Onboard an SDR in 90 days
An SDR who starts without a plan calls a lot, badly, and starts doubting after three weeks. The 30-60-90 plan replaces doubt with markers.
Days 1 to 30: listen before you talk
In the first week, your new hire does not call alone. They listen to ten chosen recordings, good and bad, with the site’s call scorecard in front of them. They learn the product through the problems it solves, not through features. They build their first fifty-account list with you.
From the second week, they call in pairs: you or a senior listen live, and you debrief for ten minutes after each block. The first month’s target is not a number of meetings, it is a number of conversations held and a stable opener.
Days 31 to 60: volume, then quality
In month two, the SDR runs their blocks alone, with the full target in dials and conversations, and a meeting target at half the final goal. You listen to three recordings a week and hold a thirty-minute check-in on Friday: one number, one win, one thing to work on.
This is the month objections get learned. Have them keep a list of objections heard and the answers that worked. By the end of the month, that list becomes their personal script.
- Calling blocks run alone, full dial and conversation target.
- Meetings: half the final goal.
- Three recordings reviewed a week, a thirty-minute check-in on Friday.
Days 61 to 90: the target, and the decision
In month three, the meeting target moves to the full goal. The SDR presents their own numbers at the weekly check-in and proposes their own improvement points. You move from systematic listening to targeted listening: one recording a week, chosen by them.
At the end of 90 days you have three months of numbers. If the trajectory rises, even below target, you confirm. If it has been flat since month two despite coaching, the fairest decision for everyone is often not to continue. Waiting six months does not change the outcome, only the cost.
What you prepare before day one
The 30-60-90 plan is prepared before arrival: the account on the calling tool and the CRM, ten chosen recordings, the written definition of a qualified meeting, the starting list, three opener scripts, the check-in calendar. The site’s onboarding plan generator produces the week-by-week frame; adapt the markers to your own rates.
And block your own calendar: a successful onboarding costs the manager two to three hours a week in month one. If you do not have them, delay the hire.
Key takeaways
- Month 1: listen, call in pairs, a target in conversations, not in meetings.
- Month 2: autonomy on blocks, meetings at half target, an objection list that becomes the personal script.
- Month 3: the full target, the SDR presents their numbers, and a frank decision at 90 days.
- Everything is prepared before day one, including your own time.
Check what you remember
Question 1 of 4One correct answer per question. The explanation appears after your choice.
What target should an SDR have at the end of month one?
Go further
A term you are not sure about? The cold calling glossary
