Ramp Up Time for Your New Sales Hire

In a perfect world, business owners and sales managers would love their new sales hires to “hit the road running.” Unfortunately, that expectation is wishful thinking. A successful sales hire only happens when 3 things come together . . . the right sales hire, the right sales training, and the right sales management. I have discussed this 3-Legged Sales Strategies in previous blogs.

A component of sales training and management is onboarding. Onboarding helps new hires adjust to the performance aspects of their jobs. In the sales world, we extend the onboarding process with a Ramp Up schedule. A Ramp Up schedule maps out how long it should take for the new sales hire to reach full quota. The Complete Guide to Inside Sales Analytics calls this a Ramping Quota and it looks something like this:

Onboarding Time + 3 Months + Average Sales Cycle Length = Length of Ramping Quota

Onboarding Time: Basic training/Bootcamp which could be intense for a week or longer.

3 Months: Minimum time it takes an average sales rep to sell anything well.

Average Sales Cycle Length: Many B2B sales cycles are 1-3 months or longer.

For example:
Your new sales hire has sold into your industry but with a different product. His first month is focused on onboarding, product training and sales training. Assuming a 4-month sales cycle, we will add four months. Now add the standard three months and your Ramping Quota becomes seven months. So, a realistic expectation is that it could be seven months before your new hire performs at full monthly quota.

Adding new sales professionals to your team is a substantial investment. If your new sales rep is not performing as quickly as you would like, best not to judge the quality of your new hire without evaluating the quality of your sales training, sales management and ramp up quotas.

If you want to hire the right salesperson who can meet realistic Ramp Up Quotas, give us a call at 317-578-1310.