When sales targets rise, hiring more representatives is often the first solution that comes to mind. A larger team can meet more customers. But before publishing the job advert, one question needs answering: where does the current team's time go?

Representatives may have full calendars. But how much of that workload is customer conversation, and how much is preparation, follow-up or administration? A hiring decision made without knowing this may fail to address the real need.

Being busy does not necessarily mean lacking capacity.

A busy team may need more representatives. But first, understand why it is busy.

Representatives may spend time between meetings searching for information. It may be unclear who should confirm a detail needed for a proposal. The same customer information may be entered repeatedly in different places. Or the team may genuinely be unable to keep up with incoming requests.

These are not problems every company faces, but possibilities to examine separately when assessing workload. Adding a new employee as the answer to all of them may not produce the right result.

Is all non-selling work wasted time?

No. Preparing for a meeting is not a sales conversation, but it is part of a good one. Reading earlier interactions, understanding the customer's need and checking the right information all take time.

The real distinction is whether the work contributes to the service offered to the customer. Recording and following up on a commitment is necessary, for example. Entering the same information unnecessarily into several reports wastes time. Managers cannot assess capacity accurately without seeing which tasks are necessary and which are duplicated.

How can we see where the team's time goes?

This does not require a complex system that tracks every minute. A good starting point is to group representatives' work into simple categories over a short period:

  • Customer conversations
  • Meeting preparation
  • Proposal and information verification
  • Post-meeting follow-up
  • Reporting and operational tasks
  • Internal meetings and training

Use these records to see where time goes across the team and where support is needed, rather than to police individuals.

Managers can then ask:

  • Which tasks must representatives perform themselves?
  • Where is management support delayed?
  • Are any tasks being repeated?
  • Is there a shared obstacle reducing the time available to customers?
  • Which of these obstacles would a new hire address?

The final question is particularly important. It grounds the hiring decision in a defined need, rather than the observation that “everyone is very busy”.

When is another representative needed?

If the team works in an organised way, gives customers sufficient time and still cannot keep up with demand, the need for growth is clear. Entering a new customer segment or product area may also require additional capacity.

But if the team is busy because it repeatedly prepares the same information, waits for decisions or works with unclear responsibilities, address that problem first. Otherwise, the new representative joins the same arrangement and experiences the same pressure.

This approach is not an excuse to delay hiring. It is a way to clarify who should be hired and for which work.

Capacity depends on more than headcount.

A productive sales team also needs management. Training new starters, reviewing meetings, tracking targets and ensuring customer questions reach the right person all directly affect capacity.

If management support is already inadequate, that gap becomes more visible as the team grows. A growth plan should therefore consider not only how many representatives are needed, but also how the team will be managed.

Coorbiz's Perspective

Coorbiz builds and manages dedicated sales teams for companies, taking responsibility for training, team management, performance tracking and reporting alongside recruitment. In this approach, sales capacity is more than the number of people on the payroll: it also reflects the time they can give customers and the management support they receive.

When building a new team or expanding an existing one, the question should not be only “How many people do we need?” Start by asking: “Where does today's team spend its time, and exactly which need will a new employee address?”