Want to make your job much easier? Want to look like a hero to your boss? Want to make the best single decision you’ll ever make as a sales manager?

Then hire a superstar salesperson. A superstar will bring you such a treasure of powerful benefits that your single act of hiring a superstar will be the best business decision you’ll ever make. First, a superstar will require very little of your management or supervisory time. A superstar spends a great deal of time thinking about his/her job, figuring out how to do it better. He’s driven to succeed, and will work hard and smart in order to do so. The best management strategy with a superstar is to give him/her room and stay out of the way. That means you can spend your time with the other sales people who need it.A superstar will be far more sensitively aware of his (and your) customer’s needs and objectives. Whereas your other salespeople may miss some of the more subtle clues about what is going on in the market and within your customer’s minds, your superstar will be acutely aware of them. They become one of your best sources for accurate market information, bringing you the information you need to make adjustments in your strategy.

And then, of course, your superstar salespeople will sell! It’s not unusual for one superstar to produce as much as two or three of your more average performers. And, after all, isn’t that what you hired him for?

So, hire a superstar, and your life gets much easier.

But, unfortunately, the 80 – 20 rule holds true in regards to salespeople. Twenty percent of your salespeople produce 80% of your volume. That’s one out of five. But that rule only defines a “good” salesperson. We’re concerned about a superstar.

Author Richard Gaylord Briley has articulated a similar principle, the 5/50 rule. He asserts that 5% of the people in the world produce the affluence and prosperity for the other 50%. If that’s true, then you need to find the one of 20 salespeople, the elusive five-percenter, who is your next superstar.

So the question is: “Is there a way to spot those 5% during the interview process?” Above and beyond the normal standards and qualities, is there a quality or combination of qualities that every star salesperson has in common, regardless of the business or industry?

After having interviewed literally hundreds of potential salespeople, my answer is “YES.” There are certain qualities that every star salesperson possesses.

If you can identify these qualities in a prospective salesperson, regardless of the industry you’re in, than you can spot an individual who will bring you a great return on your investment.

Before we discuss them, let’s consider what qualities are generally not important. In most industries, physical attractiveness is not a primary consideration. It’s nice if your salesperson is attractive, and it will help him/her in their initial contact with prospects, but it’s not necessary. Too often, sales hires are made on the basis of how the prospect looks — and that’s often a mistake.

Probably the most overrated factor is that of “product knowledge.” More business people make decisions about hiring salespeople based on the amount of product knowledge that person has than any other single factor. Product knowledge is nice, but it’s not necessary. Knowledge is just that, knowledge, and it can be gained. If you have learned something about your product and your industry, so can someone else. So, it’s nice that a prospective salesperson has product or industry knowledge, but it’s not an indicator of success.

Here’s the key to spotting and hiring a superstar salesperson. Don’t be sidetracked by what he/she knows relative to products or industries, and don’t be blinded by how he or she looks. Instead, concentrate on who he/she is.

These six qualities of character that mark superstar salespeople of any industry all describe who they are, not what they know.

Let’s consider each one.

The first on my list may surprise you. INTEGRITY.

That’s right. Integrity. According to the dictionary, integrity is “uprightness of character, probity ( virtue tested and confirmed), honesty.”

I believe that this “tested uprightness and honesty” ought to be the first quality we look for in salespeople. From time immemorial, people have appreciated and wanted to deal with honest people. That holds true today.

Put yourself in the place of your potential customer. Or, look at your behavior when you are the buyer, not the seller. Don’t you appreciate an honest vendor? Aren’t you drawn to the supplier who you know will treat you honestly and fairly? Fast talkers will come and go. Hard closers will get some business and create some ill will, experts in product knowledge will help us understand, but the thing that draws us to do business with a person, more than anything else, is that person’s integrity. We know that we will be dealt with fairly and honestly.

So, if it’s integrity to which we are attracted when we are purchasing something, doesn’t it make sense that our customers and prospects will also be drawn to a person of integrity? That’s the first, and most important reason for looking for integrity in our future salespeople.

But there are some other more selfish reasons, too. For instance, if you hire someone of integrity, you can feel certain that person will deal with you, as his/her employer, with integrity also. And that means that you can expect honest representation of your product and company, that you won’t have to worry about shoddy or corrupt dealing ruining your reputation, and that your concerns for bribery or unethical maneuvers are gone.

So, the salesperson with integrity has a quality that draws people to him, and that makes your jobs as managers much easier.

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We will continue this discussion next week as we discover the next Quality of a SuperStar Salesperson.