Do You Need More Salespeople?

Key considerations before expanding your team.

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When a business is looking to grow or improve its sales performance, the first instinct may be to hire more salespeople. This approach is often seen as a straightforward way to generate more leads, improve prospecting efforts, or provide better service to current customers.

However, adding more salespeople may not always solve the underlying issues a company is facing. In fact, studies suggest that as many as 20-30% of existing salespeople may be underperforming.

Before you decide whether to invest in more salespeople ( and overhead), it’s essential to evaluate whether that is truly the best investment, or if other areas, such as marketing, sales enablement or sales training, would yield better returns.

Here are 10 critical factors businesses must consider before expanding their sales team:

1. Current Sales Team Effectiveness

Evaluate the performance of your current sales team. Are all team members pulling their weight? If 20-30% of your existing team is underperforming, hiring more people will only increase overhead without guaranteeing results. After you assess your sales team, you will often find the 80/20 rule true in terms of your sales teams skills. Eighty percent of your revenue and growth is coming from your top 20% of your team.

What if we trained and improved that other 80% of your team? I promise it is less expensive than hiring more salespeople. Invest in coaching, training and performance management solutions for existing salespeople before hiring more.

2. Quality of Leads

Is your current sales team struggling because they lack high-quality leads? If the pipeline is filled with low-quality prospects, no amount of new salespeople will fix that. In this case, investing in your marketing to improve lead generation and nurturing could be a better solution.

3. Marketing Alignment

Are your sales and marketing teams working in sync or in silos? Many companies fail to realize that a lack of alignment between marketing and sales can cause inefficiencies. Consider improving communication between the two departments to ensure your marketing team is generating leads that sales can close efficiently.

We recommend conducting voice of customer research and using the actionable insights to create cross functional goals between sales and marketing.

4. Sales Process and Technology

Do you have the right sales processes and technology in place, or is it dated? Effective CRM systems, automation tools and well-defined sales processes can make your current sales team more productive. Before hiring more people, assess whether an investment in technology could optimize the workflow and increase productivity.

Do you have a formal defined sales process?

Are your salespeople following it?

Are you sure?

5. Customer Retention

Are your current customers receiving enough attention? Hiring more salespeople to find new clients is important, but not if it comes at the cost of retaining existing customers. Investing in customer service and account management could increase your current revenue streams.

Again, we strongly suggest voice of customer research and confirming the satisfaction level of your customers today.

How many of your customers are satisfied today?

How many of your customers are indifferent and vulnerable to defecting for a lower price?

How many of your customers are unhappy and plan on leaving? The time to save them is before they leave.

6. Cost of Hiring and Onboarding

Hiring new salespeople involves a significant financial commitment beyond just their salary. There’s also the cost of recruiting, onboarding, training, and time for them to reach full productivity. Don’t underestimate the time to interview candidates, as well. Assess whether your company has the resources to support a growing sales team.

We recommend using a sales pre-hire assessment tool. The difficulty our clients have in hiring salespeople is that they are very likable: they interview very well (they have been trained to build relationships). We encourage clients to have each candidate take a pre-hire sales skills assessment. We review 21 sales skills competencies and beliefs.

Do the sales candidates you and your team are interviewing have the skills to deliver value in the sales role?

Will they require coaching and training? How much? Who will deliver it?

What skills will they need to improve to be effective in your sales role?

7. Sales Metrics

What are your key performance indicators (KPIs) telling you? Look closely at conversion rates, average deal sizes, and sales cycle lengths. Are there bottlenecks or inefficiencies that could be addressed internally before expanding the team? Hiring more people won’t fix process problems that result in wasted efforts.

For example, the data tells us 67% of salespeople lack sales closing skills.

Does your sales team have strong sales closing skills?

What is your current average close rate?

What impact would it have to improve your current close rate by 10-30%?

8. Training and Development

Are your current salespeople receiving the training and development they need to succeed? Sometimes, poor sales performance is not due to lack of effort, but a lack of skills. Investing in training may be more cost-effective than hiring more salespeople.

Before launching a sales training program, we recommend assessing the skills of your team and prescribing training the data indicates they need.

What sales skills are strong on your team?

Do your salespeople have strong discovery and qualifying skills?

Do your salespeople know how to negotiate and close the sale?

9. Company Culture and Morale

Adding new members to a team can disrupt the company culture, especially if the existing team is struggling. If current morale is low due to missed targets, adding more people might exacerbate the problem rather than solve it. Consider whether the existing team has the motivation and support needed to succeed.

Do you have a team of A players driving profitable growth?

How many C players are on your sales team? Typically, the data shows 20% of sales teams are C players lacking the skills and often motivation for the sales role.

Have you completed a top grading exercise to ensure you have a team of A players that can mentor and support new team members?

10. Scalability of Operations

Is your company infrastructure capable of handling the increased workload that comes with additional salespeople? More salespeople mean more customer touch points, more contracts, and more service demands. Ensure your business operations can scale smoothly before hiring more personnel.

Hiring more salespeople is a significant investment, but it’s not always the right one. Before making that decision, it’s crucial to evaluate the effectiveness of your current team, the quality of leads, and your overall sales process.

Sometimes, the best investment is in improving marketing efforts, enhancing technology, or providing better training for the team you already have.

Thoughtful consideration of these factors will help you make a more strategic decision that leads to sustainable growth. Are you sure you need more salespeople? Would you like to be sure?

Mark Allen Roberts is a senior-level sales and marketing leader, author, speaker, sales skills trainer and sales acceleration coach who writes the popular business development blog No Smoke and Mirrors.

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