Onboarding

Onboarding is the plan for a new seller's first weeks. It covers what they learn, whom they shadow, which deals they get and when they work alone. Without a plan, the new hire learns from whoever sits nearby, and picks up their habits too.

It lives in a short written program with a checklist per week. The CRM shows progress: the first deals assigned, the first next steps set, the first proposal sent. The playbook gives the content: your stages, your qualification questions, your answers to common objections.

For example, in week two the new seller listens to five recorded calls. They write down the questions that moved each deal forward.

Split the first weeks into steps the head of sales can check. First the product and the deal stages. Then listening to calls and sitting in on meetings. Then running conversations with a colleague listening. Then owning deals alone. Each step ends with a short check, not a feeling.

Role play is the main tool between learning and real deals. The new seller practices the discovery questions and the hardest objections with you before meeting a customer. Review their first real calls together, and fix one thing at a time.

Onboarding shapes ramp time, and ramp time decides when a hire starts paying back. The hiring profile sets what the person brings on day one, so onboarding covers the rest. If several hires stall at the same step, fix the program, not the people.

• Giving the new seller everything to read on day one. Very little sticks without practice. Give each week one block of reading and one practical task.
• Handing over the weakest leads first. The new seller learns that nothing closes. Give them a mix of fresh inquiries and a few warm deals with a clear next step.
• Leaving onboarding to the busiest seller. They have their own quota and little time. Name the head of sales as the owner, and give the mentor a short, fixed role.
• Ending onboarding by date instead of by result. A calendar says nothing about readiness. End it when the new seller passes the last check, such as a solo proposal you approve.

By Friday, the head of sales writes a one-page onboarding plan for the next hire. List the weeks, what the new seller does in each and how you check it. Attach links to the playbook and two good call recordings. Ask your most recent hire which week of their own start was the hardest, and fix that week first. Keep the plan in a shared place, so the next hire starts from it.

A weekly meeting on stuck deals that ends with a decision and an owner for each.