In today’s competitive sales landscape, businesses must find top-notch sales professionals to drive revenue and ensure growth. However, identifying candidates with the right mix of skills, personality traits, and values can pose a daunting task for hiring managers. To help navigate this challenge, we’ve compiled a list of four essential traits to consider when hiring sales professionals. These traits, categorized into self-management, motivational profile, environmental fit, and comfort with conflict, serve as indicators of performance and are critical for identifying individuals who are well-suited for competitive sales roles.
Self-Management
Sales professionals with strong self-management skills actively pursue goals, thriving in repeating intense, short-term, goal-based activities. They excel in fluid or unstructured situations, constantly innovating to achieve their objectives.
Their execution style involves taking proactive initiatives and driving actions forward. They assertively compete and intensively approach goal achievement.
Additionally, they actively plan and monitor themselves, continuously evaluating and critiquing their performance. They hold themselves to high internal and role-competitive standards, ensuring excellence and adherence to established benchmarks.
Motivational Profile
Sales professionals with this motivational profile strike a balance between financial or challenge-oriented goals and a focus on people or service. They demonstrate a mix of short- and mid-range/term goals, occasionally seeking or needing new challenging activities to stay motivated.
They actively recognize the importance of achieving results while valuing relationships and service. Their performance management style balances task/goal orientation with relationship/service orientation.
They actively employ a combination of telling, consultation, and persuasion when seeking performance commitments, recognizing the importance of both achieving objectives and maintaining positive relationships with clients and colleagues.
This motivational profile suits roles requiring a combination of goal-oriented drive and interpersonal skills, such as building client relationships, managing sales pipelines, and driving revenue growth while maintaining customer satisfaction.
Environmental Fit
Sales professionals fitting this environmental profile express independence but willingly integrate their personal rules and norms to fit existing team or corporate standards, protocols, and norms.
They are open to some level of supervision and feedback, recognizing the value of guidance and input from supervisors and colleagues.
While they may prefer some level of independence, they also actively desire group affiliation and a shared identity within the team or organization.
This environmental fit suits roles requiring a balance between autonomy and collaboration, allowing individuals to contribute unique perspectives while actively working within established team structures and norms.
Comfort with Conflict
Sales professionals with this profile actively handle situations with potential conflict. They maintain a relatively relaxed demeanor in environments where conflict is common or requires intervention.
They approach conflict situations with ease, navigating them effectively, maintaining composure, and seeking constructive resolutions.
This comfort with conflict proves advantageous in sales roles, where negotiations, objections, and competing interests are commonplace. It allows individuals to address challenges head-on and work towards mutually beneficial outcomes.
Incorporating these traits into the hiring process can significantly increase the likelihood of finding top-performing sales professionals. With Packfinder™, our comprehensive assessment tool, businesses can uncover these traits in candidates, ensuring that they hire individuals who are not only qualified but also well-suited for sales roles. The assessment is sent to all candidates, who can take it for free, providing valuable insights into their personality traits and suitability for the position.
Start using Workwolf to uncover the ideal sales candidates’ traits by booking a free consultation today.
