Seven Stories for New Hires to Drastically Improve Ramp-up Time

Today’s post is by Chris Wade, co-founder and CEO of Traena.

 

 

If only you could clone your veterans and top performers (or yourself)! They have the experience, industry insights, and relevant customer success stories that seamlessly guide customers along their buying journey. Your new hires are trying hard, but there’s just no way for them to make up for the gap in knowledge needed to deliver at the same level until they rack up years of experience, right?

Wrong. Fortunately, you can drastically reduce that ramp-up time by arming your new hires with the stories they need to win. Stories are how we put events in perspective and understand why things are the way they are.

Whenever we communicate with stories, we give our audience a big mental hook to latch onto in order to understand the key point. Conversely, when facts and ideas are presented theoretically, they become the mental equivalent of greased watermelon – nothing to grab onto and remember the main point with.

Odds are, your new hires aren’t equipped with the stories your veterans deploy so well to win. Here are seven categories of stories you can easily start sharing today to invest in the development of your new hires and eliminate the knowledge gap.

1. Customer case studies: Who are some specific customers whose lives your company has made significantly better? How exactly are you helping them? Be proud and show off!
   
   
2. Competitor breakdowns: Who are your top competitors? How do you stack up against them? Are you younger and more nimble? Older and more experienced? What are some examples where you have beaten them? Where they have beaten you? What is your market share? How has that changed over time?
   
   
3. Founding vision: Why did the founders start the company? What did the world look like before your company existed? What is the current 10-year plan? How do you make the world a better place? Give a vision of which your team (and your customers) will be proud to be part.
   
   
4. Company history: How has your company gotten to where it is today? What have been the major wins? When were things not going well? Maybe on the brink of collapse? How did you get through?
   
   
5. Market overview: How big is your company’s market? Is it highly competitive and fragmented or dominated by a few large players? How has that changed over time? What are the major changes going on currently?
   
   
6. Problem statement: Help put your team in your customers’ shoes. What problem does your company solve? Who does your company help?
   
   
7. Strategy overview: How does your company go to market? What’s the marketing strategy? The sales strategy? On what is your CEO focused this year?
   

Arming your team with these stories and telling them what they should be highlighting to prospects will give them the tools they need to succeed, facilitate more rapid personal development, engender more loyalty, and more firmly establish alignment with the company vision and goals.