XELA Partners · Decision tool

The real cost of building your first sales function

Hiring and managing your first salesperson rarely goes to plan on the first attempt. Enter your own numbers below to see the three-year net benefit of running it with XELA versus doing it in-house.

Your situation

Everything updates live as you type.

£
New business
Upsell
 
% of basic, paid at 100% of target
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
£
In-house, your most senior person is pulled in to support the sales person and cover gaps. We value that time against this salary.
£
The person who recruits, onboards and manages the sales person — pulling time away from your secondary team.
Agency fee (% of basic)15%
15%20%
Recruiting, onboarding & managing wellBalanced
LowHigh
Lower confidence means a slower ramp, more management time, heavier secondary-team drag and a costlier re-hire.
After the engagement ends, you run the function in-house — but on the system XELA has embedded, so it costs far less to sustain than a cold start and keeps most of its momentum.
Advanced assumptions
£
Fixed in both paths: salary on-cost 10%, salary uplift 5% p.a., a 12-month leaver and re-hire in the in-house path, and won ARR recurs. XELA path: faster ramp (60% / 80% / 110%), no replacement, 10% management time, programme fee £19,200 / £11,028 / £11,580 per year engaged.
Net benefit with XELA over 3 years
£0
XELA nets £0 vs £0 in-house — and the choice .
Extra recurring ARR by year 3
£0
Your total cost — in-house
£0
Your total cost — with XELA
£0
Cumulative net contribution over 3 years
With XELAIn-house

What the in-house path quietly costs you

Recruitment (two hires)£0
Leadership / management time£0
Primary support & secondary backfill£0

How this works. Figures are an illustrative three-year model based on the inputs above and XELA's published programme structure. "Net contribution" is recognised revenue (existing ARR plus new and upsell ARR won, recurring) less the full cost of the sales function. The in-house path assumes a first-attempt leaver at month 12 and a re-hire; the confidence slider scales the ramp, management load and secondary-team drag between a careful and a difficult execution. After a 1- or 2-year XELA engagement you continue in-house on the embedded system, retaining most of the growth trajectory at roughly half the management cost of a cold start. Your actual results will vary — treat this as a basis for conversation, not a quotation.

Disclaimer. These figures are estimates only, offered as a guide based on past experience and open-source research. They are not a forecast, quotation or guarantee of results.