With the current talent shortage, are you struggling to retain your new salespeople and help them perform better?

The first weeks of onboarding are crucial in this regard. They will determine whether your recruits really want to invest in your project.

And there is one thing that sets companies with the best retention apart: they give their employees a real chance to grow and shine.

Here are the step-by-step ways you can optimize the integration period and nurture your new sales talents.

#1 Organize a gentle integration week

We all remember the first days in a new company. A source of stress and excitement, these first impressions will stay in the minds of new recruits for a long time. And the least you can do is to give them time to get used to your environment.

Some companies like to throw their salespeople into the thick of things, but haste is not appropriate here. The less pressure your salesperson feels, the more confident they will feel in your organization. After all, no one likes to be rushed!

Therefore, this integration week should be done under the sign of kindness and pedagogy:

• Sessions to introduce the company and meet the various collaborators and teams
• Product/service presentation and situation-based training (demo, discussion with executive teams)
• Time to meet and play with the team
• Discussions and shadow listening with team members

Anything that can gently introduce them to your company will be appreciated!

#2 Discuss everyone's expectations

While your new recruit is getting an idea of the challenges ahead, you can already discuss your common goals with them. And the emphasis here is on "common."

It is by advancing together that you can create a mutual relationship of trust with your new collaborator. This involves discussing not only your performance goals, but also your talent's aspirations. You can thus center the discussion on:

• The revenue generation goals set by the executive committee.
• Your collective and individual goals.
• Your expectations of them in the first 30, 60, 90 days. It generally takes three months before your salesperson can work on accounts independently.
• Your collaborator's prospects for developing skills.
• Their first impressions, doubts, and fears. Be attentive to their first reactions!

Show yourself to be a sincere ally in the development of your salesperson, and let them know they can always count on you!

#3 Provide access to ongoing training

All blended learning trends have shown that the best form of learning is continuous. Your salesperson will certainly not remember everything they learned in the first few days. It is through repetition and support that their accumulated knowledge will bear fruit.

For this, it is important to give your recruit access to:

• All sales support documents (presentation templates, playbooks, pitch decks, battle cards, one-pagers, etc.).
• Sales tool training (CRM, prospecting, etc.).
• Regular product presentation and experimentation sessions.
• Sales training or simulations.

All these resources at their fingertips will be valuable assets!

#4 Integrate your recruit into the team

Belonging to a team is one of the strongest retention drivers for salespeople. Your salespeople want to feel like they are part of a team with whom they can share their difficulties and successes. To fully capitalize on this effect, you can, for example:

• Recruit several salespeople at once to make integration more enjoyable.
• Associate your recruit with a senior salesperson to mentor them.
• Create moments of conviviality and team gatherings. For example, a communication channel where everyone can share their latest successes.
• Introduce your collaborator to members of the customer success and marketing teams (useful for better understanding prospects' concerns and aligning on content).

#5 Ensure regular individual coaching

As a sales manager, you are best placed to follow and support your collaborator. Weekly 1-on-1 meetings will allow you to engage in discussions about the week's issues and priority accounts.

They are also opportunities to analyze performance and coach on best practices. You can:

• Discuss their strengths/weaknesses and implement an action plan.
• Listen to and analyze their calls.
• Provide recommendations and transmit best practices.

It is up to you to guide them towards the path of performance!

#6 Collect feedback and iterate

Your collaborator has spent their first few months with you. It is time to take stock.

Have they achieved the objectives you set for them? Are they satisfied with these first months? Do you trust each other?

All these questions allow you to determine whether your collaboration is fruitful, whether it has the potential to be beneficial for everyone, or whether it satisfies neither of you. It is up to you to make your decisions based on this feeling.

Success or failure, you can then question your recruit on the different aspects of your onboarding process:

• What is your overall feeling about your integration?
• What did you appreciate in the process, and what did you dislike?
• What would you suggest to improve our welcome?
• What do you think of the company and its working environment?

Onboarding is a difficult science. It is normal not to get it right the first time, or not always to have the right fit.

The important thing is to optimize the welcome every time and give each salesperson a chance to stand out.

Noota: Coach your salespeople based on data

Far from being reserved for data scientists, data is now being used to serve sales management. With conversational intelligence tools, you can now analyze your salespeople's voice and their interaction with your prospects.

At Noota, we have developed a tool that allows you to measure and coach your salespeople in real-time on their practices:

• A meeting assistant that reminds them of best practices during calls (questions, objection handling).
• Performance analysis with indicators of sentiment, subject, and engagement.
• Automatic note-taking and report generation to facilitate customer data collection.

Do you want to turn your new recruits into your best salespeople? Try Noota.

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