How to Train New Field Reps [Quick Guide]

It's true. The best way to learn how to sell is to sell. Especially for new field sales reps, even for experienced field sales reps that are new to your company. Every business is unique in its products, services, processes, and sales cycle. It's essential for the success of your business to make sure you set your sales reps up for success from the very first day. Training is a huge factor in the success or failure of your whole sales team. Here are the things you need to do to empower your field sales reps with the knowledge and tools they need to be successful.

Implement a 30-60-90 Day Onboarding Plan

According to Training Industry Magazine, it takes more than a year for new salespeople to achieve the same performance level as tenured sales reps. A comprehensive milestone-based onboarding plan that spans months rather than just the first couple of weeks puts sellers on a realistic track to success. When you pack almost a year's worth of knowledge and information into a few weeks of new hire training, you are setting new sales reps up for failure. For new sales reps, it can feel like drinking from a firehose those first few weeks. 

There are several benefits to milestone-based sales onboarding:

• Builds employee engagement by providing the information they need to succeed and identifying time-based goals for content and skills mastery as they progress. It also fosters relationship building with the sales team through communication.

• Improves seller confidence by providing them with the knowledge necessary to answer customers’ questions and identify alternative solutions when faced with push-back from customers.

• Decreases ramp-up time by incorporating training milestones rather than a large chunk of training during the first two weeks - which can often lead to information overload and necessitate retraining.

• Provides leaders with vital information about the employee's individual needs by showcasing specific areas where training is needed, allowing leaders to better manage their sales teams.

Milestone-based onboarding increases how quickly sellers can be productive, speeds up the time it takes to close their first deal, and, ultimately, improves their satisfaction with their job.

Create a Knowledge Base for Your Product or Service

When sales reps have access to a well-organized, easily accessible knowledge base of the products and services they are promoting to customers, it equips them with the information they need to be self-sufficient in the sales process. The ability to respond rapidly to customer questions helps build trust between the sales rep and customer while improving the overall customer experience.

Make Sure They Understand Their Sales Territory

Another critical key to training your field sales rep is ensuring they understand what their ideal buyer's persona is. This includes the customers' problems and pain points, communication styles, and other helpful insights into how they prefer to engage with the sales process. 

Buyer personas can help sales reps:

• Identify the most profitable buyer types

• Focus their efforts on the right buyers

• Streamline the sales cycle

The more a field sales rep knows about their customers — including what they care about, how they find answers, and the best way to communicate with them — the easier it will be to speak their language and sell to them.

The better equipped with knowledge and resources your field sales reps are, the easier it will be to build trust with their customers and the more deals they will close.

See what Perenso's field sales software can do to increase your team's sales and efficiency: