Tips for Sales Manager/Mentor to Accelerate New Sales Rep S Learning

Tips for Sales Managers To Accelerate Your New Sales Rep’s Learning

David Lee

Note: While this was developed specifically for sales managers, it gives you ideas on how to create a “job aid” for any hiring manager.

As you can see from the document, it focuses on the learning aspect of Onboarding. This is because a major theme I heard from my interviews with new sales people was that the training process was overwhelming and not “real world” enough. Since most hiring managers aren’t experts in adult learning, you can help them do their part in the onboarding process better with job aids and simple tip sheets like this.

1. Use The “Tell, Show, Do, Review, Re-do” Approach to Teaching

· Tell – Give them the big picture: what they want to accomplish with this task, why it’s important, and a brief overview.

· Show – Demonstrate to them with brief commentary.

· Do – Have them perform the task.

· Review – Debrief. Have them note what worked, what didn’t, etc. Then add your observations.

· Re-do – Have them do it again, this time incorporating the feedback.

2. Prime Their Brain Before Having Them Observe Experienced Reps Prospecting, Doing Demos, and Going on Sales Calls – This increases their ability to notice important and subtle details that you want them to learn. Since novices often “don’t know what they don’t know”, when they watch an experienced person perform a task they need to master—especially if it’s an interpersonal task like selling—they miss a lot of the nuances.
If you give them information on what to look for ahead of time, it will accelerate their learning process.

· Give list of things you want them to be on the lookout for before observing seasoned sales rep.

· (Alternative approach) Give them a list of questions you want them to be asking themselves and/or the seasoned rep.

3. Remember to See Things Through Their Eyes When Providing Information and Training – One of the biggest mistakes managers and trainers make when working with new employees is forgetting how much background information they—the manager or trainer—draws on when understanding what’s important, what’s not, where to find information, etc. When we’re very familiar with something, we forget all the “common sense” knowledge we’ve accumulated from our experience. Because of this, it’s easy to provide too little direction or explanation, whether written or spoken.
To counteract this common mistake, you can:

· Provide more detail than YOU would need when giving written or spoken directions.

· Challenge any sloppiness or “winging it” when creating a written protocol or explanation of how to find the information they need.

· Get feedback from your new hire about whether they’re getting enough detail and clarity.

· Remind them that you WANT them to speak up if you or their written documentation is not clear enough.

· Ask for their input in clarifying and upgrading any and all parts of your onboarding process, teaching materials, employee handbook, etc.

4. Make Small Wins Possible As Early As Possible - As you know, sales people are very goal and success-oriented, much more so than most people. Thus, it’s especially important to make sure new sales people get to experience “the thrill of victory” instead of the “agony of defeat” as quickly as possible. If working for you mean s week after week of grinding it out and nothing to celebrate or feel proud of, they will likely want to go someplace where they can feel like—and be—a success. To make sure they get to experience winning as early as possible:

· Don’t short cut their training, and thereby set them up for failure.

· Make it clear that they’re not to “suck it up” if they’re not getting what they need to succeed. They’re to speak up.

· Consider creating a “Success Habits” Compensation Program to augment the Sales Compensation Program for the first few months, where they get a bonus based on reaching specific quotas for pipeline building practices. See Appendix for an example provided by Acme Technologies.

· Provide clear guidance about how they can become successful. Make sure you spell out what activities, practices, and habits lead to success as a sales person at your company.

· Have your best sales people describe in detail challenging prospecting and selling situations and how they overcame them. Whether you video these and show the videos to future new hires or have your experienced sales people do this live, this will be one of THE most helpful thing you can do to provide a road map for success in selling your products.

5. Provide “Bite Sized Chunks” of Information – Because there’s so much they need to learn, it’s natural for you to want to “cram” lots of information into their head as quickly as possible. Not only is this ineffective, it’s demoralizing. The human brain can only absorb so much data at one time, before shutting down. Once your new hire gets beyond that point, they’re not learning. They are just feeling overwhelmed.

Therefore, pay attention to how much information you provide at any one time. You can “chunk down” information to “bite sized chunks” by:

· Keeping training modules short.

· Giving them some activity—even if it’s only a 2-3 minute exercise—after every 20-30 minutes of content.

· Give them a chance to use the material right after the training module, such as in the Scavenger Hunt learning experiences.

· Check in as you’re going along and ask if they’ve reached the point of saturation.

· Give them only as much information as they need at that time, and provide clear, easy-to-use job aids, cheat sheets, and links to more in-depth information.

6. Provide Clear Ongoing Feedback – While all employees need ongoing feedback—especially early in their job—it’s even more important with sales people, who by nature like to see confirmation they are doing a good job. The more thorough and regular your feedback, the happier your new sales rep will be, and the more quickly they will develop into a strong performer.

7. Create A Sequence of “Best of” Videos, Webinars, Case Studies, and Whitepapers – As you know, the VAR Resource Center can seem overwhelming to a new sales person, given the tremendous amount of content. You can make it much less overwhelming—and accelerate their learning process—by providing structure and boundaries around their learning. Ask your other sales reps for their personal favorites in the above categories. Then, put these in a logical sequence and include them, along with their links, in your New Hire’s Weekly Action Plan in the “See” section. In other words, each week for the first 3 months or so, include recommended resources in each of these categories:

- Case Studies

- Product Literature

- ROI Proposals

- Training Videos

- White Papers

For information on David Lee’s consulting services on Onboarding, email:

or call 207-571-9898

May be used with permission of author