What Makes the Perfect Salesforce?
By Derek Gatehouse, The Perfect Salesforce

Want to hire a top producing salesperson for your company? Sure, everyone does. In all my management and consulting years I've never been mandated to hire average salespeople.

But hiring top producing salespeople on a regular basis—those individuals who consistently sell at least four times more than their average counterparts—is perhaps one of the greatest challenges in business.

Selling is a natural born talent. The next logical question then is which talents do we look for? What are the natural ingredients of a top seller? When I set out to answer this question so many years ago I quickly came to the problematic realization that the answer depends on the type of sale you are hiring for. There isn't one ideal recipe for a top producer because there isn't just one sale type—there are many. Haven't we all experienced the frustration and bewilderment of hiring someone we knew to be a top producer, only to watch as he or she flounders in the new sales position? Well the first secret is to understand that different sale types require very different talent sets.