Headcount vs Technology

It’s not only a headcount issue. 

Given the state of the job market, you can help solve the headcount issue with technology. Not always, but in many ways, yes you can.

Remember, control what you can control. You cannot control the competitive job market. You can control what happens in your organization though. 

Here’s how we encourage people to solve the headcount problem. Particularly, when it comes to sales and sales teams. 

1. What does a new hire cost you?  This is the critical number. 
   1. Base, Commissions, Equipment, Insurance, Ramp Time
   2. Include time costs for your entire team
      1. HR for writing a job description, first round of interviews
      2. Your time for interviews
      3. Your sales team’s time away from driving revenue due to the interview process, and what would the value of a customer be if they were able to make something happen instead of interviewing?
      4. Writing the offer letter
      5. Sending the offer letter
   3. Include your costs if someone only makes it 3 months or 6 months and you have to start over again

Now you can look at your current sales team. Who is hitting their goal? Who is not hitting goal?

Now you can look at your sales stack. Do you have the following?:

1. Video Tool: We recommend Vidyard
2. Conversational Intelligence: We recommend Outreach, Salesloft, and Gong
3. Data Sources: You need at least two. We like Zoominfo and Lead411
4. Sales Engagement: We recommend Outreach and Salesloft
5. Sales Training: We recommend The Harris Consulting Group

If you don’t have all of these, then you are hurting yourself.

Whether you have them or not. Is everyone on your team experts at them? If not, why? Why not invest in the technology to be world-class? These tools will help you improve your performance as long as you focus on the training and execution of each tool. 

And yes, in time, this increases pipeline, forecasting, and close rates. 

And if they don’t, don’t throw more bodies at the problem. It probably means you need to hire a sales trainer who can give them the courage and confidence to earn the right to ask questions, which questions to ask, and when to do it. If you have questions about how to do this, contact us here.