When they work, onboarding programs improve salesperson productivity and new hire success rates, which can profoundly impact overall sales organization performance. Yet onboarding approaches vary in scope, intensity, and outcomes across firms. This study offers a survey of onboarding practice in business-to-business sales organizations, identifies onboarding program elements that contribute to success, and quantifies onboarding’s business impact.
Based on data from more than 100 firms, our study shows wide variation in onboarding program effectiveness. For more than 60% of firms, sales onboarding success lags management expectations. This results, in part, from onboarding programs’ insufficient structure, and inconsistent application.
An initial review of findings was alsofeatured in a webcast, which may be viewed here.
