If you want to compete in today's economy, you must think outside of the box that your box is in. In every sales management seminar I've conducted for specific industries, attendees want to know what everyone else in their industry is doing. What are you paying your salespeople? How is your compensation plan structured? What do you look for in salespeople? Where do you find your best salespeople? What works best in our industry to motivate our salespeople?

These are the wrong questions to ask, for several reasons. First, things are not different in your industry. Every industry thinks it has a monopoly on uniqueness—but that's wrong. The dynamics that drive banking drive construction, automotive, health care, retail, wholesale, manufacturing and every other industry. It's called supply and demand. There are nuances in every industry, but the fundamentals are the same.

Second, your competition for good salespeople is not just your industry. Researching how salespeople are compensated in your industry only deprives you of competitive information about every other industry that wants to hire good salespeople. If you look only to your peers and competitors, you ignore most of your competition for your top candidates.

Third, this industry myopia borders on arrogance. That you assume the best and brightest exist only in your industry is naïve at best, and self-destructive at worst. Your industry does not have a lock on brilliance and talent. No industry does. If a single industry had the secret magic formula for success, there would only be one industry.

Fourth, if you look only at salespeople as viable candidates, you ignore a vast pool of potential sellers. One study has shown that a quarter of the general population has a higher likelihood for success in sales than half of the people currently working in sales. Are you willing to ignore this talent? And many of these people do not have sales backgrounds; they come from other professions. I have trained salespeople who came from nursing, teaching, the ministry, engineering (yes, engineers can sell), accounting (ditto for them), counseling, and a host of other non-traditional sales career paths. When someone takes their first sales job, they have no experience in sales.

Looking only at your industry for compensation comparisons, hiring data and motivational programs is too narrow a field of vision in a global economy. The incestuous practice of selecting only those people who fit your notion of how things should be in your industry limits the talent pool from which you draw. This gives your forward-thinking competitors an advantage in hiring, compensating and motivating their troops.

Imagine the benefits of bringing in new blood with new ideas. They may even ask questions that challenge your fundamental beliefs about how you go to market and how you treat customers. Some managers find this exciting; others find it intimidating. Which are you?