Pros & Cons to Methods of Managing a Small Sales Force

Managing a sales force of under ten salespeople is a challenging task because smaller sales forces have a diseconomy of scale. It is essential that effective Sales Management achieves three primary goals:

1. Use Superior skills to improve the sales process and maximize team sales
2. Fully utilize a forty-hour workweek
3. Keep the cost of Sales Management per employee at a reasonable amount

However, with a small sales force, it is impossible to achieve all three goals and something has to give. Too many Startup and SMB businesses choose to sacrifice skilled Sales Management in the name of cost savings. This inevitably comes back to haunt them in the form of lost deals, weak salesperson performance, and high turnover.

There is no perfect solution to the diseconomy of scale created by a small sales force, but we encourage you to “pick your poison” instead of sticking your head in the sand and pretending that there is no sacrifice. There is a significant cost to under-managed or unmanaged sales teams; you just don’t write a check for it.