You Hired Your First Sales Rep. Now What?

This week’s newsletter is for founders who made a big move.

You hired your first AE or SDR. Congrats!

Last year, I worked closely with 70+ founders.

I also had discovery calls with 130+.

Some worked with me. Some didn’t.

And you know what?

I’m genuinely happy when I see founders build their first sales team anyway.

Many of them still ask questions.

They read this newsletter.

They use Inscaler frameworks.

So today, this is for you.

If you have your first sales rep in seat, here’s the exact setup to help them succeed this year.

#1. Sales goals and compensation

After you plan the year

give your new hire a clear document.

One doc.

Two things:

• Sales goals
• Compensation

Goals can change every quarter. That’s normal at the early stage.

On compensation, early stage rule:

Cap commissions at 150% (max 200%).

If you don’t have a predictable sales machine yet, uncapped plans are risky.

Put goals + comp into one PDF.

Both sides sign it.

Do this in week one.

#2. Sales onboarding (async first)

Use Notion or Google Docs.

Create a simple sales playbook for async onboarding.

Big mistake I see all the time:

Founders spend hours in meetings answering the same questions.

You can avoid that.

Have chats, standups and meetings, but make sure they support the onboarding document not replace it.

#3. 30-day onboarding timeline

Week 1

• Read the sales onboarding docs
• Mandatory intro meetings
• Product training
• 15–30 min founder check-in (only if needed)

Week 2

• Listen to 3 calls per day
• Get a demo account and explore
• Product training
• 15–30 min founder check-in (if needed)

Week 3

• Role plays
• Build or start calling outbound lists for their territory
• Product training
• Inbound training

Week 4

If role plays go well:

• Start receiving inbound
• Start prospecting
• Product training
• Inbound training

By week 5, they should be fully ramped 🎓

4. KPIs and dashboards

Give them their KPIs on day one.

Create one CRM dashboard per rep.

Track:

• Pipeline
• Conversion
• Revenue

I usually don’t track calls or emails at the start.

I trust first.

I intervene only if pipeline or closing slows down.

If results drop, then I check activities.

#5. Recurrent meetings

Another common mistake I see: Hire → onboard → disappear.

No structure. No 1:1s. No coaching.

That never works, and it’s probably why most new hires last a few months anyway.

Your rep needs:

• Weekly 1:1s
• Deal reviews
• Coaching
• Sales meetings

You hired them to succed. Help them succeed.

Hiring your first sales rep is hard.

Onboarding and ramping them well is even harder.

The real work starts before they join.

If the system is ready, you will have a successful rep and a happy founder.

At Inscaler, we’ve hired, onboarded, and ramped 200+ reps.

We have a few openings in March for forward-thinking founders who need to build or scale their first sales team.

You know where to find me. 👀

Thanks for reading this far. See you all next week.