Onboarding a New Associate: A First-Day PostToMarket Checklist
A first-day PostToMarket checklist for onboarding a new associate: login, assigned queue, copy and photo review, paced posting, and the mistakes a manager should block.
Your new associate arrives at 8:00 a.m. Someone hands them a sticky note with a password that also opens the owner's email. Someone else says "just get some cars online." By noon they have posted a unit that sold yesterday, skipped the aged sedan they were supposed to work, and asked a senior rep which Facebook profile to use. That first day will become the next ninety days unless you replace improvisation with a checklist.
Onboarding a new associate is not the same as onboarding a sales rep. Associates do not self-queue. They work an assigned queue. This first-day PostToMarket checklist is the associate version: identity, a short list, inspection, one-at-a-time posting, and a manager close. For the broader one-day plan aimed at full salespeople, see onboarding new sales reps on Marketplace posting. For how managers fill the list, see assigning vehicles to associate queues.
Onboarding a New Associate Starts Before They Walk In
Do this the afternoon prior or at 7:30 a.m. Do not invent it in front of them.
Account and role
- They get their own login as a sales associate. Never the admin. Never a shared sales-rep email.
- Confirm Dealership plan seating. Starter has 1 login; a second person means you already needed more than one seat.
- They will sign in to the Chrome extension with their email, no API keys.
A finishable first queue
Assign three to five units that are actually on the lot, correctly priced, with usable photos. Do not assign the store's hardest VIN as a personality test. First-day success is a clean posted listing they can repeat, not a hero story.
Avoid:
- Units already posted.
- Units in recon with no photos.
- Twins of something a rep is about to list.
- Anything with a title or price argument still open at the desk.
A named buddy and a named manager
One experienced person sits with them for the first two posts. One manager is who they escalate to. "Ask anyone" is how they get five contradictory rules.
Morning: Identity, Tour, and Rules They Must Repeat Back
Keep the classroom short. Associates learn by posting, but they need four rules in their mouth before they touch the extension.
The four rules
- Work only your assigned queue. Do not add vehicles from shared inventory.
- If a unit is wrong, sold, or missing, remove it from your own queue and tell the manager. Do not substitute a car you like.
- Edit AI copy and pick photos before every post. Specs-in, garbage-out is still your name on the listing.
- One vehicle at a time. Do not fight the delays or share a session.
Have them say those back. If they cannot, they are not ready for the extension.
Dashboard tour (names only, no treasure hunt)
Show them the areas they will actually use: Inventory (read-only awareness), Queue (their world), and later how sold units are marked. They do not need Billing, Team, or Settings. Managers live in Team, Leads, and Analytics. Confusing those maps is how a junior clicks something they should not.
If they will use a phone on the lot, install the mobile dashboard on the home screen and show reorder — still only inside the assigned list.
Midday: Two Supervised Posts, Then a Short Solo Batch
This is the core of the first-day PostToMarket checklist.
Post one together
Walk the car. Open the unit. Read the AI title and description against the windshield. Edit one specific fact (tires, hours, a condition note they can see). Choose a lead photo with the Facebook photo picker. Submit through the extension. Watch status go to posting, then posted or failed.
If it fails, you have a teaching moment: do not retry blindly. Check fields, photos, and whether they are signed in as themselves.
Post one while you watch without grabbing the mouse
Silence is the test. Note where they skip inspection. That is the coaching, not a lecture about "taking pride in your work."
Solo batch of two or three
Stay in earshot. They should finish a small assigned queue, not "keep going until we say stop." Daily post limits and delays are server-enforced. First day is the wrong day to find the ceiling.
PostToMarket is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Meta. Teach them that pacing is a conservative operating standard for the store. It is not a promise that Facebook will approve or distribute every listing.
Sold-unit drill (ten minutes)
Show them how to mark as sold and archive if a unit they are touching goes pending. First-day associates who do not see this will leave sold cars live because they think only managers are allowed to tell the truth.
Afternoon: What They Must Not Do, Then a Close
Block these first-day mistakes explicitly
- Using someone else's extension session on a shared desk computer.
- Posting from a personal Facebook profile unless store policy already assigned them one and a manager is present for that conversation.
- Copying a description from a similar unit on the lot.
- Creating a second listing for a VIN that is already posted.
- Working through lunch to "impress" you with volume.
The associate guide to working an assigned queue is their take-home reading tonight. Do not hand them the entire help universe.
Manager close (fifteen minutes)
| Item | Pass? |
|---|---|
| Own login, own extension session | |
| Assigned queue empty or leftover explained | |
| Each posted unit had an edit pass and a real lead photo | |
| No duplicates, no sold cars advertised | |
| They can name who to escalate to | |
| Tomorrow's queue already assigned and short |
If they fail the table, the second day is more supervision, not more cars.
What you send them home knowing
- Their job is execution, not inventory strategy.
- Statuses mean draft, posting, posted, sold, failed — and posted is not "forever ignore."
- Support for product issues goes through a manager first; the store contact for PostToMarket is info@posttomarket.com when the manager needs it.
How PostToMarket Automates This
First-day associate onboarding fails when the new hire is dropped into shared inventory with a borrowed password. The product is built for the opposite: a named associate, a list a manager filled, and posting that cannot be rushed into a burst.
- Sales associate role and manager assignment to their queue.
- Associates do not self-queue from shared inventory; they can remove a unit from their own queue when it is wrong.
- AI titles and descriptions (editable) and Facebook photo picker as the inspection ritual you taught at noon.
- Chrome extension, email sign-in, one vehicle at a time, human-like delays, server-enforced daily limits.
- Inventory statuses, mark as sold and archive.
- Team queue view if a claim gets stuck and a manager needs to release it.
- Mobile dashboard for reorder between customers once they have earned unsupervised time.
Your checklist is the human layer. The queues and roles are the rails.
First-Day PostToMarket Checklist: Finish a Queue, Not a Tour of the Lot
If the new associate leaves having posted two clean units from a list you assigned, you onboarded them. If they leave having "seen the software," you postponed the real first day to tomorrow, when nobody has time.
PostToMarket gives associates a queue, managers a way to fill and release it, and pacing that will not reward a panic dump. Unlimited vehicles in inventory on every plan. Starter is $59 per month for a one-login solo shop that should not be hiring associates into the same seat. Dealership is $299 per month for up to 13 logins, which is the plan this checklist assumes.
Start your 10-day free trial through secure Stripe checkout. Invite an associate as an associate, assign five real units, and cancel anytime if your floor still prefers a sticky note with the owner's password.