The short answer
Watch effort and proof, not promises
No number tells you for certain that a new door-to-door rep will sell. What you can see during training is effort and proof. Effort is real time spent on the training, with hands on, and how recently the rep did something real. Proof is practice they passed and a full pitch they gave you live, start to finish. A rep who is stuck needs a call. A rep who went quiet needs a different call. Telling those two apart is most of the job.
At RCLX, a T-Mobile Fiber agency that trains its reps on FiberPitch, the managers use a rule of thumb: time spent on the course tells you who will work out. It is a rule of thumb, not a guarantee. This guide shows how to read that time, and the traps that can make it lie.
Why it is hard
A group text hides the difference
A lot of agencies run a new class through a group text and a stack of PDFs. That tells you who replies. It does not tell you who is working.
Before RCLX moved training onto a board, the problem looked like this: some reps signed on, studied for a bit, and went quiet. Others were working hard and stuck on a setup screen. From the group text, they looked the same. Both were silent. One needed help with a code or a security key. The other was not coming back.
If you cannot tell those reps apart, you either chase everyone or cut the wrong person. In fiber, setup alone can eat days. A rep waits on an identity check through CLEAR, then on credentials that take a couple of business days, then on a YubiKey (the full setup chain). A quiet rep in that stretch may be waiting, stuck, or gone. You need to know which.
What to watch
Five signals worth tracking
- 01
Real time on task
Not hours with the training open. Time with hands on: tapping, answering, saying lines, watching films for their real length. RCLX's board shows hands-on time, quiet time with the course left open, films watched against their real length, and items done per hour, side by side.
- 02
The last real thing they did
When did the rep last do something in the training? Not when they last opened the page. A rep whose last real action was a week ago is a phone call today.
- 03
Practice passed
How far they got, and whether they passed the practice or clicked past it. At RCLX that means lessons done and practice doors passed out of twelve, each built from a real recorded door (how the practice doors work).
- 04
Where they got stuck
A stuck rep is not a lazy rep. Give reps a way to say "I'm stuck on this step" that you can see by rep, step and day. At RCLX that is a Stuck tap on each setup step, and it shows on the board.
- 05
Can they give the whole pitch live?
Knowing the opener and handling a few objections is not the same as carrying a full pitch, in order, from the knock to a booked install. Make the last step a live pitch to the manager. At RCLX, a rep is not done until their own manager hears it, opener to close, and taps Passed.
One more thing worth watching across the whole class: where reps stop, which films get skipped, and which parts get missed. If most reps stall at the same spot, the fix belongs in the training, not in your judgment of the reps.
The traps
Five ways effort numbers lie
If a number helps decide who stays, it has to be right. When RCLX started judging effort by course time, FiberPitch went back through what it measured, more than once, looking for anything that made a rep look better or worse than they were. These traps turned up, and any tool that counts effort can fall into them. The full list is in the RCLX story.
- 01
Scrubbing a video counts as watching it
If dragging to the end of a clip marks it done, a rep can "watch" every film in about a minute. At RCLX that was all 22 films. Count a video only when there is real playing time behind it, across sittings. A rep who watches at double speed should still get credit.
- 02
A tab left open looks like work
Time with the training open can pass for time spent learning. Put hands-on time and quiet time next to the total, so idle time shows as idle.
- 03
Two windows, double the hours
A rep with the training open in two windows can bank the same hour twice. Only one window should count at a time.
- 04
"Last opened" is not "last active"
A rep who left a tab open looks active. A rep who opened the page and closed it looks busy. Last seen should mean the last real thing they did.
- 05
Finishing, then going quiet
If "finished" ranks above "gone quiet", a rep who cleared training, never sold and disappeared sorts to the bottom of the list, where nobody looks. At RCLX one rep went 41 days like that. A rep who goes quiet should show as quiet, whatever they finished.
The opposite trap matters too: a number that undercounts. RCLX's eight-minute orientation video once banked about two minutes, because the page could not tell the rep was watching. A rep doing the work should not look lazy because of how it was counted.
Numbers, not verdicts
Show plain numbers instead of a score
It is tempting to roll everything into one readiness score with a written verdict. Early versions of FiberPitch's board did that. RCLX asked for every number on its own instead, so the manager can see the patterns for themselves.
A score hides why. Two reps can land on the same score for opposite reasons: one with lots of open time and little hands-on time, the other with short, busy sessions. Plain numbers, with the team median beside each rep, let you ask the right question on the call. "You had the course open a lot this week but did not get through much. What's going on?" is a better call than "your score is low."
Whatever you track, write down what each number means and how it is counted. If you cannot explain a number to the rep, do not cut them over it.
Running tryouts
Treat training as a tryout, with a way back
Many agencies treat the first week or two as a tryout, whether they call it that or not. A few habits make that fair to the rep and easier on you.
- 01
Look at tryouts first
The reps still earning a spot are the ones who need your attention. RCLX's board opens on reps in tryouts. Reps who already made it are one tap away.
- 02
Split the checking in from the coaching
At RCLX, a pre-field training lead calls reps while they work through the course and sees only their own reps. Once credentials land and the pitch is passed, the manager takes over with turf and targets. Both work from the same board, and coaching notes stay with the manager.
- 03
Call before you cut
Check the last real action and any Stuck taps first. A rep stuck on a security key for three days should get help, not a cut.
- 04
When you cut, end their access
Taking a rep off the roster should end their training access on the spot. At RCLX it used to leave the login working, so a cut rep could walk straight back in.
- 05
Leave a way back
Some reps go quiet and come back. RCLX can bring a cut rep back two ways: where they left off, or back to the start of tryouts for a real second run. The second run gives you clean numbers to judge them on.
Putting it together
A simple weekly check
Once a week, for every rep still in tryouts, ask five questions. When did they last do something real? How much hands-on time did they put in, next to the class median? Where are they in the practice? Are they stuck on anything? Have they given the whole pitch live yet? Call the stuck reps first, then the quiet ones. Save the cut for a rep who stays quiet after you have called.
For the steps that come before all this, see how to onboard door-to-door sales reps and the onboarding checklist. If you run training through texts and PDFs today, here is how that compares.
The demo runs on made-up reps and made-up numbers.