Olympic champion vs sales champion

Over decades working with sales teams, I've realized that different sales roles require different personality traits.

This shouldn't come as a surprise—it's like expecting an Olympic freestyle champion to also excel in marathon running. In athletics, we know body type, natural talent, and hard training are key. The same goes for sales, which is essentially about leading people.

In sales, individuals with different base personalities gravitate towards different roles.

Derek Gatehouse, author of "The Perfect Sales Force," supports this. Over 30 years, he observed that top salespeople sell at least four times more than their average counterparts when they work to their strengths. Some excel at prospecting, others at closing deals without aggression, and some are great at building rapport but hesitate to close.

Gatehouse noted these are hardwired traits. Training can improve skills, but without the right fit, results will falter—just like athletes needing inherent talent to be honed.

Hiring salespeople must be strategic. Assess the role fully to avoid mismatches. Define the required interactions, what you're selling, and to whom. This determines the personality types you need. For example, some people are great at opening doors and developing relationships but struggle to close deals. Others excel with the common man but can't connect with senior decision-makers.

Gatehouse identified six innate preferences. See which ones you relate to:

1. Work Ethic: Quantity vs. Quality Do you prefer making lots of quick sales, or working with fewer prospects on a deeper level?
2. Tolerance or Pain Threshold Will you do whatever necessary to get the job done, or avoid tasks you hate or fear? Prospecting often reveals this hardwiring.
3. Persuasion: Advisor vs. Pleaser Are you a born closer, or do you prefer consulting and hesitate to ask for the business?
4. Executive Rapport: High vs. Low Can you naturally relate to top executives, or do you prefer dealing with the “common man”?
5. Need: Create vs. Established Can you create or establish a need? Do your customers know they have a problem, or do you have to create awareness?
6. Explanation: Obvious vs. Concept Selling cars is obvious; selling performance improvement services is not.

These are base personality preferences—think of them as talents. Talent alone doesn't make a champion—in sports or sales. But you'll get far better results matching the talent to the role and then training and coaching for ongoing improvement.

Are you and your team getting the results you need?

If you're facing stalling deals and your team isn’t hitting sales targets here’s my introductory offer to you.

We’ll workshop your end-to-end sales process to determine holes to be plugged. Then ensure your people can play to their strengths, shortening sales cycles and maximising revenue and profitability.

Contact me directly to get started.

Rashid.

P.S. Whenever you’re ready … here are ways I can help you lead a better business and live a better life:

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