Too Much, Too Young?

Has anyone else noticed the trend of SaaS companies hiring younger and younger salespeople?

I’m intrigued by the reasons behind this trend.

When I ask leaders why they prefer to hire younger salespeople, often with fewer than 3 years’ sales experience, I hear things like:

- they have fewer bad sales habits that need to be trained out
- they are more eager to learn new things
- they are more coachable
- they have more energy
- they are hungrier

These all sound like great reasons.

But is there something else going on underneath this logic?

From what I’ve seen, younger salespeople can also have:

- less experience of how they should be treated
- more time available to spend on work
- fewer commitments outside of work
- less well defined boundaries
- greater desire for money

If I wanted to normalise long working hours and an environment where there were few challenges to leadership decisions, I’d hire younger people.

If I wanted more people in the office so I could keep an eye on them and make sure they were working hard, I’d hire younger people.

If I wanted people that were more likely to tolerate toxic cultures because they don’t know any different, I’d hire younger people.

Employing younger salespeople is a great way to increase productivity and dedication in your sales teams.

My concern is how well equipped they are to cope with the mental pressures of a job that pays them more money than they could ever have imagined just a few years before.

Poor cultures are easier to walk away from when you’re not getting paid very much. It’s simply not worth putting up with.

But when your salary is over £100k, this can blur your thinking.

Many are far more likely to bow to peer and leadership pressure, accept the culture of a team without questioning it and believe they are lucky to be earning a lot of money, so should put up with whatever comes their way. 

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not saying all sales cultures are tyrannical.

But some are.

And younger people can often get caught up in believing it’s part of the job if that’s all they’ve seen.

And the more this continues, the more it is normalised and seen as ‘character building’.

What do you think?

What have I missed or misunderstood?