What can Inside Sales managers do to increase the ramp time it takes to train new hires in 2011?

Chris, this is a great question and Trish's response is fantastic. (One small wordsmithing, I think we want to decrease ramp time, that is get them productive as soon as possible)

I'll jump on the onboarding bandwagon and add to what Trish has said. The focus on the markets, buyer dynamics, the selling process and how to execute it is all critical. I happen to be a little stronger on learning the internal dynamic, culture, and how things get done as well. So often, we've seen strong and experienced sales people move into a company (say for example from a competitor), they know the customers, markets, can get the product, but they don't know how to get things done--so I wouldn't under estimate the importance of that and of having the new person wander around and sit with people in different functions that will be supporting them.

The single highest impact thing we've seen to rapid onboarding is a focused coaching/mentoring program--just for new people. In some organizations, we have put people into that function, not displacing the manager's responsibility for coaching and mentoring, but to complement it, really focusing on the issues the new hire faces. Having a coach/mentor that meets weekly on specific issues for the first 3-9 months drmatically reduces ramp time, failures and increases new hire retention.

Some great answers already given here (no surprise given their sources!)

A few thoughts to add - I once worked for a company that got so far in to training new hires on competitive landscapes and industry segmentation that during a 2-week new sales hire bootcamp, a total of just 90 minutes was spent on actual product training. Far from ideal!

When introducing a product and/or service line to new hires, the path to faster sales productivity is dependent on getting the balance right between product training, "how to sell"-type training, and training on the unique aspects of the target market such as industry segment, or regulatory controls.

With more complex products, a decision needs to be made on what level of training should be provided to get the sales person to a productive level. It is unlikely that every little detail of a sophisticated technology product will ever be known by anyone, even engineers. So there is a need to understand what level of detail is "enough" to get the new hire started. In more complex sales, it is likely that a sales rep will act as the leader for a team of people involved in winning a new deal. The team may include technical architects, consultants, and partners. In these cases, it is important to teach the rep who he can turn to, for what, and how to connect with them.

There may be those who question the need for the "how to sell" phase. After all, if you are hiring a sales person, surely they already know that. Well, yes and no. Sure, if you are hiring from a pool of experienced sales people then the core skills of negotiating, time management, lead follow-up, cold-calling etc, should be ingrained. However, it is important to teach how to sell YOUR product. Why should a prospect buy the product you are selling, from you, at this time? Perhaps the same, or a similar product is available from another company. How do you swing that decision? A new sales rep will benefit greatly from that guidance, and a marketing team, as well as top sales performers, can play a very important role in this.

When it comes to details such as tackling the specifics of different industries, this will often be dealt with by hiring sales reps with previous experience in that area - selling to government is a good example. Knowing how to navigate the complex buying process at a state or government agency is a very valuable asset. For others to learn this will come with on-going exposure to these sales cycles (probably by shadowing a more experienced colleague), and may be more organically developed if a sales person has a particular interest in one industry, and takes it upon himself to learn all he can about it. During ramp-up training, the best that can probably be expected is to give an overview of how a product can be made to appeal to the cross-section of industries served, and at what organizational level a sales person should try to start positioning the product.

I cannot stress enough the need for easily available, fast to absorb, just-in-time or on-demand training across all three of these areas.

All three comments are spot on. I can only speak from experience that no matter what level of experience is hired on board understanding the target markets of the company is critical as are the internal processes and the department teams that will be important to interact with, ( customer service,manufacturing,accounting,shipping) just to name a few. Bridges with these department heads and teams are invaluable. The method of selling that is expected is also critical as each company has it's own unique culture and mission. If it is a rookie all of this plus pairing up with a successful person helps immensely as will working side by side with the sales manager. At times individual coaching sessions help as well. I know we all want our new hires ramped and productive ASAP but sometimes the turtle wins the race.. So have benchmarks but also have patience.

The smoothest training ramp-ups happen first of all, when an organization, from the TOP down, shares the same mission and vision for the company. Leadership supports the sales management team, and sales management has the resources to offer a multi-faceted approach which involves not just technical and product training, but the cultural and best-practices knowledge existing successful reps have already demonstrated.

Success leaves clues and a trail. In a broken organization, the sales leadership is not supported as well - and new hires receive mixed messages about what really is important. This ultimately can kill weeks or months of productivity in someone's ramp up to revenue production.

Trish said it well - have a very clear, well thought out onboarding program. Invest time in the beginning and it will pay off big later.

The easiest, cheapest and fastest thing to do is hire for talent. When I ask sales managers if 20% of their salespeople bring in 80% their sales revenue some laugh and say it is "more like 10% bring in 90%." In any case the top performers are very valuable. The reason why the 80/20 rule is so prevalent in sales organizations is that sales people are all too frequently hired for reasons that are unrelated to sales success, which means sales success is more of a random event than a planned event. The question that few sales managers ask is “why are the other 80% hired?” What would happen if sales managers hired sales people who were more like their top 20% and less like their bottom 80%, see example below?

EXAMPLE:

Current sales (current sales force, 80/20 rule in effect)
===========
#1 brings in 80% of gross revenue
#2 brings in 10% of gross revenue
#3 brings in 5% of gross revenue
#4 brings in 3% of gross revenue
#5 brings in 2% of gross revenue
----------------------------------------------
1 to 5 bring in 100% of gross revenue

#1 brings in $8,000,000
#2 brings in $1,000,000
#3 brings in $500,000
#4 brings in $300,000
#5 brings in $200,000
----------------------------------------------
1 to 5 bring in $10,000,000

Future sales (sales force hired for talent)
===========
#1 brings in $8,000,000
#2 brings in $6,400,000 (new hire at 80% of top performer's sales)
#3 brings in $5,600,000 (new hire at 70% of top performer's sales)
#4 brings in $4,800,000 (new hire at 60% of top performer's sales)
#5 brings in $4,000,000 (new hire at 50% of top performer's sales)
---------------------------------
1 to 5 bring in $28,800,000

#1 brings in 28% of gross revenue
#2 brings in 22% of gross revenue
#3 brings in 19% of gross revenue
#4 brings in 17% of gross revenue
#5 brings in 14% of gross revenue
----------------------------------------------
1 to 5 bring in 100% of gross revenue

The 80/20 rule is busted because the hiring of sales people is no longer a random event. The top 20% of the new sales force, i.e., the original and still the top performer, brings in only 28% of the gross revenue for the new sales force. By the way, it will take about 12 to 20 qualified to be hired sales candidates (3 to 5 per position filled) to find 4 that will be successful. Therefore, if sales managers want to hire more top performers they should assess their job finalists for sales talent.