Should You Hire a Salesperson or Figure Out Sales Yourself First?

If you’ve ever stared at your inbox and thought, “We need more sales coming in,” you’re not alone.
It’s one of the most common pain points in our industry. One of the most frequent questions I get:

“Should I hire a salesperson to figure out outbound sales… or should I figure it out myself first?”

The honest answer?
It depends on your goals, your time, and how much risk you want to take.

But if you’re serious about building a revenue engine for your shop, not just adding a warm body to the team, then here’s what you need to know.

Strategy 1: Hire a Salesperson to Figure It Out

This is the route many shop owners want to take.
You’re busy. Sales isn’t your strength. You’ve heard of SDRs, BDRs, Account Executives.
So why not bring one in and have them “build” the sales function?

Sounds great, right?

Here’s the problem: most shops that take this approach end up frustrated. Why?

Because you’re expecting a rep to:

• Build the process

• Write the messaging

• Find the leads

• Track the metrics

• AND close the deals
  

But they walk in with no proven pitch, no CRM setup, no lead list, and no support. That’s a big ask…

Most of the time I see this scenario, the rep fails.
They don't know the business like you do. They don’t know your audience.
And if they can’t create momentum fast, you start questioning the hire, and so do they.

Strategy 2: Build the System Yourself First (Then Hire)

This is the approach I recommend to most shop owners.

Why? Because nobody understands your business, your customers, and your differentiators better than you. And before you can delegate sales, you need something to delegate.

Start by building a simple outbound process:

• Implement a CRM

• Define your ideal customer

• Build a list of target companies or industries

• Write 4-5 email/DM scripts and a phone/voicemail script

• Reach out to 20+ people a day

• Track results in a CRM

• Refine your message based on what works

This doesn’t have to take months. In just a few weeks, you’ll learn:

• What messaging gets replies

• What objections you hear

• Who is worth targeting

• How long the sales cycle really is

Now, you’re not guessing. You’re building a repeatable system.

And once you’ve closed a few deals yourself (or at least gotten to the conversation stage), you’ll be in the perfect position to hire. Because now you can say:

“Here’s the process. Here’s the script. Here’s what works. Let’s scale it together.”

Think Like a Founder, Not a Firefighter

Look, I get it. You’re wearing 15 hats. You want to throw sales over the fence and focus on production, customers, or growth.

But sales is not the fire to outsource first. It’s the engine. And the fastest path to hiring the right salesperson is by building the playbook yourself.

Even if you’re not “a salesperson,” you can lead with curiosity:

• What problems are your ideal clients facing?

• How does your product solve them better than others?

• What’s a creative idea you could send that gets someone’s attention?

Once you approach it that way, sales get easier. And once you’ve got traction, then it’s time to hand off.

So… Which Should You Choose?

Here’s the simple breakdown:

Final Word: Don’t Wing Sales….Design It

Sales doesn’t scale by accident. If you’re still waiting for the “right rep” to walk in and save the day, you’re playing a dangerous game.

But if you take even 30–60 minutes a day to build your sales motion now, you’ll save thousands later and gain a repeatable system that grows with you.

And if you want help building that playbook? That’s exactly what we do at Sales Ink.
Let’s make outbound work, for real.