My wife is a high school guidance counselor, and last month, I got the opportunity to go to the prom. Okay, the truth is I was required to go, but I actually kind of enjoyed myself. My wife wore a nice new dress that somehow saved me almost 50 bucks because she bought it on sale-funny how that works. I wore my very best suit-which happens to be my only suit. If my memory serves me correctly, this prom would be the first time I’ve worn this suit to anything that didn’t happen in a church or a cemetery, so I’m sure at least my suit was excited when we walked into the prom.If you haven’t looked into the face of a high school kid in a while, I would encourage you to do so. The faces on these kids were amazing. They didn’t have dark circles under their eyes, or wrinkles on their foreheads. They didn’t have the look that you and I have after looking over our 401K statement. These kids are ready to take the world by storm.

I was so jealous of these kids that night. One kid in particular was having the time of his life; he was laughing, joking, dancing and didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the fact the he was wearing a baby blue tuxedo with a ruffled shirt. Part of me wanted to tell him what life was about to do to him once he graduated and found himself with a wife and a job, but I didn’t have the heart and he probably wouldn’t have believed me anyway.

The Monday following the prom, I decided to hire a couple of new salespeople. I realized while at the prom that my operation needed a couple of fresh faces; people who have no idea how bad the economy is; a couple of people who are hungry and willing to work hard; a couple of people who actually believe in what they can do if given an opportunity. When I told people that I was hiring a couple of brand new salespeople in this economy, they looked at me like I had three eyes. Unfortunately, the price to pay for having experienced salespeople who have been in the business forever is the pre-conceived notions that swim around in their heads.

I remember when I first became an outside salesperson almost 15 years ago. I was convinced that I was going to sell every customer in town. The older salespeople would actually make fun of me at the sales meetings when I would bring up the name of a home builder that I was going to try to sell. “You’ll never sell that guy,” they would say. “He’s married to the competition. You’re wasting your time.” Six months later, after becoming the store’s number one salesperson, I understood that they really meant that they would never sell that guy.

One of my veteran salespeople told me this exact quote last week: “There are only 140 building permits every month and at least 50 lumber salesmen chasing them. I’m not getting into that blood bath. That’s ridiculous.”

What my new guys have found is quite the opposite. As I hoped, our potential and future customers see the same things in these new salespeople that I saw in those high school kids. Their energy level and their excitement about doing their job is a couple of notches higher than everybody else’s. They have gotten bid opportunities that my veteran salespeople told me we would never have and I believed them. Maybe it’s time for your company to go back to the prom once again after all of these years, but make sure you choose your date carefully.