83 Key Takeaways • Onboarding is a tool for sales managers to fully integrate a new hire with their sales team and to begin the type of development that leads to top performance. It hasn’t always existed, and it needs to be implemented effectively to have a truly positive impact. • Onboarding also needs to be a process that can be personalized at a certain level. Everyone has different ways of learning, and you want to optimize the knowledge and experience that onboarding can provide. • Take this time to ensure new hires are integrated into the company on a personal level and begin to develop a sense of belonging. This may require personally coaching them, enabling mentorship, or something as simple as ensuring they’ve met everyone they’ll be working with. • Providing challenges and opportunities to maximize the use of their talents is also vital to a sales- person’s professional development. Be sure you understand their strengths and weaknesses. • In-field observation and coaching is important, even for top talent. There’s always opportu- nities for improvement and new insights for how to approach a sale. • Top performance doesn’t occur in a vacuum, and professional success cannot be separated from personal needs and goals. Be sure you’re developing the kind of relationship that allows you to motivate your team based on their individual and personal goals. • Company culture is vital to enabling top performance. Salespeople need to feel like they be- long, that they can depend on each other and their manager, and that they can be comfort- able sharing aspects of their personal lives. Make a place where they can flourish. • Recognize your own limitations with regard to coaching and understand that you cannot shape a salesperson into something they are not. When you have a great employee who can’t meet the goals associated with their position, be open to considering whether you’re misapplying their talents. Work to identify how they ought to be utilized instead. belonging. That is why I have stayed where I am and am able to have frank and open discussions with my manager because he lives this philosophy." As we mentioned above, salespeople want to know that their personal goals matter; it’s why they care about base income and working for a company that invests in them as much as they invest into the company. They aren’t just working to add to the business’ bottom line, rather, they want to be able to afford education or care for their loved ones, and lead lives that are fulfilled by more than sim- ply making sales. The right company culture enables your team to support each other and actually show them that they matter to the company.