Thankfully the economy in the Tucson region is slowly recovering, and business owners and sales managers are starting to think about rehiring some of the sales people they had to let go. Here’s what to look for this time around and how to look for it.

Start by deciding what you want your new sales person to do, generate and close new business or retain, service and penetrate existing accounts. Often these two roles are combined, but they are very different, as are the personality types required for success.

Outside sales executives must prospect continuously and face repeated rejection. It takes an assertive personality to approach strangers and a resilient one to bounce back from five “no”s for every one “maybe.”

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Outside sales executives face unpredictable environments and must be prepared to change tactics at any moment. Since they are predisposed not to take “no” for an answer, they may frequently challenge their bosses, making them among the toughest types of employees to manage.

Account representatives face different challenges. While they don’t have to generate or close leads, they are responsible for retaining and growing the bulk of a company’s existing revenues. It takes a person-able, patient and thoughtful professional to handle the problems and opportunities presented by a wide range of clients. They are predisposed to be agreeable and are easier to manage but may trade ground too easily when pressed to discount prices.

You’ll notice we’re not talking about work experience yet. We’re starting with personalities, attitudes and aptitudes, the bedrock foundations upon which sales skills can be built.

So, just how can you identify and measure personalities, attitudes and aptitudes? There are many instruments on the market, but the one I have had the most experience and success with is called DISC (see charts). D is for the Dominant extrovert who focuses on tasks, I is for the Influential extrovert who focuses on people, S is for the Steadiness introvert who focuses on people and C is for the Compliance introvert who focuses on tasks. Millions of DISCs have been administered since its development in the late 1940s.

Successful outside sales executives have high levels of D for prospecting and recovering from rejection followed by slightly lower levels of I because they are personable. They will “hunt” and prefer a smaller base salary in return for the potential of unlimited commissions.

Successful account representatives tend to have high I’s for schmoozing’, high S’s for patience and attentiveness and adequate levels of D for suggesting other products. They are great “farmers” but prefer the bulk of their compensation to be in the form of base salary.

Business owners and sales managers who pay close attention to the personalities, aptitudes and motivators of their sales candidates will experience fewer missed sales targets and lower employee turnover.

Contact Sam Williams, president of New View Group LLC, at swilliams@newviewgroup.net or (520) 390-0586. Williams is looking for topics readers would like to see covered, or with questions or comments. New View Group provides revenue development consulting to CEOs and sales managers and sales and sales management skills training to business to business sales teams. Read his blog at insidetucsonbusiness.wordpress.com. His Sales Judo appears the first and third weeks of each month in Inside Tucson Business.