To be successful in Sales does someone just has to learn the fundamental components of this profession, or does he/she need to have “built-in” certain characteristics?  In other words: Are good salespeople made or born?

The above question does not only arise between people outside Sales, but also is also very much relevant in organisations.  As far as people that are outside Sales is concerned, the stereotype about the profession is that salespeople are born, so the main view is that you either “have it” or not. 

Regarding organisations, there are some companies that believe that Sales professionals are persons that possess “attributes”, which allows them to sell without too much effort different products and services and to move from firm to firm with no major difficulties.  These companies are mostly unwilling to spend resources in training and further development of their salespeople.  On the contrary, others consider Sales as processes and tasks that can be learned and, therefore, invest in the training of their people, so it comes as no surprise the billions of euros that are spend each year worldwide in Sales training.     

With regards to this debate, there is recently an increasing amount of literature that is trying to shed light and give answers about the nature of selling capability.  In 2015, research from Loveland et al that was published in the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, examined whether biological based traits such as extroversion, emotional stability and optimism predicted Sales-related outcomes.  The findings suggested that individuals with the “right” dispositions may be more content with the Sales profession than salespeople who do not possess these important characteristics.

Another study between undergraduate professional Sales students from Novell et al (2016) published in the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, concludes that a person’s belief about selling ability being born versus made can influence several Sales-related outcomes including goal orientations, feedback avoidance and confidence in selling.

In my view, Sales is a rather demanding profession and requires people with characteristics that are compatible with its’ nature, which means that some individuals are just not capable to do the job.  Hence, a lot of attention needs to be paid during the recruitment process, in order to select people with the “right” mindset, so that they can become a good fit.  From then on, skill-based training should be implemented from Sales organisations, so as for these persons to further develop and become truly good Sales professionals.