How do you train and coach new inside sales hires?

Standardize an onboarding plan to mirror your sales cycle from prospect to customer. Second is to prepare a plan for your reps to understand your tools & resources on how each of it can add value to the sales cycle. Keep a measure / milestone / rating on how the new rep is doing when following this plan. Keep tasks, action steps, things to do, on role activities & much more to keep measure.

Have a detailed onboarding plan that helps them navigate day - wise covering all areas and timelines. Give them the understanding in terms of your processes and sales cycles and not at a high level. Have a daily check in with new hires at the end of the day atleast for the first month to help them ramp up sooner

A solid onboarding programm is crucial for future success. At DHL we differentiated between completely new hires and internal candidates. First step is the onboarding programm to get to know the company, the products, business processes and the other departments. Second step is the functional onboarding where in my opinion it all starts by understanding the vision, mission and strategy of the Inside Sales department. Get comfortable with systems, processes and tools is as important as getting to know the colleagues and internal partner like marketing and sales support. I am a great fan of coaching on the job and "co-travel" sessions with experienced role models before doing your own first call.

Iniciar novatos na arte de inside sales? Para mim, começa com clareza. 🌟 Defino logo de cara o que esperamos deles – metas, papel, tudo. Isso descomplica o caminho. Conhecimento? Fundamental. Mergulhamos juntos nos detalhes do produto e do mercado, para que saibam exatamente onde estamos jogando. 📚 E as habilidades? Prática, prática, prática. Role-playing, feedback, ajustes – é assim que refinamos o jogo. 🛠️ Medir progresso? Sem dúvida. Com KPIs claros, acompanho de perto, sempre ajustando as velas. E a mágica da colaboração? Essa é a cereja do bolo. Trocamos ideias, experiências, crescendo juntos.

The best way to do this is - by asking your new joinees to interview a few customers. Questions like why did they buy from the employer, what were the considerations, what other options they had evaluated etc could give more insights than learning it all by themselves which could take a few months.

It;s twice as hard to learn both "how to sell" and "get to know the company and it's products". I prefer external candidates to have some basic sales experience for that reason. Unless someone demonstates a great level of potential I would invest in growing and developing a salesrep from scratch. Don't expect any results in the first six months - that's the amount of team you should give any candidate to understand their role. Any earlier successes are great but unexpected.

Então, depois de estabelecer o que esperamos dos novatos, mergulho com eles no universo do nosso produto e mercado. Não é só passar um manual e dizer "estude isso". É mais sobre viver e respirar o que vendemos. 🌬️ Eu os levo em uma jornada, mostrando como nosso produto faz a diferença, quais problemas resolve e por que nossos clientes não podem viver sem ele!!

Develop sales skills and behaviors: Assess existing skills and knowledge of new hires. Develop a structured training program encompassing: Sales techniques Product knowledge CRM tools Conduct role-playing exercises for practical application. Provide ongoing coaching with emphasis on: Active listening Objection handling Relationship building Foster continuous learning through: Feedback sessions Access to resources Monitor progress and adjust training as necessary to promote growth and mastery of sales skills and behaviors.

Training and coaching new inside sales hires involves thorough onboarding sessions covering company policies, product knowledge, and sales processes. Pairing them with experienced reps for shadowing and role-playing exercises helps hone their skills. Continuous feedback, clear performance metrics, and opportunities for professional development ensure ongoing improvement and success in their role.

Offering a good sales training including a feedback loop and a regular coaching is ofcourse key to get successful salesreps. Getting stuck in ineffective routines is not unusual when you perform large number of calls. For that reason monthly coaching is required even for the more experienced Inside Sales reps. Keep sharpening the pencil.

At DHL we developed an extensive benchmark model, not only on the input and output KPI's but also on sales- and communication skills, data quality, product and process knowledge, CRM usage, pipeline management etc. management tends to rely more and more on technolgy and data but the sales rep has to be able to keep up n apply it. Inside sales is and remains people work if you want to go for an excellent result.

Sure, but also give people time to apply and process it. Learning is done by trial and error. Of course, it is good to collect Best demonstrated Practices and share them with each other.