You’ve recruited a new inside sales rep. They start work on Monday. You have large hopes that they will come on board and be the new rockstar on your team.

Step back for a bit: Are you confident in your sales training program?

If not … get your expectations in check. Realistically, with the lack of a solid sales training program, it will be a while before your new sales recruit starts raking in the deals.

To get a faster turnover rate, an expansion stage organization’s sales training program needs to be properly conceptualized and completely buttoned up way before the sales rep’s start date. More often than not, sales training becomes a mishmash of content/info that has been compiled from different departments: marketing, product, etc.

This isn’t helpful and and is more likely to bewilder/overwhelm your new recruit, rather than helping him/her.

Although it is essential that all of the various departments have a function in the new hire’s onboarding, the sales manager (even more than other department managers) really needs to step up to the plate and implement a fully-baked training program that is modified specifically towards selling. No two sales organizations are exactly the same, so although you may be bringing in a rep with a lot of of experience, there is still A LOT for him/her to study about how your business sells.

So what exactly do you need in your sales training program?

• Objection Handling
• Scripts (email and verbal)
• Qualifying questions
• Model day for accomplishment
• Activity metrics and measurements
• A mapped out sales process
• Information on the methodology that is applicable to your business sales process
• Defining each phase of the process, and most importantly, what is an “opportunity”?
• Organizational Charts, Roles and Responsibilities and Territory Maps
• FAQs
• The prospects’ characteristics, business model, most common issues

For the businesses in OpenView Venture Partners‘ portfolio, in the upcoming months, Managing Director Brian Zimmerman and I will be generating an assessment and best practices guide for launching sales training programs.

Devon Warwick is an Analyst at OpenView Venture Partners, and focuses primarily on content creation and lead generation strategies for portfolio companies.