Dan BrockwellThe first few months as an SDR can feel like a firehose of learning. In order to get SDRs ramped quickly, you need to give them the right context to succeed, but also sequence this in a way that can be digested, practised and iterated.
Every company and industry is different, but as a baseline, hereâs our onboarding guide for new SDRs to help you break down the first week, and from there, the first 3 months.
Week 1
Week 1 is all about setting the right context on customers, company, industry, product and process for long-term success. We believe early practice and implementation of these concepts helps them to stick.
Hereâs a day-by-day breakdown of what that looks like:
1ď¸âŁ Day 1
Sessions: Manager 1:1 - Company Overview - Software Setup - Industry Overview - EOD Checkin
Kicking off, introduce the new rep to the rest of the team and encourage other team members to make them feel welcome + proactively set up time to catch up.
Youâll want to have a deeper first 1:1 with them as a manager to understand their motivations, feedback style, collaboration style, and working preferences. Alongside, that, this is a golden chance to set the tone on sales mindset and get them thinking about the next 30-60-90 days in the right way.
From there, itâs worth going into a company overview so they feel a strong resonance with the company vision & values, as well as understanding what functions theyâll be collaborating with + what rituals existing among the sales team.
After lunch, give them some time to get set up on their computer and software tools. Later in the afternoon, spend time on an industry overview to ensure they understand the Ideal Customer Profile, customer personae, common goals & pains, and how the company solves for these.
Finish with an end of day manager check in for two-way feedback and a safe space to ask questions, and continue these throughout the week.
2ď¸âŁ Day 2
Sessions:Â Product overview - Sales process overview - Prospecting overview
Day 2 is where they start to get more context on the product itself and sales cycle. Typically, youâll want to give them a session walking through how the product works, to ensure they have baseline knowledge here. Note: emphasise how the features correspond to customer benefits, not just the technical capability.
In the afternoon, dive into an overview of the end-to-end sales cycle so they understand their key tasks as an SDR and how these ladder into the broader sales org.
Finally, youâll want to give them a foundation in how to prospect, ensuring that theyâre across the CRM and technical tools involved. This includes how to source leads, how to prioritise them and how to research them to set up for successful outreach.
3ď¸âŁ Day 3
Sessions: Written outreach overview - Cold call overview and roleplay - Cold call shadowing
Day 3 is where they first get exposure to outreach. Spend the morning covering how to approach asynchronous outreach like emails or LinkedIn DMs, as well as any sequences or tools as a part of this.
In the afternoon, turn focus to calling. Begin with an overview of the goals and mindset for a cold call, then dive into each section. Give them chance to absorb the theory through roleplays and provide feedback to help them identify early issues. You may want to include AEs/senior SDRs in this session to scale feedback.
Once they have a grounding in the purpose of a cold call, get them to buddy up with AEs or senior SDRs and listen to calls for the arvo, taking notes and asking questions to enhance their understanding of things like introductions, qualifying questions and pitching.
4ď¸âŁ Day 4
Sessions: Objection handling deep dive - Cold call shadowing - Cold call block
The key focus of Day 4 is getting them to be comfortable on the phones. Start the day with a deeper session on handling common objections, a big fear for new starters, with a chance for reps to roleplay these together and get initial feedback.
In the afternoon, get them to spend more time shadowing, with a particular emphasis on seeing experienced reps handle objections.
From there, itâs time to get them calling! Itâs better to directly expose them to cold calls in the first week and rip the bandaid off early. Ensure you or an experienced team member is supervising them to give real-time feedback and support.
Rejection is inevitable and they need to confront it head-on before building up unrealistic expectations or adopting too many techniques from the SDRs they shadow.
5ď¸âŁ Day 5
Sessions: Cold call shadowing and roleplay - Cold call block - Async learning time
Begin the day with more challenging roleplays of cold calls, throwing them different customer types and different objections. Ensure a tight feedback loop and give them a chance to run the same exercises again.
In the afternoon, give them another taste of real calling with a supervised call block, continuing with real-time feedback and paying particular attention to issues that have persisted from their attempts the previous day.
Towards the end of week, leave some space for them to catch up on areas they want to spend more time learning about asynchronously, as different reps struggle with different things. This could be watching call recordings, trying out the product, or reviewing past sales emails.
đď¸ 30-60-90 Day Plan
Looking ahead to the next three months, focus on implementing a straightforward yet impactful training routine. We recommend having at least one structured training session a week, and beyond that, regular opportunities for roleplays.
Month 1 - Build Strong Context
In month 1, dive deeper on personalised intros, strong qualifying questions, pitching and follow-ups. Continue to build more context on the industry, product and customers, going into different customer archetypes and pains more deeply.
During this month, reps should start to transition to unsupervised cold calling and begin to start prospecting themselves, but there should still be some regular blocks shadowed by the manager to provide real-time feedback.
Month 2 - Implement Skills
In month 2, begin to raise the volume of emails and calls expected from reps. Ensure they have a clear structure around how to divide their day between prospecting, calls, emails and followups, and keep a high pulse on their week-to-week activity in 1:1. You may also want to dive deeper on more advanced sales techniques like tonality.
Month 3 - Iterate on Lessons
In month 3, by now, theyâll have a track record of conversations and data to examine the effectiveness of their sales approach. You should work with them to own their numbers and understand what activity is needed to get their targets. After a lot of shadowing and training, you should help your rep understand their sales style and define personalised, longer-term development goals to help them become a high performer.
đ Onboarding Metrics
Ramp Time:Â How long it takes an SDR to have a month in which they hit 100% of the quota
If youâre only tracking one metric. It should be this one. Knowing how long it takes your reps to hit full quota will be able to help you fine-tune training and keep hitting targets. Youâll be able to tell which SDRs are lagging and need help and what tactics work best to decrease ramp time
Activity:Â The number of completed calls, emails, LinkedIn messages the rep is doing
This can be any channel It is about having a metric that shows they are doing the work. Itâs not everything but all we want to do is ensure theyâre putting in a baseline upfront effort to get the right outcomes.
Booking Rate: What proportion of accounts reached out to convert to a meeting booked (can also do relative to contacts)
Itâs helpful to establish a benchmark for SDRs. Find out what your average conversion rate and use this to understand the quality of outreach messaging your reps are doing + whether theyâre focused on relevant accounts and contacts.
Show Rate: What percentage of booked meetings have a prospect show up instead of cancelling / no-showing
If you see issues here relative to internal benchmarks, it could be the rep hasnât sufficiently understood the prospectâs pains, hasnât conveyed how your product solves those pains, or has booked meetings with prospects who donât have a strong need.
Qualification Rate: What percentage of meetings convert to qualified opportunities (progressing to next stage of sales process e.g. demo)
If your SDR owns discovery meetings, this is a good test of their discovery skillset relative to internal benchmarks on %. Even if they donât, this also indicates the quality of their prospecting work (more relevant leads).
Ramp Time
Hereâs a sample guide to follow for setting expectations on ramp time:
By the end of month 3, SDRs should be targeting and hitting 100% of their quota, however some might ramp faster.
𧥠5 Principles for Loveable SDR Onboarding
1. Embrace the feeling of rejection
Dealing with failure is a constant part of the journey for SDRs, no matter how resilient they say might be, it's the hardest part about the role.
That's why it's crucial to help new SDRs embrace rejection early on. They need to understand that it's just part of the game. Get them on the phone talking to leads as soon as possible, preferably within their first couple of weeks. Sure, they might stumble at first, but it's all about taking action and learning from mistakes.
2. Focus on problem over product
Here's some unconventional advice that may initially seem counterintuitive:
When onboarding your SDRs, it's advisable to avoid overemphasising product training.
To be clear, thereâs a baseline knowledge you need and we include this in our onboarding template. But an SDR's primary objective isn't to sell the product. Rather, their role is sparking curiosity and probing to identify if there's a problem your product can address.
To achieve this, SDRs must adeptly pose insightful questions to uncover pain points, subsequently assuring prospects of a viable solution.
Prospects are not seeking exhaustive product details; rather, they seek assurance that your offering can alleviate their concerns, at least initially.
A common pitfall arises when new SDRs become overly focused on product features, and start cramming features into their pitches.
Keep your reps laser-focused on uncovering problems and offering solutions and minimise product training initially. Itâll pay off in the long run.
3. Leverage active coaching with hands-on support
To maximise your SDRs' ramp impact, active coaching is crucial.
We all know that the best lessons often come from making mistakes and small improvements have a large impact on sales activity.
Active coaching means getting hands-on with your new team members. It's about being right there on the sales floor, tuning in to calls, and addressing errors (with explanations) in real-time.
Letâs use a hypothetical example:
- Pete is working as an SDR in a software startup and as part of their qualification process they need to understand up front if they are using a system compatible with their software
- The script called for SDRs to ask, "What data management software does your office use?"
- But Pete phrased it differently: "Do you use data management software in your office?"
- The response? "Yes, we do."
- Then, the SDR followed up with, "Which one?"
- That's when the prospect hesitated and responded, "I donât think Iâm allowed to divulge that information."
- Pete was pulled aside after that call and explained why his approach had missed the mark. By giving the prospect time to think and prompting hesitation, he inadvertently made them question sharing the information.
- On the next call, he adjusted. His results took an immediate turn for the better.
Providing ongoing guidance of this nature to your SDRs accelerates their learning curve and bolsters their confidence.
You can use a mix of live call shadowing and live roleplays to iterate on mistakes quickly.
4. Encourage creativity
When starting, SDRs are often provided with a script to follow, which can give them a sense of security. However, it's crucial to nudge them to think outside the box and discover their unique style. After all, the most effective reps are those who stay true to themselves, authenticity sells.
As for outreach methods, SDRs should have the freedom to explore different avenues, whether it's through emails, phone calls, social media, or personalised messages. They should be encouraged to get creative and tailor their approaches to match each prospect's preferences and interests.
Creating an environment where SDRs can openly exchange successful strategies with their colleagues fosters a culture of innovation and creativity. Leveraging collective wisdom enhances problem-solving and promotes continuous improvement, underscoring the value of collaborative effort.
5. Focus on time management
Teaching the skill of time management is a game-changer for SDRs.
Sure, there are always unexpected curveballs that can throw their day off track, but mastering this skill puts you in the driver's seat. It's all about staying focused and avoiding those pesky distractions.
So, how do you tackle it? Start by showing SDRs the ropes on prioritising tasks. It's all about knowing what needs to get done first and what can wait. Time-blocking is another handy technique to keep in your arsenal.
This means setting aside specific chunks of time for prospecting, follow-ups, admin etc. And hey, tools and resources are your best buddies here. Whether it's apps, software, or good old-fashioned planners, find what works for them to stay on top of their game.
Because trust me, when it comes to being an SDR, time management isn't just a skill â it's the foundation for their success. It's what separates the top performers from the rest of the pack. So, remember every minute counts when you've got money on the line.
