Unless you are going out of business, organizations should be adding bodies to support their sales initiatives throughout the year. During annual planning, new hires are forecast for various sales needs, including new product launches, predicted revenue increase, and market expansion or entry. Even if your plan is not aggressive on sales hiring this year, inevitably you will need people due to performance issues, attrition, talent upgrade or through market expansion. So when should you start interviewing new candidates? The answer is now!
You never regret hiring a high producing seller before you need them. The average ramp time for a new seller is 4.1 months, whereas an excellent seller should start paying back within 90 days. In contrast, finding a high performing rep when you need it is low – if you are not interviewing consistently throughout the year. Hiring is exponentially more difficult at the end of quarters and the end of the year when the reps are expecting their bonuses. Therefore, inferior hiring practices force organizations to increase compensation packages to lure those sellers typically pushing past the allocated amount to get someone in the seat. The alternative is not hiring, which leads to revenue deterioration in a market. Upon re-engaging in that market, your marketing and sales expenses increase to regain the ground you lost.
You can choose to either hire ahead of the curve and continuously be upgrading your sales team through best hiring practices, or allow for holes throughout the year in your sales plan. You have choices, from early hiring to having a territory go unsold or altering your cost of sell due to increased compensation demand. To determine the implication on sales number you can use simple sales math.
