Is Hiring Sales Teams a Smart Strategy?

In my recent travels around the country, I’m seeing a lot of activity in financial services. Some companies are doing phenomenal business and are finding it a real challenge to add staff. One trend I observed: Companies are hiring teams of people from a single branch versus hiring individual sales professionals. In most cases, the person leading the branch is a producing manager. However, when the new group comes to the company, individual producers are performing at a low rate.

I question the logic behind this strategy. Why wouldn’t you want to ensure that every new sales hire meets the company’s performance standards? Why not evaluate each individual sales professional based on his or her performance?

During these tough times, companies can’t afford to make poor hiring decisions. Even one wrong sales hire can cost a company $200,000 and up in lost sales opportunities.