When you hire sales talent, the intention is to keep them long-term. You want each hire to potentially be a cornerstone employee who can work their way up your organization. If you want people to stay, you need to engage them.
Employee engagement starts with the recruiting process and continues for the duration of an employee’s career in your organization. It never ends and should be a key focus of your retention strategy.
If you want to retain sales talent, you have to take the steps necessary to prevent their exit in the next few months or years by studying your company’s employment history. It starts with new sales hires.
Here are some common-sense ways to improve employee engagement for new sales hires:
Engaging new sales employees starts during the hiring process. It’s important to get them excited about the job before they actually start working. You can do this by giving them information about the company culture, how things work, and great things they can expect once they join the team.
You can never communicate too much, especially to new hires. There are a lot of things new sales employees don’t know and will wonder about when they first start a job. Providing them with more information will help them dive deeper into company culture and have a deeper understanding of their job. Helping them get immersed in their job can help them get more comfortable and engage more.
Starting a new job can be intimidating. Providing your salespeople with support systems to get acclimated to their new job and the company is important. For example, assigning them a person to go to with all their questions about tasks, culture, and how things work will help them ramp up quicker.
It is more difficult for new people to engage when they are left to figure things out on their own. They could grow frustrated and keep undervalued. Proper support helps people build the confidence to engage more.
Getting some one-on-one time with the sales management gives new employees the opportunity to ask questions, get clarification, and get more comfortable in their job quicker. It also shows them you value them and have a vested interest in helping them succeed.
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Elizabeth is a sales recruiter that has led and developed multiple top sales teams in Canada in the Automotive, Retail, and Sports Industries. With 6+ years of corporate sales experience, she knows what separates a good salesperson from a great salesperson. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with a Specialization in Marketing and Accounting with Honours from the Schulich School of Business at York University.