A while back, SellingPower magazine was doing cover stories about celebrities who are good at sales. The most memorable were probably Arnold Schwartznegger and Jay Leno, but it occurred to me that selecting celebrities (actors, politician, debutantes, etc.) for sales jobs is a game that everyone can play. Let’s give it a try.

Imagine you’re a manager who needs to staff a sales team, and (for some reason) your firm only hires celebrities (living and dead), all of whom want desperately to work for you.  Here’s the two questions I’d like you to answer:

Which celebrities would you hire?

And which celebrities would you fire?

For example, my hire list includes:

• Tom Hanks, because his friendly persona would make relationship building easy.
• Orson Wells, because he has the kind of gravitas that lends itself well to B2B sales.
• Jack Nicholson, because he’d make buying from your firm seem slightly naughty.

And my fire list includes:

• Pauly Shore, because even when sober he looks stoned.
• Harry Reid, because he’s got all the charisma of a stewed tomato.
• Barbara Walters, because frankly she just kinda scares me.

Anyway, you get the idea.   Who’s on your lists?

Original post by Geoffrey James