By understanding the underlying personality factors of a good salesperson, organizations can plan their sales recruitment strategy to incorporate the most important characteristics.

www.myfirstsalesjob.com.au
Location: Australia

Positive Predictors That Make a Good Salesperson

Tim Williams created a Sales Recruitment Agency in Melbourne called myfirstsalesjob in 2009. Unlike many Sales Recruiters & Employment Agencies, their Recruitment Services include Assessment, Placement + Professional B2B Sales Training of candidates. http://www.myfirstsalesjob.com.au

In the 1960’s a four year study by Herbert Greenberg and David Mayer uncovered typical personality characteristics which were common among good salespeople. The study was published in the Harvard Business Review, and identified the following two characteristics:

Empathy

The ability to sense the reactions of other people. It includes the ability to understand others’ emotions and feelings. In other words, it is the ability to “put oneself into another person’s shoes”. In sales, having good empathy means that a salesperson is able to understand what a customer wants, even if the customer does not necessarily verbalize these wants.

Ego-Drive

This refers to the drive to have a customer say “yes” to a sale. Great salespeople have a strong desire to turn their customers around to their point of view. This data remains relevant to sales recruitment strategies in the 21st century, with later studies both confirming and expanding on these personality traits.

In 1990, David Kurlan conducted a study which not only looked at what characteristics made a successful salesperson, but also what contributed to their failure. He confirmed that good salespeople did indeed have strong empathy and good ego-drive, but added four characteristics as predictors of sale success.

These four elements should be considered in any sales recruitment campaign:

Responsibility

A good salesperson will take personal responsibility for their sales results – good or bad. Those who do not own up to their responsibility in sales outcomes, or who make excuses, will lack the ability to improve because they do not have the insight to see where they have failed.

Commitment

This is defined as a person’s desire to and willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed. However, Kurlan found that a salesperson’s commitment was conditional – they will do what it takes, as long as it is not too risky or difficult, and they agree in principle with what they were being asked to do.

Desire

The desire to succeed is the last characteristic Kurlan identified, but it certainly is not the least. This is probably one of the most important characteristics to examine during a sales recruitment process. Good salespeople have a strong desire to succeed. Salespeople who lack a strong desire will not have the incentive to do anything particularly difficult.

Outlook

Someone’s outlook or attitude refers to their degree of like or dislike for something. A candidate’s outlook or attitude towards the company, the job, their career and themselves can affect their desire and commitment to work in sales.

Even if following a sales recruitment process you select a salesperson who does not yield good sales results, there is the potential to train this person, provided they possess the above characteristics. When there exists a combination of a strong desire and commitment to succeed, as well as a good outlook or attitude, salespeople have strong potential to improve and eventually yield great sales results.

This is referred to as a person’s “ability to train”, and with appropriate coaching, training and development, a trainable salesperson will improve. The bottom line is that during your sales recruitment process, you can consider candidates who demonstrate the above characteristics but do not necessarily have a huge amount of experience or a track record in sales. These individuals have the potential to succeed in sales provided you invest in their developmental activities.

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The review "Myfirstsalesjob.com.au – Positive Predictors" was last updated on 12/11/09.