Sales Induction

In the second instalment of our Sales Induction series, we quantify the critical need for a comprehensive sales induction programme.

You’ll know from the first part of our induction series that a first-class induction programme requires a significant investment in time and money. If you’ve tried out our Sales Induction Cost Calculator, you now know the new sales hire and induction costs of your business. In this blog we consider why delivering an outstanding sales induction programme is business critical, rather than an optional activity.

Poor sales induction leads to the loss of time and money

Effective sales induction greatly influences the speed to productivity of new hires. The first-year cost of a salesperson can be two and a half times their salary. In our white paper Reducing the Break-Even Time for New Salespeople, we concluded that ‘For a typical salesperson on a £70k salary, the first-year cost can be as high as £170k.’ After reading the white paper, you’ll know that one of the principal ways to bring new hires to breakeven more rapidly is to deploy a quality sales induction programme.

Benefits of proper sales induction

A successful induction programme serves a vital function for a sales organisation that wishes to differentiate itself based on salesforce quality. Well-structured, properly applied induction enables this differentiation, accelerating and enhancing the assimilation of skilled and trained new hires into a salesforce. These salespeople will be trained in what to sell (the products and services), how to sell (the company’s established sales processes) and where to sell (customers, markets and channels). Research demonstrates the impact of a comprehensive induction process:

• According to the Sales Management Association consistent and well-structured sales onboarding programs cut 3.4 months from the average time-to-productivity for new-hire salespeople, and improving average ramp-up time to 5.7 from 9.1 months.
• The same Sales Management Association study also states sales forces effective at onboarding have 10% greater sales growth rates.
• The Society for Human Resource Management found new employees who attended a structured orientation program are 69% likely to remain at the company up to three years.

If you calculated your sales hire/induction costs for each new salesperson with our Sales Induction Cost Calculator, you’ll know how long it takes for new salespeople to reach full productivity, the vital importance of retaining those employees, and the high cost of losing them.

Join the conversation

What kind of impact can an effective sales induction programme have on your company and salesforce? What would your company gain from having a sales induction programme?

We would like to hear from you– please share your thoughts with us on Twitter. Follow us @Imparta.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the second part of our induction series. Part three will discuss how you can solve the challenges of sales induction.