The Final Four: Personality Types of Salespeople for Sales Positions

When it comes to hiring sales professionals, there are four personality types to consider. Which one of these mirrors the personality types in your company? What types are the most successful? Successful recruiting to grow revenue is dependent on your team, the role and your personal management style. A lot of hiring managers get this wrong because they don’t take the time to understand what type of sales characteristics are most important to have in order to be successful in their company. They are therefore seen as hiring salespeople that are not a good fit.

Below are the descriptions of the Final Four sales types to identify what will most likely work well in your selling environment. Once you can narrow down your pipeline of candidates to one champion, you will start to develop your championship sales team.

All salespeople must have some level of “closing” ability but the hard-closer personality is typically always only focused on the close. They are ultra-aggressive, driven by ego gratification and enjoy the challenge of the hunt. They thrive in high activity environments that tend to be transactional with a quick close. They enjoy the rush and speed of a short sale with immediate gratification. Rejection does not phase them and the word “no” is not generally in their vocabulary.

Highest Use: These individuals find success in 100% commission environments or highly transactional environments where they can bang on the phone or on doors to close new business.

The consultative sales person also has the confidence to ask for the sale and close but their personality traits are a bit different that the hard closer. They tend to not be as aggressive but are still focused on bringing on new clients. They are more patient, ask more questions and are more thought provoking. They find a need and offer solutions that satisfy those needs. This sales personality is built for complexity. They do not need instant gratification and look to genuinely find the right solution for their client’s needs. They tend to use more internal resources to get the deal done and feel great comfort selling at the C-Level. They are used to long sales cycles and large deal sizes and tend to compete with themselves. They may not celebrate the wins publicly but they have an internal fire and while they compete with others they tend to mostly compete with themselves. They have mastered the art of active listening and they have a high attention to detail.

Highest Use: These sales professionals find great success in software sales and environments that require sophistication, articulation and the ability to offer solutions to a client need.

The relationship builder is just that, they are outgoing personable professionals that are impactful and build great relationships. They understand how to use empathy and tone. They are highly responsive in order to satisfy their client’s needs. They do not like to be micromanaged, they like their independence and they tend to hold themselves accountable. They are very patient and stay calm while working with existing clientele. They work to renew business and to keep clients happy. They are proactive in their approach and work to uncover concerns early and diffuse and satisfy client needs. Client satisfaction is their greatest priority and they work hard to keep clients happy in order to renew business and grow revenue. These salespeople have a great deal of patience and are in it for the long game.

Highest Use: These sales characteristics are best suited for Account Managers that have a higher base salary but a lower on target earnings. They are driven to keep clients happy not motivated to close for new business.

The order taker is on the front line and is the concierge to the customer. In this role customers already know what they want. They may have questions and look for knowable representation but once they confirm any missing information, they look to make a purchase. The sales come to this type of person and the audience they sell to has a wide variety of personality types. They must be patient and professional while helping a buyer make a purchase. They are good at helping buyers find what they need. Urgency matters and very rarely are relationships formed. Many times large amounts of revenue flow through this type of sales person and as a result they are sales minded, emotionally patient, thick skinned and move with urgency.

Highest Use: Many times, retail sales professional or re-sellers fit these sales characteristics best. These sales characteristics are best in product driven sales environments

Finding the right type of salesperson for your role and selling environment is directly related to the success of your sales team. There is no right or wrong type of sales characteristic. All have the ability to be incredibly successful and grow revenue. The critical success factor is identifying which of these Final Four best fit your selling environment. Every sales manager has both revenue and headcount goals this year and missing the mark is detrimental to growing companies. If you need help finding the best sales candidate for your team, Treeline can help to fill your open Sales Positions. We guarantee Qualified, Interested and Available candidates within 3 days of your partnership with Treeline.