Should You Hire a Sales Director – or Just Fix Your Sales Process?

There’s nothing quite like the stress that comes with realising you’re not securing enough sales; images of your revenue coming to a grinding halt, bills not being paid, and customers going elsewhere, flood your mind. Whether sales have suddenly dropped, or you thought your revenue would be more impressive by now, it’s impossible to ignore the pressure to fix things. Whether your revenue has hit a wall, your team is working hard but struggling to close sales, or you’re not managing to convert enough leads into paying customers, you’ll find yourself looking around for a solution.

For many business owners, the obvious route is to hire a Sales Director, and sometimes that’s the right call. But, you might actually be better off taking things back to basics and fixing your sales process. There’s no point in hiring a full-time, permanent Sales Director when the problem is actually the sales system you’re using. If your sales process is broken, no amount of expert leadership will fix things. However, if your sales team lacks vision or strategic direction, even the most comprehensive sales process won’t generate the results you’re looking for.

Before you make any big business decisions, you need to decide if you have a leadership gap or a broken system, or do you have a bit of both?

Sales Process vs Sales Hire: Finding the Cause of Your Slump

Whether you’re experiencing a sudden slump in sales – and you can’t work out the reason why – or your best efforts aren’t increasing your sales as much as you need them to, the first thing you need to do is find the cause of the issue. You don’t want to spend money hiring a full-time, permanent Sales Director – this is costly, especially once bonuses and benefits are taken into account, not to mention the cost of recruitment before you find the perfect person – only to find that the issue was with the system. Similarly, you don’t want to spend time and money improving your sales process, only to realise it’s a leadership gap that’s holding you back.

By understanding whether your issue is with your leadership, sales process, or both, you’ll find it a lot easier to find an effective solution. You’ll be able to allocate resources more efficiently, avoid unnecessary hires, and improve sales performance faster. You’ll also be able to set your business up for sustainable sales growth, rather than simply finding a quick fix and hoping it lasts.

What Can a Sales Director Bring to the Table?

A Sales Director is there to provide strategic leadership related to sales. They’re not just there to increase the number of sales you get, but to create a scalable sales process that brings in a steady revenue stream. They define how the business targets prospects, structures deals and ensures sales processes align with marketing, customer support, and day-to-day operations. They bring clarity to your revenue stream and manage your sales team, handling hiring, training, target setting, and performance reviews.

If your business has grown to the point that you’re not able to handle sales as a business founder, or if your sales team lacks direction and clarity, you likely have a leadership gap. But even a skilled Sales Director will struggle if they’re pushed headfirst into a chaotic sales process, which is why the process is often the underlying issue.

What Happens if Your Sales Process is the Problem?

A lot of business owners assume that a sales team underperforming means they need a stronger leader, but that’s not always the case. In fact, a failing sales process could be what’s holding your team back. If you don’t have a standardised sales process, everyone does things their own way, and there’s no guarantee that the right approach is being taken. If you don’t have a strong CRM, leads go missing and data is overlooked, which means sales reps are going into things blind.

If you’re seeing low conversion rates between sales stages with no clear reason why, longer than expected sales cycles, and prospects disappearing because leads aren’t being followed up, your sales process could be the problem. Your sales process needs to be repeatable, measurable, and optimised over time, adjusted until it’s perfect. When your sales process is inconsistent or unclear, even your top sales reps are at risk of underperforming. If your team already has motivated sales reps who just need better tools and systems, improving your sales process is non-negotiable.

Sales Process vs Sales Hire: Which is Right for Your Business?

There’s a fine line between sales process vs. sales hire, which is why many business owners struggle to identify where the issue actually lies. In reality, many businesses need both a Sales Director and an updated sales process, but not always at the same time or at the same cost.

If you don’t currently have someone who is responsible for overall sales performance or strategy, you likely need a Sales Director. They’ll give your sales team structure, goals, and accountability, leading them towards success. But that doesn’t mean taking on an expensive, full-time employee. Thanks to fractional leadership, you can benefit from everything a Sales Director brings to the table. Whether you need improved alignment between sales, marketing, and customer success, or guidance with hiring new sales reps, a fractional leader is just as effective as a permanent hire, sometimes more so.

However, if you don’t have a documented sales process or consistent way of selling, or if your conversion rates between sales stages are poor; you need to focus on fixing your overall process. You might have leads, but unless your process is turning those leads into customers, there’s room for improvement. This is something a fractional sales leader can help you to figure out before you commit to expensive solutions.

Why Choose Fractional Sales Leadership

A fractional Sales Director is a part-time, short-term leader who brings executive-level strategy and systems to your business without the full-time price tag or commitment. Fractional leaders can step straight into your business quickly and assess your current sales performance and determine what needs to change. They can diagnose whether your issue is a leadership gap, a sales process problem, or both, and come up with a plan of action to turn things around.

You benefit from everything a full-time Sales Director brings to the table – such as optimising sales systems, coaching your sales team, creating structure, and building systems for future growth – whilst you focus on your sales process, bridging the gap until you’re ready to hire a full-time leader. A fractional leader gets stuck in and hits the ground running, bringing your sales process up to speed as soon as possible.

Use Fractional Leadership to Transform Your Approach to Sales

When sales performance isn’t up to scratch, it’s tempting to throw a Sales Director at the problem and hope for the best. But sales success goes beyond having an expert at the helm, and improvement requires the right diagnosis. Executive leadership without an effective sales process leads to burnout and frustration, and a sales process without executive leadership leads to aimless activity.

This is why it’s important to find a balance between the two, understanding where your gaps really are. This is something a fractional sales leader can help you with. They can bring clarity to your sales process, fix problems, and provide the leadership you need, without you having to commit to a full-time, costly hire or a complete sales process overhaul.

When it comes to fixing your sales process, the goal isn’t just to get more sales. It’s about creating a scalable, predictable, and profitable sales process that you can use well into the future, even as your business evolves. Book a sales health check with a fractional commercial director.