Evolve Corporate Sales Training

EVOLVE
CORPORATE
SALES TRAINING
Event 3 of 3 in B2B Sales Summer School Series

Today’s Speakers
Scott Santucci
Principal Analyst and Research Director
Forrester Research
@scottsantucci
Jarrett O’Brien
Sr. Product Marketing Manager
Jive Software
@jarrettobrien

Making Leaders Successful
Every Day

Sales Onboarding in the 21st
Century
Scott Santucci, Research Director Sales Enablement

© 2013 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 6
Your onboarding process is too complicated
› Your clients are complex – you cannot artificially make them simpler
› Current approaches to make each step “simple” complicate the
whole process
To fix it – make it simple; but simple is hard
› Understanding the when end to end process is challenging when
their isn’t clarity about what onboarding is to begin with
› Make things simple by removing the complications in the way of
your sales people performing the tasks they need to accomplish
But when you do, its really effective and easy to run
› Companies who even simplify pockets experience noticeable results
› A focus on continuous improvement is critical to unlocking
breakthrough returns
Cutting to the chase- What we will cover

Your current state
Mismanaged complexity creates
bottlenecks to growth initiatives

Complexity coping strategies
“Show up and throw up”
“Heroic effort”
Let’s design out the complexity

AudienceMessengerMessage
+
What is a selling system?

Product / BU Heads
“Make sure you
feature my stuff”
CEO
“Make it productive”
Human Resources
“Highlight the
culture, our benefits
and know our
policies”
Finance
“Make it cost
effective”
IT
“Train them on the
key systems”
Sales
“Get them out into the
field as fast as
possible”
YOU

Picking the wrong onboarding strategy…
› “Look at how many sales people we enrolled last year”
› “Look how many days we cut out of the process”
› “Look at the accreditation program we rolled out”
› “Look at how wonderful our net promoter scores are”
Can be career limiting.

What is sales onboarding?
› Agree on what it is…
› Not just on how to measure it…
› Or how to execute it.
13
Average
sales
performance
Trained on
processes
and products
/ services
Released
from course
Number of
attendees

The key questions you need to answer
› Who is your executive sponsor, really?
› Why is onboarding important (to each of your stakeholders)?
› What is the agreed upon, verifiable definition of an on-boarded
salesperson? What benefits are costs measured against?
› When are reps expected to be on-boarded?
› How much resource is at your disposal? How long do you have the reps
for?
› Where does on-boarding need to be executed? Where do reps get the
reinforcement they need once they are released from the class?
14
PSST… This is a “take away” to set up a charter

A reference process model
Recruiting
process
New
Hire
Onboarding
Human Resources
Training & Enablement
Sales Leadership & Training
101
201
301
401
New
Hire Coaching
Development

Recruiting
Process
New
Hire
Onboarding
Human Resources
Training & enablement
101
201
301
401
New
Hire Coaching
Development

© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Current state - Recruiting
• Massive variability of hiring
practices from different
geographies and regions.
• Multiplied by different
beliefs by hiring managers
about what makes a good
seller.
• Compounded by varied
backgrounds, experiences, an
d demographics.
It’s not as straightforward as you would think
W-2
“Account Rep”
40 different versions of the job
description

Recruiting
process
New
Hire
Onboarding
Human Resources
101
201
301
401
New
Hire Coaching
Development

Current state – Welcome aboard
• Policy information.
• Benefits information.
• Welcome letter.
A lot of missed opportunity
Idle
Many reps can wait as long as 1
month in their job before going
through any kind of training.

Current state – Is this onboarding?
• Systems training.
• Policy and benefits review.
• Products training, done
differently by product
owners.
• Selling methodology
training.
• Culture training.
• Meet and greets.
• Maybe some tests.
• Measured by number of
attendees or net promoter
scores.
More like waterboarding
Audit
By overall minutes less than 5%
is about customers.

Recruiting
process
New
Hire
Onboarding
Human Resources
101
201
301
401Coaching
Development
New
Hire

Current state – Release to gen pop
• Little or no basis for basic
performance guidelines.
• Some online courses – tend to
be hard for new hires to select.
• Navigating and accessing
resources is difficult.
• Virtually isolated if working
remotely.
• Territory assignments differ.
• Lots of possible approaches to
choose from, little guidance.
You’re on your own kid
Self Service?
Imagine navigating 40M
pieces of content

Current state – Coaching?
• Little consistency of coaching
across sales managers.
• Sales managers lack coaching
training – inconsistency
across sales force.
• Front line sales managers
often lack guidelines about
where to apply their time.
• Lack of a clear handoff
between onboarding and
manager – who owns getting
the sales person over the
hump?
You so, um… why don’t you do … this?
Inconsistency
Some sales managers focus on
developing, others
administration, others on closing.

Current state – Development
• No clear linkages across
onboarding, coaching, and
development.
• Inconsistency in material
and content from onboarding
programs to development.
• No clear flight path agenda.
When does onboarding stop and development begin?
Frayed connections
Lack of clear handoffs puts
sales people in no mans land.

AudienceMessengerMessage
+
Who has the power?
Your new rep will only be successful if he adds value to those buyers

A gap in preparation
Gap
How are you preparing your sales people to add value to
those executives?

21st Century- Messenger Archetypes
• Incoming classes grouped
into archetypes.
• More alignment in hiring
process.
• Far easier to get agreement
and discuss requirements.
Use the 80-20 rule to reduce class variability
Archetype
A simple, easy way to get
agreement on incoming class
and specs.

21st Century- The welcome kit
• Pushing administrative type
training to just in time, learn
as you go.
• Making capability training
available to new hires before
start date.
• Lighter weight
material, greater use of
multi-media.
Pushing “just in time” training to online courseware
Just in time
Modular, testable courseware
prior to onboarding event

21st Century Onboarding
• Agree on specific activities
required in the field – what
will reps be able to do when
they’re released back to their
managers?
• Identify and agree on
realistic sales objectives to be
achieved.
• Get laser focused on
achieving those behavioral
objectives.
Maximizes on site time for active dialog, role playing, and experiences
Engagement
Push lecture type or one way
content to online.

21st century sales communities
• Appointed concierges /
developmental coaches that
are different than managers
• Moderated sessions:
chats, webinars, discussion
threads.
• Point systems and incentives
for contributions.
Find ways to keep classes together – sharing information
Community
Birds of a feather flock together

21st Century Coaching
• Clear delineation of roles
• Specific – and non-overlapping
responsibilities.
• Light weight coaching
framework shared by both coach
and employee – reinforced by
systems.
Reinforce learning on an ongoing basis
Clarity
Purpose driven roles and
responsibilities
Concierge
Manager

21st Century development
• Defined mastery tracks based
on real research on top
performers and buyer
interactions.
• Heavy emphasis on “just in
time” sessions with rep led
reinforcement sessions.
• Brought together by regional
experiential on site sessions
with people at similar
developmental stages.
Modular, practical material that maps to archetypes – not a syllabus
Modular
Packaged programs and modules
that are prescribed and
administered

What to do
1. Define clear goals and objectives for onboarding
2. Determine executive sponsor and establish core
definitions and governing principles
3. Baseline the current state using the reference model
4. Interview attendees and sales managers to identify
problem areas – use 4 sales objectives to structure
feedback
5. Select “low hanging fruit” options to address
immediately – then move on to more complex tasks.
44

Thank you
Scott Santucci
ssantucci@forrester.com

14% reduction in sales support needs
23%reduction in rep ramp time
8% increase in the number of deals
© Jive confidential47

48 © Jive confidential
Reference Process Model + Social Business
Human
Resources
No “ideal candidates”  Shared candidate profiles
Hidden best practices  Sales leadership council
No consistency  Seamless hire process/transition

New Hire: Getting Started
Human
Resources

Training &
Enablement
Static training / LMS  Turned social & experiential
No guidelines / access  Training concierge
Isolated at a desk  Part of the team

Mobile Content & Video Training &
Enablement

Leadership &
Coaching
Manager inconsistency  Shared cadence
New hire burden  Mentorship & shared learning
Isolated at a desk  Part of the team

Gamified Mentor Programs
Leadership &
Coaching

Business Initiative
Needed to bolster revenues and
streamline communications with dealer
network.
Results
• Faster sales cycles
• Sales rep retention increased 13%
• Sales revenue attainment increased
by 30% (goals met at 4 months vs. 6)
• Saved $213k by mirroring 5 live
events in online community
• Improved sales channel satisfaction
• Improved channel support
• Total members: 4,594
30% decrease in time to meet
revenue goals.

Learn More
Connect with Scott and others in the Jive Community:
https://community.jivesoftware.com/community/socbiz/sales
Scott Santucci
Forrester Research
@scottsantucci
Jarrett O’Brien
Jive Software
@jarrettobrien

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