In many SaaS businesses, sales reps play a key role in closing deals. In those situations, the number of productive sales people (Sales Capacity) will be a key driver of bookings. It is important to work backwards from any forecasts that are made, to ensure that there is enough sales capacity. I’ve seen many businesses miss their targets because they failed to hire enough productive salespeople early enough.
It’s also worth noting that some percentage of new sales hires won’t meet expectations, so that should be taken into consideration when setting hiring goals. Typically we have seen failure rates around 25-30% for field sales reps, but this varies by company. The failure rate is lower for inside sales reps.
When computing Sales Capacity, if a newer rep is still ramping and only expected to deliver 50% of quota, they can be counted as half of a productive rep. That is often referred to as Full Time Equivalent or FTE for short.
Another important metric to understand is the number of leads required to feed a sales rep. If you are adding sales reps, make sure you also have a clear plan of how you will drive the additional leads required.