Has business been good lately? Are you ready to hire some new employees? Hopefully you have a plan in place to train them in a consistent manner. Sometimes small businesses think they can get away with having a less uniform training process. Don’t fall prey to this type of thinking. You should have a set plan in place for training new employees at your energy broker business. This helps you avoid any mix-ups, contradictions, or times when someone flat out tells you, “I didn’t know I had to do that.” At BOX, we’re all about helping energy broker businesses succeed, so we thought we’d pass along some tips for training your employees.
Don’t Over (Or Under) Do It
Too much information at once will overwhelm a new employee. They’re already feeling anxious about starting a new job with new responsibilities, so don’t lay it all on them at once and expect them to remember everything. On the other hand, be clear about what you expect them to learn and be prepared for. You’re selling energy, so that means employees should be up to date on the industry and have good working knowledge to deal with any questions from clients.
Utilize Field Training
It’s easy to point to a certain situation and say, “Here’s what to do,” or “Here’s what to say,” but if you want to successfully train your employees to make sales, then they have to get out and actually do it. This doesn’t mean throwing them into the fire immediately, but bring them along on a meeting, or have them in the room on a sales call. Early on, you might think about pairing them with one of your most successful salespeople. This will give them some confidence, and they can see questions and conversations that they need to be ready for when they begin on their own.
Give Them Feedback
Again, this means you can’t just show them a PowerPoint and then decide that’s good enough. Listen in on sales calls or let them take the lead in a meeting with a client, and then give them feedback about what worked and what didn’t. You can’t expect someone to read your mind, and your new employees will become experienced much faster if you let them work with training wheels for a brief time.
Share Success
New employees are always going to be looking for tips on how to get more sales. When one of your more experienced employees does well, share their success story and any tips they felt helped them make that sale. This will help bolster confidence and provide some incentive to do better.
Give Them The Best Tools
You can’t expect your employees to perform their best if you’re working with software that is confusing or unhelpful. That’s why we created Energy Engine. We wanted to give energy brokers a tool that allows them to accomplish everything related to sales, contract sourcing, compliance, and management. With a tool like Energy Engine, your employees will have access to everything they need to do an incredible job. So contact us today if you’d like to hear more about how Broker Online Exchange and the power of Energy Engine can help your business.
