Seth Godin had a killer post the other day called, I Made It My Mission . . . It was phenomenal. In typical Godin style, he got right to the point and made impact.

It had more to do with hiring than sales in general, so I posted my thoughts over on the A Sales Guy Recruiting blog, rather than here. Go check it out.

I love when people make something their mission. It’s the ultimate in personal ownership and accountability. When people make something their mission, shit gets done.

My boy Bob made it his mission to close a client that I had dismissed as not our target market and not a good fit. Boy was I wrong.

Bob is one of A Sales Guy Recruiting’s lead People Strategists. He’s responsible for  managing the account AND recruiting. Bob is one of those quintessential, balls to wall, sales people. When he first came on he was hungry. He wanted to chase everything. One of the things he wanted to chase was a small company that resold books. Their business model was basically door to door sales for 100% commission only.

I didn’t think this was a good opportunity. It wasn’t out target market, as they weren’t technology. They were small. They didn’t even have a website. Their sales people were 100% commission only and so there wasn’t a clear way to determine a recruiting fee.

Needless to say, Bob was undaunted. He made it his mission to not only win the account but to turn them into a good target customer.

Today, only 4 months later, we’ve placed one new sales person with them. The account took Bob’s advice and built a website and started paying their sale people a base salary. They are so happy with Bob’s candidates, they have stopped all their internal recruiting efforts and have turned it all over to Bob and A Sales Guy Recruiting.

We currently have two more candidates in the pipeline and the account has become a good, solid client.

Bob was on a mission and as a result he helped a customer get the sales person they needed and even more entertainingly, he proved me wrong.

People on a mission get shit done. They try harder. They don’t rest until their mission is completed. Bob was on a mission and A Sale Guy recruiting benefitted.

Are you on a mission?

How many people in your organization are on a mission — hopefully a lot!