When it comes to growing your company, the list of business issues and challenges you cannot control is much longer than the list of business issues and challenges you can control.  You can't control the economy, irrational competition, market trends, regulatory barriers, and a host of other issues.  Despite these challenges, you can control the team you build.  And for a growing company few team decisions are more important than getting the right sales people on your team.  Since this is an area you can control why settle for anything less than a team of over-achieving sales people?

What should you look for when building a team of over achievers?  Here's a short list of traits and characteristics to help you get started.

• Passion for sales
• Committment
• Responsiblity
• Outlook/Attitude
• Relentless prospecting
• Comfort discussing money
• Strong sales management accountability
• Continuous learning and improvement
• Hunger and drive

If you have a team with these qualities you're probably growing at a faster rate than your competition.  If you look at this list and get a pain low in the gut, let's talk about how to fix it.  Over the next several weeks we will blog about each of these items in more detail.  We have also created a FREE audio series on Building An Over-Achieving Sales Team so you can review and reinforce these ideas right from your iPod.