New starter onboarding

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Your first few weeks

Welcome to the PostHog Sales team! We only hire about 1 in 400 applicants, so you've done well to make it here! Unlike a lot of companies, we don't have a super-long onboarding process and would prefer you to be up and running with your customer base as quickly as possible. Here are the things you should focus on in your first few weeks at PostHog to help you achieve that.

Ramping up is mostly self serve - we won't sit you down in a room for training for 2 weeks. If you're not sure who is supposed to make something below happen, the person responsible is almost certainly you!

How to fail

But first...

Sales at PostHog isn't like most other software companies! These are some of the things that you shouldn't do:

  • Wait til you're ready to talk to customers. Jump in sooner than you feel comfortable - it is by far the fastest way to learn. A great, low-risk way to practise is chat to inbound leads who you think aren't going to be high paying customers - the cost of doing badly is very low!
  • Lazily forward customer questions to engineering teams without any context. That's super annoying. Instead:
    • Try to solve the problem yourself, read the Docs etc.
    • Try asking in #ask-max Slack channel
    • Ask the rest of the Sales team
    • Then forward to the relevant engineering team and add context - are they a huge oppo, evaluating or already paying, technical/non-technical etc.? Help them help you
      • Bonus points for: 'I think [this] is the answer, am I on the right track?'
  • Execute your previous company's playbook. We're trying to do things differently from 90% of the industry. But please do tell us what has and hasn't worked at previous places.
  • Keep information to yourself - share openly and frequently the things you are learning, what you've got right or wrong. We don't do lone wolfing here. PostHog is a huge product, so it's ok to ask dumb questions - so long as you've tried to figure it out yourself first!
  • Use sales BS language - if you don't know the answer that's fine! Don't promise features. Don't use vague, non-specific language. Talk to our customers like real human beings, not 'prospects'. And don't be discouraged if they say 'can we talk to someone more technical'!
  • Being slow to reply to customers - even if it's just to acknowledge their message. Make sure you have notifications turned on for all messages in your customer Slack channels (not just for mentions).

Sales & CS Tools

Mine or Simon can help you out for access or invites for the following tools:

Technical Account Executive ramp

Day 1

  • Meet with Simon who will run through this plan and answer any questions you may have. In addition, come equipped to talk about any nuances around how you prefer to work (e.g. schedules, family time etc.).
  • Setup relevant Sales & CS Tools
  • If you start on a Monday, join your first PostHog All Hands (at 4.30pm UK/8.30am PT) and be prepared to have a strong opinion on whether pineapple belongs on pizza.
  • If you start on a Monday, join your first Sales standup.
    • We fill in a GitHub issue every week before this meeting so we are prepared for the discussion topics. Simon will add your GitHub handle to the template.

Rest of week 1

  • Ask team members in your region to be invited to some customer calls so you can gain an understanding of how we work with customers.
  • Check out some Jimminy calls and add yourself to a bunch of Slack channels - get immersed in what our customers are saying.
  • Learn and practise a demo of PostHog.
  • Read all of the Sales section in the Handbook, and update it as you learn more.
  • Meet with Charles, the exec responsible for Sales.

Week 2

  • During your first week, Simon will figure out your initial book of business (10 accounts). We will review these at the start of your second week, and make sure you understand how your targets are set.
  • Shadow more live calls and listen to more Jiminny recordings. There is a Jiminny playlist with sub-folders containing Sales calls and PostHog knowledge calls, add to it as you listen!
  • Towards the end of the week, schedule a demo and feedback session with Simon. We might need to do a couple of iterations over the next few weeks as you take on board feedback, don't worry if that's the case!
  • Prioritize your current book of customers, and start reaching out!
  • Get comfortable with the PostHog Docs around our main products.
  • We'll start routing new Salesforce Leads to you at the end of week 1. Start to review these and reach out, using a shared booking link with someone else from your region so they can back you up in the first few weeks. This is a great option to practise and fail.

In-person onboarding

Ideally, this will happen in Week 3 or 4, and will be with a few existing team members (depending on where we do it) and will be 3-4 days covering:

  • Demo practice session with the team.
  • The data we track on customers in PostHog and some hands-on exercises to get you comfortable using PostHog itself.
  • Deep dive on Vitally tracking.
  • No stupid questions session.

Weeks 3-4

  • Focus on taking more and more ownership on calls so that team members are just there as a safety net.
  • Continue to meet with your book of customers and inbound leads.

How do I know if I'm on track?

By the end of month 1:

  • Be leading customer calls and demos on your own
  • Have evaluations in flight (with support from the team if needed)
  • Successfully made contact with everyone in your book of business

By the end of month 2:

  • Have closed your first annual deal of any size (net new or conversion to annual)
  • Be leading evaluations on your own
  • Have identified some opportunities to add to your book from self-serve signups who aren't paying yet

By the end of month 3:

  • Have closed multiple contracts by this point (either new or expansion/renewal) through the whole process
  • Be driving multiple opportunities for cross sell through your accounts, ie. at least one customer is actively using a product they weren't before you started (at any scale)

By the end of month 4:

  • On track to hit 100% quota by the end of month 6

Getting your equipment setup right

In addition to following the guidance in the spending money section of the Handbook, there are a few things you should do to make sure you're set up to give high quality demos that look professional:

  • Buy a webcam. These are cheap, but significantly better than those built into your Macbook. Logitech is perfectly fine here. This should cost up to $100.
  • Buy a microphone. The mic on your Airpods will not do it. Rode do good quality, affordable mics - nice thing about these is that you can plug in wired headphones so you can still hear yourself talk. Again, up to $100 should be fine.
    • If you prefer to use headphones with a built-in boom mic instead, that's also ok.
  • Take calls at your desk. Don't dial in from your garden because it's a nice day and then spend the call apologizing for the lousy WiFi.
  • You don't have to go all ring light, but think about your background a bit. You don't have to construct some elaborate bookshelf situation behind you, but consider using one of our nice wallpapers.

Tools that you may find useful

  • Calendly.com for shared meeting booking links
  • Clay for account and contact enrichment
  • Granola (app) for AI note taking in meetings
  • In Your Face (app) don't miss meeting notifications
  • Loom for short videos (Simon can invite you to the company account)
  • Scratchpad for AI agents and a friendlier SFDC UI (sign up as part of your software budget)
  • spark (app) AI powered inbox
  • Superhuman (app) AI powered inbox
  • YubiKey Manager (app) for configuring provided YubiKey

New hire frequently asked questions

How does support work at PostHog?

  • Generally, you're expected to be able to be the first line of support for customers at PostHog. You should be able to answer most yourself - that's why we hire Technical AEs and CSMs after all! #ask-max in Slack can often help too.
  • If you can't solve a customer's problem (it happens) then follow our standard support process.

Can I login as a customer?

  • Visit the /admin/ endpoint on the cloud they are on. You can then search for them via email and log in. Be careful clicking around here as you can accidentally delete a person/organization! You need to get their permission first unless it's an emergency, i.e. to resolve an incident.

Are there any influential folks in our space I should read/listen to?

  • Join the #newsletters channel in Slack for updates from a curated collection of influential folks in our industry.

Questions? Ask Max AI.

It's easier than reading through 642 pages of documentation

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