead of being stuck as a dishwasher.

Getting started with new hire training

While it may seem beneficial to cut costs by eliminating new employee training, you are actually saving money in the future by training them now. We discussed in previous posts how new hires need to feel accepted as part of the team. The question should really be: “how are you going to train your newbies?” In his article, Ilya Pozin describes four crucial elements of new hire training, three of which I will discuss in this post.

Train for the specific types of people you hire

This tip may sound easy enough, but it can actually be quite complex. To do this, you must analyze the personality and culture of each current employee who fills specific positions or are a part of a certain department; you will then take this knowledge and apply it to the training program. For example, if a specific position tends to attract brilliant people who unfortunately have poor social skills, create a training program that builds their self-confidence and doesn’t make them feel uncomfortable. If this happens to be a position that requires a lot of social interaction, help them build proper and confident social skills.

Cross-train

People who work at start-up companies often gain a competitive edge when applying for a new job. Why is that you might ask? Well, it is not uncommon that employees of a start-up business will be required to learn varied skills and perform the functions of what would be considered a separate position in most businesses. The same benefit applies to new employees. Training them for other positions, either all at once or slowly over time, would be beneficial to everyone. This would provide better interaction and communication between the sectors of a business, while also allowing people to step up and help out when there is an overwhelming amount of work.

Remove the fear of failure

New employees often come into a situation nervous or afraid to try new things since they are not sure what will happen if their idea fails. The best way to learn is by doing, so let the new employees do something without the fear of repercussions if they get it wrong. Help them learn the ropes and point out their mistakes so they can avoid them in the future.

The Value of Mentoring and Shadowing in New Hire Training

Mohit Garg on October 25, 2016

One of the most effective ways to learn is to engage in intelligent conversation with an expert on a subject. Mentoring and shadowing are an excellent supplement to research and independent learning. In particular, online relationships, facilitated through the Internet, have evolved how professional mentoring and shadowing happens. Technology makes online mentoring and shadowing cost-effective for organizations with offices anywhere in the world.

Value of shadowing in new hire training

Whether you are taking an online or offline approach to this, Susan Heathfield provides great insight into why job shadowing is so important. Here’s how shadowing can help your new hires:

1. It “helps employees absorb the values, norms, and standards of an organization…” Think of this as if you were trying to learn a language; the only way you can truly learn is by immersing yourself in a culture and being surrounded by native speakers. The same principle applies since job shadowing allows the new employees to see how the culture and values of the business are applied in normal everyday settings.

2. The new hire can demonstrate what they learned. After the new hire is taught a skill or job function, they can demonstrate what they have learned to their mentor. This allows them to solidify the knowledge and gives their mentor the opportunity to clarify any misconceptions or fix any issues the new employee may be having.

3. What better way to create friendships than to interact with people, right? Assigning a mentor will give the new employee someone they can get to know at a personal level. On top of that, the mentor can introduce the new hire to other current employees he or she may not know yet.

4. If the mentorship is temporary, it can provide a way for the new hire to gain a “deeper knowledge about a variety of jobs and functions in the company.” Here is a scenario. You could allow the new employee(s) to mentor with one person from each section (or as many as you choose) of the company. Over the course of 2-3 weeks, the new hire(s) would learn about which position would suit them best, or the mentors could decide who would fit what position best. This would also allow the new employees to have a better understanding of the relationship between each sector of the business. Armed with this knowledge, you will be able to create a successful training environment for new employees.

What steps are you taking to create a successful training environment for your new employees? Leave us a comment and let us know!

New Employee Orientation for Retail Store Associates

Mohit Garg on October 22, 2016

Retail companies constantly invest in new technologies, website features, and in-store experiences to enhance the customer experience and boost revenue. However, to increase sales and efficiency of stores, instituting a comprehensive new employee orientation program should be at the top of the list.

New employee orientation can increase employee retention

Good onboarding leads to good retention rates. At Corning Glass Works, new employees who attended a structured orientation program were 69 percent more likely to remain at the company up to three years. Research on new employee onboarding shows that when onboarding is done correctly, it leads to:

  • Higher job satisfaction
  • Organizational commitment
  • Lower turnover
  • Higher performance levels
  • Career effectiveness
  • Lowered stress

Mindtickle Ramp Time EBook

3 key areas to include in your retail new employee orientation program

Here are 3 key areas that you should include in your new hire orientation program in order to make your store associates successful!

1. What does your brand stand for?

Employees are your most important brand ambassadors: with prospects, with customers, and with the community. By ensuring that all employees understand and believe in the company’s mission, in its purpose and what the brand stands for, you can have a significant impact on how your brand is viewed by customers. A good brand foundation allows employees to demonstrate the brand in an inviting, relevant and truthful manner every day in their job.

Questions to get started:

  1. Share your story: How did the business start? Why are you here?
  2. What does your brand stand for?
  3. What does your brand look like?
  4. What are your vision and mission? What are your values?

2. Empower store associates with product knowledge and sales techniques:

Store associates should be empowered with product knowledge to connect with customers and provide a personalized experience. As customers enter the store armed with a wealth of information. Store associates need to be able to not only match this high level of knowledge but also add to it and provide additional value. Deloitte research shows that conversion rates increased by 9% when customers were assisted by employees who possess a high degree of product knowledge and demonstrate strong interpersonal skills. Train your new employees on product knowledge, interpersonal skills and sales techniques to provide a personalized, relevant customer experience supported by technology.

3. Train your new employees on store operations, loss prevention & shrinkage:

Ensure that your entire staff is well trained in inventory management, merchandising, loss prevention and safety practices. Every year retail stores incur a loss of more than $30B because of inventory loss due to shrinkage, theft and administrative errors. The holiday season is by far the most costly time for shrinkage. Training your employees on proactive preventative loss prevention measures can go a long way to making the holiday season profitable and successful. Your new hire training program should include training on following programs:

  • Loss prevention
  • Inventory control
  • Safety
  • Visual merchandising

By creating a comprehensive retail new hire training program, you can make a great first impression, reduce attrition, and set your team up for success starting on Day 1. Are you taking advantage of the new employee orientation or are you missing an opportunity?

New Employee Orientation Best Practices – Measure

Mohit Garg on April 29, 2016

ew employee orientation best practices are fundamental to the success of any new hire orientation and it begins with measurement.

Now that your organization has a new employee orientation program, it is time to determine if it is a success.  In order to determine if it is a success or not, it is important to ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Did you measure the outcomes?
  2. What outcomes should you measure?
  3. How did you measure?

Let’s address each of these million dollar questions.

It is important to start with the BIG picture. Measure those aspects that directly contribute to your business goals. Establish a baseline, which is more or less similar for most organizations – rate of employee turnover or retention, time to productivity, and employee satisfaction.

Once the areas to be measured are identified, integrate corresponding methods for periodic assessments. The exact metrics and methods depend on your company size, employee demographics, and business objectives, but it is most important to establish upfront what needs to be measured, why, and when.

Numbers say it all – Quantitative Metrics

Addressing employee turnover and employee productivity are key when following new employee orientation best practices.

Headache of the Modern business – Employee Turnover

This critical figure helps you identify the success of an onboarding program as it is directly tied to the business goals of the organization. Organizations can compare employee turnover figures before and after the inclusion of a new hire orientation program.

Productivity

Productivity metrics associated with business and support functions could help determine the business contribution of new hires, and thus the effectiveness of a new hire orientation program. In the absence of past organizational data, Michael Watkins’ average of 6.2 months can be used as a break-even point for new hires.

Following new employee orientation best practices, organizations would do well to automate measurements using onboarding software. Usually, SaaS-based, these onboarding software help capture data pertaining to performance, onboarding checklists, training schedules, and milestones.

The Human Element – Qualitative Data

Apart from the above specific data points, there is a need to capture qualitative attributes in relation to the new hires. An organization could see increased retention rates, but it may be worthwhile to see if that was accompanied with enthusiasm and ownership, not just of the new hires, but also of all stakeholders.

Onboarding managers need to conduct periodic assessments to assess goals, both with respect to the new employee and the employer. Such periodic assessments could cover the following:

New Employee Engagement – How Engaged is the New Hire?

The answer to this question clearly indicates the effectiveness and success of your new hire onboarding program. But, how do you actually measure if an employee is engaged enough?

a) Pre-Onboarding / First Few Weeks

Assess the needs and wants of the new hire early, as early as the pre-onboarding phase or the first week of joining. This information can be obtained by simply asking a few questions to the new hire and also consulting the hiring manager. It is critical to plan the coming months of the new hire.

b) The First 30 to 90 Days and beyond

Regular interviews with the new hire covering the following topics would give a sense of engagement levels.

  • Company culture and job
  • Role in the team
  • Challenges
  • Alignment with company goals

The timeline of these interviews will depend on the needs of organization.

Take Continuous Feedback from New Hires

Feedback sessions are important for mid-course corrections. This may also be a good opportunity to put forward the company’s expectations from the new hire, instead of waiting for the end of the probation period.

Exclusive Performance Appraisal Process for New Hires

Organizations should complement a formal new employee orientation program with a corresponding performance appraisal process that is exclusive for new hires. In addition to assessing the new hire directly, this appraisal should obtain feedback from the new hire’s peers, subordinates, manager, and the human resources team.

This would ensure that the organization goals in respect to the new hires are achieved. An exclusive new hire appraisal process would increase the chances of bringing out the effectiveness of the new employee orientation program.

Quantitative and qualitative measurements are both important in determining the effectiveness of a new employee orientation program. It is vital that the two sets of measurements corroborate each other. Positive correlation between the two would increase your confidence levels in the measurement process, whereas a negative correlation would mean going back to the drawing board.

Leave us a comment and tell us all about your organization’s experience in measuring the implementation of new employee orientation best practices!

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The 4 Pillars of Knowing “What to Sell"

Mohit Garg on April 7, 2016

The training stage of any sales onboarding program is by far the most important. This is when the new reps learn the essential knowledge that sets the stage for their success in subsequent steps in the onboarding process, and then eventually in their future selling activities.

In order for this “training” to be truly effective, it is extremely important for the company’s product or service to be projected to the new hire from the eyes of the customer – in the context of the customer’s business, industry, challenges, needs, opportunities and pain points.  Learning “What to Sell” is much more than just product training or learning how to describe the company’s solutions and services. Rather, it should prepare your reps to articulate the true value proposition behind those offerings when they get in front of a customer.

There are 4 pillars to what to sell:

  • Industry
  • Customer personas
  • Product
  • Competitive analysis

sales onboarding

These pillars support the articulation of the value proposition and stand on a firm foundation of case studies and success stories.

1. Industry knowledge: setting context from a customer perspective

Before your rep can put your product and their customer’s needs in context, they need to understand your business model and its surrounding ecosystem. This isn’t so much about specific players in the industry, but rather about how your customer sees your industry and what are the first impressions that the customers build as they research the various options available in the market.  For example, they may come across influencers in the field, industry bodies and complementary products and service providers, that will all have a role in influencing their thoughts and understanding of how they can solve their specific problem. It’s for this reason that it’s critical for your new sales reps understand your industry and how your customer perceives it.

2. Buyer personas: know your customer

The second pillar is about knowing your customer. Who are they? What are their specific problems? What do they know about how to solve their problem? What is their buying process?

In most businesses, there is more than one customer persona for each product, for example, at Mindtickle we have several different buyer personas and sub-personas as well, that cover differences between customer industries. While the Mindtickle platform may be evaluated and administrated by sales enablement and training professionals, the ultimate approval and decision makers end up sales leaders in fast-growing companies.

For each buyer persona (and sub-persona), the sales rep should understand the type of messages that resonate with them, what channels they research and purchase through, what their specific problems are, and what level of maturity in the buying process they are at. This is all valuable information that forms the basis for how your reps adjust their messaging depending on whom they are interacting with.

3. Know your product as your customer sees It

Knowing your product and its features is only part of this pillar. Your sales reps add value to your customers by not only understanding their product features but by shining a torch on how to apply them to your buyer’s specific needs and issues. They should be asking themselves how does the product solve the buyer’s problem? How often do the customers use the product and for what purpose? What will be the impact on the customer if they purchase this product (for example will it increase their revenue or save time perhaps)?

By not only understanding your product but also its context to the customer, you can make a huge difference to the buyer and also your bottom line. For example, one of our customers discovered that by training their reps not only on the features of its different product offerings but also on how each product met the needs of different customer personas, their sales reps were better equipped to sell to different customers more competently. This gave them a distinct competitive advantage and increased their sales.

For product companies, the most effective and easiest-to-implement process for sales reps to develop an appreciation of the product to have them step into the shoes of the customer and experience the product themselves. While this is not as easy and straightforward to experience for services and solution companies, observing and studying customer stories can be almost as effective.

4. Competitive analysis: understand your worth

One of our customers is one of the fastest-growing technology companies in Silicon Valley and was able to leverage its competitive advantage because it performed an extensive competitive benchmarking exercise and trained its sales reps on the competitive landscape in which it operated.

This goes further than just knowing who your competitors are and looking at how your product stacks up against your competition. Don’t just look at what features your product has that your competitors don’t, but also which customer personas value these features and the use cases and contexts in which each of those relative strengths and weaknesses manifests themselves. For example, if you’re dealing with a customer persona who values analytics and reporting, then they will specifically value knowing that you can make data-driven decision-making easier and more cost-effective for them.

Another component that your new reps should learn about the competitive environment is how to handle customer objections and feature requests. It is quite likely that many of your prospects may also reach to your competitors before making a final decision. Therefore, by understanding their offering your reps will know the context of the objections based on competitor comparisons and be able to rebut them effectively. As a general rule of thumb, about 80% of your objections will be standard and can be trained mostly online. Sales managers can then deal with skill gaps or non-standard objections during the Coaching stage of onboarding.

Bringing it all together: Articulating the core value proposition

Overarching the four pillars is the core value proposition, the promise of why your company and your offering exist. There isn’t just one value proposition for a product or service, but rather multiple tiers that are tailored to different buyer personas, addressing the issues that are relevant to them respectively. By building on the context of the overall industry, understanding the buyer’s specific needs, and how your product can serve that need, your sales rep would be best positioned to create a compelling elevator pitch. While an elevator pitch may only have limited utility, when combined with real customer stories and examples, the deep understanding of the value proposition is an essential ingredient of a compelling and persuasive sales conversation with a prospect.

Finally, bring To life what to sell through case studies and customer stories

Underpinning your pillars and value proposition are case studies and success stories that provide color and context to how to deal with issues out on the field. Observing and listening into real customer calls or demos can be a great opportunity for new reps to see those stories being played out in real action.

Maintaining a library of video recordings of how experienced reps steer customer discussions can also be really valuable as it provides an opportunity for new reps to pick up sound bites and examples that have been tried and tested. In addition, sharing a repository of referenceable customers, case studies and stories can be an invaluable resource for sales reps.

The good news is that most of these “what to sell” components can be learned almost completely online, freeing up time for sales managers to be more involved at other stages of the onboarding process where they can add more value.

Outcomes

If done right, at the end of this stage they should be able to identify and relate with the customer personas, articulate the value proposition as it applies to specific customers and handles the majority of customer objections. This can be validated through online quizzes and mock pitching exercises. By certifying your sales rep at this point, you can see what knowledge they’ve achieved and where there may be some skill gaps to work on. Of course, if they pass their What to Sell certification, you can give them their learners permit knowing they’re on their way to becoming competent and are ready to move onto learning How To Sell.

5 Tips to Reinforce Sales Training

Mohit Garg on April 1, 2016

I’m often asked by sales leaders about how to ensure that sales onboarding delivers long-lasting results. After all, you spend so much time and energy hiring and onboarding new sales reps, but like a shiny new car, your investment depreciates the minute they step outside. Trying to reinforce sales training is a challenge many enablement leaders face.

It is natural for the reps to forget the training content and even if they retained everything the readiness of your reps will decline on a relative scale because it is a moving target. Competitors change strategy, industry dynamics change, you introduce new product features or you have published new referenceable case studies.

It’s not only important to help your newbies maintain their level of knowledge by reinforcing their training, but also to sustain their overall sales readiness so they can continue to level up. Therefore, reinforcement is a critical part of an effective onboarding program.

But how should one go about creating a reinforcement plan for new reps that delivers the goods? Some of your gaps for new reps may be knowledge related, while others may be behavioral. So it’s important to use different methods of reinforcement to target specific issues. To get your reps on their way to achieving their sales quota, here are 5 best practices:

Implement periodic refreshers to reinforce sales training

Broadly, speaking there are two types of sales training formats – baseline training modules (think of them as long-form modules that provide a well-structured and comprehensive knowledge about a subject matter, and bite-sized updates to refresh the knowledge imparted in the training modules. These updates when delivered in the right context can not only serve to refresh the knowledge of your sales reps, but they can also help the sales reps connect the dots on how those pieces of information can help them win more deals. Here are a few examples:

  • Send out a cheat sheet on how to handle specific customer objections or one that outlines the steps to complete one part of the sales process
  • Send out bite-sized updates on specific product features and how they contribute to the value proposition
  • Set reminders in SalesForce at points in the process that are critical to CRM compliance
  • Send a short reminder on their mobile phone that outlines how an A Player prepares for a meeting

Some of your priorities may be knowledge related, while others may be behavioral. So it’s important to use different methods of reinforcement to target specific issues.

Spot check sales readiness

Quick pop-quizzes are a great way to periodically test and reinforce what your sales reps have retained. When combined with explanations for the quiz answers, these quizzes can serve to enhance the knowledge of the reps. This can be particularly useful for small nuggets of information that are easily forgotten.

Mindtickle has over eight different types of quizzes that can make this quite simple to implement, and provide you with data on how your reps performed on each question as well. For example, use a multiple choice question to test their knowledge of the value proposition or label matching to update them on the benefits of a new product feature.

Reinforce sales training with coaching and simulation exercises

While a structured coaching plan should already be part of your sales onboarding, you can reinforce specific skills and troubleshoot issues using mini-simulations. For example, if there is a specific objection that many reps struggle to deal with, you can have them record their response and then go over this with them in your next feedback session. And if done on a regular basis, such exercises help ensure that all sales reps have consistent messaging.

Mindtickle offers an automated workflow for managing these simulation exercises called Sales Missions. Sales managers can create online exercises for their team members which require them to submit an audio-video recording of how they would respond to a sales situation. These could range from cold pitches, elevator pitches, leaving voicemails to handling specific customer queries or objections.  These bite-sized missions should take no more than 5 minutes for the rep to do but can help provide very actionable feedback.

Mentoring

You already know your high-performing quota carriers are the best inspiration you can give to a new hire, but they can also help them reinforce the best practices they’ve heard about during their onboarding. By establishing a formal mentoring program or even an informal buddy system, your new hires can hear success stories and winning strategies directly from your rockstars. When positioned as a buddy or mentor relationship, the new hires are likely to be more open to asking questions that they perhaps might consider too “dumb” to ask their manager.

Certain sales leaders do not want to spare a minute of their top sellers for such mentoring activities. I believe that is a short-sighted approach and can be detrimental to the career progression of your “A player” sales reps. Such mentoring programs have dual benefits in the long term. Not only are they beneficial for the newbies, they also offer an opportunity to your “A” reps to get a first-hand experience of essential managerial skills such as coaching, as the first step towards graduation to senior roles.

Make it mobile

By ensuring that reinforcement content and activities are made available to the reps on their mobile devices, those interactions will be integrated into your reps daily routine and quickly become just another part of their everyday sales activities. Moreover, for reinforcement to be effective, the tips and refreshers are much more meaningful when presented in the context of customer situations. For example – the value of a case study or a win story would be most appreciated by a sales rep when presented in the middle of a similar deal that he/she may be assisting with.

Bonus tip: Amplify the impact of reinforcement by leveraging the power of analytics

According to the Aberdeen Group, 20% more sales reps achieve quota when their team implements post-training reinforcement. But before you jump straight in, you must prioritize the key capabilities that you want your reps to focus on, and then determine how best to reinforce those. For example, ensuring that they fully understand your customer personas may be a challenge for some, or many may find CRM compliance to be a pain point. This is where analytics and data can play a big role again.

At Mindtickle, we export the learning performance (scores in quizzes, engagement metrics, and results from pitch testing) in order to create groups of new hires based on their development needs. This data has also been very useful for us to create a standardized refresher track that applies to all new hires.

For example – we observed that most new hires find it hard to retain the advanced functionality of the Mindtickle analytics. Additionally, our data also tells us that the A player reps on our team have consistently shown a very high degree of awareness regarding competition. So we added competition battle-cards to the reinforcement track and additional reinforcement on advanced analytic functionality.

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