Which is better, chocolate or vanilla? It’s a question that sparks hearty debate. Just like, which is more important, sales or service? In truth, every department is vital to the running of an organization, but sales feed the organization (and everyone in it)! That’s why finding great salespeople is so important. But not everyone is a natural fit for sales, which makes selecting great salespeople a challenge. And that’s only half the battle because then you have to motivate them to stay — competitive personalities are always looking for the next great opportunity. That makes keeping great salespeople another challenge. If you are a sales manager, you know it’s anything but easy, yet it’s also all worth it when you find great talent.
When dealing with the complexities of human nature, nothing is foolproof. A personality assessment, like The Omnia Assessment, makes it easier. Assessments also increase the reliability of your selection and retention efforts, meaning you’ll have more hits than misses. Hiring the right or wrong person, especially for a sales position, has an immediate effect on your bottom line. It’s too expensive to leave it to chance and gut instinct. There is a science for determining the most successful personality traits of a successful salesperson.
What is a sales personality?
It’s all about the right mix of traits.
There’s nothing worse than interviewing someone who appears articulate, confident, and motivated in the interview but just can’t close sales consistently once you hire them. It’s not normally possible to teach the art of sales to someone who isn’t naturally competitive. You can coach them on all the right techniques, sure, but if they don’t have the intrinsic drive to negotiate and win deals, it just doesn’t matter. They will not be successful salespeople.
Sustainable sales success requires certain natural behaviors. Based on Omnia’s research, assertiveness and resilience are the key traits most successful salespeople have in common.
Assertiveness
It’s commonly accepted that naturally assertive people will close the most business. On the Omnia assessment, most successful salespeople have a tall column 1, which represents a high level of assertiveness. These individuals are innately driven, competitive, and ambitious. They are motivated by an incentive-based salary structure, e.g., commission. They want to control their own earning destiny and make more based on their individual effort. They are natural risk-takers who can firmly control the sales cycle and ask for the close.
Sociability
Top salespeople are confident communicators, but the nuances of their communication style can vary. There is no one perfect sales style, provided the individual has assertiveness and resilience.
I often use a cake-baking analogy when describing the best traits for sales. There are certain ingredients you need to bake a cake worth eating, like flour and sugar. Traits are like the ingredients for finding top producers. Assertiveness is a necessary ingredient, but whether your salesperson is social versus analytical is more like a flavor additive.
Communication style certainly impacts the sales style, but it doesn’t typically inhibit someone from closing sales unless they are more social than assertive, but more on that in a minute. Social sellers (a tall column 3 on the Omnia assessment) excel at getting their foot in the door, building rapport, sustaining relationships, and connecting with prospects on a personal or emotional level. Analytical sellers (a tall column 4 on the Omnia assessment) excel at solving problems, creating value, and connecting with prospects using logic and facts. Both styles can be valuable to your sales team, and both will appeal to certain types of prospects. Plus, knowing this about your sales reps will help you effectively motivate, develop and coach to each individual’s strengths and challenges.
Pace
Pace is also typically a flavor additive. It’s not a critical trait for sales but is important depending on the pace of your organization and the length of the sales cycle. Most sales reps are naturally fast paced (tall column 5). They work with urgency and take immediate action when things shift. Sales reps with a taller column 6 are patient and systematic. They have tolerance for slower processes and longer cycles. They demonstrate strong persistence and follow-through.
Structure
Structure is the trait where resilience resides, so it is a critical ingredient. Resilience is found in column 7, and it is the ability to brush off rejection and move on to the next sales call with confidence intact. No one likes rejection, but moving past it, rather than dwelling on it, is vital to sustaining success in sales. Ideally, column 7 should be taller than column 8, though a column 7 and 8 that are balanced also works. Another benefit of column 7 in sales is the aptitude for making decisions in unclear situations and dealing boldly with ambiguity.
Personality Groups
Everyone falls into a personality group, which is a recipe of an individual’s four characteristics (Assertiveness – Sociability – Pace – Structure). Omnia has 17 different personality groups divided into two main categories – Drivers and Supporters. Most successful sales reps fall into the Driver (versus Supporter) category, though some Drivers might not have the right mix of traits to close consistently. One such group are the Networkers. Networkers have all the “right” proactive traits (column 1-3-5-7), but their column 3 is always taller than their column 1, which means they have a stronger need to be liked than to push for the sales. Networkers are great at building an impressive list of leads and contacts; their pipeline is always full. But they rarely close business proactively because they don’t want to appear pushy or risk losing the relationships they have built. They tend to avoid closing if it requires activity on their part, so they might only close when the prospect comes to them. They will look impressive at first, but you’ll see the negative impact through their weak closing ratio before too long.
Visionaries also have a 1-3-5-7, but they have a taller column 1 than 3, and that makes them ideally suited for sales. They are naturally assertive, engaging, fast-paced, and resilient. Other Driver personality groups are also well suited for sales, such as the Logistical Drivers. Like the Visionaries, they are assertive, fast-paced, and resilient, but they are analytical versus social and their balance of columns 7 and 8 gives them a dash of procedural compliance and attention to detail.
Selection and Retention
Omnia’s personality assessment is quick, easy, and accurate. Our selection reports allow you to compare candidates to your top sales recipe, while our development reports are ideal for coaching and professional growth. Information, like chocolate and vanilla, never goes out of style, and the more you and your team have, the better off you will be. I personally think the same can be said for chocolate.
Using the Omnia Assessment will unlock the answers you need to find, select, and manage great salespeople. Get baking!
