Part 1: The Lifetime Value of a Sales Rep

Onboarding New Sales Reps

The world of B2B sales is changing. Gone are the days in which the traditional salesperson drove the conversation and identified a need in the transaction between buyer and seller. Today, with the development of technology and proliferation of the Internet, customers control their education and vendor selection process more than ever before. In fact, statistics show that 57 percent of a buyer’s educational process is finished before coming in contact with a salesperson.

Despite changes in the customer/buyer landscape, the salesperson is not becoming an inessential or unnecessary figure in the B2B buying and selling process. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. With the vast knowledge acquired by the buyer, the seller has to be on their “A game.” That means the sales rep has to be even more capable of meeting the needs of the buyer — whether through identification of solutions to solve existing problems, helping the buyer identify new problems, strategizing with the buyer to understand what their landscape can look like 12, 24, or even 36 months down the road, etc. The seller has to deliver value. But how does the seller thrust into a selling environment ensure they’re bringing value to a prospect?

Sales reps need to be properly onboarded and primed to interact with customers. By properly onboarding new sales reps, companies can take control of the remaining 43 percent of the buyer educational process that occurs after a sales rep is involved to ensure that a higher percentage of deals close, ultimately maximizing the lifetime value of each sales rep at the company.

We’ve identified a 5-step process, that, when followed, can help properly onboard a new sales rep. Breaking it out into 5-steps means each rep can progress at their own pace since there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all example. By identifying each rep as an individual, you can tailor their education and mentoring to their specific skill set and need. Companies and their sales management teams should approach sales rep training from multiple angles — including marketing, sales ops, sales leadership and learning and development — and not just depend on sales managers to teach reps how to work. Some teaching strategies that have effective results include teaching with real life sales situations as soon as reps are ready, offering real-time, anytime mentoring and coaching so reps can continuously learn while they work and connecting colleagues at similar levels so they can help each other learn.

Not only is a more customized, well-rounded onboarding process helpful for making individual reps feel important and valued at a company, it also helps speed up their learning process and decrease the amount of time it takes to get a rep ready to produce and actually earn your company money. Research shows that it takes an average of $135K to get a trainee to the point that he or she is making money for a company, and thus, speeding up the onboarding process effectively is key in ensuring that sales reps do not result in a negative return for a company — but rather, help generate revenue.

To help you better understand the 5-step process we’ve identified for onboarding new sales reps, we’ve put together an eBook that outlines the stages of sales competency and how to move reps forward to maximize their lifetime value, thus improving revenue. In addition, we’ve provided the SiriusDecisions research brief “The SiriusDecisions Sales Onboarding Effectiveness and Efficiency Model,” which provides the steps necessary to build a successful sales onboarding program. Both assets can be found on this web page, which also provides a recording of a recent webinar we did in conjunction with Jim Ninivaggi, service director, sales enablement strategies at SiriusDecisions.

Any tips for onboarding sales that you think are particularly effective? Let us know!

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