onboard smarter, not harder - veelo · onboard smarter, not harder | 11 days 7 through 30+:...

Onboard Smarter, Not HarderA Quick Sales Onboarding How-To From

2 | Onboard Smarter, Not Harder

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 Introduction: Onboard Smarter, Not Harder

5 Day 0: Pre-Work

8 Days 1 through 7: Instructor-Led Training

10 Days 7 through 30+: Post-Training Support

14 Summary

Onboard Smarter, Not Harder | 3

Introduction: Onboard Smarter, Not HarderSales onboarding can be an exciting, energizing time—but it’s often also a time for chaos, frustration, and unexpected expenses. The math for training and retaining a skilled salesforce can look pretty grim:

It’s tempting to reduce the onboarding program to a boot camp intensive in the name of efficiency. Unfortunately, these

boot camps present two big problems:

1. Poor information retention.Boot camps tend to be a blur as various stakeholders cram

as much information as possible into the new hires’ brains.

It provides the illusion of learning and progress, but ask the

trainees a couple of weeks later, and they’ll remember only a

fraction of what they supposedly learned.

2. Too much product training.Product training fits very comfortably in the boot camp

form factor. Sales skills, such as how to uncover business

problems or articulate value while engaging prospects, are

much more difficult to properly teach at a boot camp—but

ultimately much more important for selling success.

9+months

20billion

23percent

Average time to onboard a new sales hire(The Sales Management Association, 2014)

Proportion of sellers who leave their job every year(CSO Insights, 2014)

Amount spent on sales training annually(Association for Talent Development, 2012)


Ongoing training reinforcement addresses both issues and

significantly improves onboarding outcomes. A 2014 study

by The Sales Management Association indicated that struc-

tured, consistent onboarding programs not only shortened

ramp up time by over three months, they correlated with

10% greater sales growth and 14% better performance in sales and profit quota achievement.

The bottom line: stemming learning erosion and improving

sales effectiveness require coaching, practice and real-time

support as part of a structured, comprehensive onboarding

program.

This guide aims to help sales trainers to get the most bang

for their training buck. We’ll cover how to best support new

sales team with a seamless learning experience, from day 0

through day 30 and onwards.

Our interval recommendations here are just that: recom-

mendations. You’re going to be the best judge of how long

each training segment ideally needs to be.

Day 0: Pre-WorkDays 1 through 7: Instructor-led TrainingDays 7 through 30+: Post-Training Support


DAY 0: PRE-WORK


Day 0: Pre-WorkTrainees are going to (understandably!) have trou-ble remembering information at this point, so it’s good to dial down on the information firehose how-ever you can. One good way to provide informa-tion at a manageable rate is to assign pre-work that trainees finish prior to the instructor-led training.

The Upside of Pre-WorkPre-work evens the footing between

your various trainees. It also allows

you to move away from flat, long-form

trainings that overwhelm with too

much classroom delivery of material.

Some sales training tools also allow

you to send out pre-class assessments,

so you have a better sense for trainee

baseline competency and experience.

Doing this can move your program into

the highly effective flipped classroom

model, as popularized by Salman Khan

and the Khan academy.

By assigning the training content be-

forehand, trainees can spend as long as

they need reviewing materials at their

own speed, and you can devote valu-

able classroom time on group exercis-

es, practical practice and coaching.

Training Tools and Software Many onboarding and training tools

can help you transform your onboard-

ing program from a one-time event into

an ongoing process. Look for an en-

ablement solution that allows you to:


GUESSING WRONGLY CAN HELP LEARNINGUCLA researchers Elizabeth Bjork and Nicholas Soderstrom have shown in an ongoing study that having students complete a test before they even take the first class improves knowledge retention and the outcomes of subse-quent and different tests.

A combination of factors may be at play:

• People might be more deeply en-gaged with the material, even when they’re guessing wrongly

• The wrong guesses eliminate the false impression that they know more than they actually do—a phenomenon known as the fluency illusion

• The test questions give learners an idea of the types of material that would be important to know

• Assign pre-class assessments so

you can more accurately gauge

competency and knowledge, so you

can use in-class hours even more

effectively

• Automatically distribute materials

based on criteria such as type of

hire and stage of onboarding

• Track material progression, comple-

tion and proficiency

• Send out reminders to those who

haven’t completed assignments so

everyone is on the same page

• Create digital workbooks and ex-ercises for in-class use (more on this

in the next section)

Although these tools aren’t free, they

eliminate the cost of printing, binding

and distributing training materials on

paper—oftentimes saving you money

up front.

A Note about the LMSThe Learning Management System

(LMS) currently occupies an awkward

niche in sales training. On one hand,

people continue to use it for structured

learning such as compliance training,

where it’s still a valuable tool.

However, it is well-nigh unusable for

just-in-time sales training and support.

It’s difficult to access and navigate, it’s

not situated within the sales workflow,

and access is too cumbersome for

quick refreshers and real-time refer-

ence—crucial features for effective

sales onboarding.

How much of a role the LMS will play

for your sales onboarding program is

obviously up to you and your compa-

ny, but our recommendation is to limit

their use to early orientation and struc-

tured training only.


DAYS 1 THROUGH 7: INSTRUCTOR-LED

TRAINING


Days 1 through 7: Instructor-Led TrainingSince trainees have completed pre-work, you can do a quick review and then shift into practice, role-playing and scenario discussions more quick-ly. The goal here is to move trainees beyond rote memorization so they can perform on the fly, in real selling situations.

Practical PracticeTraining at this point should focus on

learning buying personas, sales pro-

cess and pain points and problems of

the customers, as well as how product

solutions map to these problems. Key

customer examples, their success sto-

ries and proof points should be intro-

duced here.

Manager or peer mentor role-playing/

practice sessions and evaluations can

give a real learning retention boost and

help new hires assimilate.

Digital WorkbooksYou can opt to provide a digital work-

book that’s also available after the

work session, so trainees can review as

needed. A major upside: digital work-

books are equally effective for in-per-

son as well as virtual trainings. Many

come with usage tracking and feedback

tools as well, so you can more easily

track effectiveness.

In fact, in combination with an ongoing

training program, a digital workbook

reduces classroom time, cuts cost, and

helps reps achieve higher rates of com-

petency.

Trainers with distributed sales teams

can conduct more sessions remotely,

instead of holding expensive in-person

sessions, as well as track training feed-

back and ROI more easily.


DAYS 7 THROUGH 30+: POST-TRAINING

SUPPORT


Days 7 through 30+: Post-Training SupportDon’t let the term “post-training” fool you. Post- training support is where most of the true learn-ing happens. Without practice and reinforcement, your sellers can’t recall what they’ve learned, of-tentimes in as little as a week. This isn’t about the quality of your program—it’s how human memory works. Check out the stages of learning informa-tion:

AttentionCatching the

attention of the learner.

EncodingEnsuring the

information is understood and

retained.

StorageCapacity to

remember. Builds up with studying

and use.

RetrievalHow well you can

access the encoded and stored material.


Keep this learning process in mind

when designing your program. At this

stage, you need to provide refreshers

and reinforcement that give sellers

the practice they need recalling crucial

information.

Also helpful: work examples and prac-

tice with scenarios that they can imme-

diately apply or build on.

Some of other recommendations on

areas of focus:

• Week 2 on is typically about when

you want to start focusing on prod-

uct positioning, qualifying pros-

pects, discovery questions, and

competitive differentiation.

• Try using Week 3 to continue with

role-playing scenarios, giving your

sellers a chance to incorporate good

selling habits into their selling con-

versation repertoire.

Keep it Short and SweetLet’s be real: most salespeople can’t

click through learning modules fast

enough. Keep the content short and

sweet, and include engagement points

along the way.

• Keep content to quick bites of three

to five minutes each

• Short paragraphs are ideal—much

more than 150 words, and most

eyes would start to glaze over

• When possible, provide an interac-

tion point every 45 seconds, such as

a knowledge check, a flashcard, or

some other interactive exercise

• Engage different senses: use graph-

ics, videos and audio clips to illus-

trate what you want to get across

The goal is to avoid long, passive view-

ing, which not only wears away atten-

tion spans and decreases knowledge

retention, but breeds the fluency illu-

sion.

THE ILLUSION IS REALWhat’s the Fluency Illusion? We think we remember more than we really do.

What causes it? We convince ourselves that the infor-mation that comes to mind now will be equally accessible later.

Why should I care? Reading and re-reading long, static pieces. Combine this brain glitch with hubris and sales ego, and you have a recipe for under-performing sales reps.

What can I do about it? On-the-job retrieval practice—lots of it. Build in retrieval practice into your onboarding program with knowledge checks, flashcard decks, and self-test-ing modules.


Assess ProgressAt this point of training, identifying

knowledge gaps becomes especially

important, because they allow you to

tailor coaching to shore up weak spots

before they become bad habits.

A good enablement solution should

enable you to, at this stage:

• Automate retrieval practice by

scheduling assignments and re-

freshers at pre-determined inter-

vals

• Allow trainees to self-test knowl-

edge and skills, along with a dash-

board that lets them easily track

their progress

• Quickly and easily create engaging

training content, as well as add and

sync your existing content

• Track test results and acquire feed-

back and ratings from trainees so

you can see what’s working

Ongoing Sales SupportLearning is most powerful when you

can immediately apply it, boosting

retention between 60-90%. Tools such

as Veelo Guided Selling™ automatically

recommend training bursts alongside

collateral in the CRM or sales portal

to help sellers get the most out of the

collateral they’re using.

These systems base recommendations

on data such as prior training compo-

nents, what top performers do, as well

as what the prospect is most interest-

ed in. For example, reps might watch

a short video with a quick reflective

question on how to position the prod-

uct before calling the sales opportunity.

Battle cards, digital sales playbook

components, product flashcard mod-

ules and sales process how-tos are

great sales assets to make available

through a guided selling system.

WHAT’S GUIDED SELLING?Guided selling is an adaptive, intelli-gent system that can automatically provide real-time content recom-mendations to sellers based on trans-actional data (such as prospect title, sales stage and transaction type), as well as track content usage and seller engagement.

Ideally, it’s a predictive system that in-corporates elements of machine learn-ing, incorporating seller feedback and usage–effectively becoming smarter with each use. Some guided selling sys-tems can plug into CRMs and content portals, which makes the relevance even more robust.


SummaryA multi-stage learning system gives sellers the on-going reinforcement they need to apply their train-ing in a real selling situation. Traditional onboarding programs just inundate reps with information in their first few days or weeks—the majority of which won’t be recalled within a month.

In-person and virtual training sessions are still necessary in an onboarding pro-

gram, but they’re not enough. A comprehensive training program that includes

a guided selling system may be more work at the outset, but it results in faster

time to first sale, and new sales hires who are able to engage prospects more

effectively.


Veelo is a sales performance platform that improves the performance of individual sellers by guiding the seller on what to

know, say and do. Veelo enables sellers to have better selling conversations by providing them with content, coaching and

knowledge, in context and in the moment they need it. Our machine learning algorithm powers recommendations that

deliver the most relevant content so sellers don’t have to search for it, and Veelo uniquely also provides coaching alongside

content so sellers stay on message and sell value. Built on brain science, Veelo uses techniques that have been proven to

increase knowledge retention and reinforce desired sales behaviors. Companies like Google, Xerox, Siemens and Qorvo

use Veelo to help their sales reps have better selling conversations and reach quota faster.

Learn more about Veelo at veeloinc.com.

http://veeloinc.com

onboard smarter, not harder - veelo · onboard smarter, not harder | 11 days 7 through 30+:...

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