Sales Onboarding & Turnover: Telecommunications

Sales Onboarding

Improving Speed to Sales Productivity and Reducing Unwanted Turnover

Client Case Study

Situation: Sales Onboarding

Struggling with unwanted sales rep attrition during a period of rapid change, this telecommunications client was missing growth targets and market opportunities to expand.  Sales leadership wanted to:

  • Increase sales to new clients.
  • Maintain their existing customer base.
  • Increase average deal size.
  • Reduce salesperson turnover.

Complications: Sales Onboarding

  • Transactional Mindset
    The existing sales force operated with a predominantly product-centric approach. They lacked the consultative selling capabilities required to diagnose underlying customer business challenges and position integrated, value-based solutions.
  • Slow and Inconsistent Speed to Productivity
    New hire ramp time — averaging 5 to 7 months — was misaligned with business expectations. In addition, performance variability across sales representatives was significant, indicating inconsistent skill development, onboarding effectiveness, and execution standards.
  • Unsustainable Sales Rep Attrition
    New-hire turnover among sales representatives reached 89%, signaling fundamental breakdowns in selection, onboarding, enablement, and early-stage support — resulting in substantial lost investment, decreased team morale, and disrupted revenue continuity.

Approach: Sales Onboarding

After confirming that the employee value proposition and hiring process were not root causes, the solution focused on four targeted initiatives designed to improve capability, consistency, and early-stage performance:

  1. Sales Leadership Enablement
    Delivered targeted sales management training and executive coaching to strengthen frontline leadership effectiveness — ensuring managers could reinforce expectations, coach to behaviors, and drive accountability.
  2. Consultative Selling Capability Build
    Implemented a customized consultative selling program to shift the sales force from a product-centric approach to diagnosing client needs and delivering integrated, value-based solutions.
  3. Sustained Reinforcement and Application
    Deployed a structured 12-week follow-through program to embed new skills through real-world application, coaching, and continuous feedback — closing the gap between training and execution.
  4. Measurement and Performance Tracking
    Established clear metrics to assess adoption, behavior change, and business impact — enabling training measurement and data-driven refinement to ensure a sustained return on investment.

Results
In three months:

  • 42% increase in average units sold per new sales rep.
  • 12% increase in average units price per sales rep.
  • 69% decrease in new hire sales turnover (from 89% to 28%).
  • 67% decrease in new sales rep ramp time (from 6 months to 2 months).

Related Information

LSA Global rocks! Thank you for helping our executive team get aligned by creating a powerful and clear strategic direction and go to market sales growth plan that we could all fully commit to.

From a sales growth perspective, I am really energized about the outcome and grateful for what I have learned throughout the strategic clarity facilitation process.

Stacey Wong
VP Sales

Servicon-Logo-LSAGlobal

LSA always delivers the right sales and sales management solutions to meet our unique needs. I especially appreciate their ability to deeply understand our business and our culture so that they can design the most valuable and impactful outcomes for us and our clients.

Sarah Parks
Senior Project Manager

Hyperion

We needed a way to improve customer training. We had to reach a disparate group of people in a very short period time. LSA gave us a new training methodology and a better way to go to market with our customer training that improved their experience and our brand positioning.

LSA delivered exactly what we needed and exceeded our expectations.  Thank you.

Hinda Chalew
Vice President of Marketing

LSA Global’s sales negotiation training and assessment process provided the sales negotiation tools and practices that have significantly enhanced our negotiations process. Their facilitators understood our business, its challenges, and framed the learning in a way that we understood.

I am very happy with the value we have received and would highly recommend LSA to others looking to improve their sales negotiations results.

Jeff Bizzack
President

Service Source

What a refreshing change from the half-baked psycho-babble you normally get from training and consulting organizations. LSA gives you the practical and results-oriented assistance you need to define and reach your goals.

Their leadership, management, and sales expertise has been invaluable.  They think strategically and provide a results driven plan – not just a temporary fix.

They are great to work with, and even more importantly, they “get it!”

David Fiano
Director of Merchandising

LSA’s introduction and continuous reinforcement of the MEDRAD objectives, vision, and mission were very impressive. The majority now understands and is openly able to verbalize these key items.

LSA did a wonderful job introducing the importance of sales coaching and reinforcement and was able to keep everyone focused.

Cindy Steffen
National Manager, Telesales

LSA is a great and high quality training and consulting resource. In less than a week turnaround time, they were able to design and deliver a ‘best in class’ inside sales solution to meet my team’s unique needs.

They definitely met my high expectations and were very responsive to my specific objectives.  Thank you!

Olivia Flach
Americas Retail Sales

Sandisk

We engaged with LSA Global to help our sales team identify opportunities to accelerate our commitment to sales excellence. The facilitator’s shared passion for our goals created a foundation for sales skill adoption, as did LSA’s keen understanding of our unique business environment.

This insight allowed LSA to deliver customized and impactful business sales training workshops which were adapted to reflect our specific business dynamics and provided our employees with the sales models and tools to leverage on every call with customers.

Grant Clarke
Director Client Delivery

Service Source

The sales strategy and goal setting session was right on target. It was a very valuable process that I highly recommend to any sales team looking to increase performance.

Thank you LSA Global!

Phil Rosenberg
Senior Vice President of Sales

LSA is an excellent sales and leadership outsource partner! They listen to our needs, are responsive, and work at a pace that keeps up with our rapid speed.

We have found LSA to bring strategic, innovative, and practical solutions to meet our business priorities by partnering effectively with our key staff. I consider them to be an important external extension of our team.

Thank you!

Wendy Chinn
Sr. Director, Global Sales Enablement

In an effort to establish a solid foundation of consultative selling skills for our client-facing teams that can be built on over time, we engaged with LSA Global. By understanding our business and our markets, LSA Global was able to design and deliver the relevant sales skills, tools, and processes that have established the foundation for our future success.

We are extremely satisfied with our decision to work with LSA.  Thank you!.”

Kevin Wiley
Chief Operating Officer

Nelnet

We engaged with LSA Global to deliver a highly customized sales territory planning and management workshop. They have a unique ability to quickly understand our business and needs. This keen understanding allowed for a sales solution that was specific and impactful.

Their sales consultants and facilitators were well prepared and ingrained themselves to become one of us. We’ve come to see LSA Global as a true sales partner.

Pratiksha Patel
Assistant Vice President Talent

L'Oreal

Originally, we launched a RFP to partner with a sales training provider to improve the sales skills of our global distributor network.

LSA Global challenged our thinking by suggesting we focus on the systemic sales strategy, culture, and talent factors that create sales success before we invested in the more symptomatic needs of sales skills and knowledge.

LSA Global identified the critical strategic actions to improve overall sales performance and then designed and delivered world class business sales training across the globe to help increase revenue and margin.

I’m so happy we took a more strategic approach to sales performance with LSA.  Thank you for making this fit our culture.

Kim Benson
Director Human Resources

Trimble

LSA was instrumental in making our worldwide sales meeting a success. They saved me a ton of time with ‘best in class’ solutions to meet our business objectives. Whenever I’m in a pinch, I can count on LSA’s dynamic team of sales trainers and consultants to really go the extra mile.

They truly understand the meaning of customer delight.  Thank you!

Amy Walker
Manager

Seagate

We selected LSA over a handful of other experts to assist with a key sales leadership imperative. LSA added value every step of the way throughout the entire engagement. Their customized approach to sales presentation training exceeded expectations, and we are excited about global implementation across our offices in more than 100 countries.

LSA’s unique Strategy-to-Results approach is an added game changer.  I recommend them to anyone looking to get high quality results when it matters most.

Eric Mugele
Executive Director Global Learning

Grant Thornton

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