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How should a new SDR's first four weeks actually be structured?

Passive onboarding produces reps who know the product and freeze on the call. A live-execution ramp builds buyer fluency, repetition, feedback and autonomy in that order.

ByTom SlocumFounder, The SD Lab

Original SD Lab playbook · expanded for SD Lab V2

What this guide covers

Week 1 builds buyer understanding and volume repetition without touching real prospects.
Week 2 introduces live rejection deliberately, using raw data.
Week 3 switches to clean, validated contacts so skill, not data, becomes the variable.
Week 4 reduces script dependence and adds progressive autonomy.
What to inspect at the end of each week before advancing.

The premise

Certification is not readiness

Most onboarding is consumption: product modules, recorded calls, a certification quiz, then a list. The rep arrives at week three having learned about the job rather than having done it.

The alternative is to sequence exposure. Understanding first, then repetition, then rejection, then autonomy. Each week removing one support the rep no longer needs.

Reps do not get fluent by watching calls. They get fluent by having them.

Week 1

Foundation — understanding and repetition

No real prospects this week. The goal is buyer fluency and enough repetition that the mechanics stop consuming attention.

Buyer personas: who they are, what their week looks like, what they are measured on.
ICP: which accounts qualify and, more usefully, which do not.
Leading questions: the handful that open real conversations.
Problems solved: in the buyer's language, not the product's.
20 AI roleplays per day: volume repetition with immediate replay.

End-of-week check

Can the rep explain, without notes, why a named account would take the call this quarter?

Week 2

Live rejection — real calls, raw data

Week two goes live deliberately on raw CRM data. Connect rates will be poor and that is part of the design: the rep learns that rejection is context, not verdict, on accounts where the cost of a clumsy call is low.

Real calling from existing raw CRM records.
Rejection treated as information: what did the buyer actually say?
Daily review of two conversations, not the totals.
No script rewrites yet. Exposure first.

Week 3

The data switch — clean, validated contacts

Now the data changes: clean, mobile-validated priority contacts. Connects rise, and for the first time the rep's own execution is the main variable in the outcome.

With real conversations available, the talk track and objection handling get refined against evidence rather than theory.

Prioritised, mobile-validated contact set.
Talk track refined from actual conversations, not roleplay.
Objection handling built from the ones they are genuinely hearing.
Weekly coaching moves to the 10-2-1 loop.

Week 4

Finding the rep's voice — progressive autonomy

The last week removes supports. The script becomes a structure rather than a line-by-line, and the rep is coached toward curiosity over recital.

Reduced script dependence: structure retained, wording released.
Curiosity as the default response to resistance.
Parallel dialing and mixed data to build volume tolerance.
Progressive autonomy: the rep chooses accounts and defends the choice.

Worked example

One rep's first month

A LATAM SDR who ran this ramp reported, in month one: 3,259 dials, 412 connects, 79 conversations over two minutes, and 4 meetings.

This is a single reported example from one rep in one market. It is not a benchmark, an expectation, or a guaranteed outcome, and it should not be used to set targets for anyone else.

Read this as an example, not a standard

Dial volume and connect rates vary enormously by market, data quality and segment. The useful part is the shape of the ramp, not the numbers.

Leadership

What to inspect each week

Week 1: can they articulate the buyer without notes?
Week 2: are they hearing what the buyer said, or only that it was a no?
Week 3: is the talk track changing based on real objections?
Week 4: can they run a conversation that does not follow the script and still lands the ask?

In the field