We’ve talked about what makes a good salesman before—a high-energy individual with a strong sense of integrity; someone who is a quick study; someone who works to keep the momentum going in good times and bad, etc. But have you ever thought about what good salesmen can do for your brand? After all, your brand is what defines your company, your reputation, your message, and your image. When you’re building a sales team, assessing  the personality traits of your candidates will ensure that, not only are you hiring the right people for your company’s financial success, you’re building customer loyalty by boosting perception of your brand.

                  When you understand what makes a good salesman, you’re more likely to be hiring salespeople who will not only close the sale, but will also exercise behaviors that engage with customers, let them know what your brand stands for, and deliver on the brand promise.

Now, you may or may not be one of the millions of fans of Justin Bieber, but that’s irrelevant in this context. Justin  is a great example of a concept who became a brand, who became a phenomenon. It didn’t just happen, it took a fair amount of work. Once he was discovered on YouTube by an individual who essentially has a great salesperson profile, it was time to promote, promote, promote. In this case, social media was the mode of “selling” Justin’s brand, since that’s the preferred means of communication for  Generation Y, his target “customer.”  It took about three years, but then, as anyone knows who hasn’t been living under a rock, Justin’s brand took off, and now he’s flying higher every day.

OK, so Justin isn’t really a product, and your product is not Justin Bieber; the point is, without all the work and promotion, Justin would still be just one of the millions of YouTube videos instead of the youngest person to ever appear on the cover of Forbes magazine. The ability to promote a product is what makes a good salesman.

If you know you have good salesmen, but they haven’t been relating the value of your brand as part of the selling process, you can start now to consider brand impact as part of what makes a good salesman. Implement brand education as part of your sales training, so that each member of your sales team has a clear understanding of the importance of your brand to them, the message you want your brand to deliver, and a specific way of communicating its relevance to customers.

As your sales force grows, you can be assured that every new hire you make using the Advanced Hiring System will fit the salesperson profile to be a motivated go-getter who will not only work to advance his own success, but the success of your company’s brand. And, since the AHS Sales Hiring Course supplies all the steps to assuring that you understand what makes a good salesman, chances are good that your sales team will help your product evolve to a brand, then to a phenomenon.

No disrespect intended, but when it comes to sales hiring, the best use of an applicant’s résumé may be for taking notes during the interview. While a résumé may sometimes be a true representation of how well a candidate will fit into your company, more often it’s just a lot of words meant to dazzle you because someone wants a job. Here’s the sad fact: just because someone wants a job doesn’t mean they want to work.

I know, it seems like a sacrilege to take that document that the candidate put so much work into, and treat it like scratch paper, but that’s just the point. This candidate did put a lot of work into the résumé—or he paid someone else to put in a lot of work—all to present himself (or herself) in the best possible light. But, as anyone who understands the ins and outs of sales hiring knows, it takes more than good light to warrant a place among the ranks of good salesmen.

It’s a little like those gorgeous models in magazines. Sure, they seem absolutely perfect on those glossy pages, but if you happen to see them on the street without the makeup, the hair styling, the lighting, and the air-brushing, you probably won’t even recognize them. In other words, in real life, they’re a disappointment.

If you’re responsible for the sales hiring in your company, think of the résumé as the air-brushed version of a candidate’s qualifications. This person thinks he has a pretty good idea of what you’re looking for, so he may embellish his responsibilities a little, exaggerate about his skill set a little, and gloss over some details that might not make him look good to you. In many cases, some of the information is downright deception; we’ve all heard about those high-profile cases where “respectable” people have been exposed for lying on their résumés.

Considering the fact that most information on résumés can be easily verified (but who has the time to chase down every detail?), it’s surprising that so many people still bend the truth about things like their academic degrees, companies they have worked for, and sometimes even their own family background. One survey of hiring managers revealed that as many as 60% of the résumés they receive have at least one lie, and some of them are really whoppers. That means that only 40% were honest portrayals of the applicants—unless, of course they were more talented with their lying than the ones who got caught.

On the other hand, a candidate who’s a potential top performer may not have the creative skills to produce an impressive résumé. All the key attributes that good salesmen possess—the values, the motivation, the focus on top performance—are qualities that can’t really be put down on paper.  If, in your sales hiring, you rule out an applicant based solely on his lackluster résumé, you could be missing out on the opportunity to enrich the sales culture of your company, and you may end up instead with another disappointment. But he had a great résumé!

We live in an age where we get information in quick blurbs and sound bites. Print media sales are way down; quick data handheld electronics are king. We race and we rush in order to thrive and succeed. It may seem like the most successful business people wouldn’t dare waste time reading books anymore, but that assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. Successful business people – including salesmen and saleswomen — are almost always voracious readers. Not only do they read books, they read a great deal of them with themes essential to their success. If you want to hire top performing salesmen, one of your interview questions has got to be “What do you read?”

Why Are Readers More Successful?

Part of being top salesmen is having the right mindset. Sales success begins with thinking and believing you are successful, as well as learning from those who have reached success already. When salesmen spend time reading books about being successful, about making money, about gaining power in their sales careers — those are the thoughts in their minds when they come to work every day.

Successful business people are constantly reading about other successful business people. They apply what they learn to their own lives until they achieve their own goals. You want to hire sales people with these reading interests because they are constantly filling their minds with inspirational information directly applicable to the job they do for you. Building a sales team of readers is a very wise move for consistent business growth.

What Are Top Sales Performers Reading?

New motivational books about business and reaching goals are published every year, but there are some popular titles you should know. Below is a list of some of the most highly regarded books and authors that successful salesmen read. Some of these titles are specifically business related, while others are about attracting success and prosperity. Many of these authors have additional important titles, as well.

• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins
• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
• Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain
• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• Purple Cow by Seth Godin
• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
• Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk

Top salesmen will probably tell you they also read a lot of memoirs of successful people and fiction featuring protagonists who overcome great challenges to conquer all.

During the job interview, ask each applicant what they’ve read in the past six months. Think twice about an applicant who isn’t consistently reading books that will keep their motivation high. Hire sales people who take pride in the motivational and informational books they read.

Consider assigning a reading list to each person you hire. Training sales people can be that much more rewarding with a book list as part of the program. When training sales people for specific types of sales roles or responsibilities, you could choose book topics with applicable themes. You might even start a sales team book club for inspired discussions and idea swapping. Building a sales team that reads together creates a sales team that excels together.