How to Ramp Sales Teams 25% Faster: Lessons from Ex-Spryker CRO Edmund Frey

From pandemic pivots to scalable onboarding: What every CRO should know about building faster and leaner sales teams.

In today’s high-pressure revenue environment, most CROs are hearing the same thing from the boardroom:

‍
“Hit bigger targets with fewer resources.”

That’s the exact challenge Edmund Frey faced as Chief Revenue Officer at Spryker. And it’s what he’s now helping scale-ups solve through his work as founder of Adventure Capital.

‍

In a recent episode of the SaaS Sales Performance Podcast, Edmund unpacked how sales leaders can drastically reduce ramp time—by as much as 25%—while still delivering pipeline and revenue impact.

Here are his 7 most valuable lessons for CROs looking to build productive, resilient sales teams:

‍

1. Hire for Adaptability, Not Just Experience

“Sales is changing faster than ever. What worked 5 years ago won’t cut it now.”

During the pandemic, Edmund found that experienced sellers often struggled to adapt to remote-first selling, while younger, more flexible reps thrived. Hire based on learning agility, not just logos.

2. Don’t Overhire, It Breaks the System

Adding headcount too quickly can backfire. Why?

It overloads enablement
It stretches presales and ops teams
It often lowers your close rate

More reps ≠ more revenue if your processes can’t support them.

3. Prioritise Deal Allocation by Rep Strength

Your best reps should get your best pipeline.

Rampers can learn by shadowing or tackling lower-risk deals, but your core revenue goals depend on matching experience to opportunity.

4. Set Quotas with Context

“Quota planning can’t live in a spreadsheet. It needs human input.”

Don’t demotivate strong performers with unrealistic targets. Use market maturity, pipeline depth, and headcount availability to guide quota-setting.

5. Build a Buddy System for Ramp

Ramp time drops dramatically when new hires are paired with seasoned reps. Make enablement everyone’s responsibility by:

Giving top reps ownership of onboarding
Tying coaching to compensation
Creating verticalised micro-teams

6. Clean Up Your Sales Process

Broken processes slow ramp and kill motivation. Edmund says many teams can unlock 30–40% more productivity just by:

Eliminating manual CRM tasks
Filtering out junk leads
Automating key enablement steps

7. Standardise Onboarding (and Track It)

If you’re not measuring onboarding, you can’t fix it. Edmund recommends:

Role-specific onboarding tracks
Clear 30/60/90 day expectations
Shared ownership between managers and enablement
Monthly check-ins, not just quarterly reviews

Bonus Tip: Hire Fast, Fire Fast

“It’s not expensive to hire someone. It’s expensive to keep the wrong person.”

No assessment can 100% predict a rep’s performance. But by using the probation period strategically, you can de-risk hires with regular check-ins, clear KPIs, and a mutual feedback loop.