If Your #1 Salesperson Quits Tomorrow, What Happens to Revenue?

Your #1 salesperson may be producing the number—and creating one of the biggest revenue risks in the company. If that person quits tomorrow, how much revenue disappears with them? Sales dependency can hide behind strong topline performance. One sales team had just three people carrying 92% of revenue. When one was recruited away, the owner had to go back into selling and fill the hole himself. But revenue concentration is only part of the exposure. A top producer can generate significant sales while discounting margins, creating costs elsewhere in the company, or producing less profit than middle performers. If too much revenue depends on a few people—or the owner—the company’s growth becomes constrained and its EBITDA can tell an incomplete story. Doug C. Brown puts that dependency against the question that eventually matters to an owner: if the business cannot afford to lose its top producers, what will a buyer think that dependence is worth? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices