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.

To learn more about sales management training, get our free video on the sidebar of this post or by clicking here.

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

George knew what he wanted. But more importantly, he knew what he was doing.

He hired insanely top talent for his cabinet with the likes of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. Any American who knew his history lesson would tell you that a lot of thought certainly went into this decision. In the end, everything paid off.

One of the principles TopSalesManagerBlog strongly advocates is the desire to hunt and retain top sales talent. As a sales manager, you must develop this insight—a kind of strong gut feeling—to identify the freshest apple from the basket.

I know it’s easy if we’re just going to talk about it. So how exactly do you hire top sales talent?

One way is to adopt a “Washingtonian” way of thinking. George didn’t just hire top talent; he hired insanely good people to work under him.

First you need to get this clear in your head before attempting to look for a Thomas Jefferson in the pile of resumes on your table: Are you out to hire a top sales person—someone who could be even better than you—or are you just looking for “someone to fill the position?”

Remember, a top-performing sales manager always sets the bar higher.

Hiring talented sales people takes time. It’ll take twice or even three times longer than simply accepting a filler applicant. But even so, the ROI on hiring top talent is huge, and it’s exactly the kind of hiring and screening we advocate here at TopSalesManagerBlog.

If you want to keep working the same job for years, go ahead and hire someone mediocre. If you want to work less hours and earn more money by getting promoted, not even talking about the satisfaction of doing a job well done, then hire sales people the Washingtonian way.

You’re a sales manager. Hiring is the first crucial step to your success.

To learn more about sales management training, click here to get your choice of free sales management training courses.

Tell us what you think. Post a comment as to how you hire top talent into your sales team.