How to Boost Sales Performance through Employee Onboarding: Climb aboard!
Think about the last time you travelled. Be it by plane, boat or train it probably went something like this:
Check In. Walk on. Sit down. Soak up. Settle in. Get going.
Someone may even have said, “Welcome aboard!”
I like to think of Employee Onboarding a little like that. Meant to inform, train and familiarize a company’s recently acquired personnel in their new work environment, Onboarding acts as a transition period for an employee. Many companies have adopted Onboarding in order to decrease employee turnaround and maximize the success and loyalty of its employees. While XANT Onboarding has succeeded in these endeavors, I think it has accomplished even more.
As an alumnus (class of July 2012, thank you!) of XANT’s most recent Onboarding, I have a rather fresh perspective. My feelings after two weeks of “soaking up and settling in” during Onboarding can be summed up thus: I. Am. Sold. Granted, we are in the Inside Sales industry and our company is managed by some of the best sales professionals you’ll find anywhere. That said, I’m a pretty tough customer.
Before I decided to come to XANT I did my research and discovered that XANT is one of the fastest-growing companies in the nation, an industry leader and data-driven. I came to XANT interested in the research process and opportunity for growth. Two weeks of Onboarding slid me up the scale from mildly interested to largely invested.
I’ve divided XANT Onboarding into three categories:
Technical Training:
CEO Dave Elkington instructed the Onboarding team to become “technophiles” and evolve into industry experts at XANT. Three-and-a-half days of grueling instruction on the XANT and Salesforce.com CRMs and the PowerDialer for Salesforce.com kept us busy. Everyone passed the certification exams and we were officially certified in XANT products. The best part? Not everyone in Onboarding works with these products all the time, and in some cases, rarely. This proved that XANT believes in and is committed to its product to the extent that they require every employee, regardless of their position, to know the ins and outs. Have I applied these technical skills to my duties in the Education department? Absolutely.
Raw Knowledge:
XANT’s Onboarding process included a staggering amount of new information. The President of the company, Ken Krogue, spent a day and a half teaching all about the history and founding of XANT, key research about lead response management, the model used at XANT to nurture leads and the practical philosophies that govern what we do at XANT. We learned to differentiate between customer satisfaction and loyalty, how the Net Promoter System tracks promoters and detractors of XANT, all about what the Lead Response Management Study showed about increasing contact rates and could teach you about the C.L.O.S.E.R. model (one of XANT’s secrets to success). We discovered the genius behind XANT.
“Pump-Up”:
There was an air of entrancement as executives painted the picture of XANT’s impact on the Inside Sales industry. My notes are full of models, graphs, charts, and brand new vocabulary that were uniquely developed by XANT professionals. We learned that the company is in hyper-growth, translating into serious opportunities for every one of us–and were given the secret to success at XANT. The enthusiasm of the XANT employees, fast pace in implementation and brilliant development of technology were key to getting everyone “on board.” Ken and other presenters succeeded in turning us into XANT believers.
What successes have you seen from employee onboarding? Has it helped your employees become more productive, faster? Let us know in the comment box!
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