Revenue has stalled and you're not ready to hire a sales director
Your real options, what each one fixes, and how to tell which you need
It's one of the most common positions a founder-led B2B business finds itself in. The founder is still the best salesperson in the company, revenue has flattened, and the obvious answer, a full-time sales director, feels early: a senior salary, a long search, and a seat that is hard to get right first time.
It's rarely the only answer, though. There are six realistic options, they fix different problems, and picking the right one starts with knowing which part of your revenue has actually stalled.
First, find which number has stalled
Revenue is four numbers multiplied together: conversations started, real opportunities, wins, and what each deal sells for. A stall almost always lives in one of them.
Too few conversations is a pipeline problem, plenty of conversations that never become opportunities is a targeting and messaging problem, opportunities that don't close is a sales process problem, and deals that close for less than they should is a pricing and value problem. Each of the options below fixes some of these and not others.
The six options
Hire a full-time sales director
- Fixes
- Sales process, team management, forecasting, and a senior owner of the number.
- Doesn't fix
- A shortage of conversations, at least not quickly, because most sales directors expect a pipeline to manage.
- Best when
- There is a sales team to run every day, a repeatable process, and revenue that carries a senior salary comfortably.
- What it costs
- A senior salary and a long search, and a mis-hire in this seat can cost a year.
Hire your first salesperson or BDM
- Fixes
- Capacity: someone whose whole job is new business.
- Doesn't fix
- An unproven motion. Without a playbook, the hire tends to spend their first months inventing one.
- Best when
- The motion is proven and you need more hands to run it.
- What it costs
- $100,000 or more a year in Australia once super, tools and management are added, and three to six months to ramp.
Use an outsourced SDR service
- Fixes
- Conversations not starting.
- Doesn't fix
- Deals that stall or close for less than they should once the conversation has started.
- Best when
- The founder can close, but has no time to prospect.
- What it costs
- Varies widely, from cheap offshore seats to five-figure monthly retainers, and live in weeks rather than months.
Bring in a fractional sales director
- Fixes
- Deals that drift, discounting, a weak value story, and a sales process that lives in the founder's head.
- Doesn't fix
- An empty pipeline on its own.
- Best when
- There are conversations and deals, but they close slowly or for less than they should.
- What it costs
- Typically about a day a week of an experienced sales leader, for a fraction of a full-time salary.
Build the system yourself
- Fixes
- Time and visibility, if someone in the team has the hours to run it.
- Doesn't fix
- Sameness. The same tools assembled the same way as everyone else tend to produce the same results as everyone else.
- Best when
- Someone in the team enjoys running the tools and has the hours to do it properly.
- What it costs
- $10,000 to $15,000 a year for a proper tool stack, plus the week-in, week-out operating of it.
Keep selling yourself, with better structure
- Fixes
- More than founders expect. Founder-led selling is often the best selling the business will ever have, and a weekly pipeline rhythm and a clearer value story can move it a long way.
- Doesn't fix
- The ceiling of your calendar.
- Best when
- Revenue is still small enough that your own time, better spent, is the cheapest lever.
- What it costs
- Your time.
Side by side
- Mainly fixes
- Process, team, forecasting
- Time to impact
- Months: the search, then the ramp
- Mainly fixes
- Capacity
- Time to impact
- Three to six months to ramp
- Mainly fixes
- Conversations starting
- Time to impact
- Weeks
- Mainly fixes
- Closing, pricing, process
- Time to impact
- The first 90 days
- Mainly fixes
- Time and visibility
- Time to impact
- Depends on the hours you have
- Mainly fixes
- Early-stage everything
- Time to impact
- Immediately
How we'd decide, if it were our business
Start with the number that has stalled, then fix it with the cheapest option that addresses it. If conversations aren't starting, add pipeline before adding leadership. If conversations are starting but deals stall or get discounted, add leadership before adding headcount. Hire full time last, into a motion you've already proven, because that is the hire most likely to work.
A note on bias, since you should know it: LoftWorks sells one of these options, an outsourced SDR service, as part of our Outbound Operating System, from Sydney, for founders across Australia and New Zealand. If the diagnosis says one of the other five is right for you, including doing it yourselves, we'll tell you that.
Questions founders ask
What can I do instead of hiring a full-time sales director?
Hire a first salesperson into a proven motion, use an outsourced SDR service to start conversations, bring in a fractional sales director to fix closing and pricing, build the outbound system yourself, or keep selling yourself with a better structure. Which one is right depends on which part of your revenue has stalled.
Is a fractional sales director worth it for a small B2B business?
When the stall is in closing, often yes: you get the experience of the seat for roughly a day a week, without the senior salary or the risk of a senior mis-hire. When the stall is a lack of conversations, a fractional leader on their own is the wrong fix, and pipeline should come first.
Should I hire a salesperson or a sales director first?
For most founder-led businesses, neither comes first. Prove the motion, then hire a salesperson to run it, and hire a sales director once there is a team to lead. Hiring a director before there is a team, or a salesperson before there is a motion, are the two most expensive ways to get it wrong.