On-boarding sales people is a fantastic opportunity for your business. Each new sales person you hire is excited to be working with you and looking forward to the opportunities that employment with your organization will provide. Take advantage of this fresh start attitude when on-boarding sales people by supporting them and each new sales person you hire will be selling right away.

Invest in Comprehensive Training

To set the stage for your new sales person and get him or her selling right away, comprehensive training is imperative. Your process for on-boarding sales people should include training on all aspects of the position. This helps a new sales person acclimate to your business culture more quickly and makes it more probable that you will be able to retain that person in the long term. Your new sales person training should cover:

• The history and long-term strategy for your organization and its offerings
• Sales metrics by which the sales person will be evaluated
• Preferred selling methods and processes
• Instruction on using your organization’s sales software
• Contacts for support in sales, marketing, operations, and human resources

Embrace Affirmative Coaching from the Start

Coaching is one of the top ways to get more from your existing sales staff. It is also one of the top ways to get a new sales person selling out of the starting gate. When you are on-boarding sales people, let them know that you will be tracking their sales metrics from the beginning. Allow for the start-up time that any sales person needs to become comfortable in a new environment, but keep close tabs on the performance of your new sales person beginning with week one. Consistently coach him or her to improve each week, and he or she will be selling right away.

Provide Direction to Your New Sales Person

Your new sales person is experienced, and has had success using sales methods learned at the beginning of his or her career. Build on those strengths by guiding your new sales person to new sales methods, lead generation techniques, and networking practices that have worked in your organization’s sales department. When you take the time to show your new sales person how to learn more and do more, he or she will thank you for it, and will be actively selling in less time.

Hold Out the Proverbial Carrot Early

Regardless of his or her past success, a new sales person is unlikely to vault to the top of your sales rankings within the first month, or indeed even quarter. It takes time to build the relationships that the best sales people use to drive sales. While this does mean that the incentives you offer to your top performers might be out of reach for a new sales person in the short term, it doesn’t mean that you can’t encourage your new sales person to start selling right away to reach those goals.

On-boarding sales people with the encouragement that as a members of your organization they, too, are eligible for attractive incentives can get them engaged on the first day. If it is an option for your compensation budget, you might even consider early, lower-value incentives for new sales people to help them into the right mindset for selling right away. 

The character for a sales person’s career with your organization is already forming by the end of the first day. Make sure that your processes for on-boarding sales people are reinforcing the positive opportunities that these new sales people saw when accepting your job offer by supporting each new sales person you hire. When a sales person feels your support he or she will be driven to start selling right away, which is to the sales persons’ personal benefit and to the benefit of your sales team.