When you need new sales, there is usually a period of decision. You need to decide how you're going to do it. The first impulse of most business leaders is to hire new salespeople. But, is this the best choice? The impulse behind hiring new salespeople is that it seems like the easiest choice. You get 1 or 2 new people, buy them a list of target accounts, and send them out to call on the potential clients. Seems like it can't fail, right? It might not be a bad idea. And it might work somewhat. But, generally "turning up" your sales effort is going to have other effects, too. First of all, you will expose the weaknesses in your marketing. As you increase sales pressure, the new sales personnel will have to be brought up to speed very quickly on your offerings and materials. Since they are new, they will have new questions and new requests. If your marketing is in good shape, this will work fine. If not, it's possible to undermine the entire sales effort by not having a good marketing foundation. Secondly, you might be tempted to try to (re-)create the marketing foundation as you ramp up the sales effort. For most organizations, this is too much to undertake at one time. It's hard enough getting either started. If you have a marketing foundation that works somewhat, you will quickly find the cracks in your marketing. Most likely, this discovery will take the form of finding that your audience, your messaging, and your materials are out-of-date. The risk here is that the only foundation you have for your new salesperson is exactly not what you want them to be selling. So, is there a better approach? Next time, we'll talk about alternatives.