When you hire salespeople for your company, you probably don’t realize that there’s a philanthropic spirit behind the goal-oriented, driven, ambitious people that you have recruited. After all, when you ask the typical man-on-the-street to give you the characteristics of good salesmen, altruism isn’t at the top of the list. But you might be surprised.

According to the Advanced Hiring System Values Matrix, the best salesmen are motivated by a desire for money and power. For that reason, many people think that that’s all good salesmen care about. When you really get to know some of them, though, you’ll discover that what motivates them is just a small part of who they are; because of salesmen, the world is a much better place.

Let’s consider the facts: while a desire for money and power may be the primary force that drives good salesmen, they’re not usually just out for themselves. What about the customer? By selling your product to Mrs. X, your salesman—we’ll call him Sam—is making a sincere effort to improve or enhance some part of her life. Oh sure, there are those out there who really don’t care about the customer—those are the ones who have created those unpleasant stereotypes that plague all the good salesmen. Those are also the ones you hope you don’t have on your sales team.

When Mrs. X is delighted with both your product and the way she was treated, she will tell Mrs. Y and Mrs. Z, who will undoubtedly request Sam to help them purchase your product because he made the experience so enjoyable for Mrs. X. Now Sam has helped three people, and who knows how far the word of mouth will go? All because he’s motivated by money and power? Maybe, but now we can see that there’s another whole dimension to Sam.

Now, as Sam is helping Mrs. X, Y, and Z, your growth charts begin to rise. As more people buy your product from Sam, your profits grow, and your company is getting stronger. All because of Sam? Hmm. Just because he’s collecting a commission doesn’t mean that it’s not important to him to do what he can to help ensure
your company’s success.

Taking the whole idea a step further, good salesmen help the economy. Sam takes his commissions and spends money on products and services in your community. As businesses thrive, employment rises, and more products and services become available, and so on, and so on. And now that your business is also thriving, you have to hire salespeople again, and the cycle continues.

Okay, maybe you can’t really save the world just because you hire salespeople. But now you can see how one good hire can help a lot of people, including you. It’s all about money, power–and humanity.