Ramp time is the period from a sales rep's start date to the point where they run the team's sales method on their own live deals to standard.
Measuring ramp
Teams use ramp time to plan quota, judge onboarding and compare cohorts. The usual mistake is to measure it as time to full quota. Quota lags behavior by at least one sales cycle, so it reports ramp after the fact, when the program can no longer change it.
A better measure counts what the rep's deals contain week by week: buyer evidence captured at each stage, a dated next step on every open deal, and the coached behaviors present on sampled calls. Write down what "present" means before anyone marks a call. In our call-scoring research, trained experts marking the same calls disagreed on 18% of scores, so an unwritten standard will drift between managers. Baseline ramp on the last cohort and compare new hires with new hires. Our sales onboarding guide covers the full program.
One new AE's first 75 days
This example is illustrative. A new account executive (AE) starts on 1 March and co-owns two live deals from week one. By day 30 she states each deal in the buyer's words with one buyer-confirmed fact apiece. By day 60 she runs calls alone and both sampled calls show the coached behaviors. By day 75 every deal has buyer evidence at its stage and her stages hold in the forecast call. Her ramp time is 75 days. Her first full-quota month comes in month seven, after her first deals close, and that number confirms the ramp without measuring it.
- Day 30Deals in the buyer's words
- One buyer-confirmed fact per deal
- Day 60Runs calls alone
- Coached behaviors on both sampled calls
- Day 75Ramped
- Buyer evidence at each stage
- Stages hold in the forecast call
- Month sevenFirst full-quota month
- Confirms the ramp
Related terms
- Time to first deal: days from start to the first deal the rep closes.
- Sales onboarding: the program that produces ramp.
- 30-60-90 sales onboarding plan: how to plan the first 90 days around gates in deal evidence.
- Sales onboarding and ramp time: the first 30 days with a coach on a live deal.
FAQ
What does ramp time mean in sales? Ramp time is how long a new rep takes to run the team's sales method on live deals to standard. Many teams use time to full quota as a proxy, which arrives a sales cycle later than the behavior it depends on.
How do you measure ramp time? Count buyer evidence per deal and dated next steps weekly, and mark coached behaviors on two sampled calls at days 30, 60 and 90 against a written standard. Ramp is reached when the rep's deals meet the standard. Compare with the last cohort.
How can a team shorten ramp time? Put the new rep on a co-owned live deal in week one with coached calls before and after each buyer conversation, and teach product and method beside the deal. Day one and how to coach SDRs show the cadence.