Sales onboarding at GitLab is focused on what new sales team members need to KNOW, DO, and BE ABLE TO ARTICULATE within their first month or so on the job so they are "customer conversation ready" and they are comfortable, competent, and confident leading discovery calls to begin building pipeline by or before the end of their first several weeks on the job.
Topics covered include but are not limited to:
Understanding the GitLab Buyer
Understanding the Industry in Which We Compete
Salesforce Basics
Introduction to GitLab Sales Process & Tools
Why GitLab and the GitLab Portfolio
The Competition
Critical Sales Skills & Behaviors
GitLab Product Tiers
The process:
The GitLab Candidate Experience team initiates a general GitLab onboarding issue for every new GitLab team member
In the "Day 1 Accounts and Paperwork" section of the general GitLab onboarding issue, sales managers are instructed to create an Access Request (sales role-based templates are available in the list of template on this page
In the "Sales Division" section of that issue, Sales Enablement is tagged with the action to add the new sales team member to the Sales Quickstart learning path in Google Classroom. This learning path is designed to accelerate the new sales team member's time to productivity by focusing on the key sales-specific elements they need to know and be able to do within their first several weeks at GitLab.
The new sales team member will receive an email prompting them to login to Google Classroom to begin working through the Sales Quickstart learning path
When possible, Sales Enablement will also update the new team member's onboarding issue and/or add a comment to explicitly reference the link to their Sales Quickstart learning path
In the "New Team Member" section, there is a specific action for the new hire to "Complete your Sales Quickstart learning path"
Targeted roles for the sales onboarding training issue include Enterprise and Public Sector Strategic Account Leaders (SALs), Mid-Market Account Executives, SMB Customer Advocates, and Inside Sales Reps
Customer Success (e.g. Solution Architects, Technical Account Managers, and Professional Services Engineers) and Sales Development Rep (SDR) roles will continue to maintain their own separate onboarding process, but we will be collaborating and sharing best practices
In addition to the sales onboarding training issue, new sales team members (along with new Solution Architects, Technical Account Managers, and Sales Development Rep) participate in an interactive 3-day Sales QuickStart workshop full of mock calls, role plays, and group discussions. This format allows new sales team members to practice applying this new knowledge in a fun and challenging way. As a result, new sales team members exit Sales QuickStart more confident and capable in their ability to lead an effective discovery call with a customer or prospect. (Note: The Results Value is our highest priority and we strive to deliver sales training and enablement remotely as much as possible and reserve in-person formats only for circumstances when we can't obtain the desired results via remote/virtual delivery). Iteration is expected to keep moving what we can to remote models once we can achieve the same or better results that way.
We conduct a hands-on exercise to help new team members get more comfortable navigating issues and submitting Merge Requests (abbreviated to MR) in GitLab
Participants benefit by establishing a community of similar-tenured peers to support each others' growth and development at GitLab
We take time to collect feedback on how we can continue to iterate and improve the overall sales onboarding experience
For an overview and feedback summary of Sales QuickStart 1, click here
Future iteration of this process will also begin to define what sales team members need to KNOW, DO, and BE ABLE TO ARTICULATE (by sales role, customer segment, and geo as appropriate) after they complete the above and support those learning objectives as they continue their ramp to GitLab sales performance excellence!
Sales Quickstart learning path
1.Welcome to GitLab Sales!
Let's Git To Know Each Other! (assignment, 5 minutes, 1 point)
Please complete this brief google form to introduce yourself.
What is GitLab? (video, 3 minutes, 0 points)
GitLab is a single application for the entire DevOps lifecycle. Watch the video.
GitLab Culture (video, 3 minutes, 0 points)
Every year, our entire remote workforce gets together in one location for the GitLab Summit. We use this time to bond, build community, and get a bit of work done. It's an essential part of the GitLab experience—watch the video to learn more about our culture, and what it's like to be on our globally distributed team.
Everyone Can Contribute (video, 3 minutes, 0 points)
Learn more about how we live out our Contribute value! Watch the video.
Org Chart (Handbook, 0 points)
You can see more information about team members and who reports to whom on the team page. Throughout the course you will be asked to schedule a few brief meetings with your peers. Keep in mind that it is always ok to put a meeting on someone's calendar, if they can't make it and decline it is not a problem. We hope you enjoy getting to know your super cool co-workers!
