Is there a “Sales Gene?” Are salespeople born rather than made? This debate has been going on for ages and will certainly trouble the Sales community for the years to come. A recent study, though, from Juanjuan Zhang of MIT Sloan School of Management claims that there is a relationship between Sales performance and genetics.
Zhang and his three co-researchers have studied 117 salespeople at a telemarketing company in Asia over the course of thirteen months, where they cross-referenced employee DNA with performance indicators, such as revenue produced and the ability to identify selling opportunities. The research team devised a score that connected the genetic makeup of the salespeople with their phenotypes, which is their observable traits like hair and eye colour, level of education and so on. After comparing the genetic data with the phenotype data, they concluded that the employees with stronger sales performance had similar genetic backgrounds that made them better adaptive learners.
The above study is the latest addition to over twenty-five years of research concerning the individual characteristics that lead to success in Sales. Most of these studies have determined that people with high levels of work pace, assertiveness and resilience, consistently show up in the profiles of top performers when it comes to Sales. Since the above characteristics are developed early in life and are mostly stable over time, they are considered to form a “Sales Gene”.
This discussion has practical implications for organisations, because, if after all, Sales success is determined by innate talent, then the focus of attention should be shifted on attracting and recruiting the right talents for their Sales teams, rather than investing in Sales training.
In my view, Genetics may play a role in contributing to certain personality traits, but Sales performance overall is not determined only from that. I believe that success in Sales is the product of a range of other factors as well, such as learned skills, experience, motivation-inner drive, even environmental and social influences, rather than a single genetic predisposition. If we were to use a sports analogy, we can think of people who have the “Sales Gene”, as having an athleticism that could help them perform at almost any sport, but every top athlete knows that this would not be enough.
With regards to the approach of organisations towards this issue, without a doubt, it is imperative that they identify and select people that possess the right characteristics and mindset. In addition to that, Sales leaders should be continuously helping their salesforce to further develop their natural talents through training and coaching programs that focus on knowledge and technique, and equip them with the right tools that will make their lives easier and will enhance their productivity.
As I find myself, for more than two hours every day, driving to and away from my job, in order to spend this time more productively, I have been listening to audiobooks, most of them related to History. The last one that I heard, though, was “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”, by Michael Lewis, published in 2003, which in 2011, led to the film “Moneyball”, starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.
The book is an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team's 2002 season and the attempts of their General Manager Billy Beane to assemble a competitive team on a minimal budget, by using sophisticated analytics to break the game of baseball down into leading key performance indicators and metrics that can predict success, meaning scoring runs and winning games. The key to his approach was to look at the desired outcome and work back from there, using the statistics to getting the best trade-off against this outcome, which was to get the most wins with the least money. Hence, the Oakland Athletics began seeking players who were "undervalued in the market", meaning that they received lower salaries relative to their ability to contribute to winning, as it was measured by these advanced statistics.
Although, I don’t consider myself a baseball fan, I enjoyed the book, and the more I was listening to it, the more I found that the concepts and mindset behind the Moneyball philosophy in baseball, can also be applied to effective Sales strategies and data-driven decision making in Sales.
The central premise of the book was to challenge the collective wisdom of the people that are related to baseball, since it considered it as outdated, subjective and, very often, flawed. For example, it questioned traditional baseball scouting methods and instead proposed the use quantitative analysis. Similarly, sales organisations may need to question long-held assumptions about what makes a good lead or salesperson, and instead use more of the available data to guide their decisions. Just as the Oakland Athletics used statistical analysis to identify undervalued player talent, Sales leaders can use data analytics to identify undervalued lead sources, customer segments or sales strategies that may be overlooked.
Moneyball, as we already explained, is about finding ways to win games more cost-effectively, through the embracement of technology and analytics. In Sales, this could translate to optimising the sales funnel, lead qualification and resource allocation to drive the best return with the assistance of Sales intelligence tools such as CRM data and data-driven forecasting.
One of the key contributors to the success of the Oakland Athletics, was that they defined the right outcome to influence and then, they run simulations of various leading KPIs (predictors), until they found the closest. For Sales Leaders, if our desired outcome is to make the Sales target, then we need to define the right metrics, by running several individual and combination factors of our salespeople behaviours and activities, until we find the closest predictor.
Furthermore, the Oakland Athletics and their GM Billy Beane, were always seeking to gain an edge through constant experimentation, by having a continuous improvement mindset. Sales organisations should take a similar approach, constantly testing and refining their strategies and processes, always based on performance data rather than “gut feeling”.
Without a doubt, most of the traditional performance indicators are valuable and have a role in running sales teams, but the main lesson that I got from Moneyball is that we must look beyond the obvious and to dig deeper into what most people can’t see. Obviously, this requires specialised skills, tools and competencies, and it’s in our best interest to look for and find them. While the specific goals and metrics differ, the Moneyball philosophy of using data to gain competitive advantage can be a powerful framework for rethinking and optimising sales processes and decision-making, to such an extent that may end-up giving us an advantage towards the competition.
On Sunday 9th of June, I was one of the more than sixty thousand people that attended the second consecutive sold-out concert of the British alternative pop-rock band Coldplay in Athens. Coldplay have been present in the world music scene for more than twenty-five years, with many albums and numerous hit songs. They are certainly among my favourite bands, so I was excited when I booked the ticket nearly a year ago and looked forward to seeing them live on stage for the first time.
Read more: Things That I Learned About Sales Leadership at the Coldplay Concert in Athens
According to a marketing legendary story, in the early 1950s, the Chivas Regal brand of Scotch whiskey was having hard times to gain market share and its sales were low. In a bold move, the owners decided to double its’ price, without changing the whiskey recipe, and as an effect unit sales double. In the 1980s, some U.S. universities adopted the same kind of policy, and the Chivas Regal effect became more associated with tuition costs than whiskey. During that period, colleges started to raise tuition fees to bring in more money and saw a significant increase in enrollment, as parents equated higher tuition costs with a better standard of education.
Read more: Selling at a Premium Price – The “Chivas Regal Effect”
When back in 2008, I was appointed first-line Sales Manager, coming from the role of Sales engineer, for sure I was not prepared for the job in hand, although I thought that I was. Nearly sixteen years later, I can say that without a doubt, this is one of the most challenging jobs in the world. This role requires individuals to balance various responsibilities, manage a team of sales representatives, and consistently meet or exceed sales targets. Therefore, the difficulties arise from the combination of high-pressure demands, extensive knowledge and skills required, and the need for effective leadership and communication.