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Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

Making new sales hires productive hires

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Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

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Table of Contents

Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

Getting New Starts To Be Productive 01

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Qotient

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It's no wonder that businesses look for their new hires to quickly start generating revenue as soon as possible.

Start With A StoryThat simple act of having every employeelearn and be able to tell the same company story is profound.

Why Stories WorkStories create a connection between the teller and the listener.

Creating StoriesBefore digging in on writing narrative you're probably going to want to create Talk-Tracks.

Join The Story CircleQotient is a conversation intelligence platform that eliminates conversation variability.

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It costs a lot to hire a new salesperson. That's not surprising and it's not new news. It's pretty much a given that a business will have to absorb some costs of installing, nurturing and training a new hire. Even seasoned professionals will have to ride the learning curve as they absorb a company's products, culture and customer contact management systems. This holds considerable risk for the company. In fact, a 2012 study by DePaul University Centre for Sales Leadership

put the average cost to hire,train, and replace a salespersonat $114,957. So, it's no wonderthat businesses look for theirnew hires to quickly startgenerating some return on thisinvestment as soon aspossible.

Makes sense right? Yourbusiness invests in an employeethat's going to generate newrevenue, you expect to see areturn. If you're the hiringmanager, you're probablythinking “Show me the money!”Unfortunately, according to CSOInsights, 67%

Getting New Starts To Be Productive

Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

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of companies report that it takes 7 or more months for newsales people to become fully productive. As if that's notshocking enough, Sales Readiness Group reports that theaverage tenure of a sales person from the time they start a job tothe time they leave is less than 2 years. If you overlay those twofacts against a complex B2B selling environment, that can havean 18 month sales cycle, it's obvious that you may never realizea return on your shiny new hire.

Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

Today, as the composition ofsales teams shift from GenX'ers to Millenials, it'simperative to get new hiresramped and productive asquickly as possible. By the endof 2016, it's expected thatMillennials will comprise 50%of our workforce. Thatgenerational shift will bringwith it less job commitmentand greater demand for highquality, collaborative,meaningful sales enablement

tools that can quickly make every salesperson a winner. As anengaged sales manager, you're going to do this becauseproductivity affects more than just the individual:

Productive new starts turn into productive tenured employees –there's a direct correlation between the productivity of anemployee and the length of time they're employed with anorganization.

Productivity decreases turnover – losing an employee, whether

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Southwest Airlines is arguably one of the best examples of a well run, employee-engaged and employee-committed company. From it's beginnings in the early 1970s, with just three planes shuttling between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio the airline has been steadfast in offering friendly service, on-time performance and an overall good value. Pundits will note all types of strategic andoperational reasons for thecompany's success, like theiradamant use of only one modelof airplane, the Boeing 737, butthose on the inside believe it'sthe unity and sharedexperience of all their

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by their own decision or the organization's is always disruptiveas other employees stop to ask “why?” Productive employeeshave a lower turnover rate.

Productivity means recovering investment sooner – getting anemployee productive, even one month sooner, can have acompounding affect on investment recovery and help to ensureadditional sales activity.

Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

Start With AStory

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employees that makes the difference. Southwest differentiatesitself by their culture, which is one that all their employees live.The next time you have the chance, ask a Southwest employeeto recite the company's vision, purpose, or values. You’ll not onlybe surprised that they can, but that they take it seriously andthat they do it uniformly. Employees from maintenance toground crews and pilots all know, live and can tell a singularversion of the Southwest story.

Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

So, what does Southwest have to do with developing new hires?The answer lies in their company story. That simple act of havingevery employee learn and be able to tell the same company storyis profound. It is the thing that promotes unity within theorganization. As a result of that shared experience the companynot only defines its culture, but also promotes “belonging”. If youthink back to our shifting workforce, and their requirement forcollaboration, this is a clear opportunity to fulfill that need. If youneed more proof of the effects of belonging, think about how youmight feel if you showed up at the company retreat wearing abusiness suite and everyone else was in shorts and a t-shirt. You'dprobably feel like you didn't belong. Reading from the same hymnbook, so to speak, promotes strong bonds between employees andwith the organization.

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Try this the next time you really need to get a person to listen to you. Rather than simply launching into your narrative, look the person directly in the eye and ask them "can I tell you a story?"Now, pause, seriously don't say a word, but watch that person's reaction. Chances are, you'll see their posture shift to one that's more relaxed, their shoulders may settle or the furrow in their brow disappears. Those six simple words signal a physiological response in most us that's been ingrained

from childhood. If you've hadthe opportunity to read to ayoung child, you've almostcertainly experienced this typeof response.

Stories create a connectionbetween the teller and thelistener. There's a certainvulnerability that's conveyed byasking for the permission to tellsomeone a story. In turn, thatvulnerability is met with an equallevel of vulnerability by thereceiver. Scientists call thisconnection limbic resonanceand is the result, at leastpartially, of the release of

Why StoriesWork

Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

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dopamine, long known as the “feel good” chemical, into our body's systems. That's right, stories make us feel good. Imagine the power that could have on your next sales call.

To take this just one step further, let's look at the work of Uri Hasson, a neuroscientist based at Princeton University, who researches the neurological basis of human communication and storytelling. Using Functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI) , he has revealed that in storytelling, the brain activity of the listener is almost identical to the brain activity of the teller. What's even more amazing is that his studies have also shown that this connection is perpetuated by the meaning that's being conveyed, not necessarily the sounds. Imagine if your new hire was able to convey the same meaning to prospective customers and in turn illicit the same customer connection as your most experienced sales person – it seems that would go a long way toward making your new hire productive.

Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

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Are you ready to start developing some stories? Given the power of stories, that's not surprising. Before digging in on writing narrative, however, you're probably going to want to start with creating some Talk-Tracks. Talk-Tracks are conversation guides that begin with the organization as a whole. In developing these, you'll gain consensus about your stories and about the required components of each sales conversation or story.

Talk-Tracks will become your organization's guide for having conversations with customers. By following these, conversations become more standardized and have a definitive beginning and a destination. This eliminates conversation variability, so your entire sales team will have uniform conversations that convey the same meaning and create a consistent neurological connection with customers. Here's a great template for creating your ownTalk-Tracks.

CreatingStories

Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

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Remember, you're looking to build belonging as well asconsistency in implementing this storytelling approach, so getthe entire sales team, (new hires and veterans alike), together asa group to brainstorm and define your organization'sTalk-Tracks. You'll think about which conversations are mostfrequently held and then think about the ideal flow of thatconversation. An added benefit of this inclusive approach is thatmost people are more apt to adopt a tool that they helped tocreate.

Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

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Let's face it, sales managers can't be on every sales call to observe their sales representatives and listen to every conversation that's being had with customers. Even if they could somehow tap into those conversations remotely by audio or video, joining every conversation held by every member of their team would quickly become impractical.

So, how does a sales manager ensure that storytelling and customer conversations are happening as they're supposed to? How do they join that story circle? One solution that organizations often turn to is simply creating a library or repository for sales enablement tools. Often these collections take the form of an online portal or maybe the content is delivered via Salesforce.com or some other CRM system. While these solutions have a place, they can become crammed with content and, on their own, will not facilitate performance of the sales representative or drive conversation consistency. Recall again the Millennial sales force that's not going to stand for uninspired technology or valueless content. So what's the answer?

Joining TheStory Circle

Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

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Qotient is a a conversation intelligence platform available from any device, anywhere that helps eliminate conversation variability and benefits stakeholders across channels, sales and marketing teams. The platform delivers benefits to any organization in four key areas:

DELIVERYQotient delivers a library of Talk Tracks including insights, sales questions, and supporting marketing collateral into the hands of the sales team. Sales teams then use these Talk Tracks to assist them in converting sales calls into opportunities. The Qotient sales workspace is designed to be used unobtrusively in their face to face meetings or phone calls.

Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

Amplify Your New StartsWith Qotient

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Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

ENABLEMENTQotient enables new hires and broader sales teams to all have the most effective sales conversations. The conversations the best sales person is having can be scaled across the whole team in a very simple way. Sales people can log outcomes in CRM instantly saving valuable time usually spent in the office.

MEASUREMENTSales Managers are able to dynamically control the messaging to the market as sales teams use conversations in the field. Qotient helps enterprises understand the effectiveness of propositions through dashboards and insights. Qotient provides real time access to market trends, as seen by the sales team.

ACCELERATIONUse real time data to dynamically evolve and improve the sales process, easily accelerate conversations through adjustment and testing. Qotient creates a culture of learning and continual sales improvement through outcome clarity and communication.

Book your demo today at www.qotient.com