What does a new sales hire need to know before their first call?

I’ve been asking sales teams this on demo calls lately, and the answers are always unintentionally hilarious.

The pricing breakdown? Trapped in a spreadsheet only one person knows how to read.

The real reason we lost that massive deal last spring? Locked in someone’s head.

Objection handling? Buried in a Notion doc that hasn't seen daylight since 2024.

And the best advice for week one? "Just shadow our top rep and take notes."

So new hires spend weeks piecing puzzle context together before they actually feel ready to talk to buyers. And whenever they hit a wall, a senior rep gets pulled in to bail them out.

If you’ve ever trained a sales rep (or been the new hire):

1. What’s the one crucial thing a new rep needs to know that is never written down anywhere?

2. How long did it take you to actually feel confident running calls in your last role?