One of the most discussed articles in recent weeks is the Harvard Business Review’s “Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople” authored by Steve Martin. If you want to see what everyone’s been talking about, click here to check it out.
Naturally, since Berke specializes in measuring personality and talents traits in job candidates and assessing how well people fit with particular positions, our customers have been interested in our thoughts on Mr. Martin’s study. In particular, clients want to know if we think his list is valid and how it should (or shouldn’t) impact how they hire salespeople.
We definitely agree with the author’s premise that personality traits make a huge difference in how effectively someone does a job. However, our research demonstrates there are additional measurements which are equally important and would further identify top performing salespeople.
For example, great salespeople also tend to be great problem solvers. In fact, connecting with customers and solving their problems is what a successful salesperson does. Even if you have the personality traits required for the “connecting” part, lacking the talent to solve problems will impede your efforts. We believe, and our research shows, that assessing personality traits and problem solving talents will be most effective in identifying top performing salespeople.
