Hire Salespeople Not Saviors

I hope the start of Q2 has been fruitful for everyone! We have had a handful of conversations with brands who are dealing with a multitude of variables that are outside of their control right now. Outside of this newsletter, I am always available to chat through the current state of CPG, retail, and the macro-level changes that are occurring.

We’re all in this together and our collective network will be one of the reason we all get through this.

One thing that I see from brands right now is the grasping for new doors in an effort to grow their way through this year and catch the eye of potential investors.

One topic that is near and dear to me is hiring and building out sales teams for CPG brands and how that team should take shape and what their goals should be aligned around.

We have recently touched on how founder-led sales should be your main focus until you hit a strong internal revenue or ACV metric that then triggers your search, but we haven’t covered much about what to look for when it comes to making that hire.

Let’s dive into some harsh realities you need to look at before making a sales hire and the background and makeup that person should possess, but first a shoutout for RDSolutions.

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Out-of-stocks, poor display execution, and phantom inventory aren’t just operational issues — they’re missed revenue. That’s where InfoQuest by RDSolutions steps in.

InfoQuest is more than an app - it’s your retail execution partner. Acting as an extension of your team, we provide real-time data, actionable insights, and hands-on in-store support to help your brand scale and succeed in today’s competitive environment.

What sets InfoQuest apart?

• 3–4x ROI over industry standard

• 98% project completion rate

• Thousands of field experts covering 95% of retail stores

• No setup fees or minimums — flexible for any brand or project size

Whether you're fixing on-shelf availability, auditing planogram compliance, validating promos, or building displays — we handle execution so you can focus on strategy.

Brand Spotlight: Leilo at Sprouts
Leilo partnered with InfoQuest to manage displays across 49 Sprouts stores. Within weeks, our team resolved stock issues, set up displays, and boosted visibility - all with zero hiccups.

“Working with RDS was simple and efficient. We had a large project for them on a quick turnaround with several moving parts and they were able to execute with no issues. Highly recommend them!” — Weston Porter, Head of Sales, Leilo

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https://go.rdsolutions.io/on-shelf-rds-april

First things first, your wasting your time looking for a sales hire if your not already hitting some sort of opportunity inflection point.

Your first sales hire should be made because you feel like your missing out on sales and closing new business because you simply can’t keep up with the new opportunities that are coming in on top of the day to day of running the business.

You should not kick off your sales hire journey for any of the following reasons:

• The business is flat or declining and we need a sales person to grow the business

  and/or

• Your not finding success reaching out to retailers on your own

I have made this analogy before, but sales people are divided into two camps for me; tractors and trailers. This is an analogy used in the NFL quite a bit. It’s easy enough to follow. Tractors are good enough to pull the whole team (Mahomes, Jackson, Allen) while trailers need to be pulled by a good supporting cast (I will not offend anyone’s fandom by putting names here).

It’s important to understand that in CPG, there are potentially 100 tractors, probably less. These are the top sales directors and executives who have had multiple wins in the space and understand how to scale the brands.

Here is the thing though, the tractors in this space are smart enough to know that they need a strong brand to succeed. They don’t want to be generating new business on their own and pleading for buyers to bring in their product, they want to simply identify and act on opportunities that are organically coming into the pipeline due to the strength of the brand.

A core memory for me was driving home from a meeting when I used to work for a frozen seafood brand and severely doubting if I was even a good sales person because I couldn’t find success with this brand.

It took me moving onto another brands to realize that it didn’t matter what I did or how good of a salesperson I was, nothing was going to make that brand pop and most of my efforts were wasted due to the brand and not any fault of my own.

The top sales people in this industry are not the best sales people, they are the top executors. They understand what success looks like and they rinse and repeat that playbook all they way up until the exit and then go find the next brand to bet on.

So, to level set here, unless your one of the fastest growing brands in the space, your not getting a tractor, but there are key ways to identify top-tier trailers who have the ability to maximize the opportunities that are coming in and generate a solid amount of new business.

Here are the three keys to look for when identifying sales hires that might actually work for an emerging brand:

• Lean Into Regional - Broad experience when hiring early on is hard for me to get onboard with. If your not going to be able to hire a tier one national sales person, then I want to find the best potential candidate who has deep regional relationships. Regional success is heavily based on relationships and understanding the landscape. These salespeople who have a deep understanding of how the top local accounts work are better suited to get quick and meaningful wins for the brand.

• Don’t Focus On Time - We as sales people are constantly unsatisfied. We want to make more, we think we deserve more, and we are most likely looking for our next job on day one of our new job - and that’s ok. I see so many employers work themselves up on the fact that a salesperson has been at 3-4 different places all under a year. GOOD! As long as it isn’t them being terminated then they are most likely looking for a brand that is going take off and utilize their services best. If you give them what they want, a strong brand and company coupled with uncapped earning potential, they will stay.

• References - You can’t skip references with salespeople. The one thing sales people are the best at is selling themselves. I always joke with my wife that if she ever told me she wanted to leave me that we would end up renewing our vows the next day - because I know how to sell myself. That in itself is not a great quality for a person to have when your trying to understand if they are the right fit for your company. I would tap into the references and ask for a minimum of three, I would also reach out to your mutual connections and try to get some unbiased feedback as well.

This is a bonus point, but I also wouldn’t get too hung up on the person being a perfect culture fit.

Top salespeople can be somewhat isolated since they have to be “on” most of the time and usually they are very self motivated, they aren’t going to typically be the ones who drive your culture forward and that’s ok. Some will, but most won’t. You want to put them in a position to participate, but also free them up to sell and move the company forward from a revenue perspective.

To recap, I think it’s crucial for brands to understand the type of salesperson that they are going to be able to hire for their stage, have an understanding that the salesperson can’t be a savior for a flat or declining company, and ensure your looking for the right qualities in a potential candidate.

If you have any sales hire horror or success stores, please do share them! I hope this is helpful in your search.