Onboard Reps Properly and Practice with Them with Hana Elliot

Especially with SDRs, you have to remember that a lot of these folks are entry level. They're coming straight out of college, straight out of high school, straight out of a technical career. Maybe they're a total career switcher. Make sure that there's some element of tying them into the company culture too. Right. That can't be underestimated. Again, particularly in a remote environment where you can't just see it. You have to live it and feel it and be extra intentional and go extra mile to make sure people understand, like, what your company is all about. I think it's not setting aside the time to do it right. You know, especially with SDRs, you have to remember that a lot of these folks are entry level. They're coming straight out of college, straight out of high school, straight out of a technical career. Maybe they're a total career switcher who just hasn't had the experience of working in a sales environment before. And especially, I think it applies across the board, but especially in remote environments, they don't have that benefit of being able to look over at the next desk and see, oh, Katie's doing it this way. That's what I should do. Right. Like, they just don't have that opportunity to learn that you and I had coming up. Right. And so I think the answer is super simple. It's just the intentionality of setting aside the time to be there, and every day, twice a day, quick responses while someone's in that very critical first 90 days. And I can't blame people either, because while you're onboarding a new sdr, you're also held accountable to a number. You're also trying to manage your existing team and trying to be there for them as well. You've got some. So many other things going on. You know, I can't. I can't blame people who don't. Who aren't able to set aside the time that's needed. But that's what it is.

So let's touch on that then. They're busy. I don't think that's an excuse. So what should they do? All right, I'm busy. But you're also responsible for these people. So what should they be doing to either get it done or to free up time to make sure that their people are getting onboarded the right way? Because it's one of those chicken or the egg things. Like, I'm so busy that I can't onboard my. If I'm not onboarding my people, they're not going to succeed, which is only going to make me more stressed and more busy, and it's that never ending. So, like, what could they do to free up time or to make it work if they are strapped?

You know, first of all, I think it's a worthwhile exercise to look at the pipeline or revenue impact of not having a fully ramped SDR and seat, because that's what's going to help you prioritize your time. It's too easy to get caught up in the daily whirlwind, you know, to your point, and say, you know, I'm too busy. I. I just don't have time to do it. I have all these other things I'm doing. But once you see the financial impact of not having an SDR in seat, that's part of your forecast, that's part of your model, that's part of your, you know, revenue delivery for the rest of the year, then it makes it a lot easier to prioritize because it's very, very significant, I think most of us will find. So I think that's the first thing I would do, and then the second thing I would do too, is, again, it's simple. Before you even start hiring, make sure you have your first 90 days laid out. Go ahead and block your calendar for the first 90 days. Don't let other things creep up and take priority. And I say this because I've seen it, but I know how hard it is because I don't get it right all the time either. I'm onboarding people right now onto my team, and I don't get it right all the time. It's really hard to do, but it helps before the whole thing's even started, blocking your calendar, going ahead and setting up mentor relationships, going ahead and setting up buddy relationships. Because when it comes down to it, the whirlwind's gonna take over.

Abs. Absolutely.

Make sure that there's some element of tying them into the company culture too. Right. That can't be underestimated. Again, particularly in a remote environment where you can't just see it, you have to live it and feel it and be extra intentional and go. Go the extra mile to make sure people understand, like, what your company is all about. If they haven't been in this kind of work environment before, they don't know the cues to look out for. And, you know, the other thing I think and hope is kind of a duh thing, but is making sure that you're abundantly clear on expectations, from metrics, through activity, through professional behavior, meeting etiquette, slack etiquette, email etiquette, again, those are things I think that sometimes get over. You know what I think most people do have is month one, here's the number of meetings you set. Month two, here's the number. Month three, here's the number. But I don't think we're supporting our SDRs enough and like how to get to that number with those other expectations. Like this is what your month one is going look like. This is when you need to be at every single meeting on time or early. You know, this is how you respond to someone who helped you out. This is, you know, this is how quickly I expect responses on Slack. All those little things that add up to not only making sure someone really understands their job, but they understand the company and they understand what you're doing. Definition of a successful employee is because it isn't always just about the number, right? Obviously that's a enormous part of it, a thousand percent.

Right. And that's where I do think people forget, especially with FCR is like for a lot of them this may even be their first job job. And so like teaching them how to be a professional, right? Like what professional communication sounds like, what it means to have a full time job, right? Like you have to teach all of that. And I think that's where a lot of people miss is they forget all the things that they need to know in order to succeed. Like it's overwhelming the amount of, if, if anyone listening, if any, y' all sat down for just a second and wrote down all the things a rep on your team needs to know in order to succeed. You would change your onboarding tomorrow. Because if you're not teaching it and then also the next point I want to get into here, which is practice, right? If you're not teaching it and you're not practicing with them, how are they supposed to learn it? Like, no wonder it takes five, six months to ramp them up because it takes five, six months to learn these things. If it's just happening through the grapevine or like, you know, randomly versus being intentional.

Being ready is so subjective, you know, but you know, are there assessments that you can build in at checkpoints and milestones throughout their onboarding process to determine are they actually ready and you know, what are the make sure you know what you're looking for. Can they do X, Y and Z on a cold call practice with you?

Exactly. You know, if they can't do it in practice, they can't do it in the game. Like the benchmarks are actually very clear. If you can't pass a role play with your peer, with your mentor, self recorded or with your manager. I know once you get a prospect on, you're not so you're gonna freeze. It was so easy to know if they were ready or not. Is because if you can't do it in practice, you're not gonna pull Sam.