Worksheet: Work out the reps from the workload

Head count usually follows history. This sheet counts the workload in hours and sets it beside the hours your reps have. It builds the Competent step of the check:

The number of reps and each rep's patch are worked out from one workload count: the accounts to be covered and how often each needs contact, plus travel where reps are on the road.

Step 1. Count the workload

Use the ranks and contact rates from the coverage sheet if you have them. A phone team leaves travel out, and its patch is a list of accounts.

Rank	Accounts	Contacts a year, each	Hours per contact, with travel	Hours a year
A
B
C
Prospects
Total
e.g. A	60	12	3	2,160

Step 2. Count the hours one rep has

Line	Hours
Working days a year, after leave, training and meetings
Hours a day with customers or travelling to them
Selling hours per rep a year
e.g. 200 days at 5 hours	1,000

Take the hours a day from a diary week if you have run one.

Step 3. Compare, then balance the patches

Reps needed = total workload hours ÷ selling hours per rep.

Rep or patch	Accounts	Workload hours	Share of one rep's hours	Change

Rebalance the two most uneven patches before you add anyone. Then hire when the total says so, allowing for the months a new rep takes to recruit and ramp.

Done when: the number of reps and every patch come from one written workload count that anyone can check.

Adapted from our own sales-force sizing method (PSP, 2005).