Sales Onboarding Plan Template: A 30/60/90-Day Plan for New AEs and SDRs

TL;DR

• A sales onboarding plan is a dated schedule of what a new rep learns, practices and proves in the first 90 days, with an owner and a pass rule for every checkpoint.
• Split the first month by week. Week 1 is access and context, week 2 is practice on the first call type, week 3 is the first certification gate, and week 4 is supported live work with a 30-day review.
• Days 31 to 60 add the next call types and the first owned opportunities. Days 61 to 90 move the rep to independent work and end with a written decision on which calls the rep is cleared to run alone.
• Write the scorecard for each call type before the rep's first day, and certify on scored practice before the first live call of that type.
• Managers run five rituals: a daily check-in in weeks 1 and 2, practice reviews, a weekly call review, a cohort review and a calibration session.

This post is the template. If your reps already have a plan and still ramp slowly, start with how to reduce sales ramp time, which covers how to find the delay before you change the plan.

What a sales onboarding plan, process and program each cover

People search for all three terms, and they describe different layers of the same work.

The template below is a plan. It assumes the program exists (you know which calls an AE and an SDR run, and you have a scorecard for each). If you do not, write those first. The sales call scorecard post has a format you can copy.

The 30/60/90-day plan at a glance

Treat the weeks as defaults. A rep who passes the week 3 gate in week 2 moves on. A rep who misses it repeats the missed task, not the whole week.

Before day 1: the pre-start checklist

Most lost first weeks come from missing access, not missing training. Send this list to RevOps and IT when the offer is signed.

• CRM login with the right role and a test record the rep can edit.
• Calendar, email signature, video meeting account and call recorder connected.
• SDRs: dialer seat, sequence tool seat, first lead list loaded.
• AEs: a named book of accounts or a written plan for when they get one.
• Access to the call library, the scorecards and any practice software.
• A named buddy (a peer in the same role who has passed certification) with 30 minutes a day blocked for weeks 1 and 2.
• First-week calendar sent to the rep before day 1.
• The scorecards for every call type the rep will certify on, final and shared.

The last item matters most. If the standard changes after a rep has started practicing, every early attempt becomes hard to compare.

Weeks 1 to 4: the week-by-week first month

Week 1: access and context

• Confirm every item on the pre-start checklist by the end of day 1. Log anything missing with an owner and a date.
• Learn the ICP, the main personas, the product story and the sales process stages. Keep each session short and follow it with a question the rep answers out loud.
• Listen to at least five recorded calls of the type the rep will certify on first. The rep scores two of them against the team scorecard and compares notes with the buddy.
• Run one low-stakes practice call, such as a company introduction, so the rep learns how practice and scoring work before anything counts.
• Checkpoint: a short knowledge check on product, ICP and process, with a pass mark and retakes allowed.
• Manager ritual: a 15-minute daily check-in. Ask what is blocked and what the rep would say to a buyer who asked about the product today.

Week 2: practice the first call type

• AEs practice discovery. SDRs practice the cold call opener and the first three objections they will hear.
• Practice daily in short blocks. Full conversations two or three times a week, and focused drills on the moment that keeps going wrong on the other days.
• The rep reads the scorecard before every attempt. Practice against a hidden standard trains guessing.
• Manager ritual: review two scored attempts with the rep, agree on one behavior to fix, and assign the retry.
• Checkpoint: the rep has attempted the first certification task at least once, pass or fail.

Week 3: the first certification gate

• The rep certifies on call type 1 through scored practice before running that call type live. Set the pass rule in advance: a minimum score, a number of passes, or every critical criterion on the scorecard.
• Once certified, the rep starts supported live work. AEs run part of a discovery call with a senior AE or the manager present. SDRs call a limited list with the buddy listening in for the first block.
• The manager grades one recorded live call on the same scorecard used for practice.
• Checkpoint: certificate for call type 1, plus one scored live call.

Week 4: supported live work and the 30-day review

• AEs run discovery calls alone and start practicing the demo. SDRs run full call blocks and start practicing qualification and the AE handoff.
• Every miss on a live call becomes the next practice assignment. Retry the moment that was missed, not the whole call.
• Manager ritual: the first weekly call review (one recorded call, one scorecard, one assignment).
• Checkpoint: the 30-day review. Use the evidence pack described below, and write down which call types the rep is cleared for and which still need someone present.

Days 31 to 60: add call types and the first owned work

For AEs:

• Certify on the demo and on pricing questions. If your deals often stall on price, the price objection handling post has scenarios to turn into practice tasks.
• Own the first opportunities, with a short deal review for each one at every stage change.
• Practice the calls that come next in the rep's real deals before they happen.

For SDRs:

• Certify on qualification and the AE handoff. The AE who receives the meeting scores the handoff notes against a short checklist.
• Add multichannel follow-up and the objections that showed up in the first month's calls.
• Track meetings that the AE accepts, separately from meetings booked.

For managers:

• Keep the weekly call review. Pick the call that matters most for the rep's next certification, not the most recent one.
• Join the weekly cohort review with enablement to see who is behind before the due date.
• Checkpoint: certificates for call types 2 and 3, and the 60-day review.

Days 61 to 90: independence and the 90-day decision

• AEs practice late-stage calls: negotiation, procurement questions and calls with several stakeholders. The sales negotiation roleplay post has copyable scenarios.
• SDRs work at full activity targets, and the review moves from activity to the quality of meetings passed to AEs.
• The rep runs their own pipeline or list with the manager reviewing outcomes, not attending calls.
• Checkpoint: the 90-day readiness decision. Write it as a list: call types the rep runs alone, call types that still need support, and the next certification date for anything not yet passed.

Productivity comes later than readiness for most roles. Keep the 90-day decision about readiness, and track quota attainment as a separate measure.

Who owns each part of onboarding

If two people think they own the pass rule, nobody does. Give it to enablement and have managers sign off on the scorecard before the cohort starts.

Practice and certification checkpoints

Two rules keep the gates fair. Every grader uses the same scorecard for practice and live calls. And graders calibrate before the first gate: each one scores the same recorded call alone, then you compare and rewrite any criterion they read differently. The sales certification program post covers calibration and recertification in more depth.

Manager rituals that keep the plan on schedule

If managers cannot hold the weekly call review, the plan will slip quietly. Put the review on the calendar for the full 90 days when the rep starts, and count missed reviews in the cohort report.

Readiness evidence for each review

A finished course shows that a rep sat through the material. Each review should look at stronger evidence, listed here from weakest to strongest.

1. Self-rating. Useful for the conversation, not for the decision.
2. Knowledge check results.
3. Manager impression from shadowing.
4. Scored practice attempts on the call type, with the scorecard attached.
5. Scored live calls on the same scorecard.

For each review, collect the certification record for each call type, the latest two scored practice attempts, at least one scored live call, the CRM or workflow output for the period (notes, next steps logged, handoffs) and the open blocker list. Business results such as pipeline created belong in the pack too, but read them separately, since early numbers depend on territory and lead flow as much as on the rep. The sales readiness assessment template turns this evidence into a scorecard by dimension.

The sales onboarding process, step by step

Run these steps the same way for every cohort, then adjust the plan dates per rep.

1. Offer signed: send the pre-start checklist to RevOps and IT, name the buddy.
2. One week before start: confirm access, send the first-week calendar, assign the certification path with due dates.
3. Day 1: walk the rep through the plan, the scorecards and the pass rules.
4. Weekly: practice reviews and the weekly call review per the ritual table; cohort review with enablement.
5. At each gate: rep attempts certification; misses go back as retries on the missed task.
6. Days 30, 60 and 90: review the evidence pack and write the decision by call type.
7. After the cohort: enablement reviews which tasks most reps failed first and fixes the content or the scorecard before the next cohort.

Test the plan with one cohort: a two-week pilot scorecard

Before rolling the template out to every team, run the first two weeks with one cohort and score how the plan itself performed. Score each line pass, partial or fail.

Any fail points at the plan, not the reps. Fix it before the next cohort starts.

Running the plan in Quotain

Quotain is AI sales roleplay software, and the certification checkpoints in this plan map onto Quotain's onboarding and certification setup.

• You package practice calls into a learning module and assign it with a due date. Each task has its own pass rule: a minimum score out of 10 and the number of passes needed, or every critical criterion on the scorecard.
• With "Issue certificate on completion" turned on, the module becomes a certification. The certificate is issued automatically when a rep passes every task on the path and is saved on the rep's member profile. Managers do not approve module certificates.
• If you want manager sign-off, assign practice with the "Certification · 8.0 + manager" evaluation policy. Under it, the call has to score 8.0 or higher and a manager approves the assessment on the scorecard.
• Reps retry as many times as it takes. Every run keeps its score and scorecard, and each certification links to the call that earned it.
• You choose whether tasks unlock in order or can be taken in any order.
• Managers see the cohort on one progress view, including who is falling behind before the deadline.
• For the weekly call review, real-call grading scores recorded calls against your scorecard, links each judgment to the transcript line behind it, and lets a rep continue the call from any line in practice with an AI buyer grounded in the recording.

Quotain covers the practice, certification and call-review parts of this plan. Access, territories and the CRM stay in your existing tools.

Frequently asked questions

What is a sales onboarding plan?

A sales onboarding plan is a dated schedule for a new sales rep's first 90 days. It lists what the rep learns and practices each week, which call types they certify on and when, who owns each step, and what evidence the manager reviews at days 30, 60 and 90 to decide which calls the rep can run alone.

What should a 30/60/90-day sales onboarding plan include?

It should include a pre-start access checklist, a week-by-week first month, the call types the rep certifies on in each phase, a written pass rule for each certification, the manager rituals that run every week, and the evidence reviewed at each 30, 60 and 90-day checkpoint. Each item needs an owner and a date.

How long should sales onboarding take?

Plan for 90 days of structured onboarding for most AE and SDR roles, then let reps move faster or slower based on evidence. A rep who passes a certification early should move on, and a rep who misses one should retry only the missed task. Full productivity often takes longer than onboarding, so track it as a separate measure.

How is SDR onboarding different from AE onboarding?

SDRs certify on fewer call types and start live work sooner, usually cold calls and qualification within the first month. AEs certify on discovery first, then demos, pricing questions and late-stage calls across 90 days, and start owning deals in the second month. Both roles should use the same scorecard for practice and live calls.

Who owns sales onboarding?

Sales enablement owns the program, the scorecards and the certification standards. The hiring manager owns the plan dates, the weekly call reviews and the 30, 60 and 90-day decisions. RevOps owns access, territories and lead lists, and a buddy in the same role handles daily questions in the first weeks.

When should a new sales rep take live calls?

A new rep should take a live call of a given type after passing scored practice on that call type, and the first few live calls should have a buddy or manager present. In most plans that means SDRs start live calling in week 3 and AEs run discovery with support in week 3 and alone in week 4.

How do you know if a sales onboarding plan is working?

Check whether reps pass each certification by its due date, whether practice scores and live call scores on the same scorecard move together, and whether managers hold the weekly reviews. Compare cohorts on these readiness measures first, then on business results such as pipeline and quota, since those depend on territory and lead flow as well.

Certify your next cohort before their first live call

Pick the first call type for each role, write its scorecard, and set the week 3 gate before the next cohort starts. To see how the certification path, pass rules and cohort view work, read onboarding and certification in Quotain. If you are weighing Quotain against a full readiness suite, the Quotain vs Mindtickle comparison covers which teams each one fits. You can book a demo or try a free practice call built around your own product.