The checklist
Copy this into your onboarding tracker. Every item has an owner and a test for whether it happened.
| When | Item | Owner | Done when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day −5 | Laptop, headset and accounts (CRM, email, chat, call recorder, sales engagement tool) set up and tested | IT, manager | The rep logs in to each one on day one with no ticket raised |
| Day −5 | First-week calendar sent, with every session, owner and link | Manager | The rep has it before day one |
| Day −3 | Two live deals chosen for the rep to co-own, each with a buyer conversation in the next two weeks | Manager | Deals named in the calendar invite for day two |
| Day −3 | The team's method sent as a one-page standard (evidence expected at each stage, one yes and one no example) | Enablement | The rep has read it before day one |
| Day 1 | Welcome, team introductions, comp plan explained with a worked example | Manager | The rep can say how a typical deal pays them |
| Day 1 | First session with the coach: the rep talks through what they read in the method standard | Coach or manager | The rep explains the stages from memory |
| Day 2 | Deal handover: the tenured rep walks the new rep through both co-owned deals on a call | Tenured rep | The new rep can state each deal in the buyer's words |
| Day 2 | Product story and ideal customer profile, as pre-reads with three questions attached | Enablement | Answers written before day three |
| Day 3 | First coached brief on the next buyer conversation for deal one (15 minutes) | Coach or manager | One question chosen for the call, said out loud once |
| Day 3 | Sit in on a tenured rep's live discovery call | Tenured rep | The rep writes down what the buyer said and what is missing |
| Day 4 | Buyer conversation on deal one; the new rep takes notes or asks the agreed question | Tenured rep, new rep | Buyer's words captured in the deal record |
| Day 4 | Competitive overview and pricing, as pre-reads | Enablement | Tested on the day 5 call |
| Day 5 | Debrief on deal one (15 minutes): what the buyer said, what is confirmed, what is missing, next call's job | Coach or manager | One new piece of buyer evidence, quoted; next conversation dated |
| Day 5 | Week one read: manager checks every row above | Manager | Each row has a yes, or a date to fix it |
For SDRs, swap the two deals for a real account list and a live sequence; how to coach SDRs and for SDRs cover their week. This checklist covers the first week of the 90 days in our sales onboarding guide. The rest of the program is in how to build a 30-60-90 sales onboarding plan.
How to use it
- Start it five days before the start date. The day −5 and day −3 rows are what make day one work.
- Pick the two deals from the current pipeline. Choose deals with a buyer conversation in the next two weeks, one early stage and one a step further along. Co-ownership manages the risk: the tenured rep runs the buyer conversation, and the new rep prepares and debriefs it.
- Attach questions to every pre-read. The task is to answer three questions about the product story on a call. People tested on material retained 56% a week later, against 42% for people who re-read it (Roediger & Karpicke 2006, cited in our Game Winning Kickoffs field study).
- Book the coached calls before day one. Day three's brief and day five's debrief go in the calendar with the deal named in the invite. If they float, they slip.
- Have the rep talk. Each coached session opens with the rep explaining from memory: the method, the deal, what the buyer said. The coach asks; the rep answers out loud. Typing is for when the rep cannot talk.
- Read the week on Friday. Go down the "done when" column. Anything without a yes gets a date in week two. Week one is the first stretch of ramp time, so record the date of the first buyer evidence.
Why this order: the rep uses the method on their own deal in the same week it is taught. Across 117 studies, skills held or grew when training used people's own scenarios and their managers were trained on the same thing (Taylor, Russ-Eft & Chan 2005, summarized in our Game Winning Kickoffs field study). Sales onboarding and ramp time covers the research.
- Accounts set up and tested before day one
- First-week calendar sent
- Two live deals chosen to co-own
- Method standard sent as one page
- First coach session on day one
- Deal handover on day two
- First coached brief on day three
- Debrief with one new piece of buyer evidence
A filled-in example (illustrative)
This example is illustrative. Sam joins as an AE at a company selling payroll software to restaurant groups. The team runs Gap Selling.
| When | Item | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Day −5 | Accounts set up and tested | Done; call recorder access added on day −2 after a test login failed |
| Day −3 | Two deals chosen | A 40-site restaurant group (early stage) and a 12-site group (pilot proposed) |
| Day 1 | Comp plan | Sam worked through the 12-site deal's payout with the manager |
| Day 1 | First coach session | Sam explained current state, future state and the gap from the standard; mixed up impact and root cause, corrected on the call |
| Day 2 | Deal handover | Sam can state both deals in the buyers' words; the 40-site deal has a problem named and no cost |
| Day 3 | First coached brief | Job for Thursday: ask the 40-site group's ops director what payroll errors cost them per pay run |
| Day 4 | Buyer conversation | Director said errors cost two payroll staff most of each Monday and triggered staff complaints; captured verbatim |
| Day 5 | Debrief | Impact now buyer-stated; root cause still a guess; next call dated for the following Wednesday with the finance lead invited |
| Day 5 | Week one read | All rows yes except the competitive pre-read, moved to Tuesday of week two |
Sam ended week one with one buyer-confirmed piece of evidence on a live deal and a dated next conversation. That is the target for every new rep's first week.
Three ways teams misuse a first-week checklist
Filling it with sessions. A first week of back-to-back culture, product and process sessions looks thorough, and nothing in it gets tested or used. Fix: every session in week one ends in a question the rep answers on a call.
Keeping the deal back until the rep is "ready". Ready usually means three or four weeks of training, by which time the method taught in week one has started to fade. Fix: co-own a live deal by day two, with the tenured rep running the conversation.
Ticking boxes nobody checks. A checklist with no owner and no "done when" gets ticked by the rep on Friday. Fix: the manager reads the "done when" column, and anything without a yes gets a date.
What to leave out of week one
A short first week is easier to protect than a full one. These can wait:
- The full product catalog. The rep needs the story for the two co-owned deals. The rest arrives when a deal needs it.
- Every internal tool's advanced features. Logging a call, updating a stage and booking a meeting are enough for now.
- Territory planning. The rep cannot plan a territory before they know what a good deal looks like in it. Leave it for week three or four.
- Long certification quizzes. One question set per pre-read, answered on a call, does the same job in less time.
- Meetings with every department. Pick the two or three people the rep will need on a live deal, such as a solutions engineer and someone in deal desk, and save the rest for later.
Adjusting for an experienced hire
An AE who has sold for years still needs week one, with a different weight. Cut the general sales training and keep the method standard, because their old habits come from a different method. Move the first coached brief earlier if a buyer conversation allows it, and listen for where they slip back into old language. The deal handover and the day 5 debrief stay as written. Experienced hires are often the ones who skip the "done when" column, so the manager's Friday read matters as much for them as for anyone.
Running the first week remotely
The checklist works the same when the rep is remote, with three changes. Test every login on a video call on day −2, so problems surface before day one. Put the tenured rep's deal handover on video with the CRM shared, and record it so the new rep can replay it. And keep the coached brief and debrief as voice or video calls, since a new rep typing answers in a chat window can look things up, while talking it through shows what they remember.
Scoring the first-week calls
The first week's coached calls are short, so the marking has to be quick and consistent. Before day one, write the two or three behaviors the rep should show on a call that week, each with one example of a yes and one of a no. Stating the deal in the buyer's words is a good first one.
Then mark the same way on every call: present, partly present or missing, with the line from the call that shows it. Two managers marking the same call should land on the same answer. In our call-scoring research, trained experts marking the same calls still disagreed on 18% of scores, which is why the written examples come before any scoring tool.
Keep the scores private to the rep and manager. In week one the score points at the next coached call, and a public number would only rank people who have been in the job for five days.
Weeks two to four, in brief
Week one sets the rhythm the rest of sales onboarding runs on: a live deal, a coached brief before each buyer conversation, a debrief after it. Weeks two to four keep that rhythm and widen what the rep owns.
| Week | What changes | Done when |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | The new rep asks one agreed question on each co-owned buyer call, and the tenured rep runs the rest | Each call adds one quoted piece of buyer evidence to the deal record |
| 3 | The new rep runs one conversation on the early-stage deal, with the tenured rep listening | The debrief names one skill to work on, with the line from the call |
| 4 | The new rep takes a first deal of their own from the pipeline or their own prospecting | A dated next buyer conversation, prepared in a coached brief |
The 30-60-90 onboarding plan covers the months that follow.
How to tell whether the first week worked
Three checks on the Friday read tell a manager more than a completion rate. Can the rep state both co-owned deals in the buyer's words, without notes? Did the rep add at least one quoted piece of buyer evidence to a deal record? Is the next buyer conversation on each deal dated?
If the answer to all three is yes, week one did its job. If the rep can recite the method and cannot state either deal in the buyer's words, the training reached them and the deals did not. Move a coached brief into the first days of week two and run it on the deal they are least sure about.
A manager hiring one rep can run this by hand. With a cohort of four, the coached calls are the first thing to slip. Our AI sales experts can run them: the new rep starts a call on day one, talks through the deal they are least sure about, and the expert says what is confirmed, what is the rep's estimate and the one move, in the team's method, then writes tomorrow's brief. Day one shows that first session, and from day three the same expert runs the coached briefs and debriefs on every new rep's deals at once.
FAQ
What should a new sales rep do in their first week? Set up and test their tools, learn the team's method from a one-page standard, and co-own a live deal by day two. They should have a coached brief before a buyer conversation on that deal by day three and a debrief after it by day five. Product, pricing and competitive pre-reads fit around the deal and are tested on those calls.
What should be on a sales onboarding checklist? Each item needs an owner and a test for whether it happened. For week one: tools tested before day one, the week's calendar sent, two live deals chosen, the method standard sent, the comp plan explained, a deal handover, a coached brief and debrief, and pre-reads with questions attached.
When should a new sales rep get their first deal? By day two, co-owned with a tenured rep. The tenured rep runs the buyer conversation while the new rep prepares it and debriefs it with a coach. That way the new rep uses the method in the same week it was taught, and the deal is not put at risk.
Does the first-week checklist change for SDRs? The first-week checklist changes for SDRs in one place. For an SDR, the two live deals become a real account list and a live sequence, and the coached calls are about drafts before they send and cold calls after they happen. The days and owners stay the same.