Sales teams scalability dilemma... shall we hire or lease?

    There is always a time when organizations start considering that additional sales teams labour capacity might be expanded....  and this moment of truth always bring the same question to the room... shall be hire or lease that extra capacity?

    Usually the most close to transaction is the sales team the most difficult to visualize an option beyond hiring... some of the typical roles difficult to see leased are:

• Direct Sales Delegates
• Key Account Managers
• Executive Account Managers
• Medical Reps (Pharma Industry)

    On the other hand, the leasing culture is way more extend when considering other sales roles like:

• Trade Marketers
• Point of Sales Activators
• Route Delivery Agent

     Leasing expanded sales labour cost is having some interesting advantanges specially when considering the financial impact in our mid/long term P&L:

• Structure flexibility
• Structure scalability
• Higher options to cover geographically remote regions
• Variable costs... The more I get the more I pay.

    Unfortunately, the integration process of leased salesforce is also bringing negative aspects worth considering beforehand, some of those challenges are:

• Very hard effectiveness traceability
• Lower adoption of companies commercial policies and codes
• Conflict of interests much easier to appear
• Lower loyalty to company culture and strategy
• Worst contribution to brand development
• Commercial execution is having a short-term result focus
• More difficult to maximize portfolio consumption if doesn't convert in better margins

    Over my professional experience have had the opportunity to analyze the performance of both types of teams and I personally consider that leasing a salesforce is specially interesting when lots of question marks are found surrounding your product/portfolio and aggresive time-to-market adjustments will be required.

    Another interesting scenario is when you look for chances to test a new market/country/channel before considering to land with a full in-house sales team.