Talk it through with Aurelius
Library›Aurelius›The problem
Aurelius · Work & Leadership
Knowledge + Guidance

Why do new reps keep floundering with no real onboarding?

You call it onboarding, but it is really one person learning by failing in front of customers. You hoped it would sort itself out. It has not. This is not a flaw in the new rep. It is a hole in what your team built. Every week without a plan costs you a recruit you fought to hire, who now believes the job is harder than it is. The team feels it too — senior reps answer the same questions five times, the manager fields the same mistakes week after week. This is fixable, and fixable soon, with the people you already have. You do not need a department. You need a decision, made this week, by you and the team that already knows the job.

◆ How this problem reads on the two dials
GuidanceKnowledge
More coaching
Some to learn
1:1 with AureliusWith others (a Pod)
Some one-to-one
Practise with peers
The team needs a short, clear idea of what minimum onboarding contains, but what they mostly need is the push to actually write it, assign it, and ship it.
How the two dials adapt to you →
What’s really going on

You did not build onboarding, so the job of training falls on chance — and chance is failing you. This is not bad luck. It is an unmade decision. Gather your team this week and write the first five things every new rep must know. Build it together. Build it now, not perfect.

🔒 What you’ll build togetherUnlock by starting
A moveThis week, sit with your team and write the five tasks a new rep must do in week one. No more than five.
A movePick one senior rep to own onboarding for the next quarter. One name, not a committee.
A moveRecord three real calls or meetings a new rep should watch first. Use actual ones, not scripts.
A moveSet a 30-day check-in with every new hire. Ask what confused them. Fix that part of the plan.
A moveAfter your next three new reps go through it, sit down as a team and cut what did not help.
PractiseBuild the First Week · a Pod of 4 · 30 min

What changes unlock by starting

  • A written onboarding plan your team actually uses, not a binder no one opens.
  • New reps productive weeks sooner, with fewer repeated questions for your senior staff.
  • One clear owner for onboarding, so it survives past this one hire.
  • A plan that gets better each quarter, because you built in a review step.

Related problems

One object, two jobs: a public answer to a real problem, and — the moment you start the chat — Aurelius’s live plan for your version of it.