Manager’s Casebook: How fast is the ramp-up period for new reps? PDQ!
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Jan 26, 2009 @ 02:33 AM
Today's post is not only for telesales managers, incidentally. If you're a telesales rep, you're potentially on the fast track to becoming a manager yourself. Don't believe me? Well, over 120 inside sales reps that have taken my classes have become sales managers or execs, and they did so by thinking like managers while they were inside sales people. So let's discuss the ramp-up time necessary for new telesales reps to be successful, a question common to virtually all managers that have telesales teams. The title question in today's blog post actually got asked in another sales blog a few months ago, and the answers were, frankly, all over the board. It caused me to think a lot about what my own ramp-up period was when I was a telesales rep. And here's how I answered it.
"I'm going to take a radical departure from the other responders. You should be doing such a thorough job in the hiring process that your rep can begin selling by week three at the latest, and while being interviewed, understands that a quick start is part of the job. No new rep will be completely familiar with his or her new product line, but should know what it is, know that it works, and be able to articulate how it has helped other customers. The new rep should have fast access to pre-sales tech support if technical issues come up for which the rep doesn't have a ready answer. You should hire reps that are "a quick study." Prepare a sales manual that will tell them what they need to know, and maybe more importantly, what they don't need to know. Tell them they'll hit the ground running at the beginning of week three, and they may have to study the sales manual at home in the evenings during weeks one and two, in order to begin selling by week three. You want to hire brilliant reps, not mediocre ones. Savvy reps can start being productive in week two, and should be rolling well, quota-wise, after the first month. If this is not in accordance with your experience, look hard at your hiring practices, and perhaps what you're paying new reps. Great reps are driven to succeed, and succeed quickly. They want to get selling as soon as possible. If you hire smart, savvy reps that learn fast, you'll find that they can handle any product, any sales cycle, quicker than you can imagine."
So that's what I told the folks who read that blog, and it's right from my own experience. I was selling by week three in all of my companies, by week two in a couple of them. It's the same thing when you're introducing a new product line to sell, too, isn't it. Back in my days at Atron, we sold software debuggers. Then we introduced the 68020 Probe, an in-circuit emulator. My boss Perry Lynne bought all of us inside sales reps a primer on microprocessors. We didn't become 68020 experts, but we sold enough emulators to become wildly successful very quickly. We had terrific presales tech support, the product was a damn fine one. So if you're hiring a new inside sales rep (or if you're a newly hired inside sales rep yourself) set the bar high from day one. The best reps will meet the challenge, because they'll want to start getting those big commission checks as soon as they can. Add this to your Management Best Practices casebook.