Best practice for running an effective salesperson onboarding programme

6th July 2015 |   Roger Brooksbank, Duncan Steel and Zahed Subhan

New research suggests the most successful programmes pursue a calculated blend of sales training and coaching activities.

Best practice for running an effective salesperson onboarding programme

The bar has been raised. In a world where businesses are becoming increasingly proficient at managing a range of multi-channel, multi-touch and highly customer-focused interactions, how can we ensure that our newly recruited salespeople measure up to customers’ expectations? Toward this end, many firms make a significant up-front investment in some form of sales induction programme for their new recruits. Yet despite an emerging recognition of the strategic importance of leveraging a company’s personal selling efforts in today’s marketplace, little research to date has considered how best to deploy the training and coaching activities that typically combine to form the basis of a salesperson onboarding programme. Accordingly, this article reports upon recent research that profiles the key components of success.

Roger Brooksbank

Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Waikato | + posts

Roger Brooksbank BA, MBA, Dip M, PhD is currently Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, with previous experience as a sales executive, sales manager, sales and marketing manager, marketing director and business owner. His research interests lie in all aspects of strategic marketing and business competitiveness and he is the author or co-author of over 200 publications in these areas, including six books. He has also acted as an independent marketing consultant, seminar leader, conference speaker or sales trainer to more than 90 clients throughout Europe and Australasia in both the private and public sectors. In his role as a professional educator, Roger has taught a variety of marketing courses at all levels and he is a recipient of his School’s Outstanding Teaching Award.

Duncan Steel

+ posts

Duncan Steel is a strategic adviser to the financial services industry working with private, corporate, commercial and consumer banks to build and sustain sales force effectiveness.

Zahed Subhan

Clinical Professor at Drexel University | + posts

Zahed Subhan is Clinical Professor at Drexel University’s Close School of Entrepreneurship, Philadelphia, USA: zs86@drexel.edu.