A number of companies and hiring managers love to hire former college athletes. Their logic is based on the assumption that anyone who has the work ethic and grit to succeed as an athlete at the highest levels will successfully transfer those same attributes into the equally challenging world of sales. And that may well be true . . . the athlete may very well have a great work ethic and a high need to achieve and succeed. He is probably also very competitive, which we also like to see when identifying and selecting high-potential sales candidates. But be careful,

Many hiring managers for financial services firms face a dilemma when trying to build a high performance sales team because their sales reps are often asked to play two roles. Be top-notch salespeople: capable of finding and developing new clients and new business. Be competent financial consultants: or at least be able to speak intelligently relative to financial services during the selling process and thereafter with a greater team. But when looking to hire financial service salespeople, you have a choice. Should you search for people with financial acumen and then try to train them to sell?  Or should you

When hiring a salesperson, you might automatically assume that you should hire someone who is very extroverted. After all, you would think that an extrovert’s outgoing nature and social skills would make them a great addition to your sales team. However, recent studies have shown that ambiverts out-perform both extroverts and introverts in the sales department, generating 24 percent more revenue than introverts and 32 percent more revenue than extroverts. So what exactly is an ambivert? 5 Surprising Reasons Ambiverts Can Make Great Salespeople was last modified: October 14th, 2025 by Dr. Chris Croner

Finding great salespeople has always been a challenge because selling requires core aptitude and personality traits that less than 20% of the general population possesses. On the other side of the coin, hiring salespeople for a tech startup can be even more difficult because many people do not possess the requisite technical aptitude to understand the very technology they are selling. Put the two together, and you can see how the numbers work against hiring managers looking for both. How to Find Successful Salespeople for a Tech Startup was last modified: June 24th, 2015 by Dr. Chris Croner