So, you’ve made it through the interview process and hired a great new sales rep to your team. Sure, you vetted them carefully and they have the required knowledge, experience, and skillset for the job. But in order to make a hire truly successful in their new position, you need to equip them with the right knowledge and tools.
Helping retain new hires and ensuring their success was one of the topics recently discussed at a sales management roundtable held at PandaDoc’s office in San Francisco. Attended by leading sales managers, directors, and VPs, here are a few tips that came out of the discussion.
1. Set expectations
One of the best things you can do for a new hire (ideally, before you even formally hire them) is to set clear and fair expectations for their performance. Give them a target to shoot for. This will not only offer a clear picture of their goals, but also save you miscommunications down the line. Give them a drop-dead minimum for performance , as well as a “reach” goal.
2. Make sure they’re familiar with the customer landscape
Whether or not they’ve worked in your company’s sector before, they haven’t worked with your specific company’s prospects. Give them the time and opportunity to familiarize themselves with the issues, hurdles, and rewards a prospect may see during the onboarding process. This time investment will pay off tenfold. If possible, have them shadow others in similar positions, and encourage them to take notes and ask questions.
3. Keep them engaged
Retaining salespeople can be one of the toughest hurdles a company faces. Churn happens. You don’t want your new employee to go running off to another company (with all the new skills and knowledge you’ve taken the time to give them), so how do you help maintain employee happiness?
Offer opportunities for personal or career growth, give them the space they need to socialize and bond with other employees, and create a culture around celebrating successes together.
4. Incentivize success
You don’t need to promise they’ll be a senior manager in 6 months, but you do want to offer incentives to make their success all the more attractive. In short, if they do more, they should get paid more. Consider gamifying their work, or offering micro-promotions to incentivize their work. When employees are fairly compensated for going above and beyond the call of duty, everyone wins.
Have additional tips or want to learn more?