Key personality traits of sales managers

Sales managers are crucial for producing positive sales outcomes for companies. However, there has been a relative dearth of scholarly investigations into the personal attributes of sales managers. Such information could prove important in the recruitment, selection, training needs identification, career planning, counseling, and development of sales managers.

Drawing on Holland's vocational theory, we sought to identify key personality traits that distinguish sales managers from other occupations and are related to their career satisfaction.

The main sample was comprised of a total of 978 sales managers employed in a large number of companies across the United States (along with a comparison sample drawn from 79,512 individuals from other professional occupations).

Participants completed an online version of Resource Associates' Personal Style Inventory as well a measure of career satisfaction.

Our sample of 978 sales managers had higher levels of Assertiveness, Customer Service Orientation, Extraversion, Image Management, Optimism, and Visionary Style; and lower levels of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Intrinsic Motivation, Openness, and Tough-Mindedness than a sample of 79,512 individuals in a variety of other occupations. Nine of these traits were significantly correlated with sales managers' career satisfaction.

Based on the results, a psychological profile of sales managers was presented as were implications for their recruitment, selection, training, development, and mentoring.