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Inside sales training: How long should it take for an inside sales rep to make calls?
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4 Answers
Craig - there's really no way to give a definitive answer without knowing the industry and the product line.
I spent a good part of the 90s developing training for inside sales reps. Here are a couple of examples on each end of the spectrum.
1. I developed a plan for a B2B telemarketing company that called on specific projects for their clients. One ongoing campaign was for what we used to call a LEC - which was a local telephone company or Local Exchange Carrier. The calls on this project were being made to existing business clients to offer them "advanced" calling features such as call waiting, call forwarding. These folks were on the phone after roughly four days of training.
2. At the other end, I worked for a couple of years as the director of sales training for one of the largest technology resellers in the country. The product line which had pcs, macs, printers, monitors, cables, etc etc, consisted of 300,000 skus, some of them a little bit technical. We had a twelve-week training program. For the first few weeks their day was divided into product training and sales training. At about four weeks in we divided it into product training, sales training and practical training. They were provided with some dormant clients to call. They'd spend about 2 hours per day, making calls with one senior rep monitoring 2 reps at a time. We'd record those calls and use them in the classroom to continue to educate.
The time on the phones increased each week, until at the end of the 12th week, they were on the phones most of the time. At that point, we'd play tapes for all of the sales managers in the office and they would conduct something like a football draft to add their picks to their teams. If they weren't picked by anyone, we typically let them go, unless the trainer felt some additional time in class would help them improve enough to be drafter. (they knew this scenario when they were hired.) The trainers, (including me) were measured by the percentage of the class that got drafted and were still on the job 6 months later.
ASAP - First make sure they have a good understanding of the product / service you are offering. Then start them with a basic prospecting task. As they gain experience increase your expectations. Remember if your not calling, your not selling.
Great question, Craig!
I think Rick really nails it when he says, "there's really no way to give a definitive answer without knowing the industry and the product line." It's so true. It all depends on what you're selling and how experienced/inexperienced your reps are. I don't need to tell you that Trish and The Bridge Group probably have some great data to share on this one, but I will tell you what I've experienced.
For my team, I'm able to get a new ISR up and running (read: producing) in a week's time frame. A lot of that time is spent talking about our offering, how to get prospects talking, and how to "close" them as it pertains to our business. That being said, there is also a lot of time spent listening in on calls with my current team. I do that for a couple of reasons:
1. The first reason is the most obvious; I want the new ISR's to hear what conversations are like. I want them to hear objections as they happen, I want them to hear rejections as they happen, and I want them to hear closes in real time. In essence, I want them to actually hear what to expect as they get ready to make calls themselves.
2. The second reason is that I want them to hear different styles on the phone. I'm not much for small talk when I'm talking with a prospect. I have some reps who are fantastic at rapport building. I want the new ISR's to be exposed to a wide variety of styles so that they can try and figure out which way works best for them. I don't need to produce more "Chris Snell" styled ISR's. As a leader, I want to help my reps find themselves and their own sales voice, and help shape them that way. God knows we don't need any more "me's" out there.
Again, this is what I've experienced. A week may not work for some, and it may be too long for others.
I agree with Ken as inside salespeople need to hit the phones/emails early and often. If they can listen to audio recordings or peers on the phone, that is a good start but after that- get on the phones/emails to set the right sales momentum and not pick up bad habits.
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