Getting new sales reps up to speed is always a headache. You want them talking to customers fast without embarrassing themselves or the company, but most onboarding is a slog—endless decks, stale scripts, and “best practice” articles that look good but don’t budge the needle. If you’re using guided selling tools like Cuvama, you’ve got a shot at making onboarding less painful and a lot more effective. Here’s how to actually do it, what usually gets in the way, and what you can safely skip.
Why Cuvama? (And What It Won’t Do For You)
Let’s be clear: Cuvama is a guided selling platform, not a magic wand. It helps reps have better sales conversations by prompting them with questions, value props, and next steps. Done right, it shortcuts a lot of the “what do I say now?” moments. But it won’t fix bad training, messy processes, or reps who don’t put in the work.
If your onboarding is just “throw them into Cuvama and hope they figure it out,” you’ll get the same results as any other tool—confused reps and missed quotas. Use Cuvama as a framework to get reps learning by doing, not as a replacement for actual coaching or feedback.
Step 1: Get Your Cuvama Instance Ready for Onboarding
Before you even think about putting a new rep in front of Cuvama, make sure your setup is solid. Most companies half-bake this and then wonder why reps are lost.
Checklist:
- Is your value framework actually usable?
If your Cuvama instance is full of jargon, vague “outcomes,” or a Frankenstein of last year’s messaging, fix it now. Reps need plain-English, specific prompts that reflect real customer conversations. - Are playbooks and flows mapped to real deals?
Make sure the sequences in Cuvama reflect how your best reps actually sell—not how you wish they did. - Is everything up to date?
Outdated pricing, wrong personas, or old competitor talk tracks will mess up new reps fast.
Pro tip:
Have a current rep run through a “dummy” deal in Cuvama with you watching. Anything that feels awkward to them will be twice as confusing for a newbie.
Step 2: Build a Hands-On Ramp—Not a Deck Parade
Most sales onboarding is death by PowerPoint. Don’t do that. Instead, use Cuvama to get reps practicing real conversations from day one.
How:
- Start with shadowing, then switch seats.
Have new reps watch a few experienced reps use Cuvama in real or simulated calls. Then flip it—let the new rep drive, with a veteran “customer” pushing back and asking questions. - Walk through the customer journey, not the product.
Use Cuvama’s guided questions to help new reps understand the buyer’s world: their pains, what they care about, the language they use. Skip the 50-slide product demo. - Give bite-sized exercises.
Assign small, focused tasks in Cuvama: - Fill out a discovery flow for a fictional customer.
- Practice handling a single objection using the tool.
- Build a quick summary of a “deal” using Cuvama prompts.
What to avoid:
Don’t overwhelm new reps with every feature in the tool. Focus on the basics: running a discovery, mapping pain to value, and moving to next steps.
Step 3: Make Feedback Part of the Process
Watching reps fumble in Cuvama is painful, but it’s where the magic happens. The trick is to make feedback fast, honest, and specific—not a vague pat on the back or a soul-crushing postmortem.
How to do it:
- Record practice runs.
Use call recording or screen share for roleplays in Cuvama. Review together, focusing on specific points: Did they ask the right questions? Did they use the prompts naturally, or just read off the screen? - Set up peer reviews.
Pair new reps to watch each other run through a Cuvama flow. They’ll spot things you miss, and it gets them comfortable with feedback. - Be blunt, not brutal.
If a rep is skipping steps or robotically reading, point it out. Sugarcoating doesn’t help anyone.
What doesn’t work:
Long written feedback or scoring sheets rarely stick. Keep it short, live, and actionable.
Step 4: Give Them “Safe” Reps Before Real Calls
Nobody wants their first customer call to be their first time using the tool. Have new reps use Cuvama in safe settings before you throw them into the wild.
Ideas:
- Mock calls with managers or peers
Run through full sales cycles in Cuvama with internal folks role-playing as tough or skeptical prospects. - Practice “weird” scenarios
Throw curveballs—budget cuts, technical buyers, unresponsive stakeholders. See how they use Cuvama to handle left-field situations. - Time-limited drills
Give reps a short window to prep and run a call using only the tool. It builds muscle memory and confidence.
Pro tip:
If a rep freezes or gets lost, resist the urge to take over. Let them work through the awkwardness—it’s way better to get flustered internally than on a real deal.
Step 5: Integrate Cuvama into Real Sales Activity (But Don’t Make It a Crutch)
Once reps are comfortable, get them using Cuvama in actual sales calls. But keep an eye out: some reps will lean on the tool as a script, not a guide. That kills authenticity fast.
What works:
- Use Cuvama as a conversation map, not a teleprompter.
Encourage reps to follow the flow but adapt to real responses. If a customer jumps ahead or brings up a curveball, reps shouldn’t be afraid to go off-script. - Review early calls together.
After a few real calls, debrief with the rep. Did Cuvama help? Where did it get in the way? Adjust how you coach based on their feedback. - Keep iterating.
Your best reps will find hacks, skips, and shortcuts in Cuvama. That’s good—update your flows based on what actually works in the field.
What to ignore:
Don’t force every rep to follow the tool 100% of the time. The goal is better conversations, not perfect compliance.
Step 6: Use Cuvama Data to Spot Issues Early
One upside of guided selling tools: you get a window into what reps are actually doing. Use the data, but don’t overthink it.
How:
- Check where reps get stuck.
If new reps always stumble at a certain question or step, revisit your flows. Maybe it’s confusing, or maybe your messaging is off. - Look for skipped steps.
Lots of skipped fields? Reps might be rushing, or it could be a sign that part of the tool isn’t useful. - Watch for “copy-paste” habits.
If you see identical notes or robotic responses, coach for authenticity.
Don’t obsess:
Some metrics look pretty but mean nothing (e.g., time per step). Focus on what actually drives better calls and more closed deals.
Step 7: Keep Onboarding Lean—And Ditch What Doesn’t Work
It’s tempting to build a massive onboarding checklist, but more isn’t better. Use Cuvama to focus on practice and live feedback, not theory.
- Cut any part of onboarding you can’t tie to a real sales scenario.
- If a step doesn’t help reps talk to customers better, it’s probably not worth it.
- Iterate: ask new hires what helped and what didn’t, and tweak for the next cohort.
Wrapping Up
Onboarding sales reps is never “set it and forget it.” If you use Cuvama as a living, breathing tool for hands-on practice—not a glorified script—you’ll ramp reps faster and with fewer headaches. Keep your flows current, your feedback honest, and your process simple. Don’t wait for perfect. Iterate, listen to your team, and remember: the best onboarding is the stuff that actually gets used.