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.