Cast your vote: Colorado's 25 Most Powerful Salespeople.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: SMALL [biz]

Back in late 2008, the economy was at its lowest point in decades, and no profession was suffering more than real estate sales. A story in the Denver Post described one Realtor who a year earlier had earned six figures selling high-end mountain homes. Now she was eking out a living cleaning some of the same houses.

About that time we were taking nominations for a section we were preparing to introduce, dubbed "Colorado's 25 Most Powerful Salespeople." What better time to focus on salespeople--the engines of growth for most companies--than in a downturn when everyone is looking for a catalyst to revive the economy?

One entry we received that first year was for Tim Harrington, a senior vice president for the commercial real estate firm Grubb & Ellis in Denver and ultimately one of our chosen Top 25 Salespeople. If any industry of late has suffered more than residential real estate, it's commercial real estate.

But Harrington, a 24-year industry veteran at the time and perennially one of Grubb & Ellis' top producers nationwide, had this to say about surviving a recession: "It always seems a little bit worse than it really is. That's been my take every time I've been in a downturn. It's when I see the best from the people in my profession."

When the recession does finally end, I suspect we will look back and appreciate the role that salespeople played in leading the way out of it.

You've heard the nay-saying talk-radio hosts who wallow in their own gloom. Good salespeople are the opposite. They can't afford to have down days or dwell on the negative. They're the ones a company and employees depend on to grow revenues and break into new markets, and it is their success that will give businesses the wherewithal and confidence to resume hiring.

And yet, the salesperson's role in the economy is often overlooked. That was part of our thinking when we introduced our annual Top 25 Most Powerful Salespeople issue that will mark its third year this January.

The other part of our thinking was that while successful salespeople can make a lot of money in good times--more than their own CEOs in some cases--they don't tend to get a lot of recognition outside their own company. We wanted to recognize 25 sellers who found a way to succeed...