Scaling Sales Efforts — Who to Hire & When

Recently, I’ve had numerous conversations with sales leaders and executives debating best practices when hiring sales staff. More specifically, the conversations have focused on the profile of the seller and when the profile makes sense to hire, which is highly dependent on the maturity of the company and product(s) in question. My favorite framework for breaking down this problem is ‘The Sales Learning Curve’, which was created by Mark Leslie. While he created it to focus on the challenges startups face when scaling sales efforts, I think it’s equally applicable to established companies who are pivoting into new markets or releasing new products outside their core offering(s).

Leslie points out that the common mistake many organizations make is hiring a large sales force based on optimistic projections, which increases expenses and burn rate without guaranteeing revenue growth. To combat this, Leslie posits that there are three staffing phases sales leaders and executives should consider — initiation, transitional, and execution.

1. Initiation Phase: In this early stage, companies should select a few (three or four) versatile sales reps, known as Renaissance Sales Reps, who can effectively engage with both customers and internal teams like product management, marketing, and engineering. The focus here is on enhancing corporate learning and keeping costs under control.

2. Transitional Phase: This phase is marked by an acceleration in sales and the attainment of a critical mass of customers. It’s a period where the contributions of sales staff start becoming significant, surpassing their full costs.

3. Execution Phase: This is the stage where a company has established a robust market presence and can shift to aggressive hiring. Sales reps hired in this phase are expected to quickly meet standard quotas and are primarily driven by sales outcomes (termed as “coin-operated reps”). This phase represents a full-scale, efficient sales operation.

If you’re building out your plan for 2024 hiring, make sure you consider your sales learning curve and hire accordingly.

https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/the-sales-learning-curve/