Before you hire another sales rep, look at your reps' calendars

Hire against pipeline, not against the revenue you want

Plans often start from a revenue target and work back to a number of reps. It looks logical and it is how many teams end up with people who have nothing to work on. A rep does not create demand. They convert the demand that exists, so the question is whether there is enough of it for one more person.

Three checks before the next hire

1. Quota. Are the reps you have at or above it? Quotas set from what is achievable, not from a finance projection, tell you much more about capacity.
2. Calendars. Open next week's calendars. Are they full of conversations with buyers, or of internal meetings, admin and gaps?
3. Pipeline. Is there enough qualified pipeline to keep another person busy, and a plan to create more of it?

What the calendars tell you

Three cases come up most often, and each points to a different decision.

• Full of buyer conversations and quota met: the team is out of capacity. Hire.
• Half empty: the problem is pipeline, not people. Put the money into demand before adding a rep.
• Full of admin, notes and updates: the problem is process. Remove that work first, and the same reps will have room for more deals.

Make room before you add people

Before adding headcount, look at how much of each rep's week goes on work that is not selling. Cutting it is often cheaper and faster than a hire, and a hire in a team that has not done it only gets pulled into the same work. Check also that the people you have are prepared for each conversation and write up each one in the same way, so more deals do not mean more confusion.

Mistakes to avoid

• Hiring because one rep was overloaded for one week.
• Setting quotas from a financial plan and then wondering why reps miss them.
• Spreading a thin pipeline across a bigger team, so each rep sees less.
• Hiring before you have agreed with your CEO and finance team what growth you are paying for.