The latest government job report sounds ominous. Just 74,000 new jobs created in December – missing by a mile the projected 196,000. Ouch. Future job growth (other than registered nurses), will be for jobs at Walmart and the like.

With the lousy jobs report, you’d think that it would be easy to hire sales talent.

Unfortunately hiring for sales talent has become more difficult. Advanced Hiring System clients continue to report a tight job market all across the country for real salespeople.

Regular readers of this blog know that real sales talent is rarer than finding an honest man or woman in Congress.

In fact, our data shows only one in every 33 Americans is what we call a “natural” to become a top performing salesperson.

The rarity of those who have the personality to be good salespeople is why most salespeople hired end up failing. Most sales hiring strategies simply fail to look at personality style, instead looking at previous sales experience as primary criteria.

Traditional sales trainers attempt to take the untalented and teach them to sell – like putting lipstick on a pig we think.

One strategy Advanced Hiring System clients use it to constantly be recruiting in their markets. You don’t need to waste time on sales applicants until you’ve found their profile matches the rare personality qualities that make for a great salesperson.

Bottom line is to always have the “Welcome Mat” out for top sellers who are Money-motivated Persuaders. Finding them takes time, but when you find them they are worth their weight in gold.

Long time clients and friends know that Christmas Day is my day of self-reflection and goal setting.  Things are quiet on Christmas since I’m a nice Jewish boy from Long Island.

I’ve been lucky in my life. I’ve been married to this cute little blond haired girl for 35 years now with 4 children and now, welcome to the world to my 3^rd grandson.

I’ve built half a dozen businesses and sold one that netted me a modest nest egg.

I’ve built myself a home on the beach with an unobstructed view of the sunset. And I’ve learned how to live part time in a foreign country and speak the language.

All my lists have come to me from the years of my Christmas Day goal setting exercise.

I am not any smarter than most, I’m not much more motivated than the average guy and  like Gary Halbert used to say, “I’m semi-handsome.”

I am not writing this to you to brag or blow my own horn. I am writing this to you for the simple reason that I want you, my valued clients and friends to have a happy life.

I read that one out of every 5 Americans is taking some sort of drug for depression. I’m not a licensed therapist, don’t play one of TV, but that sure seems like a heck of a lot of people.

I’ve been depressed in my life so I know what its like. But in looking back on those periods of being depressed, I think it was caused by the way I was driving my brain. You see, whether you realize it or not you do get everything out of life you want.

Not everything exactly the way you think it will be, but you set your own direction in life. Depending on the oomph you put behind it you either achieve or not.

Clarification here: This is the world according to Alan, but bear with me and hopefully some of what I am saying here will help you.

When I have been at my most productive (able to set and achieve the goals I’ve set for myself) I’ve taken the time to systematically set and achieve them.

Two steps there: 1) set and 2) achieve.

I set goals on Christmas Day for the year. Every year now since 1987 I’ve sat down and written them out. And then I save them in a folder – no fancy system. I do try to keep them in some sort of chronological order. But at the beginning of the day on Christmas they get all spread out and its kind of fun to put them back in order.

I’ve kept journals – and that is by far the best way to me see myself for who I really am, but daily journal keeping has some downside for me because I tended to be overly critical in it. I recommend you pick one day a year to write your goals from here on out.

As a human being with limited vision, my ability to see the time frame on goals is laughable. I really thought every year since 1987 I was going to have a house on the beach with an unobstructed view of the sunset that year.

I didn’t achieve the goal until 6 years ago. In other words it took me 20 years to achieve a goal that I thought I would achieve in a much shorter time frame.

But because I have developed a system for annual goal review and achievement I never lost sight of the goal. And today here I am sitting out at the Mediterranean while I write this.

A Goal to Cure Cancer and Live

I have a couple of friends I meet with by Skype every week. One of them I’ve been meeting with for nearly 20 years now on and off. (I’ve been meeting with him since long before people knew what a business friend looks like.) He was my client at Radio Profits Corporation, then I became his coaching client when he became a certified E-myth coach.

Five years ago we made a commitment to meet weekly by Skype for an hour and hold each other accountable.  One day he missed our call which was very unusual – I was the one who would miss calls, he is very disciplined (typical High-S). Later that day he sent me an email that he was in the hospital with a very aggressive form of Leukemia.

I did an internet search for his type of cancer and found “prognosis poor.” That was more than 2 years ago. We then began a series of meetings where we both committed to meditate an hour a day and to hold each other accountable for it.

Today my friend has achieved his goal of being alive, regaining his health and continuing as a business coach.

I am not saying that everyone who commits to a goal of regaining health after being diagnosed with “prognosis poor” type of cancer will regain their health. I am saying that without setting a goal to do it, then taking the steps necessary the odds fall dramatically.

Doubling Clients’ Sales Hiring Success Rate in Real Time

My commitment to you this year is to continue to improve Advanced Hiring System’s ability to help you select top sales performers. Our new StylesMatrix™ coupled with the improvements we’ve made to the ValuesMatrix™ are working perfectly.

We will be tracking our recommendations more effectively this year. We’ve done studies and we increase sales hiring success rates by 200% on average.  I’ve always wanted to be able to track that in real time across our entire client base.  This year we’ll put that in place. You’ll be hearing more about that going forward.

Thank you for the many friendships I’ve made with many of you and best wishes for a good, healthy 2014!

Most of us will admit that self-esteem is an issue that develops in our childhood and follows us throughout our lives, and hiring managers know that high self-esteem is a key factor in what makes a good salesman.  As long as a person has a high level of self-esteem, he will most likely also have many of the other traits that determine what makes a good salesman: enthusiasm, self-motivation, energy, competitiveness, resilience, and a positive outlook. These are all fundamental aspects of sales success.

A healthy level of self-esteem is what gives salesmen the confidence to go after a target and follow the process just to experience the greatest sound in the world, “YES”. Each sale builds more self-esteem, which creates more confidence, which leads to more sales, and the cycle has the power to repeat itself indefinitely. When a candidate shows the potential to engage in this cycle of success, you know he has what makes a good salesman.

Combined with a competitive nature, high self-esteem translates into a persuasive disposition, which in turn translates into an almost irresistible force (for good). Salesmen with these qualities see the influence they have over others—the way they are able to inspire others to make decisions—and it makes them feel good, not only about themselves, but good in general.

Even in cases where salesmen are rejected, and those cases do occur, a high level of self-esteem enables them to bounce back and keep going, rather than see the rejection as some kind of personal failure that makes it harder and harder to face the next challenge. Like the Energizer Rabbit, good salesmen keep going, and going . . . .

This is not arrogance, nor is it narcissism. Most hiring managers want to avoid the salesmen that customers perceive as obnoxious. A high self-esteem enables a salesman to be proactive, not pushy; strong-willed, not mule-headed; motivated, not confrontational; and confident, not smug. With high self-esteem, salesmen feel natural in any situation, and they can control it with no sign of obnoxious behavior.

Even though good salesmen may have a healthy self-concept, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t have some limitations. Rather than ignoring those limitations or despairing of ever improving themselves, good salesmen constantly self-evaluate to stay connected to an  awareness of both their weaknesses and their strengths; they work on creating a balance to capitalize on their strong points, but remain realistic in their expectations and goals.

Sales managers probably most appreciate the fact that the salesmen who exhibit high self-esteem will be the ones who aren’t always looking for emotional and/or professional support from others. As long as supervisors follow recommendations revealed in the pre-employment tests, such as the ones in the AHS sales hiring materials, to recognize their achievements, reward their successes, etc., these salesmen will always maintain a high performance level in every phase of the job. They are the self-starters who will set challenging goals for themselves, and will do everything within their power to achieve those goals. That’s ultimately what makes a good salesman.