3 months may be too long for an SMB rep, indeed.
Generally speaking, sales reps should be closing deals within one sales cycle, and should be ramped by 2 sales cycles.
So if you have a 30-day sales cycle, a good rep should close some deals in her first 30 days, and by day 60, be ramped.
Now — this assumes strong on boarding, decent training, and a well-established lead funnel.
If you don’t train reps, it’s very hard for them to achieve this.
But if you invest in training, on boarding, processing, and systems … by the second sales cycle they should be scaled, or close it, and they should be closing material revenue during the number of days = your average sales cycle.
Now, with big enterprise deals with 6–12 month sales cycles … it can be stressful to wait and see!
That’s why you need to watch, and listen. You’ll actually know halfway through one sales cycle if you pay attention. Are they learning? Are they scared? Are they doing crazy discounting? Are they answering common objections right?
You’ll know pretty early if you listen. And by 2 sales cycles in for sure.
A little more here: How My VP, Sales Doubled Our Sales in 90 Days. And No, It Wasn’t Magic. | SaaStr
