Get your GTM new hires to quota faster — here’s how we did it at Gong

The central challenge for any GTM onboarding team is the universal need to get new hires to full productivity and quota attainment as fast as possible. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done.

Here at Gong, we’re no different — we have the same key metrics (and the same rigor to meet them) as any company. But recently, we’ve taken a step back and asked ourselves: What does it take to get a rep to full productivity? What do they need to know and, just as importantly, how can we help them put it into action? And how can we measure that work effectively?

As a result of the programs we’ve put in place, our metrics have shown a steady increase in the number of our new hires to more than 70 percent, exceeding our targets.

We want to help our reps win more, and know that our work to do so can serve as a helpful roadmap for other enablement teams hoping to do the same.

To dig into how it’s done, I had a conversation with our GTM Onboarding Enablement team: Danica Schutt, our GTM Enablement Manager, and Max Costello White, our Senior GTM Enablement Specialist. We chatted about the ins and outs of how our whole team built such an effective onboarding machine. Our conversation is below:

*This conversation has been edited for clarity.

Clinch those critical first 90 days

Stacey Justice: Let’s start from the beginning: The first 90 days for reps can often be like drinking from a firehose. But we’ve done our best to structure the program to maximize their learning without burning them out.

Danica Schutt: Yeah, it’s very specific role-segmented learning that helps reps get to their quota as quickly as possible. The way we structure it is we first try to understand the role-agnostic info that everybody needs to know, regardless of where they sit in the customer journey — things like our pitch, messaging, personas, process, product, outcomes, and competitive landscape. Whether it’s account planning or prospecting, we think about what each role will need to know in their first 30 days, then build on those behaviors through 60 and 90 days.

Max Costello White: We also use branding to help new hires feel part of something bigger from the jump. We’ve reintroduced the program as LaunchPad, a fun and aspirational space-cadet concept that’s rooted in Gong’s culture, inspired by Amit’s signature “to infinity and beyond” sign-off. Even the small touches like our Slack “mission control” and track “orbits” create an intentional sense of belonging, and belonging is strongly linked to retention.

Flip the classroom, flip the script

SJ: Better understanding the learning journey is important — especially when it comes to knowing why information isn’t being absorbed. We reviewed the data from Gong and found that a majority of our facilitators’ talk time in our old program was approaching 80 percent. So, new hires were simply being lectured at, which didn’t support learning, especially remotely.

MCW: Absolutely. We want to get folks ramped into their roles as quickly as possible and put the skills that they’re learning into practice. So, we implemented a flipped-classroom approach.

DS: With the flipped classroom, they learn on their own first at their pace and then give us a teach-back on what they’ve learned, so that we can confidently say that they’ve internalized the skills that we’re asking them to absorb. That switch made a huge impact — we’ve surveyed our first two cohorts and 95 percent of them said that they felt the flipped-classroom approach actually made the content ‘stickier’ for them to remember and apply.

Integrate across the revenue org

SJ: Frequently, onboarding is seen as just another enablement program among many. And I think it’s key to call out that our onboarding is integrated across the full revenue operations team.

MCW: We work with the revenue strategy team to identify the KPIs and targets we need to hit. Then we collaborate with the comp team to tie initial compensation to meeting these targets. We also work with the territory team to ensure that certifications are done based on real accounts within their territory, so reps learn within context and can apply what we ask them to do in onboarding to their real customer accounts.

SJ: It’s all connected.

DS: Another team we often work with is the tools and systems teams. Every single tool that a new hire needs has to be provisioned as quickly as possible to avoid delays and speed up ramp time.

Measure what’s working to make it repeatable

SJ: Every organization out there is asking, “How do I drive more capacity?” One of the best ways to do that is through their new hires — otherwise it’s a drag on the business. So, we have to be able to show that we can actually measure the success and prove the value.

MCW: The way we do it at Gong is through visibility and accountability. Leadership gets big-picture revenue impact, pipeline metrics, and deal cycle stats monthly. Managers get KPI progress weekly, and reps get updates almost daily. Since success is tied to compensation, reps need to have a pulse on their development.

DS: We also partnered with our team that runs Gong-on-Gong analyses to understand what activities the most successful reps were doing. We asked, “Hey, out of curiosity and KPIs aside, what are reps doing on first calls that are setting themselves up for success?”

They’re setting up really strong points of view, coming in with an idea of the business, and building credibility; they aren’t feature dumping. So, we’ve been practicing those principles, then having them go back and measure their own talk tracks based on what’s working.

Gain a competitive advantage with Gong AI

SJ: We spend all day telling our own prospects and customers how powerful Gong is as a revenue AI platform, but we’re also very good at walking the walk and using Gong in our jobs day to day, including for onboarding.

DS: You mentioned previously the talk-time analytics for our facilitators — we’re able to use AI Call Reviewer for a similar purpose for new hires. It scores their calls automatically to make sure evaluations are unbiased. If the scores reach a low enough threshold, it can notify a manager, so everyone has context on performance, and reps can learn continuously.

MCW: We’re leveraging AI Ask Anything to come up with a list of characteristics of a top-performing rep. We give that to AEs so they know what the ideal talk ratio is, how many calls they should attend, and so on.

We’re also using snippets from Gong calls by actual reps in real-life scenarios, so our training and videos include best-in-class, up-to-date examples throughout the course.

DS: Plus, we teach them to use saved searches to be alerted about specific criteria they may be struggling with, like objections, competition mentions, and more.

SJ: When new hires start, you’re asking them to make a bit of a mindset shift. But, ultimately, the reality is that you can make significant progress improving rep productivity by making sure that your onboarding aligns with the overall goals of the business.

We’ve found that the more reps use the power of AI within Gong, the faster they ramp; AI offers the advantage that guides onboarding success. Our own onboarding experience proves that full productivity and quota attainment are not only achievable, but measurable and repeatable.

For more on how you can reduce ramp time and improve rep productivity, check out our sales onboarding guide: 5 training best practices for ramping reps.