Drive is a critical component of a successful salesperson’s personality mix. Drive is what internally pushes her to succeed. Drive is what causes her to love to compete. Drive is an internal element that generates innate optimism in a profession in which rejection is part of the program.And Drive cannot be taught  . . . despite what motivational speakers would like you to believe.

Salespeople need to start out with Drive, and then training can really have an impact.

But some hiring managers have told us they are a little afraid of high-Drive candidates . . . that they may be too Driven and therefore disruptive. That is a mistake because there is no correlation between Drive and disruption.

In fact, high-Drive people have a complete spectrum of overall personalities . . . they can be introverts or extroverts, funny or serious, charismatic or shy. But Driven people of all types do share a common need to push themselves and to keep setting their bars for achievement higher and higher.

They expect a lot of themselves and will work hard to meet their goals . . . all things you will want to see in the salespeople you hire.

If someone is too obnoxious or over the top in an interview, those are different traits that you will just have to decide whether they fit into the chemistry of the team you are building. But do not be afraid of hiring salespeople with Drive. Be much more afraid of hiring salespeople without Drive. Those are the ones that will break your heart.

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Dr. Christopher Croner and Richard Abraham are authors of Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again and developers of the proprietary and patented sales assessment test, The DriveTest™, for sales candidates. To experience the difference of the DriveTest™, contact us today!