Sales Reps, Sales Reps, Sales Reps

I’ve been hearing a good bit of discussion lately from entrepreneurs that are looking to find talented sales people to help take their businesses to the next level. Finding good sales reps is hard. Finding good sales reps is even harder in this economy. Why? The best sales reps are confident in their ability to sell, love nurturing relationships with people, and are almost never out of work.

Entrepreneurs, myself included, have a tendency to think that just hiring more sales reps is the easiest lever to pull to accelerate growth or profitability. My gut says there are many more short term, readily identifiable ways to grow sales or profitability, and these should be exercised before hiring sales reps. Here are some quick ones:

• Increase prices
• Fire unprofitable clients
• Collect payments faster
• Ask suppliers for a discount
• Ask vendors for longer payment terms

Look for ways to grow sales and margins in current processes, and then expand sales and marketing.