Do I Really Need Another Sales Rep?

So you need quick growth. You knew this day was coming, but you kept putting it off in the hope that it would solve itself. Is your quickest route to revenue really bringing on another rep? Not necessarily. Examine your current reps and inefficiencies first.

- Marc Odenweller

I need quick growth. My current reps are good, but coverage is unsaturated.

Shouldn’t I just add another headcount? Isn’t that the quickest route to revenue? Add another rep, drop them into a territory? My onboarding process takes a couple months for a rep to get productive and start closing business. If I get started interviewing immediately and find a fit, I am on the fastest track to meeting my goals, right?

Well, I guess the answer is, maybe.

ARE MY CURRENT REPS AS PRODUCTIVE AS THEY SHOULD BE?

Each of my reps has plenty of accounts, territory, products and opportunity. Our market is not saturated and the overall opportunity for the company is good. I could carve off half of a region or a set of products and add another headcount and double my production. Yes, that is one answer to a potential growth strategy, but before looking at incremental headcount growth I need to understand if my rep yield is in line with expectations. When I built my business plan, I knew some things:

1. I had some idea of how many territory managers I needed.

2. I knew my inside sales to outside sales ratio.

3. I budgeted for overlays and product specialists and technical resources.