By Troy Harrison, sales navigator and author
What does “onboarding” mean? If onboarding a salesperson consists of doing the HR paperwork, giving a facility tour, a few days of shadowing existing salespeople and then expecting the salesperson to “hit the ground running,” they are not alone. Entirely too many sales managers feel that way – and then they wonder why they don’t get the results that they want.
Onboarding can be defined as “the time period, processes and activities to prepare a new hire to make a quality sales call on your behalf.” Doing it properly requires 90 days – not nine.
Days 1-30: Knowledge
The first 30 days of onboarding should be focused exclusively on: Knowledge.
During those first 30 days, the salesperson should be a sponge. The focus should be on teaching the new salesperson everything the salesperson needs to know in order to make a quality sales call and answer at least the most common customer questions. That means teaching:
- Products and services, and the problems they solve
- Target customers and prospects
- The specifics of their territory
- Internal processes for order processing, shipping, billing and profit generation
- Sales culture and sales training system
And yes, it takes a month to do that correctly. Any shortcuts here will come back to bite the company and costs money.
During this time, there should be no metrics for sales or sales calls; in fact, there shouldn’t even be a salesperson making a sales call, with the exception of shadowing a current sales rep.
Days 31-60: Activity
The second 30 days are focused on: Activity.
Now that the salesperson knows enough to make sales calls, it’s time to get that salesperson out in the field (or on the phone or video). The purpose here is to have that salesperson ramp up to the normal required weekly run rate for activities – number of discovery appointments, solution appointments, proposals, LinkedIn activities, etc. During this time, there shouldn’t be a sales quota on the salesperson. Instead, the first week should be aimed at achieving 25% of the normal weekly run rate; the second should be 50%; the third should be 75%; and by the fourth week and ongoing, the salesperson should be hitting the normal weekly activity run rate.
Days 61-90: Achievement
The third 30 days should be focused on: Achievement.
This is where the result can vary widely. If the sales cycle is 30 days, it’s completely fair to expect a salesperson to sell some business during this time period (the expectation is that some of the proposals from Month 2 will close). On the other hand, if the sales cycle is long, a salesperson may want to measure “achievement” by viable proposals, funnel size, etc. What’s important is that there is a standard and a willingness to live with it.
There should be checkpoints for each one of those first 30-day periods. After the first month, some sort of “graduation exercise,” such as a quiz with a pass/fail number, a presentation or a facility tour that demonstrates learning, is appropriate. The second month can be rated based on achievement of the activity numbers, and the third is measured against whatever metric is in place based on the sales environment.
Quality Onboarding = Quality Employees
Here’s why this matters. Most onboarding can be summed up as, “Here’s your book, here’s your desk, here’s your phone… Good luck, you’re on your own.” Many managers like to say that “good salespeople – the ones worth keeping – figure it out on their own.” That’s an ineffective and costly approach, and it’s a great way to lose a hire that a company should have won.
New sales hires typically fall into three categories:
- Those salespeople who are so naturally gifted that they will, in fact, “figure it out” and succeed, no matter what is given to them or not given them.
- Salespeople for whom quality onboarding, training and coaching can have a great impact on success or failure.
- Salespeople who just aren’t going to “get it,” regardless of how much training is given to them.
The bad news for the “figure it out” managers is that most sales hires – about half, but maybe in some candidate pools as many as two-thirds – fall into Category 2. When a company doesn’t do quality onboarding and training, it’s going to lose out on a lot of these hires, and then have to go back to do another search and hire again – and the next hire has the same probability of success as the first hire.
But what about the other two categories? A good onboarding program helps with these hires, too.
For Category 1, the “naturals,” quality onboarding and training give them a much better basis to launch into their success. The Category 1s who would have been at quota in, say, six months will be at quota in three or four months. That’s a win in anyone’s book, and it will help them hit their performance ceiling quicker. That means strong ROI, because usually Category 1s will make better use of training.
For Category 3, the monthly checkpoints let a salesperson know that they’re on a path to failure. In this case, the philosophy is, “if you’re going to fail, fail quickly.” This still saves money, time and effort over plodding along for a year or more.
Of course, a failed checkpoint doesn’t necessarily have to lead to termination – use best judgment. Sometimes, a little coaching or even remedial training can overcome obstacles. If it’s determined that there is a Category 2, coaching is a great investment.
Sales hiring is getting harder, and candidate pools are getting smaller. Once a hiring selection has been made, it’s incumbent to make the most out of that hire. Shifting away from “I want someone to figure it out themselves and hit the ground running,” toward the mindset of “I’ve won a good candidate, and now I’m going to take the time to lock that win in through quality onboarding” is an essential part of effective sales management in 2026.
And a company does not have to depend on “good luck” for results.
Troy Harrison is the sales navigator and the author of “Sell Like You Mean It” and “The Pocket Sales Manager.” He helps companies navigate the Elements of Sales on their journey to success. He offers a free 45-minute Sales Strategy Review.
More information: Troy@TroyHarrison.com