0
0
Onboarding of any new employee should be planned and executed with great care. After the induction, the new employee becomes a part of your company as much as any other current employee is.
Thus, making the onboarding process a crucial step into integrating a new hire into your company. When you interview and thereby select your sales management team, you have high expectations from them.
They have to deliver a stellar performance to get you all the revenue you are expecting them to get for your business. With that responsibility in mind, set the onboarding process by introducing them to your sales management team.
Talk to them through the sales management system that you use in your company. Here is a simple guide on how to make the most of an onboarding process for your sales management.
Preliminaries- Start by getting to know your new hires. Introduce them to your brand vision. Do not keep your sales management in the shadow of what you expect them to like how much growth they are to bring in effectively and how fast.
Hold one to one sessions with them as the onboarding process progresses and clarify any doubt that they may have. Set the job description or job responsibility clear from the very beginning.
Train them – Though they as leaders must have had some knowledge about the functioning required of them that led you to appoint them. But, remember they are not familiar with your company’s operation.
Acclimatize them with the technology you use. This training is very crucial and should be pursued with great care and caution. Train the management staff with all tech-related gadgets or tools, be it related to the product or even reporting. Rope them in to participate in ongoing discussions and brainstorming sessions. Not only will they be able to give their inputs, but you will also get an idea of how they are going to sort things out.
Demo – For new hires who do not have much managerial experience, it is always to extend their period of training. You can have a suitable probation period, which is ideal under such circumstances. Let them lead smaller teams, and as their confidence grows, entrust them with bigger teams and more responsibilities.
Test them out for their skills in managing teams through several demonstration rounds. You can have actual projects with units that you can assign them with, or you can simulate the entire experience. Plan it depending on what outcome you are aiming for. Do remember to set a time limit for such demonstration activities.
Leadership skills – Some people are born leaders, and some people become leaders. Most leaders fall under the second category. To help your sales management team enhance their leadership skills, before inducing a new hire to send them for a workshop.
Make them participants at events to hone their managerial skills. It is best to pair them up with mentors. Who better to teach than the pro who has the needful experience. Apart from the mentorship program also consider giving them authority. Let them be accountable and come up with solutions rather than you asking for it.
Once they learn the process of dealing with the untoward situation, they will grow as leaders. Even for a new hire, if you give him considerable responsibility, the right candidate will fulfill such duties with flying colors and prove his worth as a true leader.
Autonomy – Instead of poking your head into everything that they engage in after the initial few days, give them space. Let them come up with their rhythm and pace to do their work. Just as they brief the sales rep on how to approach issues like dealing with possible clients, you can, without being too intrusive, ask for the plan as to how the new sales manager plan to go about an issue.
Try to know more about what approach they have. Offer valuable points rather than being overly critical. Managerial positions are higher ranking in the company administrative tier.
The sales management new hire must be having an apt skill set that won him the job. Have a little faith in their abilities and watch closely on how they perform but from a distance.
Resources – Just as your sales rep depends on resources, empower your managerial new joinee with adequate resources. He should have all the necessary access even before he fully starts functioning as sales management.
Having access to all required information will enable them to perform much better. They will be productive and very effective in such cases for delivering results.
Also, do keep a watch on how resourceful they have. How much of his networking skills or persuasive actions are getting work done? Collaborate with him for the best result.
After successful onboarding does remember to share your feedback on your observations about the new hire’s initial days performance, though you should not be judgmental and critical, try to be impartial. Evaluate the performance and not the person.
Based on that, prepare a report and lay down every finding transparently. That will surely help you’re your new sales manager strengthen his positive sides while he gets to know what he might be lacking, and thereby he can work on it. Show confidence in his abilities and let him do what he does best and prove that he was a good hire.
