Every month of ramp is a month of quota you'll never recover. Quantify it, then show your CFO exactly what accelerated onboarding is worth.
| Month | Current Productivity | With Training | Current Revenue | With Training | Gain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mo 1 | 10% | 26% | $31K | $78K | +$47K |
| Mo 2 | 35% | 74% | $106K | $222K | +$117K |
| Mo 3 | 65% | 100% | $194K | $300K | +$106K |
| Mo 4 | 90% | 100% | $269K | $300K | +$31K |
| Mo 5 | 100% | 100% | $300K | $300K | — |
| Mo 6 | 100% | 100% | $300K | $300K | — |
| Mo 7 | 100% | 100% | $300K | $300K | — |
Every month a new rep spends at 30% productivity instead of 90% productivity is money left on the table — money that compounds. If your average ramp is 5 months when it should be 3, that's 2 months per rep per hire where you're paying full OTE and receiving a fraction of the revenue. At scale (10 hires/year), that's 20 rep-months of lost productivity. The ramp ROI calculator makes this cost visible and quantifies the revenue impact of investing in better onboarding. Productivity doesn't increase linearly — it follows an S-curve: slow start, rapid acceleration in the middle, plateau at full ramp. What drives ramp time: product complexity, deal complexity, quality of onboarding program, manager availability for coaching, and peer mentorship.
To present this to a CFO: show your current ramp baseline, show the target ramp with investment, calculate the revenue delta per rep, multiply by annual hire count. One important caveat: there are diminishing returns. Going from 6 months to 5 is usually worth the investment. Going from 3 to 2 often is not. Benchmark: B2B SaaS AE ramp time averages 4–6 months. SDRs average 2–3 months. Enterprise AEs can take 9–12 months.
Ramp time is the period from a new rep's start date until they reach full productivity — typically defined as consistently hitting 100% of quota or a defined productivity threshold. During ramp, reps are typically at 25–60% of full productivity. The ramp period directly determines your return on each hire.
SMB AEs: 2–4 months. Mid-market AEs: 3–5 months. Enterprise AEs: 5–9 months. SDRs: 1.5–3 months. CSMs: 2–4 months. Complexity of the product and market determines the floor; quality of onboarding and coaching determines how close you get to it.
The highest-impact levers: (1) Structured 30/60/90 day plan with clear milestones (replaces 'figure it out' culture). (2) Call recording library of top-performer calls for self-study. (3) Role-play certification before the rep goes live with real prospects. (4) Dedicated onboarding manager or buddy system with a senior rep. Companies that invest in formal onboarding programs see 20–40% faster ramp times.
For a rep carrying $1.2M quota with a 6-month ramp instead of 4: the rep produces at ~40% for 6 months vs. ~40% for 4 months then full productivity for 2 months more. The difference is roughly $1.2M × (1.0 - 0.4) × (2/12) = $120K of additional revenue per rep per year from a 2-month ramp improvement.
Discuss this in #leadership with 194+ revenue operators in the community.