How to reduce ramp-up time for new sales hires

In a recent survey conducted by CSO Insights, some 70 % of companies claimed that the ramp-up time for new sales staff ranged from seven months to more than one year. This alarming statistic raises several interesting and important issues:

1. Even though many companies claim to hire only experienced salespeople who can hit the street running, current research and data prove otherwise.
2. A company makes a significant investment in time, effort and money to train a new sales person during that seven-month ramp-up period – without any guarantee of success.
3. There is no evidence to suggest that an experienced sales person will be able to ramp-up any faster than a less experienced sales person.

Since the “true” cost of hiring new sales staff continues to escalate, companies need to identify more effective and efficient methods of both training their sales people and grooming them for success. One such tactic is to provide all new hires with the knowledge, techniques, experiences and materials used by the company’s most successful sales people.

All companies possess a wealth of tribal knowledge that has contributed to their growth and development over the years, yet very few have a documented “success blueprint” that can be stored and shared among the sales force. Providing information that is specific to your company, your products, your prospects, your market and your competition will enable new sales staff to better understand your true value proposition as well as the issues that are driving customers to purchase your products or services.

Also, providing a single source repository where they can go to find and get what they need, rather than having to waste a lot of time going to a bunch of different resources, will help them immensely. Providing them with a “digital encyclopedia” of the types of things they will need to know and will be useful to them throughout their career, is of great value to everyone. A tool like this will also relieve a lot of time that a sales manager would need to spend with a new hire. A lot of the things that they would need to know, such as policies, procedures, competitive knowledge, best practices and frequently asked questions, would already be available to them on line, thereby freeing up the sales manager to address other issues.

So, if you want to dramatically reduce the ramp-up time for new sales hires and lay the foundations for future sales success, switch your focus from teaching “product” knowledge to “prospect” knowledge during this crucial learning period. A corporate information solution that can store and then share a company’s success secrets will be an investment that will pay for itself time and time again in increased effectiveness, productivity, sales and revenues.

At least that’s the way I see it. What say you?