Ramp
Ramp is the period after a salesperson starts during which their quota is reduced while they learn the product, build pipeline and work a first sales cycle. A typical ramp covers one to two full sales cycles, with quota stepping up each quarter until it reaches full. Guaranteed commission frequently runs alongside it.
Ramp gets talked about as one thing and it is two. Reduced quota is a measurement decision: the target a new rep is held against while they are still learning. Guaranteed commission is a payment decision: money that arrives whether the target is met or not. A new hire can have either, both or neither, and which combination they get shapes their first six months far more than the headline package does. A rep on full quota with a guarantee feels secure and looks like a failure on the attainment report. A rep on reduced quota with no guarantee looks fine on the report and cannot pay rent.
Length should come from the sales cycle rather than from a round number of months. If the average deal takes four months from first conversation to signature, a three-month ramp asks a rep to carry full quota before a deal they sourced themselves could physically have closed. Two complete cycles is a defensible default for complex sales. A transactional team selling inside two weeks has little use for a long ramp and mostly needs product training and a territory.
Most ramps step: a quarter at a fraction of full quota, a quarter closer to it, then full. The steps matter less than the exit. Where the guarantee ends and the quota goes full in the same month, a rep who has been earning near target income drops to whatever their pipeline produces, and finds out on a single payday. New-hire attrition clusters at exactly that point for reasons nobody should find mysterious. Ending the guarantee a month or two after full quota begins costs very little and removes the drop.
For the company, ramp is a capacity cost the coverage model has to carry. A ramping rep is assigned less quota than a tenured one, so a team of ten containing three recent hires does not have ten quotas standing behind the revenue plan. Hiring plans built on headcount rather than on assigned quota arrive at year end with a shortfall that cannot be attributed to any individual, because every individual hit the number they were given.
A stepped ramp, and what it costs in quota capacity
A new account executive joins on 1 January with a full annual quota of $600,000, which is $150,000 a quarter. The plan ramps them over two quarters at 30% and 70% of full quota before they carry the whole number.
- Q1 quota at 30% of full
- $45,000
- Q2 quota at 70% of full
- $105,000
- Q3 quota at full
- $150,000
- Q4 quota at full
- $150,000
- Year one quota assigned, against $600,000 at full ramp
- $450,000
The ramp gives up $150,000 of assigned quota, a quarter of one rep-year. Hire three people on the same terms and the team has surrendered $450,000 of coverage, which is three quarters of a rep, and none of it appears on a headcount report.
The month the guarantee ends and full quota starts
A rep on a six-month guarantee at $6,000 a month has received $36,000 of predictable income and has learned nothing about what their pipeline can produce. In month seven the guarantee stops, quota goes to full, and commission drops to whatever closed that month, which for a rep whose first self-sourced deals are still in cycle is often very little. The drop is far steeper than anybody intended, because two separate levers moved on the same date. Stagger them: take quota to full at month five and let the guarantee taper across months six and seven. The additional cost is small and the alternative is re-running the hire.
- How long should a sales ramp be?
- Set ramp length from the sales cycle rather than from a fixed number of months. One to two complete cycles is the common approach, so a four-month average cycle suggests a four to eight month ramp. Short transactional cycles need little more than a training period, while enterprise roles with nine-month cycles frequently ramp for a full year.
- Do sales reps earn commission during ramp?
- Yes. Ramp reduces the quota a rep is measured against, so commission is still earned on everything they sell, usually at the standard rate against the lower target. Many companies add a guaranteed minimum commission on top for the first few months, paid whether or not the reduced quota is met. Reduced quota and guaranteed pay are separate arrangements and a rep may have one without the other.
Nearby terms
The long form lives in the guides: Plan templates.
Knowing the word is
the easy half
Commish pays ramp the way your plan describes it, shows the arithmetic on every line, and traces each payment back to the deal that earned it.