I remember growing up, going to school, and hating learning all of the rules. Then I remember, sometime in high school English, while still learning a bunch of rules, that none of the rules were really rules. Or maybe, they were rules, but they weren’t laws. Either way, the point was, I spent all my time learning things that I naturally rebelled against, only to find out later that I didn’t have to follow any of them.

But of course, that’s not true. You do have to follow them, most of the time. And most people should follow most of the rules, all of the time. But when you reach a certain level of competence — in any field — you get good enough that you know when and how to break the rules in just the right way so that by breaking the rules, you’re actually doing things better. That’s true of any field of expertise — but it might be most true of sales.

So, if you’re building an exceptional sales team, start by throwing out the rulebook.

Of course, there are rules to sales. And there are rules to living within the society that is any specific corporate environment. But just like writing in English, those rules are meant to be broken by those who are most expert in the field. And you’re not building a team of mediocre sales people, are you? I mean, you’ve already recruited the best.

And if you’re going to hire the best, why not let them be the best.

Throw out the rulebook. Let them be as awesome as they can be.