Top Sales Manager Blog

In sales management, George Washington is an interesting example of how a not-so-brilliant leader managed to pull things together—so well, in fact—that he earned a spot at the majestic Mt. Rushmore. You don’t have to be brilliant to be an effective sales manager. You just have to be like George Washington.

George Washington knew his strengths and his own weaknesses. But as president of the new United States, he knew he had to do something. So what he did, he brought together a few individuals he knew would more than make up for his own shortcomings. The rest was history.

If anything, George was confident. He didn’t feel threatened by hiring individuals who, some would agree, was better and more qualified than himself.

The point is: George’s success and image flourished by hiring superior people into his team.

Americans eventually saw him as one of the greatest leaders to come out of the United States. I believe George Washington became far more successful than if he had appointed mediocre cabinet members.

As a top-performing sales manager, you need to – and you must – do the same.

George possessed one of the key characteristics of a superior sales leader:

He had an absence of ego.

Get off your high horse. Step down from that pedestal. Absence of ego means you have no trouble relinquishing control. And when you release control, you make room for your sales reps to grow.

They become the stars! Not you. 

Put yourself in the shoes of a basketball coach. Michael Jordan is a legend, but even his biggest fans acknowledge that his basketball career wouldn’t have turned out the way it did without the guidance of Phil Jackson. Even Michael himself was a Washingtonian-type of leader. He was a monster courtside, but he never hoarded the ball to himself. He made sure everyone in his team was given an opportunity to fly. Again, the rest… is history.

Same goes for sales management. When your sales reps become stars and the team starts hitting above quota more often, the real credit goes to you. 

So don’t hesitate to hire talented sales reps, people who are superior and maybe even better than you. Because if you do that, youre one step closer to being the “George Washington” of sales management.

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Tell me how you go about hiring top sales people. What strategies work well for you? Post a comment below.

Filed under: Hiring by ralphburns