Insights — Growth Strategy — 3 min read
How Do I Know Whether to Hire Another Salesperson?
Hiring is often the first reaction to a sales stall, but it is rarely the most effective one. Know when to add a body and when to add a process.
In short
You should hire another salesperson only when your current team has hit a proven, repeatable 'capacity ceiling' that cannot be solved by automation or process improvement, and when you have a surplus of qualified opportunities that your current team cannot handle. If you have a clear, documented sales playbook and existing reps are achieving their quotas, adding a head is a scaling decision. If the current team is struggling to hit targets, your issue is likely one of proposition, process, or targeting, and a new hire will only compound the problem.
When revenue stalls, the default response for many CEOs is: 'we need more sales capacity, let's hire a salesperson.' It feels like a logical, proactive step. Yet, hiring is one of the highest-risk and most expensive moves you can make.
If your current sales team is achieving their potential and your process is working, hiring is great. But if you hire because your process is broken, all you are doing is paying someone to fail. Before you write the job description, you need to be certain that you're adding headcount to grow, not just to manage the chaos.
The 'Hiring Reality Check'
Before you interview, test your current situation against these three questions:
- 01Is the process repeatable? Could a new person 'plug in' and succeed, or is success currently based on 'heroics' by the current staff?
- 02Are we resource-constrained or process-constrained? If you increase the number of leads, does the system break (the process) or does the team simply run out of hours (capacity)?
- 03Are the current team achieving their targets? If they aren't, why do you think a new person will do better?
The Hidden Cost of the Hire
Hiring is never just the salary. It’s the cost of the recruiter, the cost of the ramp-up (typically 3-6 months), the distraction of the management team, and the potential reputation damage if the new hire isn't a good fit. For a small team, a bad hire is not just an expense; it can actually pull the whole business back.
When to Hire
Hiring is the right move when:
- You have more high-quality, pre-qualified leads than your current reps can call, follow up with, and close.
- You are hitting your 'unit economics' (e.g., each rep is hitting 3x or 4x their quota).
- You need to enter a new geography or vertical where your current team doesn't have the contacts or expertise.
Conclusion
If you are struggling with sales, stop looking for more people and start looking for more clarity. Is the problem the 'who' or the 'how'? If it's the 'how', hiring a new person will not fix it. Fix the process first, build the engine, and when it’s genuinely bursting at the seams, then—and only then—hire the person to run it.
Recruiting a permanent sales or commercial hire?
Evans starts with the commercial requirement — what has to be sold, to whom, through which channel and against what target — and writes the role specification from that.
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