What Changes When You Hire A Second Salesperson

When a founder sells, the process lives in their head and it works.

When one other person sells, they learn it by watching. When two do, the differences between them become visible, and the business either writes the process down or drifts.

What breaks at two

Inconsistency becomes measurable. Two people quoting the same job differently, describing the offer differently, following up at different intervals. With one salesperson that is just how it is done. With two it is a variance you can see and have to explain.

Lead allocation becomes a question. Who gets which enquiry, and on what basis. Left informal it becomes whoever answers first, which rewards speed over fit and creates resentment.

Pipeline visibility stops being optional. One person can hold their deals in their head. Two cannot be managed that way, and a forecast built on two people's recollection is not a forecast.

Comparison starts. Both of them now know how the other is doing, or they assume. That changes behaviour, usually for the better and not always.

Handover gaps appear. Somebody is away, and a deal sits.

What has to be written down

Not a manual. Four things.

The offer, in the words you want used. What you do, who for, what it costs, what is included and what is not. Inconsistency here is the most damaging kind, because a client who was told something different is a problem later.

The stages a deal moves through, and what has to be true to move to the next one. Without this, a pipeline is a list of hopes.

The follow-up sequence. How many touches, at what intervals, on what channels, and when a deal is called dead. This is where most revenue is lost and it is entirely systematisable, which is the substance of the follow-up sequence most businesses never build.

How pricing works, including what discretion each person has. A salesperson with no discount authority and a founder who discounts on request teaches clients to ask for the founder.

Lead allocation, practically

Options that work, in rough order of usefulness for a small team.

By segment. Industry, size, location or service. Each person builds expertise and the client gets someone who knows their world.

Round robin. Simple, fair, and it ignores fit.

By source. Referrals to one, inbound to another, outbound to the person who generated it.

Everything to whoever is available, with a rule for who owns it. Workable at two people if the ownership rule is explicit.

The thing that does not work is no rule, because the ambiguity surfaces exactly when a large deal arrives.

What the founder should do differently

Stop being the closer of last resort. Every deal the founder rescues teaches everyone, including the client, that the founder is the real salesperson. Painful and necessary.

Sell some deals, deliberately. A founder entirely out of the sales conversation loses touch with the market fast. A couple of deals a month keeps the information flowing.

Run the numbers weekly, not the deals. Pipeline, conversion, cycle length, activity. Not a review of each opportunity, which turns into the founder selling again.

Own the offer. Pricing, positioning and what the business says yes to stay with the founder.

The number to watch

Conversion rate per person on comparable leads.

If one person converts substantially better, the question is what they do differently, and the answer becomes the process. That is the most valuable output of having two salespeople instead of one.

If both convert similarly and poorly, the problem is the offer or the lead quality, not the people. Worth establishing before hiring a third.

When it is too early

Two salespeople need enough lead flow to keep both busy, or they compete for the same enquiries and both underperform.

Which means the honest question before the second hire is whether the marketing is producing enough, and whether the first salesperson is at capacity or just not converting. Hiring into a lead shortage makes the shortage more expensive rather than solving it.