We had a new sales intern starting about 10 days ago. This was the occasion to dive into some relevant advice from David Cummings I read a while back.
The first 30 days for a new sales rep is all about shadowing existing team members as well as training with the sales manager. Then, by the end of the month, it’s time for live calling and prospecting. Training is a critical part of the sales rep on-boarding process.
Logically followed by the need for statups to develop a sales playbook:
The sales team should be working towards a reproducible, and profitable, sales process. As part of that iteration, a sales playbook should be at the top of the sales manager or entrepreneurs list of items. A sales playbook is the how-to manual for a sales rep.
Last but not least, interesting advice about connecting the Product to the Wallet:
Last week I was talking with an entrepreneur about their new product focus. After digging in, he volunteered something that really stuck with me: their new direction connects the product with the wallet in a way it never was before. Similar to the idea of candy, pain-killers, or vitamins, products that can clearly demonstrate an increase in revenue for the customer are more desirable.
With a good ROI demonstrator, pretty much every product should be able to do this. It is one of the keys of a successful sales process.