BE PERSISTENT AND WORK HARD 6 Degrees Of Preparation.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)(IBD'S 10 SECRETS TO SUCCESS)

Byline: Cord Cooper

5 Six key factors drive business success, says Jerry Acuff, president of Delta Point-The Sales Agency, a marketing consultancy in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Get those six ducks in a row, he says in "The Relationship Edge in Business," and your sales department and company as a whole will benefit.

The success-based six?

** Talent. When hiring, managers naturally look for top talent. Finding it is another matter. When new hires turn out to be less than expected, supervisors often spend too much time trying to train and motivate them. Mentoring is a good thing; baby-sitting isn't, Acuff says.

David Snow, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals' executive director, agrees. Managers "can spend an inordinate amount of time with the problem children. If you have a fairly large group of people, you have a bell curve and there are going to be some people at the tail" who will drag you down, said Snow, who helps bring in more than $1 billion worth of business from the firm's heart failure and hypertension products.

Like other managers, Snow believes in investing more time with a firm's top producers. "With a little more help (they) might contribute another 50% to 75% and make an astounding difference in the business' performance," Snow said.