Great people breed success.  As it is with all businesses, the better the people you surround yourself with, the better the accomplishments will be of the team.  If you are dominating your market online, you can likely pinpoint a member or two of your workforce and credit them for much of the success.  But who is the thoroughbred on your Internet team?

There are several types of employees, but I am only going to highlight two of them for this question.

Show Pony – This person is, straight up, the most talented on your squad.  They have the highest closing ratio, the strongest word tracks, and the greatest skill.    When they have a customer on the phone, the show pony will convert to an appointment at an exceedingly high clip.  When a customer is in front of them, more often and not, they buy.  When the commissions come in, the gross profit is substantial.  However, their effort level is fleeting.  They don’t apply themselves 24/7, but when they do, the success is there.  The Show Pony tends to doddle.  Take some time off.  Not manage their time as well as they should or make all of the follow-up calls set for them for the day, but those they do make end in results.

On the other side of the room, there is the Work Horse.  This employee isn’t going to set the world on fire with their statistics, but when they are at work, they are working hard.  The Work Horse is disciplined, does all that is asked of them, completes all of the calls in a reasonable manner, closes the customers at the average rate, and keeps themselves busy WITH WORK during downtime.  If there is one thing you can assure yourself of is that the Work Horse will exhaust all effort in selling a unit and completing their calls.

Now I ask you, who is more valuable to have on your staff?  The Show Pony or the Work Horse?  The one with unending talent and skill or the one with amazing work ethic?  Ideally, we’d like to have both characteristics in one perfect person, but this is rarely the case.  So when interviewing candidates, ask them which one they believe they are.  Or when giving your employees their monthly reviews, categorize them and praise/train them accordingly.

You are the owner of this stable.  If you do have someone with both of these traits, be thankful.  Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.  Praise the person.  However, don’t be afraid to celebrate someone in the winner’s circle and dole out some public praise for their skill or effort.  Just ask yourself first, which is the more admirable quality to have?

Who is the thoroughbred of your Internet team?