Sales rep onboarding: how to get a new rep on real calls by week two

Sales rep onboarding is everything between a new rep's first day and the day they're selling on their own. The time it takes has a name, ramp time, and on a small team every week of it is a week you're paying for a seat that isn't selling yet.

The usual first month is a pile of reading, a week of sitting in on calls and a vague "get comfortable with the product", and only then the phone. New reps come out of it knowing a lot and having done very little, and the first real calls in week five feel like week one.

A better plan swaps some of the reading for doing, early and in small steps, with a number each week so you both know how it's going.

A few things to have ready so the first day isn't spent waiting for logins:

• Their accounts: email, the CRM, the phone or dialler, the shared folder.
• A list of 50 to 100 real leads or past clients they'll call in week two, chosen by you.
• A written 30-day plan, like the one below, with their name on it.
• A buddy: a rep on the team who'll take their questions so every one doesn't come to you.
• Time in your diary: a short check-in every day for week one, and a weekly 1:1 after that.

Week 1: learn the buyer and the product

• Read the playbook, or sit with you while you explain who you sell to and the steps a deal goes through. The sales playbook template is a short one to write if you don't have one.
• Listen to five recorded calls: two good first calls, two that went badly, one that closed.
• Sit in on live calls with two different reps.
• End of week: they explain what you sell and to whom, in their own words, in two minutes.

Week 2: first real calls, with help

• Practise the opening and the first-call questions out loud with their buddy, twice a day.
• Make their first 10 to 20 calls from the list you prepared, with you or the buddy listening to some of them.
• Log every call, and write one line on what happened.
• End of week: a 30-minute review of three of their calls. Pick one thing to change next week.

Week 3: a full call block, on their own

• Build up to the team's daily call number, or half of it if the full number is a stretch.
• Book their first meetings, and bring you or the buddy to the first one.
• Keep logging calls, meetings booked and follow-ups owed.
• End of week: check calls made against meetings booked. If it's lower than the team's usual rate, listen to more calls together.

Week 4: their own pipeline

• Run first meetings alone, and send their first proposal.
• Keep a follow-up list with a date on every item.
• Start the weekly 1:1 you'll keep for as long as they're on the team.
• End of week: agree the targets for the next 60 days. The 30-60-90 day sales plan template sets them out.

Closed deals come too late to tell you anything in the first month. Watch what comes first:

• Are they making the calls? Activity is the first thing to slip when a new rep is struggling or nervous.
• Is their meeting rate climbing week on week? Week two will be low. Week four should be closer to the team's.
• Are they logging and following up without being chased?
• Are their questions getting more specific? "How do I answer X when they say Y?" in week three is a good sign.

• Too much reading before any doing. Knowledge that hasn't been used on a call fades quickly.
• No list to call. A new rep sent to "find some leads" spends week two prospecting instead of practising calls.
• Waiting for the first deal to judge progress. By then, two months have gone.
• Only praise, or only fixes. Pick one thing that went well and one thing to change after each review.
• Onboarding that ends at day 30. The weekly 1:1 and the call reviews keep going for their first few months.