At the start, practice matters more than knowledge
New field sales reps, new advisers in solar or prefab housing, new team members explaining a product for the first time: after a few weeks, they all visit customers on their own. The first 30 to 60 days are the phase with the most training, and whatever is missing then shows up in the conversation. The same applies when a whole team needs to learn a new product or topic.
Onboarding new sales reps mainly means teaching them the most common conversations before they have them with a customer for the first time. The hard part isn't the knowledge, it's the practice. Four things help:
First things first. From simple to difficult, in an order that builds step by step.
Practise often. Anyone who plays through the same conversation several times becomes more confident.
Practise without risk. People who are allowed to make mistakes in practice make fewer with customers.
Check in regularly. Someone has to see where new team members stand and where they get stuck.
With Fioro
With Fioro, every new team member has a mentor at their side
In Fioro new team members work through a training plan of roleplays and coaching sessions whose units build on each other. Every roleplay ends with an assessment against your playbook and on communication skills such as language and the way they lead the conversation. Where they are weaker, the coach suggests better wording and a suitable coaching session. In the admin area you follow who completes which exercises and what results they achieve.
Choose scenarios and coaching sessions and set the order. If you like, the coach also creates new ones for you.
Assign the plan to individuals or a whole team in one step.
At the end you can award a certificate.
What it looks like in Fioro
The training plan “Field sales onboarding” with five units and each person's progress.
Frequently asked questions
As a manager, how do I see where new team members stand and where they need practice?
A good onboarding plan shows the results of every practised conversation and where someone is not yet confident. With Fioro, you follow each person's progress in the training plan and see in the team dashboard how much is being practised in which scenario and coaching session.
How does Fioro support me as a manager with onboarding?
Training plans give your team a clear structure, and the Fioro coach supports every new team member individually, answers their questions and saves you time. Challenges also bring a topic to the whole team, and you can get ideas from the Fioro coach yourself, for example on how to shape the onboarding.
Can new team members start with the basics before practising whole conversations?
Yes, especially at the start it helps to train individual topics such as needs analysis or handling objections before tackling the whole conversation. In Fioro, coaching sessions on individual topics can be added to the training plan, so new team members gain confidence step by step.
How can AI help onboard new sales reps?
AI can provide realistic conversations to practise, give targeted feedback and make progress visible to the manager. The Fioro coach brings this together in a training plan of roleplays by voice, coaching sessions and an assessment based on your playbook.
From the Fioro Method
Lead by example
Chapter 4.3 · Read the chapter
About Fioro
Fioro is the AI coach for sales teams. You practise customer conversations in realistic roleplays and prepare real meetings with a coach that remembers every conversation.
