New employees, specifically new sales partners, are brought in by organizations that want their services and skills to increase productivity and make them money.  In order for this to happen it is very important that they have a smooth, but quick transition into their new role within the company.  Similar to when a sports team signs a free agent they expect results immediately.  Hiring an outsider to come in and improve business processes is an action that expects to see immediate results.  Two main goals for the onboarding process are: To make new employees feel welcome and comfortable in their new surroundings, and to minimize the time before new employees are productive members of their new organization.  Onboarding is the initial phase of making a new employee, like an outside sales partner, productive and effective.  If you get this process right, then it will make the person responsible for the hiring look like a genius.  The result of failing in this process can  result in missing sales targets, loss of revenue, and an increase in pressure.  An area to focus on to make this process successful must be the business process:

  • The business process is a large area that includes everything about how the organization is run.  Which makes sense to why it should have the most focus for new sales partners.  They should know how to answer questions like: How are leads managed? How is reporting handled? What type of service levels exist? etc.  Onboarding the business process effectively includes articulating on how the sales and marketing functions and systems connect, interact, and communicate.
  • Product Selling is the next big area of focus when making the onboarding process successful. Focussing on product selling provides the roadmap for the new sales partner, which answers questions like: What problem does the product answer for a customer? What sales tools already exist? Who are the buyers at the target companies? and etc.

Author: Michael Whartnaby, Prospectr Marketing