I don’t know about you, but the “Highest-Paid Players” in any of my (now sixteen or seventeen) companies have always been salesmen.

Why?

Because the salesman has, by far, THE toughest job in the company. Period.

Think about it. The salesman is required to be on the front lines (and Lord, do I hate this next phrase!) “24/7”. He is often dis-included (my own new word) from strategy sessions and office politics and he can never take a play off. (And ladies, I use the masculine pronouns merely as a shortcut. Successful salesmen and entrepreneurs are blind to gender. - credit to Guy Kawasaki)

Think about that ladies and gentlemen … your salespeople are forced to wear that sappy smile every minute of every day as they move from prospect to prospect to customer. Ugh! That alone should be worth fifty grand a year.

Salesmen are also part psychiatrist and part social worker. They must deal with whatever trauma their customer is involved in that day, be it the teen-aged son with the black fingernails or the fact that the prospect’s big boss is an arrogant S.O.B. who should be arrested. No wait … convicted.

Always operating under the dual pressures of quotas to be made and Product Development specialists who always seem to be “at lunch”, or “in the can”, or some other B.S. story whilst they are babysitting a fuming customer who of course blames every product problem on who else, but the guy who sold it to him; the salesman somehow persists.

Salesmen never stop working, either. Know how you can really tell a great salesperson? Just look at his business card. If either a.) the guy’s CELL number, or, even better b.) his HOME number is on that card, hire him on the spot (well, after asking him what he W-2ed last year and then offering to increase that number by at least 35%) because this guy is a player!

But more and more I am seeing this. And it’s good --- cuz it makes MY job easier.

Think of it … what does a salesman get paid? And I mean a really, REALLY great one? How about (and including salary pro rata) 20% of the product’s sale price? That seems about right.

Which means that this one person, this one guy who most of the office regards as “the guy who has all the free time” and/or, “The guy who only shows up for office parties” is, and just like the proverbial ant, pulling five times his weight! Every day. 24/7 (Ugh).

While the CEO is most likely burning five times HIS weight. I mean, think of it … CEO’s are like matter. They consume space and have weight. Other than that, what the hell are they doing to advance the ball in your company?

Unless, of course, they too are salesmen.

In companies that I own, and assuming I get prime parking spaces from my landlord, the first couple spaces go to clients and prospects, and whatever’s left over is reserved for my top salespeople --- whoever he or she may be that month.

Et tu?

Believe it or not, there are companies out there who do NOT even employ salespeople. I call these “legless R&D labs”, which, really, is all that they ever can or will be. They are either working under some contract or they are burning some investor’s money.

Stay clear of these companies, for they will either be a.) sucking up all of your money, or when they blow through that pile, b.) they'll soon be running out of money --- in which case they’ll be “sucking up all of your money” all-the-same.

You want growth? Hire yourself a sales team. You want profits? Same thing. You want to retire early? Uh-huh.

Put it this way… I’ve made well over $50 million dollars in my thirty years in business and I consequently retired in my 40’s. And I’m still waiting for any business transaction to happen that wasn’t initiated by a salesperson.

(And I’m still fighting off guys who want to “use” my money so that they, too, can retire. Lately I just tell them, “go out and earn it buddy --- hire yourself a salesman”.)