Sales Induction

Welcome to the first of our sales induction blogs. Over the coming weeks, we will discuss the importance, challenges and opportunities associated with successful sales induction programmes. Here we look at the real costs of bringing on new salespeople.

Sales talent hiring at any business can mean the difference between mid-term growth and stagnation. Through our time working with many sales organisations, we have developed deep insight into the challenges they face. This can be summarised in the following formula:

Cost + Time + Role Variance + Workforce Dispersion = Induction Pain

According to a 2016 study by iCIMS, the estimated cost of employee induction can be over £75,000 for each new hire – even before the costs of getting the new hire up to full productivity are taken into account.

Research in 2014 conducted by Amy Titus and Josh Haims found that the average time required, for new employees to reach full productivity can be 20 weeks for a professional and 26+ weeks for an executive.

Even when companies dedicate their efforts to successful induction and allocate sufficient resources to their induction programme, many still struggle to deliver a programme that meets the needs of their workforce.

According to ATD’s 2016 state of sales training report, one out of three talent development professionals cite time constraints and scheduling conflicts as a barrier to effective sales training.

These conflicts become more pronounced with the increase in remote workers and workforces spread across wide geographical areas.

Calculate your own company’s new sales hire costs

The costs of employing new salespeople and the time required for them to reach full productivity is of concern for any successful company. An effective induction and sales training programme will reduce this cost and the time to breakeven for every new salesperson.

Let’s take out the theoretical aspects, the estimates and the ‘average company’ and ‘average employee’. Let’s specifically look at your company and a salesperson on your payroll.

Please click through and take some time to calculate your own new sales hire costs and time to full productivity with our Sales Induction Cost Calculator. Afterwards, you’ll have a customised idea of the costs incurred by salesforce turnover and induction new hires.

Having a successful induction and sales training programme in place not only increases the speed to sales productivity but also provides improved retention and other benefits. We’ll examine those benefits in our next blog.

Join the conversation

We would like to hear from you – share your Sales Induction Cost Calculator results and join the conversation on Twitter, please follow us @Imparta.