Adding another sales position to your sales team is a way to increase revenue and ease the workload for your existing sales people, especially if your organization’s growth curve is steeper than expected. This is great news for your business, but adding another sales position still bears considerable thought. The most pressing questions have to do with determining exactly the type of sales person you need and how you will go about finding that person. Here are five things to consider when adding another sales position to your team.

1. How Did Your Last Sales Job Description Perform?

Each time a sales position falls open at your organization, whether due to growth or attrition, you should look at the sales job descriptions you have used in the past as a starting point for making improvements. The sales job description you release will be competing with hundreds of others and must be well-written to attract qualified job seekers. If the answer to any of the following is less than an enthusiastic “Yes!” your sales job description could need further work.

• Was the quality of candidates what you expected?
• Was the number of candidates in line with what was needed?
• Did candidates who responded sound excited about the opportunity?

2. How Has Your Company Changed Since the Last Hiring Round?

If your organization is newer to the marketplace but has been expanding since you hired your initial sales force, you might find it easier to attract candidates to a sales position with your company who were interested in the opportunity but not ready to work for a start-up company. If your organization fits in this category, be sure to include a brief overview of your history and reasons for opening a new sales position in the job description to catch the eye of these candidates.

3. Do You Need New Skill Sets and Knowledge for the Sales Position?

Times of growth tend also to be times of change for your organization. When you are adding a sales position to your sales force, consider what skill sets, qualifications, and knowledge your current sales force might not have but could use. Hiring to fill in skills and knowledge gaps when a sales position is open is usually more cost effective than creating a position for this purpose at a later time, when you might not yet have the business to keep another sales person from experiencing downtime.

• Are there industry licenses or certifications that would be beneficial for one or more of your sales people to have?
• Are there emerging technologies that you are predicting will have an impact on your business that a sales person might help navigate?
• Do you need a cross-functional sales person who can also work on marketing or other sales related tasks?

4. Do You Have the People You Need to Promote Internally?

Promoting from within engenders employee loyalty, is more cost effective than externally recruiting for senior positions, and saves a great deal of time for senior managers and executives. If few of the sales people currently working with your organization show the desire or promise to move towards a management career track, you may want to consider using an open sales position to hire a more senior sales person who is ready to move ahead in his or her career so that you can start building a stronger core for internal promotions.

5. Do You Have an Experienced Sales Recruiter On Your Side?

An experienced sales recruiter can assist your organization in making the entire process of adding and filling another sales position more time and cost effective. From the initial job requisition through screening, interviewing, and making an offer to the best candidates, a sales recruiter can be a valuable ally in today’s competitive sales job marketplace. Make sure that your organization has an experienced sales recruiter on its side when it is time to add another sales position.