For decades, building a sales team has boiled down to a simple formula: more headcount equals more sales. But the truth is more nuanced. Adding more salespeople usually leads to inefficiency, wasted resources, and lower productivity. 

Scaling a team requires more than just adding bodies. Let's unpack the often-overlooked factors driving the success of top performing sales teams I've discovered recently. 

How much is 'a numbers game?'

It’s tempting to believe building a sales team is a numbers game. More salespeople, working productively, means more sales, right? Not quite.

Vincent Messina, a sales strategist who leads global teams, explains why this thinking usually leads to failure:

"Sales Operations and Finance love to back into a headcount number by projecting revenue goals and calculating per-head quotas. The logic is that the number will be made if enough people are producing at a certain level. But in most cases, the number isn’t reached—or if it is, it’s at an unsustainable cost."

This is why: 

1. Diminishing Returns from Scaling: When adding more people to a team without the right systems in place, inefficiency skyrockets. Leads are spread too thin, and high-value opportunities might end up in the hands of underperformers. Vincent warns, "You may actually reduce growth rate by taking opportunities away from talented sellers and handing them to people who cannot sell."
2. Ineffective Hiring: Hiring for headcount rather than skill often results in mediocrity. John Juhasz of Kraft Mobile Systems cites Price’s Law, which suggests 50% of a team’s results often come from the square root of its members. This means adding more people doesn’t proportionally increase output.
3. Lack of Leadership and Resources: Scaling requires more than just bodies—it demands strong leadership, coaching, and performance management. Without these, new hires flounder, morale plummets, and the ROI of additional headcount evaporates.

Skill yes, activity no

"The success of a team is less about the number of people and more about the skill, experience, and motivation of those people. Adding more salespeople with inadequate skill or experience can result in more inefficiency, not more sales," says Vincent.

Here’s why sellers' communication skills matters more than activity:

1. Quality conversations drive more & better results:
   • Skilled salespeople tailor email, call script (etc.) messaging and focus on high-value leads.
   • They invest time in understanding how to help customers convince themselves (pulling), rather than relying on outdated persuasion tactics (pushing).
   • Highly skilled sellers appreciate and practice the difference between persuading (selfishly coercing) and facilitating a sale.
2. Communication is a Competitive Edge:
   • Effective communication—asking Facilitative Questions, active listening, and value-driven storytelling—is the difference between a closed deal and a missed opportunity.
   • As Vincent points out it's nearly impossible to know what skills a seller has based on an interview alone. Instead, "You need an assessment taking your own personal bias (about the potential hire) out of the process. Because once in place, training can only take you so far if you hire the wrong people."
3. Investment in Coaching Pays Off:
   • Derek Henry, a presales consultant, puts it simply: "Selling is a skill. Some people are naturals, but it can be taught—even to the most unlikely of people."
   • Regular training and coaching sessions are not just a nice-to-have—they’re a must for maintaining and improving the digital and live communication skills of your sales team.

Potential, not performance

Building a high-performing sales team starts with hiring the right people. But what does “right” mean?

"Companies don’t hire for communication skills in sales. They hire for team players, award winners, economically-driven achievers," says Chris Kenton, CEO of Socialrep. "This is fine—if you find people who also have communication skills. But we don’t value communication skills nearly as much as people who can follow the program."

It’s not about hiring the most charming, persuasive or knowledgeable candidate. Nor the one with the most industry-specific experience on paper.

Consider Derek Henry’s criteria for hiring:

• Coachability
• Ambition
• Attitude
• Integrity

These traits are often better predictors of success than past sales numbers. Because skills can be taught, but attitude and character cannot.

John Juhasz also warns against common hiring pitfalls:

• Hiring someone just because “they seem nice” or “they have a degree.”
• Hiring en masse without considering long-term fit or performance potential.

Instead, treat sales hires as specialists and consultants—professionals who bring expertise and credibility to the table.

Productivity, not quantity

For a few decades, sales measurement has been bastardized into Key Performance Metrics. Your job isn't to hit KPIs. It's to learn how to master two-way verbal communication, set more and more qualified meetings... and close new business.

Act accordingly. How (qualitatively) a seller communicates drives success. Period.

"The root of the problem, IMHO, is the KPIs. People will do what they’re rewarded for, and everything else—actual results, long-term value, strategy—will take a back seat. Until, as you pointed out, the accepted regime collapses," says Chris Kenton.

Adding headcount without investing in better communication skills—and calling it increasing productivity—is a losing game. To maximize the output of your team, focus on creating an environment where the very best salespeople can thrive—and everyone else leaves! (or never applies) 

This includes:

1. Sales-rooted Leadership:
   • Sales leaders need to come from a sales (not marketing) background. They must provide clear direction, constructive feedback, and consistent skills focused coaching. As Vincent Messina notes, poor (marketing KPI focused) management is a surefire way to erode team morale and performance.
2. Profit-based Incentives:
   • Ensure compensation plans align with company objectives. For example, profit-based targets encourage sellers to focus on deals that are both valuable and achievable. NOT KPIs or activity measures.
3. Avoiding Focusing on the "Tech Stack":
   • Equip the team with tools streamlining workflows but avoid bogging them down in meaningless use of technology which only shoots them in the foot.  From CRM platforms to AI-driven analytics, beware of the false promise, "the right tech can free up time for sellers to focus on what they do best: selling." This is rarely the case.
4. Metrics That Matter:
   • Track meaningful metrics like conversion rates, average deal size, and time-to-close, rather than vanity metrics (KPIs) like email volume. These metrics offer a clearer picture of what’s working—and what’s not.

Cultural considerations

What feels confident and credible in one business culture may seem aggressive in another. Anthony Vernon, a CRO at EmergenceTek, highlights the importance of cultural nuances in sales:

"In Irish culture, hedging phrases like ‘I hate to be a pain’ are signs of respect. They soften the ask and avoid coming across as abrupt or rude. Hedging can be a sign of courtesy if done sincerely."

This underscores the need for sales teams to adapt their approach based on the market they’re targeting. While directness may work in one region, it might alienate prospects in another.

For example, starting an email or cold call with, “I hate to be rude” is a waste of time in some geographic territories and business cultures. However, this kind of 'hedging' is a well known and well understood communication technique, says Anthony.

"Once people move past the cultural and ideological blinkers, it’s common in other cultures. It is also a bit of a generalization to say a hedging phrase is wasting someone's time. Me, as a seller and a buyer, I absolutely detest abruptness without any softener. I grew up with it being considered inconsiderate and disrespectful," says Anthony.

Sales teams must adapt regional approaches based on the business culture they’re courting. 

Experience & templates

Ultimately, the effectiveness of your team—and their outreach strategy—should be judged by results, not opinions. As Vincent reminds us, "You are not the best judge of the effectiveness of email messaging. Let your experience be the judge."

Experiment. Measure. Refine. That’s the formula for building a successful team.

This leads to the question: Can positive experiences be scaled using "proven" templates and frameworks?

I hate templates and rail against them. But...

"The 'no template concept' doesn’t work for the way sales orgs are constructed," says Adam P. Shiell of Great Western Leasing & Sales. 

"The team member asking for templates will likely not be a differentiator in sales and will use templates going forward."

Adam says trying to change one person's behavior is pointless—without a change in management's strategy.

This means focusing on communication skills. And, often, flushing the baby and bathwater down the drain.

I say get rid of Template Culture and marketing copywriting in sales outreach. 

Consider: Why have communication skills been reduced, to "testing different templates to optimize KPIs?"

"Communication skills have always been a problem," says Adam.

The organization succeeds on the KPI's, so that's another reason it doesn't stop.

Regardless of how ineffective it is and how many ways they 'hammer' the potential client, the numbers game works, so it works.

However, the numbers game is catching up with the system and creating resentment towards sales in general and can eventually hurt brands.

Nothing will change until it has to.

This is the human way, we never get in front of anything until it's too late.

The best thing that can happen to the sales industry is that it completely collapses and gets restructured to product representatives so people can focus on client needs instead of KPI's, selling volume, dollars etc."

So... are we ready to flush the baby and the bathwater? Are we on the cusp of major change lately?

I tend to agree. But how do you see it?

Conclusion

Building a sales team isn’t about playing a numbers game. It’s about investing in the right people, equipping them with the skills and tools they need, and fostering an environment where they can excel.

More headcount doesn’t automatically mean more revenue. But a skilled, motivated, and well-supported team? That’s how you build a sales team that delivers.

What’s your approach to building a sales team? How do you balance headcount with skill and productivity? Share your thoughts below—I'd enjoy hearing.