Ready. Set. Go. And…crap.
In the world of sales, the first six months can make or break a new hire. As leaders, it's critical to set realistic expectations and provide the necessary support for our new salespeople to thrive.
One of the biggest mistakes I see organizations make is taking an often unrealistic Year 1 revenue goal, dividing it by 12 months, and starting the clock on Day 1. Tick. Tick. Tick.
The focus is immediately on outcomes rather than inputs. As weeks and months go by without a win, the pressure starts to build on both sides. Leadership turns up the heat, and the salesperson starts to lose confidence in their ability to effectively sell the complex service. It’s a recipe for disaster.
Enter the 24-month ramp schedule—a strategic approach that accounts for the intricacies of onboarding and training. Selling custom and complex services requires time and dedication to fully comprehend. The goal shouldn't be to rush the new salesperson "on the phones" as quickly as possible but to set them up for long-term success.
How do you do it? By examining your historical sales activity and data and being realistic about how long it will take to set their first appointment, conversion ratios, sales velocity, and average deal size. Time and again, I've seen this methodology significantly alter Year 1 expectations, particularly in the initial 6 months.
Why a 24-month ramp schedule instead of just 12 months? The second year offers valuable insights into performance when the salesperson is "fully" ramped. This helps both you and the salesperson establish clearer expectations around sales activity and compensation. Additionally, your "Peak Performers" will be highly motivated to beat this timeline.
By adopting this methodology, we can set our new salespeople up for success by focusing on lead measures (inputs: outreach attempts, connections, new meetings, discovery meetings, proposals) rather than lag measures (outcomes: revenue, wins). In doing so, we ensure the salesperson is executing the job the right way. Because if they aren't doing the inputs correctly, they will never achieve the anticipated outcomes anyway. This involves shadowing, role-playing, and providing constructive feedback to ensure that new hires master incremental steps before tackling larger goals.
Unfortunately, too many salespeople are thrown into the fire without adequate support, leading to high turnover rates. Studies show that 30% of salespeople turnover annually, with the majority of that turnover occurring within the first year. Unrealistic Day 1 expectations play a significant role in this turnover.
As leaders, it's our responsibility to build a realistic 24-month ramp schedule, establish performance goals and expectations in our success profiles, communicate them during our hiring process, and create a safe environment for onboarding and training. By doing so, we take an important step in effectively building a high-performing sales team.
Go Deeper
Carver Peterson helps growth-minded leaders of B2B technical services firms build high-performing sales teams so that they can confidently grow & scale.
We are systematic and process-driven.
We value unique strengths.
We communicate openly and directly.
