What is Ramp Time?
Ramp time is the number of months it takes a newly hired sales rep to reach full productivity, typically defined as the point where they consistently hit 100% of quota.
Ramp time is one of the most expensive hidden costs in sales. Every month a rep isn't at full productivity, you're paying their base salary plus benefits while getting a fraction of their expected output. Understanding and compressing ramp time is a top priority for VP Sales building high-growth teams.
Average Ramp Time Benchmarks
Ramp time varies by sales motion. SMB and velocity sales roles ramp in 2-4 months. Mid-market roles take 4-6 months. Enterprise and complex sales roles take 6-9 months, sometimes longer. A general rule of thumb: ramp time roughly equals one full sales cycle plus 90 days of onboarding and training. If your enterprise sales cycle is 6 months, expect 9 months to full productivity.
The Cost of Slow Ramp
Consider a mid-market AE with $200K OTE and a 6-month ramp. During ramp, they might produce 25% of quota in months 1-2, 50% in months 3-4, and 75% in months 5-6. That's roughly $350K-$400K in lost productivity compared to a fully ramped rep, plus the $100K+ in base salary paid during those months. Multiply by 10 hires and the ramp tax exceeds $4M annually.
Compressing Ramp Time
CROs compress ramp through structured onboarding programs, assigned mentors, early access to real deals (ride-alongs), call recording libraries for self-study, and progressive quota ramp plans (50% quota month 1-2, 75% month 3-4, 100% month 5+). Our analysis shows VP Sales job postings increasingly list 'scalable onboarding' and 'ramp acceleration' as expected capabilities, reflecting how critical this metric has become.
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