What is Rep Ramp Time?

Rep ramp time is how long a newly hired sales rep takes to reach full productivity, usually measured from start date to the first month they consistently hit a full quota or the output of an established rep.

At a glance

• Most teams define “ramped” as hitting 100% of a full quota, or the median output of tenured reps, for two or three months running.
• It differs by role. An SDR measured on meetings usually ramps faster than an AE measured on closed revenue, because the AE has to wait for a full sales cycle.
• The Bridge Group’s 2016 sales development report, published on David Skok’s blog, put average SDR ramp at 3.3 months, down from 3.8 in 2014. It’s old data, but one of the few with a named method.
• Ramp is a cost: every month a rep isn’t productive is salary without full output, and a missed number that someone else has to cover.
• Track it for every hire. A team that doesn’t measure ramp can’t tell a hiring problem from an onboarding problem.

How to measure ramp time

Set a ramp quota schedule, such as 25%, 50%, 75% and then 100% of full quota over the first four months for an AE, and record each new rep’s actual result against it every month. Ramp time is the month in which they first reach full quota and stay there. Report the median by role and by hiring cohort, not one company-wide average.

Leading indicators tell you sooner whether a rep is on track: first qualified meeting, first opportunity created, first deal past discovery, first close. Measuring the days to each one shows where a slow ramp gets stuck.

Example (illustrative): an AE with a full quota of $60,000 in new ARR a quarter starts in January. They book $8,000 in Q1, $35,000 in Q2 and $62,000 in Q3, then hold it. Ramp time is about seven months. Their first qualified opportunity came in week five, so most of the delay was the length of the sales cycle, not the rep.

Common ramp time mistakes

• Blaming the rep. Slow ramp usually traces back to a thin list, unclear messaging or no written playbook, not the person.
• Hiring without industry knowledge. A rep who has to learn the buyer and the product at the same time takes longer on both.
• No ramp plan. Without monthly targets for the ramp period, nobody notices a slow ramp until the rep is six months in.
• Counting inherited pipeline. A rep who takes over a book of open deals looks ramped before they are.
• Not planning for it. Revenue plans that assume new reps produce from month one miss every time. Factor ramp into quota attainment forecasts.

How ramp time shows up in a revenue system

For the sales pods we run, we hire, train, coach and replace the people on each pod, and everyone we hire for an account has already worked in that partner’s industry. They need product knowledge, not industry education, which takes a big piece out of ramp. See how our sales pods work.

Terms that sit next to rep ramp time

Ramp time is the clearest test of sales enablement: the playbook, the call coaching and the training are all supposed to shorten it.