Great Sales People are Born, but Great Sales Forces are Made

Even the best natural sellers need a strategy, a defined role and processes to enable their success.

- Andris Zoltners, PK Sinha & Sally Lorimer

In sales, where charisma and extroversion can be advantages, some people attribute success more to inborn personality traits than to skills that can be coached or taught. Yet the fact that companies in the US alone spend more than $20 billion annually (by conservative estimates) to train sales people on products, selling skills, and territory management, demonstrates the widespread belief that you can help ‘make’ sales people great.

Most sales leaders would agree that sales people who possess certain innate personality characteristics, such as curiosity, empathy, and drive, are more likely to be successful. (Consider the saying: “Although you can teach a turkey to climb a tree, it’s much easier to hire a squirrel.”) But there’s a big difference between individual success in sales and success across an entire sales force. Whatever the born/made balance for a single sales person, great sales forces are made.

Even if you believe that most great sales people are born, a first step in ‘making’ a great sales force is finding, hiring, and retaining the natural sellers. But talent on its own is not enough. Even the best natural sellers need a strategy around target products and markets and a defined role, along with systems and processes to enable their success and align their efforts around common goals of customer and companysuccess. Great sales forces are made by bringing excellence to all of the following:

1 Strategy