The 10 Traits of Top Salespeople

The author reports the findings of Caliper Inc. in a study on the personality traits and attributes common to great salespeople. The purpose was to help managers in making hiring decisions. Results show that the top salespeople share the following traits: ego strength, a sense of urgency, ego drive, assertiveness, a willingness to take risks, sociable, abstract reasoning, a healthy sense of skepticism, creativity and empathy. A surprising fact to the researchers is that one third of these 'sales stars' did not have prior sales experience.
Rasmusson, Erika (1999), 'The 10 Traits of Top Salespeople,' Sales and Marketing Management, 151 (August), [...]