Previously we discussed the reasons why businesses fail at hiring successful salespeople, and the last point made was that, after bringing someone new on board, the on-boarding process then fails to help them to achieve.
Some might say, “well if they are A-Players, then they should be self-starters who can self motivate” but this is an unfair approach to take, and is not taking responsibility for ensuring a salesperson has the best foundations for success. Every new sales rep needs time dedicated to ‘ramping up’ and becoming familiar with everything it takes to be successful in sales in your business.
But wait – how long do you allow for the ‘ramp up’ process? Is it not actually enough time, or is it drawn out much too long? Understanding this really is key to making sure you are providing the right allocation to everyone that comes on board.
Dave Kurlan from the Objective Management Group has a formula that he uses to calculate ramp-up time:
After you have worked out the time required for a new salesperson to get up-to-speed with your business, the next step is being completely honest with yourself: do you have a sales process that is thorough (and that mirrors the exact things that your top-performers do in the field), a pipeline that produces results, and solid sales management capabilities? Because without these aspects, how can you expect anyone to succeed?
In fact – Kurlan says that the sales manager is usually the biggest determining factor of sales success, and should be the first place to look when it appears salespeople aren’t working out.
“Are your new salespeople being micro managed or at least closely managed? They should be. Particularly if they are in a remote territory. Do your new salespeople know what is expected of them in the first 30/60/90 days, how they will be measured and how they will be held accountable?
“And what about KPIs? Sales managers that manage results (history) are months behind when it comes to being able to impact a salesperson using coaching and accountability. However sales managers that manage activity (today) can see into the future and change it.”
So here’s the clincher, you can do everything right to get the best salesperson on board, but if you miss out the importance of the after-hire activity, then you will continue to fail at hiring successful salespeople.
The question is – are you okay about wasting valuable time and money on rolling out recruitment every few months to continue to get the same average results?
