We all know that ramp time is a KPI for inside sales organziations. From our 2015 inside sales research, we also know that the percentage of companies with 5+ month ramp time has tripled since 2010.

Online survey software company Qualtrics takes this seriously. And judging by their Glassdoor reviews, they are nailing it. 

Recently, I had a chance to speak with Charlie Besecker their Head of Sales Development, Sales Enablement and Professional Development. I asked him a few questions that I thought would be of interest to the inside sales community.

When did onboarding become a mission for Qualtrics?

When given the assignment of revamping our onboarding process, I asked what our ultimate goal was, "How will we know when we’ve been successful?" The response was daunting: “You know how Xerox, IBM, and Pitney Bowes, became synonymous with world class training and are spoken about for decades to come? Like that.”

As cheesy as it is, we started with a

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What happens when 342 SaaS companies share key metrics for their inside sales closers (AE, ISRs, etc.)?

Forty-six pages of analysis, metrics, comp data, and trends.

I'm extremely happy to share our new research report: 2015 Inside Sales Metrics for SaaS. A huge thank you to the community whose participation made it possible.

Here's a peek at what we cover in the report.

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One afternoon in the summer of 2007, I was waiting in the dentist's office. This was pre-Android and only a month after the iPhone launched, so I had no screens to scroll and no feeds to skim.

Looking around the waiting room, I noticed a 'brush more, fewer cavities' poster on the wall. I distincly remember thinking, "That is basically a Crest ad hung up as as piece of wall art. Why doesn't that happen in B2B?"

When I got back to the office, I decided to try to make something worthy of being hung up.

Six months later, we published Rev 1 of The Periodic Table of Inside Sales. We are currently in version six with over 15k+ downloads and I couldn't be happier.

Here's an updated edition of the Periodic Table 2016 edition.

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I opened my email this morning and was bombarded by advice on how to end the year with a bang.

For most of us, those with longer sales cycles, that horse has left the barn. Trying to course correct now is too little, too late.

I'm sure you've spent countless hours on strategy and planning for next year. I'm asking you to spend 5 more minutes. As inside sales leaders, the next few days and weeks are the perfect time to assess your readiness for 2015.

I've created a 2015 Readiness Scorecard to make it easy for you.

With the scorecard you can assess your team's readiness for 2015 against:

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