Here's an amazing statistic - over 50% of new hire sales people leave / are terminated before they become productive. (Let's define productive as making quota two quarters in a row.) In some companies, the actual failure rate of sales new hires is over 90%!

Bad hiring decisions and poor sales management account for some of the blame. However, most organizations have abandoned training / on-boarding for new sales people as a way to save money. Is it realistic to expect a new hire to "figure it out" with little or no help? I think not.

In the previous century, many companies invested heavily in the development of new hire sales people. It was not uncommon to see month long "sales boot camps" coupled with a formal mentoring program. Many current top sales leaders began their careers in one of these programs.

I admit times have changed. Every company is facing margin and cost pressure. However, sales on-boarding programs need not be extravagant in cost and design to be effective. To "bootstrap" a sales on-boarding program, follow these steps:

1. Identify what factors contribute to a sales person's productivity
• Selling skills needed for THIS job (prospecting, etc)
• Industry / company / product knowledge
• Learning internal processes (how to take an order, etc)
• Building internal relationships (marketing, customer support, top sales people, etc)
• Engagement in day to day selling activities (prospecting, meeting customers, etc)
• Logistics (computer, phone, email, etc)
2. For each category, detail what existing assets (e-learning, people, white papers, etc) are available and can be leveraged
3. Develop a 90 day plan
• Create a series of learning modules for each factor
• Create an inspection method for each learning module (role plays, written tests, etc)
• Detail week by week
• Organize by critical path
• Check off for each module when comprehension meets your satisfaction

Content will only get you so far. To be effective, on-boarding programs must also adhere to the following best practices:

• The hiring sales manager needs to monitor progress daily AND be held accountable for the new hire's success. This means allocating a reasonable amount of time to the new hire.
• Inspection methods must be incorporated for each module.
• The hiring manager must set expectations with the new hire on day 1 regarding program progress, and level of effort required.
• An activity pipeline (phone appointments, face to face meetings) should be inspected on a weekly basis to ensure the new hire is engaging in the job.

Obviously, a program such as the one described above requires effort to create and manage. Is it worth the time (and maybe some money) to invest in sales rep on-boarding? Consider these financial realities:

• The cost of replacing a sales person before they become productive is approximately 1.5 times their annual salary.
• Source: Ernst and Young
• Each month represents 8.3% of a given territory's revenue.
• What is the financial impact of reducing time-to-productivity by one month for each of your new hires?

Given the positive impact well-run on-boarding programs have on revenue, how can you NOT get on-board with on-boarding?