In the dynamic world of sales, the hiring process plays a pivotal role in shaping the success of both sales employees and their managers. One often overlooked aspect of this process is the inclusion of sales enablement. By focusing on aligning hiring practices with sales enablement efforts, we can unlock the potential for enhanced onboarding experiences and empower our managers to achieve greater success. Let’s explore the importance of sales enablement to the hiring process and how it contributes to the overall success of onboarding and manager performance.
Identify Each Team’s Seller Persona
Identifying a sales team’s persona involves understanding the team’s common characteristics, skills, and traits. Assess the existing team’s competencies and identify areas for improvement or skill gaps. Don’t forget to consider the market and customer dynamics in which your sales team operates. Understand the challenges and opportunities that arise from these factors and identify the traits and skills necessary to navigate them successfully. This could include skills like prospecting, relationship building, negotiation, product knowledge, communication, and problem solving. Most importantly, we must engage with sales leadership and management to gain their perspectives on their team’s persona. They can provide valuable insights into the desired characteristics and behaviors that align with the organization’s sales strategy and goals.Create a Seamless Onboarding Experience
Once new talent is hired, their onboarding experience can significantly affect their ability to ramp up and succeed. A sales enablement team ensures the onboarding program provides the necessary resources, training, and support to enable new hires to quickly adapt to their roles. Any onboarding program must align to the skills, challenges, and organizational goals identified in the seller persona exercise, because hiring directly affects an onboarding program’s success. Hiring candidates with the right skills, cultural fit, and team dynamics sets the stage for a smooth onboarding experience. Strategic hiring decisions facilitate knowledge transfer, enable effective manager support, and contribute to employee retention and engagement. By prioritizing the hiring process and aligning it with the goals of the onboarding program, you can enhance the success of your onboarding initiatives and set new hires up for long-term success.Provide Tailored Learning Experiences
Including sales enablement in the hiring process helps teams recognize that each sales employee has unique strengths and areas for improvement. By leveraging assessments and evaluations during the hiring stage, you can gain insights into individual skill gaps and develop tailored training programs. Assessments and thorough interview approaches allow you to create targeted skill development initiatives that address specific needs, resulting in higher performance and increased sales effectiveness.Once an offer is extended, a positive pre-boarding experience can give new employees a glimpse of what their training experience will feel like. Pre-boarding can provide essential information and a connection to an organization before day one. You can include welcome emails, company resources, a pre-boarding checklist, and a personalized welcome from their new team or even from the enablement team. Often, new hires don’t meet the enablement team in the interview process, so a photo of the team they’ll meet on day one is a great way to reduce confusion or concern.
Continuous Learning
Onboarding should be viewed not as a one-time event but rather as ongoing and continuous. Incorporating sales enablement into the hiring process sets the stage for a culture of enablement and continuous improvement. By hiring individuals who align with the organization’s sales enablement goals and values, companies can foster a sales-centric environment where sales enablement practices are consistently reinforced, leading to longevity of success and better business outcomes.Including sales enablement in the hiring process is vital for the success of both onboarding and sales managers. By identifying your sales team personas, providing a seamless onboarding experience, and tailoring learning, you can foster a culture of continuous learning and elevate the overall performance of the sales teams. And by recognizing the importance of sales enablement in the hiring process, your organization can set itself apart in the ever-evolving sales landscape.
