Growth is exciting. New customers, bigger contracts, more revenue and more ambition.
So when a business starts growing quickly, the natural instinct is often to hire more salespeople. After all, if growth is good, more growth must be better. But here’s the problem.
Revenue growth without financial control can quickly become chaos.
More sales might increase turnover, but they can also increase complexity, cash pressure, reporting demands and operational risk. And if your finance function is not ready to support that growth, your next sales hire may not solve the problem.
They may make it worse. So before you hire another sales rep, it might be time to ask a more important question.
Is your finance team ready for the growth you are creating?
Growth Without Finance Infrastructure Is Risky
Most businesses don’t fail because they run out of ambition. They fail because they run out of control. As revenue increases, everything becomes more complex:
- More invoices
- More suppliers
- More customers
- More payroll costs
- More reporting requirements
- More cash moving in and out of the business
At the beginning, this can feel manageable. The founder keeps an eye on cash, the bookkeeper handles the basics, the accountant helps at year-end. But eventually, growth exposes the gaps. Suddenly, cash flow becomes harder to predict, margins become less clear, reporting takes longer, decisions are made using outdated numbers. And that is when growth starts to become dangerous.
More Sales Don’t Always Mean More Cash
One of the biggest mistakes growing businesses make is assuming revenue equals cash. It doesn’t. You can be profitable on paper and still struggle to pay suppliers, payroll or tax liabilities if cash is not being managed properly.
This is especially true in businesses with:
- Long payment terms
- High upfront costs
- Large customer concentration
- Seasonal demand
- Stock or inventory requirements
- Project-based revenue
The Office of the Small Business Commissioner found that late payments are estimated to cost the UK economy almost £11 billion per year, with 28% of businesses affected annually.
So yes, sales matter. But if the money does not arrive on time, more sales can actually increase pressure rather than reduce it.
This is where a strong finance hire becomes critical. A good Finance Manager, Financial Controller, Head of Finance or Finance Director does not just record what happened last month. They help you understand what is coming next.
The Finance Hire Helps You Grow Properly
A strong finance hire brings visibility. They help you answer questions like:
- Which customers are actually profitable?
- Which sales channels create the best margin?
- What cash will we need in 3, 6 or 12 months?
- Can we afford to hire more people?
- Are we pricing correctly?
- Where are we leaking profit?
- What happens if growth slows?
These are not back-office questions, they are growth questions, because scaling is not just about selling more. It is about building a business that can handle more. That means better reporting, stronger controls, improved forecasting and greater commercial insight. Hiring another sales rep might increase the top line. Hiring the right finance person helps protect the bottom line.
Fast Growth Often Hides Weak Margins
When revenue is increasing, it is easy to assume the business is performing well. But growth can hide a lot:
- You might be winning more customers but discounting too heavily.
- You might be increasing revenue but losing margin.
- You might be hiring quickly but increasing fixed costs faster than profit.
- You might be growing sales but stretching working capital to breaking point.
Without the right finance insight, these issues often go unnoticed until they become serious. A strong finance hire helps leadership teams understand not just how much the business is selling, but how much value those sales are really creating. That is the difference between growth and profitable growth.
Your Sales Team Needs Better Finance Support Too
This is not an argument against hiring salespeople. Far from it. Great salespeople are vital to growth, but sales teams perform better when finance supports them properly. A strong finance function can help sales teams understand:
- Pricing
- Margin
- Customer profitability
- Commission structures
- Payment terms
- Forecast accuracy
- Contract profitability
Without that support, sales teams can unintentionally create problems:
- They may agree to terms that damage cash flow.
- They may discount too heavily.
- They may focus on revenue rather than profit.
- They may chase customers that look good on paper but are expensive to serve.
Finance and sales should not operate in separate worlds. In growing businesses, they need to work together.
The Earlier You Hire Finance, The More Value They Add
Many businesses wait too long to strengthen finance. They wait until reporting is broken, they wait until cash is tight, they wait until investors ask difficult questions, they wait until the founder is spending evenings trying to understand the numbers. By that stage, the finance hire is no longer helping the business get ahead. They are helping it catch up. Hiring finance earlier allows you to build the right foundations before growth becomes messy.
That might mean hiring:
- A Finance Manager to professionalise reporting
- A Financial Controller to strengthen controls and processes
- A Head of Finance to improve commercial visibility
- A Finance Director to support strategic decision-making
- A Fractional CFO to provide senior guidance without a full-time hire
For some businesses, a permanent finance hire is the right answer. For others, flexible senior finance support makes more sense.
When Should Finance Come Before Sales?
Finance should probably come before your next sales hire if:
- You do not have reliable cash flow forecasting
- Month-end reporting takes too long
- You are unsure which customers are most profitable
- Sales are growing but cash feels tight
- You are preparing for investment
- Margins are unclear
- The founder is still heavily involved in finance
- You are making hiring decisions without clear financial modelling
These are signs that growth is starting to outpace financial infrastructure. And when that happens, adding more sales capacity can increase the pressure. Before you ask, “How do we sell more?” It may be worth asking: “Can our finance function support the growth we already have?”
Investors Care About Finance Discipline
If you are preparing for investment, finance becomes even more important. Investors do not just want to see revenue growth, they want to understand the quality of that growth.
They will look closely at:
- Forecasting accuracy
- Gross margin
- Cash conversion
- Customer concentration
- Working capital
- Cost control
- Reporting quality
- Leadership capability
A business with strong sales momentum but weak financial discipline can quickly lose credibility. A strong finance hire gives investors confidence that the business is not just growing, but growing in a controlled, scalable and commercially intelligent way. This is why many founder-led and scaling businesses bring in senior finance support before raising investment or preparing for exit.
The Cost of Getting This Wrong
Hiring in the wrong order can be expensive. If you hire sales before finance is ready, you may create:
- More revenue but weaker margins
- More customers but worse cash flow
- More activity but less visibility
- More headcount but weaker controls
- More growth but greater risk
And if the finance hire is delayed too long, the eventual clean-up can take months. As we explored in The Real Cost Of A Bad Hire In Finance, poor hiring decisions and weak finance structures can cost businesses far more than salary alone.
So, Should You Hire Finance Before Sales?
Sometimes, yes. If your business already has demand, growth momentum and sales activity, your next hire may not need to create more opportunities. They may need to help you understand, manage and protect the opportunity you already have.
Sales helps you grow, finance helps you grow properly, and in fast-growing businesses, that distinction matters.
At We Do Group, we help scaling businesses find the finance professionals who bring control, clarity and commercial insight to growth.
Whether you need a Finance Manager, Financial Controller, Head of Finance, Finance Director or fractional senior finance support, the right hire can help turn fast growth into sustainable growth.
Because the next sales rep might help you win more business.
But the right finance hire might be the reason you keep it.
