George Washington had a real knack for hiring top talent.

Lets look at the lineup of his very first cabinet…it included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton.

A pretty impressive lineup of direct reports wouldn’t you say?

Certainly, not a stiff in the bunch.

At Sales Management Mastery, one of the major teachings of our program is to hire, then retain top sales talent. Without superior sales consultants, it will be a constant uphill battle for you to achieve the success you truly desire.

But before we can even start discussing that systematic process, we need to talk about you and your “hiring mindset”.

First, when it comes to hiring, it’s essential for you to adopt a  ”Washingtonian” thought process.

He hired not just top talent, but instead hired insanely top talent for his subordinate positions.

So as a sales manager who craves top performance, are your hiring Washington-esque sales talent or are you settling for “someone to just fill the position”?

If so, you need to set the bar higher.

I’m not talking about hiring the kind of sales consultant that merely gets by, I’m talking about recruiting and hiring real talent…historic kind of talent. The kind of talent that will propel your sales to unheard of levels.

Hiring this level of talent takes time, but this is the kind of hiring and screening that we advocate at Sales Management Mastery…and I’ll teach you how to do it in Course 3 (coming soon).

(In the meantime, you can order free Course 1 – “The Trust Account” through the signup on the right side of this blog post).

If you truly want to work less hours, make more money and get promoted or if you simply desire to feel the sheer satisfaction of unleashing the best from your salespeople, then hiring sales people like ol’ G.W. hired his cabinet is a crucial first step.

If that’s the case, then you’ll need to be like George and multiply your talent by hiring people who are better than you…and we’ll discuss that a whole lot more in the next blog post.

Tell what you think and post a comment as to how you hire top talent when recruiting.

To learn even more about sales manager training, get our free ebook.

So what exactly is excellence to a salesperson?

Not an easy question to answer.

“Excellence” probably means different things to everyone.

Because every salesperson has different potential and differing talents (some better, some worse), each salesperson’s level of excellence varies widely.

In “The Secret of Setting the Bar High” we discussed that a sales manager sometimes needs to be a dictator.

And when it comes to sales performance, the top-performing sales manager is positivey “Stalin-esque”.   He is completely INFLEXIBLE on what he wants from his sales reps. However, he is completely FLEXIBLE on how each rep will go about getting it.

Even though the potential of each salesperson is varied, the level of excellence in sales is very clear, quota is the only true measuring stick. So, here it is:

1. If a salesperson has never achieved quota, excellence is hitting quota, period.

a. However, after the sales rep hits quota two or three times, the goal of excellence then becomes #2.

2. Any goal that both exceeds quota and is also a stretch for the salesperson, while at the same time being realistic.

What is far exceeds? Let your salespeople tell you this one. Your job is to play editor-in-chief when they tell you.

Reel them in if they shoot too high and crank them up if they shoot too low.

My experience has been that most salespeople, somewhat eager to “impress the boss”, set their goals way too high. With unrealistically high goals, these salespeople end up just getting frustrated while simultaneously engendering skepticism and losing interest in your message.

They soon become discouraged and disengaged. Safeguard against that by being extremely critical of their direction.

Learn more valuable sales management tips by clicking on the form to the right of this post – Ill send you the FREE Video and Audio on How to Motivate Your Sales Team.

Add a comment to this post and tell me what you do to prompt your salespeople to achieve excellence.

To learn even more about sales manager training, get our free ebook.

Everyone is looking to achieve excellence in what they do. I’m trying to achieve excellence…you’re trying to achieve excellence. All your sales people are trying to achieve excellence in their own way.

The thing is that your standard of excellence doesn’t necessarily reflect Bob’s ideas, or Jenny’s goals for herself. It’s okay. Each person is different. Some people dream big, some are contented on simpler duties and roles, some dedicate themselves to long-term goals, some focus on the short-term.

But one thing is certain if you want to achieve some level of recognition in the long run – be INFLEXIBLE on what you want…but be FLEXIBLE on how to get yourself there. (more…)

I remember staying up late one night and, out of boredom, decided to take an online IQ test. One of the questions went like this: if all Chinese are merchants, then most merchants are – I answered – Chinese. It’s conventional thinking. I received a check mark for that one.

But be careful bringing that kind of thinking into real life. You might end up murdering someone’s career before it even gets to take off. For example, just because you’re greedy neighbor is a sales person doesn’t mean all sales people are greedy.

In this case, conventional thinking isn’t very convenient, especially for the one looking down the barrel.

You gave your girlfriend a brand new iPod Video for her birthday? Does this mean you want one too? The thing with conventional thinking is that its just that – conventional thinking. And conventional means average. Are you reading this blog for ways to promote average thinking? I hope not. If anything, you’re here because you want your sales people to excel and make a name for themselves. (more…)