On-Boarding Done Wrong
For the three, maybe four, of you who actually read this blog, you already know that exactly one month ago I started a new job. It's in an industry I never thought I'd work in, which I explained to the owner of the company when he asked me to come on board.
Having worked in sales before, there was nothing out of the ordinary about Problem or Solution. These are actually pretty rote for any sale process, although they're called by many other names in many other training programs. Some Problems can take multiple meetings to discover, or they may be known before the first meeting even occurs. If you're lucky you have a lead generation process in place and those leads are already aware they have a problem and they're seeking a solution.
With years of experience in business-to-business sales, this Icebreaker step in their process kind of threw me off guard. In B2B sales, you generally have a cold calling script that should take 15 to 20 seconds max: who are you, who do you represent, your credentials and what your company does. For example, if you're selling HR software for Company A you might have a cold calling script that reads like this:
After they've answered your questions the next step is to bring your company's solutions as a savior: we specialize in working with rapidly growing companies who are trying to accurately track their employee's time in an easy to understand GUI interface. Our software automatically flags employee accounts who are approaching their maximum allotted time off so that management teams are notified and we automatically update federal and state employment statutes as they go into effect so you have them at your fingertips.
And yet, per my new Sales Manager, (1) introducing yourself is wrong, (2) mentioning your company is wrong and (3) telling your contact/lead why you're calling on them is wrong. As he stated, you don't tell them anything about yourself until they're ready to sign. Instead, you icebreak - you talk about anything and everything except why you're there.
Now, I'm no stranger to striking up a conversation with someone and talking with them about nearly anything under the sun before turning the conversation to the proverbial problem and solution, but this is generally at an industry or networking event, or randomly off the street. When you're literally knocking on their door, interrupting their day, the last thing people want is for you to talk about the weather and engage in small talk for no apparent reason. And yet, this was exactly what I was being told to do: knock on their door and talk about anything other than what you're actually there for - don't mention the product/service at all.
After the couple of hours of training on I.P.S. we literally went out on the street and knocked on doors. At this point I still had absolutely zero knowledge about what I was selling. I didn't have the most basic understanding of what the industry history was, the products were or how to talk about them with the prospects and was repeatedly told by the Sales Manager and owner, "You'll pick it up."
And over the next few days I did indeed picked up terms and phrases, but no real training on the product or the service. Then everything changed: conditions shifted and it was all hands on deck as we scrambled to take advantage of the situation, which was fine except I still didn't know what was going on. To add insult to injury, the Sales Manager essentially abandoned me as he ran off to, as he put it, "hunt his whales." Even though I was required by contract to share my first five sales' commissions with him, he was more concerned with closing his own deals than helping me get up to speed so I could close my own.
In the end I closed a couple, but they were more happy accidents than anything I actually caused to happen and without the support of the Sales Manager/trainer. Yet, I was still forced to split my commissions with him anyway, even when he wasn't in the same city.
Afterwards I'm being told by the company owner, Jason B, that not having the product and service knowledge shouldn't be stopping me from closing deals and that my training manager's "hunting whales" was preferential to diversifying sales channels. In other words, he'd rather untrained and ill-informed newbie go out and hunt whales rather than having us (me) out there going after bread and butter, gaining experience and confidence in the industry.
Needless to say, it's been a month and I still don't have the certainty in what I'm doing to feel comfortable in what I'm trying to sell. Not only due to the inadequate training, but the lack of having the entire sales process explained properly. Well, up until just this past Tuesday, that is. What should have, in my opinion, been explained on Day 1 wasn't explained until a month later.
So, let me ask you: how do you send sales people out, without product knowledge and training, and expect them to sell?
I will say, he was extremely understanding. He took my misgivings and accepted them as par-for-course in regards to how this particular industry is viewed. The owner then went on and explained how he worked for one of those "less than ethical" companies that gave the industry a bad name and decided it wasn't for him. Not that he didn't like the industry, but that he didn't particularly care for the shadier dealings that ran rampant within it.
And so, he started his own company.
This is capitalism in action. If there's a hole, the market will fill it. The owner, Jason B., saw where the entire industry was failing their customers and decided he could do better. He could treat people fair, provide them quality service and top-tier results.
And that attracted me to the company. (Of course, the promise of a big paycheck didn't hurt, either.)
Sadly, that's where the positive experiences stopped. Okay, I'll admit, that was a bit harsh. The company is still a good company and the senior leadership's desire to be better than their competition is still their modus operandi, however their onboarding was less than stellar - especially in my case.
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| Photo Slightly Related |
Let me start at the beginning.
I walked into the office on the morning of May 1, exactly one month to the day ago as I sit here writing this. The Sales Manager, Tom, was going to teach me their "proven" sales technique. It was just me and him in the conference room as he stood up, walked over to the white board and wrote:
IWe spent the next couple of hours - with many distractions and side-tracks - discussing I.P.S. or, Icebreaker, Problem, Solution.
P
S
Having worked in sales before, there was nothing out of the ordinary about Problem or Solution. These are actually pretty rote for any sale process, although they're called by many other names in many other training programs. Some Problems can take multiple meetings to discover, or they may be known before the first meeting even occurs. If you're lucky you have a lead generation process in place and those leads are already aware they have a problem and they're seeking a solution.
With years of experience in business-to-business sales, this Icebreaker step in their process kind of threw me off guard. In B2B sales, you generally have a cold calling script that should take 15 to 20 seconds max: who are you, who do you represent, your credentials and what your company does. For example, if you're selling HR software for Company A you might have a cold calling script that reads like this:
Hello, My name is Jason Nungesser with Company A. We're a HR software company with six years disrupting the industry as we help growing companies meet their HR needs. We excel at payroll, time tracking and legal standards.Here we've established who I am, who I represent and what we do. From there you launch into your probing questions, which might be: Is your company growing? Do you find yourself struggling to keep up with HR needs such as tracking employee hours and time off? How do you stay up to date on changing employment law?
After they've answered your questions the next step is to bring your company's solutions as a savior: we specialize in working with rapidly growing companies who are trying to accurately track their employee's time in an easy to understand GUI interface. Our software automatically flags employee accounts who are approaching their maximum allotted time off so that management teams are notified and we automatically update federal and state employment statutes as they go into effect so you have them at your fingertips.
And yet, per my new Sales Manager, (1) introducing yourself is wrong, (2) mentioning your company is wrong and (3) telling your contact/lead why you're calling on them is wrong. As he stated, you don't tell them anything about yourself until they're ready to sign. Instead, you icebreak - you talk about anything and everything except why you're there.
Now, I'm no stranger to striking up a conversation with someone and talking with them about nearly anything under the sun before turning the conversation to the proverbial problem and solution, but this is generally at an industry or networking event, or randomly off the street. When you're literally knocking on their door, interrupting their day, the last thing people want is for you to talk about the weather and engage in small talk for no apparent reason. And yet, this was exactly what I was being told to do: knock on their door and talk about anything other than what you're actually there for - don't mention the product/service at all.
After the couple of hours of training on I.P.S. we literally went out on the street and knocked on doors. At this point I still had absolutely zero knowledge about what I was selling. I didn't have the most basic understanding of what the industry history was, the products were or how to talk about them with the prospects and was repeatedly told by the Sales Manager and owner, "You'll pick it up."
And over the next few days I did indeed picked up terms and phrases, but no real training on the product or the service. Then everything changed: conditions shifted and it was all hands on deck as we scrambled to take advantage of the situation, which was fine except I still didn't know what was going on. To add insult to injury, the Sales Manager essentially abandoned me as he ran off to, as he put it, "hunt his whales." Even though I was required by contract to share my first five sales' commissions with him, he was more concerned with closing his own deals than helping me get up to speed so I could close my own.
In the end I closed a couple, but they were more happy accidents than anything I actually caused to happen and without the support of the Sales Manager/trainer. Yet, I was still forced to split my commissions with him anyway, even when he wasn't in the same city.
 |
| Photo Also Slightly Related |
Afterwards I'm being told by the company owner, Jason B, that not having the product and service knowledge shouldn't be stopping me from closing deals and that my training manager's "hunting whales" was preferential to diversifying sales channels. In other words, he'd rather untrained and ill-informed newbie go out and hunt whales rather than having us (me) out there going after bread and butter, gaining experience and confidence in the industry.
Needless to say, it's been a month and I still don't have the certainty in what I'm doing to feel comfortable in what I'm trying to sell. Not only due to the inadequate training, but the lack of having the entire sales process explained properly. Well, up until just this past Tuesday, that is. What should have, in my opinion, been explained on Day 1 wasn't explained until a month later.
So, let me ask you: how do you send sales people out, without product knowledge and training, and expect them to sell?
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