With the new normal of remote onboarding right now it is even more crucial to involve the sales enablement team in the new hire onboarding process. Just like the way sales enablement supports experienced sales reps with the right content at the right time, they can support the new reps as well with the tools they need to learn and succeed as quickly as possible.

In this blog, we are going to discuss how sales enablement can add value to the remote onboarding process and deliver faster and more predictable results

1. Choose a good Onboarding platform

In today’s virtual world, a well-rounded onboarding platform is essential to drive the onboarding successfully. The trainers must be using Zoom or WebEx to conduct the virtual instructor-led training sessions. Supplement that with a good onboarding platform.

The platform should facilitate the following:

• Managers’ communication with the new hires

• Peer-to-peer communication amongst the new hires

• Allows to conduct pre-boarding and onboarding

• Allows to send regular knowledge reinforcements

• Provides a content repository which helps the new hires to easily access their training content

• Gamifies sales and sales training for the new hires

• Provides mobile access through an app for managers and new hires

2. Drive platform discipline across the organization

Once the right onboarding platform is chosen, it’s time to prepare your people to use it efficiently. Here’s how to do that:

Educate the platform owners: By owners, we are referring to the people who are primarily responsible for driving the onboarding through the platform. Like,

• training managers

• admin of the platform

• content creators (the ones who create and upload the training content in the platform).

You need to make sure that these people are well-versed with the platform and the features that they need to use.

If the platform owners aren’t educated properly on the platform then there could be issues like:

• Wrong content put up in the wrong place

• Content uploaded in the wrong format

• Assignment of training to a wrong group of people etc

Educate the End-users: Provide formal training on using the onboarding tool to the end-users before they start their new hire training. Take one or two hours on the first day and train them on the platform as the first thing.

Once the formal training is done, get the new hires to start using the tool, and explore various functionalities in it by themselves. You can give them a head start. Here’s how:

Tell the new hires that they need to embrace using the platform as all their onboarding and training communications will be done through it. This helps the newbies to get a first-hand experience of using the tool right from day-1 and it helps them to get accustomed to it easily.

3. Implement on-going training for the new hires

Consistent and ongoing training is crucial for the quick development of new hires. Regular reinforcement of training helps the reps to recall and remember crucial information for a long time.

Here are some ways to implement on-going training for your new hires:

• Just-in-time learning: This technique ensures that the trainees are exposed to their training content frequently. And, are able to grasp it quickly and easily. To implement just in time learning, break down your lengthy training content into short bytes of information. Transform this information into various creative formats like infographics, animated videos, storyboards, etc (called microlearning feeds). Deliver this microlearning content to the new hires on their mobile devices through the onboarding app regularly. This helps them to digest the information quickly and easily

• Assessments: Assignquiz teststo the new hire once every week to help them recall crucial information. This also helps you to gauge knowledge retention and knowledge gaps amongst the reps. That, in turn, enables you to take appropriate measures to close those gaps

• Video Coaching: This technique helps to improve the new hires’ sales conversation skills. Here the training managers assign a video coaching assignment to the new hires and ask them to record a video

  • Giving a 30-seconds elevator pitch

  • Or show how they would do a pre-qualifying call

  • Or explain the key features of a product

  • Or show how they would overcome a particular objection from a customer

  Once the trainees submit their response videos, the managers can review them and provide scoring and feedback based on the rep’s performance. This feedback comes in handy for the reps can to improve themselves

• Launch and Learn: This provides a way for the new hires to collaborate amongst themselves and share some sales best practices or their experiences. Basically here, the new hires from various regions can record and upload videos talking about

  • pitch story that is really interesting and has greatly impressed a client

  • creative way in which they have handled an objection

  • any other sales or new hire training anecdote that’s worth sharing

  This facilitates peer-to-peer communication and learning amongst the new reps (regardless of where they are located). The new hires are likely to receive lessons well when they come from their peers rather than their manager. So, make sure that you do these launch and learns at least once a month

4. Provide Training Content Repository

Training resources like product catalogs, customer case studies, sales playbooks, etc play a crucial role in bringing the new hires up to speed quickly. In order to get your new hires to use these resources, you need to make them easily understandable and accessible:

Here are some ways to provide a great training content repository for your new hires:

• Create various folders for various types of content. Like, dedicate one folder for product-related information, another one for market-related information, etc. This way the trainees can easily search and identify the content they are looking for.

• Encourage the trainers to transform the training content in various creative formats like infographics, animated videos, storyboards, creative ppts, etc, and upload them into the onboarding tool. When the content is presented creatively, it piques the interest of the trainees to learn it.

• Put together a content governance team who analyze what kind of content is working for people and what is not. What is being used frequently and what is not.

For instance, a certain piece of content might receive better viewership when it is presented as an infographic rather than as a short video. The content governance team should monitor the views and likes of all the content that is uploaded to the platform. Then, based on their findings, they should advise the content creators on how to improvise the content and make it more appealing to the audience.

5. Frequently measure engagement and progress of the new hires

In order to run the onboarding program successfully, the sales enablement team needs to measure each rep’s engagement and progress frequently. Here’s how to do that: Set metrics and track each new hires’ performance. Determine who is doing well and who is not doing well. Who is engaged and who is not. Then, share these insights with the training managers and ask them to closely work with the low performers and improve their performance.

Looking for a detailed new hire remote onboarding plan?

30-60-90 days New Hire remote Onboarding Plan

Want to gamify your onboarding?

5 Sales Contests for your Next Sales Onboarding Process
Gamified Onboarding: The Secret Sauce to Effectively Onboard Millennials and Gen Z

Looking for strategies to quickly onboard your new hires?

5 Strategies to Reduce Ramp-up Time for Your New Sales Recruits

More resources on sales enablement

How Sales Enablement can drive revenue growth in 2021?

Learn how sales enablement evolved in the year 2020

The Sales Enablement 2021 Yearly Planning Guide