The importance of onboarding for companies
The onboarding process includes all those actions focused on the incorporation of new workers into the company and is essential for the company to have a solid base.
In this sense, for companies in any sector it is important that the onboarding process is as quick and fluid as possible, but also fully effective and focused on clear objectives. It is important that the person joining follows the work pace as soon as possible and can focus fully on their duties, without feeling lost or having to learn on their own.
When it comes to sales team, it is especially important that there is a good adaptation to the culture and good habits of the company, as this directly impacts the client.
In this, it is essential that the company has a solid Sales Enablement strategy that considers the importance of a good onboarding process, as highlighted in a recent webinar by CatalogPlayer and Payfit Spain.
Some data on onboarding
22% of resignations occur during the first 45 days. – Deloitte
75% of professionals have a bad memory of their incorporation phase. – Headway
33% of new hires continue to look for employment in the first few months. -Harvard
These data indicate that, very commonly, the onboarding process is not carried out correctly and many companies fail to give new employees full confidence so that they feel motivated and productive when they join. This represents a significant loss of resources -both time and economic- for the company; which becomes totally disastrous if this person ultimately resigns from the position.
Having a good, quality onboarding process is key to talent retention in the company and represents a «win win» for the salesperson and the company: the salesperson feels productive and achieves their objectives -with additional benefits- early on, and the company starts invoicing sooner.
The role of Sales Enablement in onboarding
Thus, it is clear that a good onboarding process is a key part of any strategy to improve sales.
A strategy of Sales Enablement must consider everything that happens in the sales department, in order to carry out a complete analysis and ensure that sales processes develop optimally and that everyone works in the best way. This «enablement» or training can be achieved through training sessions, knowledge transfer and, of course, the right digital tools.
The onboarding falls under the umbrella of Sales Enablement, since improving sales necessarily involves sales empowerment. That is, to really improve sales processes, it is necessary to provide salespeople with the necessary knowledge and tools to go out and sell in the best way.
A good onboarding process will allow the learning process to be shortened and thus salespeople can quickly start doing what they are really good at: going out to sell. In this, digital tools are the best ally of Sales Enablement.
Sales Enablement solutions for onboarding
For a digital solution to add value to a company's onboarding process, it should reduce the time that new employees have to spend on administrative procedures, searching for information and, in general, training on their own.
All this is time in which the new employee does not feel fully confident or productive compared to the rest of the team, so they will not be able to achieve good results until they get past this phase. New technologies make it possible to shorten the learning curve of people who join, so that they can start being efficient in the shortest possible time.
A Sales Enablement solution can improve the onboarding process through:
- Platform with useful information to join in a visual and intuitive format
- Unification of the sales process that facilitates the replication of best practices of the salespeople
- Easily accessible content for the whole team, both to prepare the sales visit and to show the client
- Integration of the communication channel within the sales team and between departments
- Extraction of useful metrics and KPIs on sales visits that can be applied to improve results
Finally, it is positive to opt for a tool that allows you to enhance the «perpetual onboarding», that is, the continuous training of the sales team. It must allow salespeople to keep up to date with the latest product developments, with information and content constantly updated and reviewed by Marketing. In this way they can offer an improved customer experience and adapt to the strategy adopted by the company at any given time.
