Sales Onboarding Playbook

A planned first 60 days for a new salesperson: learning the offer, shadowing, practice conversations, supported conversations with real customers, first goals and weekly reviews, built on honest selling.

Who it is for

• Sales managers bringing a new salesperson onto the team.

• Business owners who do most of the selling and are hiring their first salesperson.

• Experienced salespeople asked to train and support a new hire.

• Managers of roles where selling is part of the job: service advisors, treatment coordinators, estimators and front desk staff.

• HR and training staff who support sales hiring in a small business.

The problem it solves

New salespeople are often handed a price list and a phone and left to learn on real customers. They guess at prices and dates, make promises the business cannot keep, and fall back on pressure when they do not yet know how to find the need or answer a concern. This playbook gives you four phases and eight steps: prepare before day one, teach the offer with offer cards and offer checks, teach the sales process, structured shadowing, practice conversations, supported conversations, first goals that reward learning and quality before results, and weekly reviews ending in a Day 60 decision. It uses the Four-Step Sale™, TRUE™, SAFE™ and TEND™, proprietary methods of KA Company, and it teaches no pressure tactics.

What is inside

• Copyright and License (page 2; 1 page)

• Part 1. How the first 60 days work (pages 3 to 4; 2 pages)

• Part 2. Step 1: Prepare before day one (pages 5 to 7; 3 pages)

• Part 3. Step 2: Teach the offer (pages 8 to 12; 5 pages)

• Part 4. Step 3: Teach the sales process (pages 13 to 15; 3 pages)

• Part 5. Step 4: Shadowing (pages 16 to 18; 3 pages)

• Part 6. Step 5: Practice conversations (pages 19 to 23; 5 pages)

• Part 7. Step 6: Supported conversations (pages 24 to 26; 3 pages)

• Part 8. Step 7: First goals (pages 27 to 29; 3 pages)

• Part 9. Step 8: Weekly reviews and the Day 60 review (pages 30 to 34; 5 pages)

• Part 10. Worked examples (pages 35 to 36; 2 pages)

• Part 11. Variations by setting (page 37; 1 page)

• Part 12. 60-day plan (page 38; 1 page)

• Part 13. Mistakes and FAQ (pages 39 to 40; 2 pages)

• Editable Word version of everything above (38 pages)

Every template is filled in once for a new estimator at a window and door company. Worked examples follow a furniture shop, a hearing care clinic and a commercial cleaning company, with variations for retail, clinics, event venues, trades, business services, wholesale and phone or online sales.

How to use it

1. Read Part 1 for the four phases, the roles and the KA sales methods used throughout.

2. Prepare the tools, the buddy and the 60-day plan before the new salesperson starts.

3. Work through Steps 1 to 8. Each step explains what to do, why it matters and how to do it well, then gives you a template and a filled-in example.

4. Use the week-by-week plan in Part 12 as the calendar, and move to each new phase when the checks are met.

Formats and file types

• Printable PDF (40 pages), US Letter.

• Editable Word file (.docx, 38 pages) with all eleven templates and filled-in examples.

Frequently asked questions