Ramping… it’s not what landed you in the ER with a broken arm when you were twelve.

Ramping is a process which allows you to learn how to pitch your new company’s product/service over several [hopefully] months while slowly increasing your sales quota to its full expectation. If you’re a VP of Sales reading this, take notes. I’ve seen some pretty lousy “ramping” processes, which really just rushed onboarding and led to some tough times. If you’re a new AE or SDR, take it slow, YORO. You Only Ramp Once.

Onboarding is learning about your company and their processes. Ramping is learning how to sell it in a timely manner. If you want low churn within your sales org, you better have a process in place that allows your employees to get up to speed gradually; increasing their quota as they learn. If the ramp rate to a full sales quota is three weeks long, I hope you’re selling water on the Savannah during the dry season.

Ramping is about Learning

When taking in new processes we go through stages of learning to become good at what we’re working on. The more complicated the product or services, the longer it takes. You’ll need time to understand the objections and subsets of the product, time to make the pitch your own, and time to screw up the pitch over and over again until it becomes automatic. Yes, you need to practice it outside of work. Cold call your Mom, your best friend, your cousin, your co-worker and pitch them. Be intentional about the process, and don’t rush it. This is the time in your life cycle with the company that you get to soak it all in, without having to produce at full speed. Take every moment of ramping and savor it as you seek to understand as much as you can about the solution you're selling and your ICP.

New employees screw this up all the time by rushing their ramping to go swim on their own. Only to realize they left the flotation devices (tools, tips and tricks) on shore. Heads go underwater quickly when you don’t know how to swim.

If you’re the one building the process, give the new employees a fighting chance at success. Do this by having a ramp rate that allows for learning, understanding, practicing, and finally, automatic execution. Don’t incentivize speed during this time, incentivize competency of the process and product.

Bad ramping looks like:

You, taking your ego out for a walk to prove that you can do the job well before you can actually do the job well.  Bad ramping looks like not utilizing your co-workers as resources and thinking that you can do it on your own. It looks like yanking a bad customer over the finish line while trying to get a sale quickly to impress your supervisor. It looks like not putting in the extra time to review materials, practice the pitch, and reveling in your ramp. If the process is in place, follow it. You’ll have plenty of time to show off your skills after you’ve practiced them. Leave the ego, learn the process, and you’ll be rewarded with doing your job better than the next person.

Bad ramping can also look like smashing onboarding and ramping together in a short amount of time. This can be confusing and parts of your sales process will fall through the cracks as the new employee struggles to get a handle on everything. It can look like content overload, when they are getting tons of material dumped on them with no direction on where to start. It can look like miscalculating your ramp rate. Take into consideration how long onboarding, training, and experience will be to get someone at 100% of their sales quota. It can be too short [hell it often is], and your reps will show by not crushing their goals.

Good ramping looks like:

Knowing your supervisors' expectations of your ramp up. If they weren’t provided, ask, and continue to ask questions as you work through the new material. Don’t try to change their process until you know it inside and out. If you’re uncomfortable with the ramp rate, have a conversation about it early with your supervisor. Better yet, ask about it during the interview process! Chances are it could illuminate an issue that someone else had too. It looks like talking to customers, learning your ICP and all the different ways the product solves their problem[s]. Good ramping is learning the talk track without your modifications, and memorizing how to handle specific objections. If you don’t feel empowered through these first few weeks, check-in with yourself to see if the company is the right fit for you. If it turns out it isn’t, use your network and start again. No shame in recognizing a bad fit and doing something about it.

In building a ramping plan, match the length of time to the complexity of the product and training needs. Then add one or two weeks to account for general onboarding. If you’re the VP have clear expectations, set “early and often” as Amy Volas says. Give your new folks the parameters and empower them with good material and practice to be running full speed when it’s time for them to hit their numbers. Don’t be afraid to overhaul the process one bit at a time. Pay attention to things new employees say and take them into account for the future. Also if you really need help creating this process, I know a guy you can hire here.