Ray Dalio and Bridgewater Associates are highly secretive about who they are and what they do. That is until recently…

Ray Dalio’s $100 Billion hedge fund earned a 36% return on its investments. And that on top of averaging 15% over the last 20 years.

All of a sudden everyone wants to hear what Dalio has to say.

Recently Dalio has been lifting the veil of secrecy  and revealing his thoughts on the economy, running a business and how to be smart.

He even released his company’s 140 page Operating Principles. In it, Dalio says you can’t hire anyone at Bridgewater Associates without running a personality assessment.

Pretty interesting that some obviously very smart people won’t hire without using Personality Assessments.

We’ve been saying it for 14 years now, Personality Assessments are not optional for hiring top performers.

You can grab your own copy of Bridgewater Associates Operating Principles here.

If you’re in sales you realize that the best way to make more sales is to get more prospects.

Salespeople who have one prospect and have to make the sale usually end up putting too much pressure on the sale – and blowing it.

Hiring salespeople in some ways is like making a sale – the more applicants you have the better off you are.

You want to go into the sales hiring process with lots of choices.

I don’t need to tell you how many losers get hired for sales jobs. In my experience one of the biggest reasons for hiring sales losers is because managers find “this great candidate.”

You know the kind: he’s an amazing sales applicant, he’s got previous sales experience, previous industry experience, went to a great college, comes recommended by your buddy at Kiwanis Club….

So you spend the entire hiring process justifying why to hire your one candidate.

Total mistake. Yet, every month all across American business (and UK, Australian, Jamaican, German and Indian business based on our experience) sales managers are justifying hiring that one applicant.

What’s really sad about this is you can have a floodgate of applicants for nothing.

Two sources are standouts in getting lots of applicants for your next sales job:

Simply Hired let’s you post jobs to their stream here:

http://www.simplyhired.com/a/add-jobs/request?type=feed

And of course, there’s the venerable www.craigslist.org.

Post to both and review a minimum of 20 applicants before making a hire. It’s the best way to make great sales hire.

Hiring the right people starts with knowing what makes a good salesperson want to do the job well. There are hiring solutions very helpful with figuring out the right interview models to gain this valuable information. In the meantime, here are some clues for knowing how to hire employees with the right motivation and mindset.

• High Energy – A sluggish, lazy, distracted sales team will get you nowhere. Even if one person on that team strays from the goal, it could set you back a great deal of lost sales in the long run. Hiring the right people definitely means hiring energetic ones. What makes a good salesperson is one with focus and stamina that lasts or keeps renewing until the goal has been reached.
  

• Strong Integrity – It’s true that a strong salesperson is often one who is willing to bend a rule or two, but not at the expense of your company’s integrity. Beware of applicants who exhibit signs of being overly willing to do whatever it takes to make the sale. Hiring solutions are all for naught if you’ve got a team of dishonest salespeople. Your company reputation is at stake, so screen applicants for integrity as a top priority.
  

• Quick Learner – Luckily, it’s not always important that a sales applicant have much product knowledge yet. Training is the key to learning your products and practices the right way, so it’s almost better to start from scratch in certain sales positions. However, assess applicants for the quick learners in the bunch and you’ll benefit in more ways than one. Quick learners tend to be great in high-pressure situations. On the spot sales pitches don’t faze them like their slow-learning counterparts.
  

• Wants the Golden Ticket – Here’s what makes a good salesperson – someone who wants the top prize. Competitiveness is a great quality that sales people to have. If the interview and assessment tests show that this applicant wants the top sales spot on your team, it’s likely they’ll work very hard to achieve it.
  

• Seeks Praise & Rewards – How to hire employees with great sales skills, and keep them for the long-term, is to offer a lot of praise and rewards for sales goals met. The desire to make as much money as possible is what makes a good salesperson get up every morning. Offer them that chance and you’ll see the great salespeople flock to your doors.
  

• Can’t Get Enough of a Good Thing – Sometimes sales people will bring in a high percentage of sales and then sink back into their comfy careers without trying hard for more. This is not what makes a good salesperson for the long haul. It’s essential that the applicants you interview display an eagerness to reach each summit and then beg for higher mountains to climb. When a sales person loses steam, they risk bringing down the entire sales team. Hire self-motivators with high energy and you won’t have this problem.
  

What makes a good salesperson tick is the desire for big money, big rewards and repeat success. It takes highly energetic self-starters to be a great sales person and it takes the right interview information to know them when you see them.