Hire and Hire If you plan on making the sales you need to survive the recession, maybe you need more people to do the selling.

For the briefest moment, New Economy inmates were running thetalent ward of the asylum. Managers scrambled to attract and retaintalent, whispering sweet nothings of stock options, fat salariesand jeans five days a week. Those days now seem to be ashort-but-sweet chapter from some antiquated history tome, andwe're all questioning the reliability of our recent memorieslike that poor guy from the movie Memento.

Entrepreneurs, while not immune to the necessity ofbelt-tightening, are forward-thinking enough to see the upside to aprodigal labor market. If you're accustomed to running lean,you may be well-positioned to leverage current circumstances bybringing in top-tier sales talent. At a time when chasing everylead is crucial, your reaction to adversity shouldn't behuddling in the fetal position under your desk.

"You can't grow if you aren't selling," saysBetsy Buckley, president of sales coaching company What Matters? inSt. Paul, Minnesota. Buckley, who caters to business executiveswanting to improve their speaking and leadership skills, thinksit's a great time for entrepreneurs to hire salesprofessionals. You can take advantage of the sting felt by the manydownsized workers who are getting axed from large corporations."They want to work for business owners, not big organizationswhere they'll just get lost again," Buckley explains. Pickthe right talent, and your new salesperson will pay for himself orherself many times over. After all, Buckley points out, becauseyour ability to make sales is the "engine that drivesgrowth," salespeople are "pay-for-themselves-typeexpenditures."

Employment expert Paul Falcone, author of The Hiring and Firing Question and AnswerBook (AMACOM Books), shares Buckley's view that arecession could be an ideal time for you to hire new talent.

"Hiring in a recession goes against business logic at firstglance," Falcone admits. "Payroll is the largestexpenditure on a company's P&L, so when revenues sink,costs have to be cut to maintain equilibrium." However, henotes, if you're fortunate enough to be in an industry thatcould potentially benefit from the current economic conditions(like pharmaceuticals, security firms or aerospace manufacturing,for example), then aggressively adding to your staff may be theright move. "If you can add to revenues, then there's noneed to cut costs," he explains. "Companies that performwell in down markets, like outplacement firms, hire salespeople inrecessions all the time." Even if your company isn't oneof the few directly benefiting from the slowed economy, hiring newsalespeople may still be a good way to boost revenues. If yourentire industry is in a cold cycle (like the type mortgage bankerssee when interest rates are soaring), then hiring salespeople maynot be wise. But unless you're in that extreme scenario,beefing up your revenue generators during a recession may makeperfect sense.

It's understandable if you're nervous about taking onnew hires right now, but Falcone says it's important to staythe course. You can boost your odds, he says, by hiring provenperformers. "Sales skills are transferable," he explains,"but hiring ex-stockbrokers to become auto sales executives orheadhunters makes for lower-probability hires." After all,it's one thing to learn the nuances and terminology of a newline of business; it's another thing for new hires to face thispressure combined with expectations that they immediately meetsales goals.

Kimberly L. McCall is president of McCall Media &Marketing (www.marketingangel.com), a business communicationscompany in Freeport, Maine.

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• What Matters?
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