accelerating new sales hire ramp up: strategy and best practices

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Accelerating New Sales Hire Ramp UpStrategies & Best Practices

Agenda

• Top Challenges Facing Sales Organizations • Growing Sales Organizations • Today’s Selling Environment & The Gap in Sales Execution • Why Organizations Struggle With Sales Ramp Up• Areas for Improvement • Conclusions

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Top Challenges Facing Sales Organizations

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13% Unadaptable Sales Process

16% Poor Sales & Marketing Alignment

20% Difficulty

Establishing ROI

24% Common Sales Process Across Organization

33% Difficulty

Presenting Differentiation

33% Sales Cycles

Too Long

Executive Management Viewpoint

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Shortening sales cycles

Greater visibility

Increasing deal sizes

Improving overall quota attainment

Increasing win rates

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Most Important to Executive Management

2014

94%

87%

83%

82%

75%

Top Sales Objectives

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Increase reorder & renewal rates

Reduce ramp-up time for new sales people

Reduce sell cycle time

Optimize deal size via up-selling & cross-selling

Improve customer loyalty & satisfaction

Increase sales effectiveness & performance

Increase penetration into existing accounts

Capture new accounts

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Top Sales Objectives for 2014

2014

58%

#2 Increase

Penetration into Existing

Accounts

#1 Capture New

Accounts

46%

25%

20%

20%

14%

7%

6%

Polling Question

How much do you expect to grow your sales organization this year?

Not at All

Less Than 10%

Between 10%-30%

Greater than 30%

A.

B.

C.

D.

Slide 6

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plan to expand sales team

between 10%-30%

Growing Sales Organizations Key Priority

Challenges and obstacles for ramping new sales teams:• 87% of training is forgotten within

weeks when not embedded in selling process• 58% of new sales rep time is spent

not selling

29%

7-12 months to effectively

onboard new reps

40%

The Complicated Selling Environment

60%

of buyer’s journey completed before ever interacting with sales

90%

Selling content is never used in selling because sales can’t find the right

resources

58%

Pipeline ends up in “no decision” (stalled) because value has not

been effectively presented

88%

of missed opportunities were because sales

couldn’t find resources

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Sales process not adaptable

Lack of alignment to buyer stages

Salesforce not agile

enoughInconsistent sales

methodologies

x

misaligned to buyer stages not presenting right value can’t find resources poor performance

The Gap in Sales Execution

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Strategy

Sales Execution

The Gap in Sales Execution

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Strategy

Sales Execution

• Buyers more savvy• Sales process more complex• Reps have not transformed• Sales onboarding too long

Gap

The Gap in Sales Execution

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Strategy

Sales Execution

Typical Actions to Close Gap:

• Buyers more savvy• Sales process more complex• Reps have not transformed• Sales onboarding too long

Gap

More Training

however, 87% is forgotten within weeks

The Gap in Sales Execution

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Strategy

Sales Execution

Typical Actions to Close Gap:

• Buyers more savvy• Sales process more complex• Reps have not transformed• Sales onboarding too long

Gap

More Training

however, 87% is forgotten within weeks

More Content

70% are halfway to decision

before Sales is engaged

The Gap in Sales Execution

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Strategy

Sales Execution

Typical Actions to Close Gap:

• Buyers more savvy• Sales process more complex• Reps have not transformed • Sales onboarding too long

Gap

More Training

however, 87% is forgotten within weeks

More Sales Reps

9 mo avg ramp up time

58% of time not selling

More Content

70% are halfway to decision

before Sales is engaged

The Gap in Sales Execution

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Strategy

Sales Execution

Typical Actions to Close Gap:

• Buyers more savvy• Sales process more complex• Reps have not transformed• Sales onboarding too long

Gap

Reasons Why Actions Not Closing Gap:

More Training

however, 87% is forgotten within weeks

More Sales Reps

9 mo avg ramp up time

58% of time not selling

More Content

70% are halfway to decision

before Sales is engaged

The Gap in Sales Execution

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Strategy

Sales Execution

Typical Actions to Close Gap:

• Buyers more savvy• Sales process more complex• Reps have not transformed• Sales onboarding too long

Gap

Reasons Why Actions Not Closing Gap:

More Training

however, 87% is forgotten within weeks

More Sales Reps

9 mo avg ramp up time

58% of time not selling

More Content

70% are halfway to decision

before Sales is engaged

The Gap in Sales Execution

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Strategy

Sales Execution

Typical Actions to Close Gap:

• Disconnected activities• Misaligned with buyer

stages• Not specific to each

selling situation• Can’t keep up with rate

of change• Value not presented

• Buyers more savvy• Sales process more complex• Reps have not transformed • Sales onboarding too long

Gap

Minding the Gap When Hiring New Sales Reps

Hiring Alone Does Not Solve Growth Challenges

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Slower Time-to-

Productivity

Out-of-DateOnboarding

Process

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Financial Impact of Accelerating Ramp Up

Current State Improvements Proposed State

Number of new sales reps 25 25

Average annual revenue per Rep $1,000,000 $1,000,000

Time it takes to ramp up (months) 9 20% 7.2

Effectiveness during ramp up 50% 50%

Lost revenue per rep ramp up $375,000 $75,000 300,000

Annual Revenue Lost $9,375,000 $1,875,000 $7,500,000

Polling Question

How long does it currently take to onboard a new sales rep?(time to productivity)

Less than 3 Months

3 to 6 Months

6 to 9 months

Greater than 9 months

A.

B.

C.

D.

Slide 19

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Sales Execution Challenge: “Sales Ramp Up Too Long”

• Fire Hose Onboarding = “It’s About Us”

• Typically Tactical Implementation • Missing Context Which Creates New Gap

Why Organizations Struggle With Sales Ramp UpFire Hose Effect

Our Messages

Our Value Proposition

Our Capabilities

OurFeatures

Our Benefits

Our Differentiators

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Context is Key

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Context is Key

Situational Selling

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Accelerating New Sales Rep Ramp Up

Doing Today

• New Hire Orientation• Incremental Training• Adhoc Coaching • Mentoring• Case Studies• Collateral

Need To Do Differently

• Well Defined Sales Process• Integrating Activities

(onboarding, training, coaching day-to-day job activities, all while working deals)

• Intelligent Guidance (deal specific)

• Just-in-time Information (Push vs Pull)

• Getting reps involved in real deals sooner (context)

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Integrated Activities

Work Deals SoonerGreater context by getting reps involved in real deals sooner

CoachingEmbed coaching in situational selling scenarios to reinforce training

GuidanceDeal-specific contextual guidance to drive sales behavior

Aligned ResourcesAlign content and resources to buyer stages

Working Live Deals

cont

ext }Within the

Selling Process

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Intelligent Guidance to Reinforce Best Practices & Process

Leverage formal sales methodologies

Share tips from the field

Roundtable discussions

Assign a sales mentor

Open dialogueSelling

Documents

Best Practices

Training

Coaching

ProcessContent

Resources

Tools

Contextual Details

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How do your reps get the information they need?

Just-in-time Information

Seek advise

Try Searching

Ask Sales Operations

Ask Marketing

SME

Marketing Sales CRM

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Just-in-time Information

Contextual Resource Center

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Just-in-time Information

Case Study on Large

Manufacturing Organization

Contextual Resource Center

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Just-in-time Information

ROI Calculator with speaking points for CFO

Contextual Resource Center

Case Study on Large

Manufacturing Organization

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Just-in-time Information

Contextual Resource Center

Case Study on Large

Manufacturing Organization

ROI Calculator with speaking points for CFO

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Accelerating Time-to-Revenue

Fully Productive New Sales Reps

Integrated Activities

Reinforce Best Practices

Just-in-Time Information

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Key Take-Aways

• Hiring along does not solve the growth challenge• Sales readiness starts with a well defined

sales process• Disparate & siloed activities inhibit

onboarding success• Integrating training, coaching, mentoring

leveraging technology can better guide sales behaviors• Pushed just-in-time information can help

to better present value to buyers

E

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US

SS

CC

ES

S

IT

PR

OF

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New White Paper:Accelerating Rep Ramp-Up

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About Qvidian

• 15 Year Proven History• Loyal Customer Base • 1,200+ Customers• 100% Cloud-based• End-to-End Solution• Constantly Innovating

Customers increasewin rates by 28% and improve productivity

by 40%.

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Contact

• North America: +1 513-631-1155• Europe: +44 (0) 870-734-

7778

#SalesExecution #Qvidian

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