Short answer: For an Enterprise Account Executive with a €2 to 4 million annual quota, every month of vacancy costs around €55,000 to €110,000 in revenue that never happens. That holds even if colleagues cover two thirds of the work. On top comes a ramp-up of 6 to 12 months, which only starts once the new hire has signed.

When a sales role opens up, the first question is: can we fill it ourselves, or do we bring in help? Most of the time the fee decides, because the fee is a number on an invoice. The cost of the open role appears on no invoice. It shows up a year later in the forecast, as a gap nobody links back to the vacancy anymore.

I carried a quota and led sales teams for 25 years. That is why I start every conversation with a client by working out what the open role costs. The math is simple.

The math in three steps

1. Quota per month. An Enterprise Account Executive at a technology vendor in DACH typically carries a €2 to 4 million annual quota. At €3 million, that is €250,000 per month.

2. What is actually lost. Not every euro is gone right away. Existing customers keep ordering, colleagues take over meetings, the sales leader steps in. Let us be careful and assume only a third is truly lost. That is around €83,000 per month.

3. How long the role stays open. According to Bitkom, it takes 7.7 months on average to fill an IT position in Germany. That figure is driven mostly by technical roles at end customers, such as administrators. A sales role at a technology vendor usually moves faster with a headhunter: a shortlist in two to four weeks, a signed contract a few weeks later. Without outside help it often stays open for months, because there is no network to draw on, only LinkedIn posts and applications. If a sales role stays open as long as the Bitkom average, our example adds up to around €640,000 in revenue that never happens.

• €2 million quota: €167,000 per month, €56,000 lost per month, €428,000 over 7.7 months

• €3 million quota: €250,000 per month, €83,000 lost per month, €642,000 over 7.7 months

• €4 million quota: €333,000 per month, €111,000 lost per month, €856,000 over 7.7 months

This is revenue. For vendors it is the right measure, since gross margins in software are usually high. Resellers and distributors should use the margin their sales team is responsible for instead.

What this math does not show yet

Ramp-up only starts at signature. In enterprise sales it takes 6 to 12 months before a new hire delivers full quota. Every extra month of search pushes that date back by a month. Hire in January instead of April, and the person is productive in the autumn, not next year.

The sales cycle delays the damage. With cycles of 6 to 12 months, the pipeline that is not built today is missing in the next fiscal year. The vacancy often shows only after it is long over.

Customers do not wait. Accounts without a dedicated contact get less attention. In markets like cybersecurity or AI, where several vendors compete for the same budgets, competitors use that.

The team pays too. Colleagues who take on extra accounts lose time for their own pipeline. The sales leader spends weeks in interviews instead of deals.

For leadership roles, the math is different

When a VP DACH or a Country Manager is missing, more than one quota is missing. The leadership of an entire region is. Forecasts get less reliable, and hiring in the team stalls because no one owns it. For a US vendor entering Europe, the whole market entry may slip. There is no simple formula for this, but the order of magnitude is a multiple of what a single Account Executive vacancy costs.

The second cost: the wrong person

Filling a role fast only helps if the person fits. A mis-hire in enterprise sales costs the vacancy twice: once until the first hire, and again when the search restarts after a year without results. In between are salary, ramp-up and burnt accounts. More on this in my article on what a bad sales hire really costs a cybersecurity vendor.

That is why I measure myself on two numbers: how fast a role is filled and how long the person stays. 97% of the people I place are still in the role after twelve months, and every placement carries a written 6-month replacement guarantee.

When to bring in outside help

My answer: right away, if the role carries revenue. Most companies try it themselves first. The role goes on LinkedIn, then on the careers page, then on a job board. The people you need for an enterprise role rarely read these ads, because they earn well in their current job and are not looking. By the time it is clear this is not working, one or two months have passed. At a €3 million quota, that is already €80,000 to €170,000 before the actual search has even started.

With me, you usually see a qualified shortlist within two to four weeks, often sooner. The fee is usually lower than what a single month of vacancy costs.

Work out your own number

Loss per month = annual quota ÷ 12 × share that is truly lost

Use your own figures. If you set the share carefully at one third, you are more likely too low than too high. Then put two numbers side by side: what one month of vacancy costs, and what outside help costs.

Have a sales role that has been open too long? Discuss your hiring needs.

Source: Bitkom, “Deutschland fehlen IT-Fachkräfte”, 7 August 2025.