New SDRs need product knowledge. They need to understand the company, the market and the sales process.
But knowing more is not the same as being ready to use that knowledge in a real conversation.
I have seen onboarding where new joiners receive their laptop and then spend weeks on company information, product videos and internal training.
All useful.
But the CRM comes later.
Practice comes later.
Real conversations come later.
Coaching on those conversations comes later.
Sometimes much later.
That raises a simple question:
When does learning become doing?
Product knowledge matters. But the conversation is different.
A new SDR may know what the product does, understand the value proposition and remember the main use cases.
Then a real prospect says:
“That’s not really how we do it.”
Or:
“That takes us far too long.”
Or:
“We tried that before.”
Now product knowledge alone is not enough.
The SDR has to listen.
What did the person actually say?
Is there something worth staying with?
What would be the right conversational question now?
Should they continue with the question they prepared, or follow what they have just heard?
Another product video cannot make that decision for them.
They have to try it.
Reflect on it.
Adjust.
Try again.
Bring application into onboarding earlier
That does not mean putting an unprepared new joiner on the phone on day one.
It means reducing the distance between learning something and trying to use it.
For example:
- use the CRM while learning how the sales process actually works;
- listen to real sales conversations;
- investigate the market and explain what has been discovered;
- connect product knowledge to situations a customer might actually describe;
- practise realistic conversations;
- try, reflect, adjust and try again;
- receive coaching on observable behaviour in those conversations.
The new joiner should not only receive information.
They should have to look, think, explain, try and apply.
Training and coaching have different jobs
Training matters.
If someone does not know something they need for the job, teach it.
But delivering information does not automatically create capability.
Training can provide knowledge when knowledge is missing.
Practice starts turning that knowledge into something usable.
Coaching then helps someone look at what actually happened, think about it and decide what to try next.
That distinction matters.
If the coach immediately supplies every answer, the coach has done the thinking.
If the new SDR is asked to reflect, investigate, try something and look again, the SDR starts learning to think and act independently.
Look at the gap between knowledge and application
Before adding another course, another product module or another week of onboarding content, I would look at what happens between learning and doing.
When does the SDR first use the CRM properly?
When do they first hear real customer conversations?
When do they first practise one themselves?
When does someone observe what they actually do rather than only test what they know?
When are they asked to reflect before someone tells them what should have happened?
And when do they get another opportunity to apply what they have learned?
Those questions tell me more about onboarding than the number of training hours.
Knowing is not the same as applying.
Good onboarding should connect the two as early as reasonably possible.
SDR/BDR Onboarding
International Coaching supports SDR and BDR onboarding by connecting knowledge, practice, real sales conversations, observation and coaching.
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