How to get your new sales starters ramped quickly.

1. Making New Sales Hires
Productive Hires

2. Table of Contents
Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires
Getting New Starts To Be Productive 01
05
07
09
Qotient
www.qotient.com
It's no wonder that businesses look for their new
hires to quickly start generating revenue as soon
as possible.
Start With A Story
That simple act of having every employee
learn and be able to tell the same company
story is profound.
Why Stories Work
Stories create a connection between the teller
and the listener.
Creating Stories
Before digging in on writing narrative you're
probably going to want to create Talk-Tracks.
Join The Story Circle
Qotient is a conversation intelligence platform
that eliminates conversation variability.
11

3. www.qotient.com
It costs a lot to hire a new
salesperson. That's not
surprising and it's not new
news. It's pretty much a given
that a business will have to
absorb some costs of
installing, nurturing and
training a new hire. Even
seasoned professionals will
have to ride the learning curve
as they absorb a company's
products, culture and
customer contact
management systems. This
holds considerable risk for the
company. In fact, a 2012
study by DePaul University
Centre for Sales Leadership
put the average cost to hire,
train, and replace a salesperson
at $114,957. So, it's no wonder
that businesses look for their
new hires to quickly start
generating some return on this
investment as soon as
possible.
Makes sense right? Your
business invests in an employee
that's going to generate new
revenue, you expect to see a
return. If you're the hiring
manager, you're probably
thinking “Show me the money!”
Unfortunately, according to CSO
Insights, 67%
Getting New Starts
To Be Productive
Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

4. www.qotient.com
of companies report that it takes 7 or more months for new
sales people to become fully productive. As if that's not
shocking enough, Sales Readiness Group reports that the
average tenure of a sales person from the time they start a job to
the time they leave is less than 2 years. If you overlay those two
facts against a complex B2B selling environment, that can have
an 18 month sales cycle, it's obvious that you may never realize
a return on your shiny new hire.
Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires
Today, as the composition of
sales teams shift from Gen
X'ers to Millenials, it's
imperative to get new hires
ramped and productive as
quickly as possible. By the end
of 2016, it's expected that
Millennials will comprise 50%
of our workforce. That
generational shift will bring
with it less job commitment
and greater demand for high
quality, collaborative,
meaningful sales enablement
tools that can quickly make every salesperson a winner. As an
engaged sales manager, you're going to do this because
productivity affects more than just the individual:
Productive new starts turn into productive tenured employees –
there's a direct correlation between the productivity of an
employee and the length of time they're employed with an
organization.
Productivity decreases turnover – losing an employee, whether

5. Southwest Airlines is arguably one of the best examples of a well
run, employee-engaged and employee-committed company.
From it's beginnings in the early 1970s, with just three planes
shuttling between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio the airline
has been steadfast in offering friendly service, on-time
performance and an overall good value. Pundits will note all
types of strategic and
operational reasons for the
company's success, like their
adamant use of only one model
of airplane, the Boeing 737, but
those on the inside believe it's
the unity and shared
experience of all their
www.qotient.com
by their own decision or the organization's is always disruptive
as other employees stop to ask “why?” Productive employees
have a lower turnover rate.
Productivity means recovering investment sooner – getting an
employee productive, even one month sooner, can have a
compounding affect on investment recovery and help to ensure
additional sales activity.
Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires
Start With A
Story

6. www.qotient.com
employees that makes the difference. Southwest differentiates
itself by their culture, which is one that all their employees live.
The next time you have the chance, ask a Southwest employee
to recite the company's vision, purpose, or values. You’ll not only
be surprised that they can, but that they take it seriously and
that they do it uniformly. Employees from maintenance to
ground crews and pilots all know, live and can tell a singular
version of the Southwest story.
Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires
So, what does Southwest have to do with developing new hires?
The answer lies in their company story. That simple act of having
every employee learn and be able to tell the same company story
is profound. It is the thing that promotes unity within the
organization. As a result of that shared experience the company
not only defines its culture, but also promotes “belonging”. If you
think back to our shifting workforce, and their requirement for
collaboration, this is a clear opportunity to fulfill that need. If you
need more proof of the effects of belonging, think about how you
might feel if you showed up at the company retreat wearing a
business suite and everyone else was in shorts and a t-shirt. You'd
probably feel like you didn't belong. Reading from the same hymn
book, so to speak, promotes strong bonds between employees and
with the organization.

7. www.qotient.com
Try this the next time you
really need to get a person to
listen to you. Rather than
simply launching into your
narrative, look the person
directly in the eye and ask
them "can I tell you a story?"
Now, pause, seriously don't
say a word, but watch that
person's reaction. Chances
are, you'll see their posture
shift to one that's more
relaxed, their shoulders may
settle or the furrow in their
brow disappears. Those six
simple words signal a
physiological response in
most us that's been ingrained
from childhood. If you've had
the opportunity to read to a
young child, you've almost
certainly experienced this type
of response.
Stories create a connection
between the teller and the
listener. There's a certain
vulnerability that's conveyed by
asking for the permission to tell
someone a story. In turn, that
vulnerability is met with an equal
level of vulnerability by the
receiver. Scientists call this
connection limbic resonance
and is the result, at least
partially, of the release of
Why Stories
Work
Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

8. www.qotient.com
dopamine, long known as the “feel good” chemical, into our
body's systems. That's right, stories make us feel good. Imagine
the power that could have on your next sales call.
To take this just one step further, let's look at the work of Uri
Hasson, a neuroscientist based at Princeton University, who
researches the neurological basis of human communication and
storytelling. Using Functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) , he has revealed that in storytelling, the brain activity of
the listener is almost identical to the brain activity of the teller.
What's even more amazing is that his studies have also shown
that this connection is perpetuated by the meaning that's being
conveyed, not necessarily the sounds. Imagine if your new hire
was able to convey the same meaning to prospective customers
and in turn illicit the same customer connection as your most
experienced sales person – it seems that would go a long way
toward making your new hire productive.
Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

9. www.qotient.com
Are you ready to start developing some stories? Given the power of
stories, that's not surprising. Before digging in on writing narrative,
however, you're probably going to want to start with creating some
Talk-Tracks. Talk-Tracks are conversation guides that begin with
the organization as a whole. In developing these, you'll gain
consensus about your stories and about the required components
of each sales conversation or story.
Talk-Tracks will become your organization's guide for having
conversations with customers. By following these, conversations
become more standardized and have a definitive beginning and a
destination. This eliminates conversation variability, so your entire
sales team will have uniform conversations that convey the same
meaning and create a consistent neurological connection with
customers. Here's a great template for creating your own
Talk-Tracks.
Creating
Stories
Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

10. Remember, you're looking to build belonging as well as
consistency in implementing this storytelling approach, so get
the entire sales team, (new hires and veterans alike), together as
a group to brainstorm and define your organization's
Talk-Tracks. You'll think about which conversations are most
frequently held and then think about the ideal flow of that
conversation. An added benefit of this inclusive approach is that
most people are more apt to adopt a tool that they helped to
create.
Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

11. www.qotient.com
Let's face it, sales managers can't be on every sales call to
observe their sales representatives and listen to every
conversation that's being had with customers. Even if they could
somehow tap into those conversations remotely by audio or
video, joining every conversation held by every member of their
team would quickly become impractical.
So, how does a sales manager ensure that storytelling and
customer conversations are happening as they're supposed to?
How do they join that story circle? One solution that
organizations often turn to is simply creating a library or
repository for sales enablement tools. Often these collections
take the form of an online portal or maybe the content is delivered
via Salesforce.com or some other CRM system. While these
solutions have a place, they can become crammed with content
and, on their own, will not facilitate performance of the sales
representative or drive conversation consistency. Recall again
the Millennial sales force that's not going to stand for uninspired
technology or valueless content. So what's the answer?
Joining The
Story Circle
Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires

12. www.qotient.com
Qotient is a a conversation intelligence platform available from
any device, anywhere that helps eliminate conversation variability
and benefits stakeholders across channels, sales and marketing
teams. The platform delivers benefits to any organization in four
key areas:
DELIVERY
Qotient delivers a library of Talk Tracks including insights, sales
questions, and supporting marketing collateral into the hands of
the sales team. Sales teams then use these Talk Tracks to assist
them in converting sales calls into opportunities. The Qotient
sales workspace is designed to be used unobtrusively in their
face to face meetings or phone calls.
Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires
Amplify Your New Starts
With Qotient

13. Making New Sales Hires Productive Hires
ENABLEMENT
Qotient enables new hires and broader sales teams to all have the
most effective sales conversations. The conversations the best
sales person is having can be scaled across the whole team in a
very simple way. Sales people can log outcomes in CRM instantly
saving valuable time usually spent in the office.
MEASUREMENT
Sales Managers are able to dynamically control the messaging to
the market as sales teams use conversations in the field. Qotient
helps enterprises understand the effectiveness of propositions
through dashboards and insights. Qotient provides real time
access to market trends, as seen by the sales team.
ACCELERATION
Use real time data to dynamically evolve and improve the sales
process, easily accelerate conversations through adjustment and
testing. Qotient creates a culture of learning and continual sales
improvement through outcome clarity and communication.
Book your demo today at
www.qotient.com