I had an interesting discussion yesterday with a couple of managers for a large automobile dealership about what type of personality a great salesperson should have.  As I had expected, both mangers said they wanted to hire salespeople who were ‘enthusiastic,’ ‘passionate,’ ‘vocal,’ and ‘outgoing.’ 

When we began to examine what these characteristics meant to them, they gave examples of loud, aggressive, conversation dominating individuals.  Their definition leaned toward men and women who talked a lot—but often said nothing.  Who were always the first to answer a question whether they knew what they were talking about or not.  Who wanted attention whether they deserved it or not.

They wanted terriers. 

If you’ve had a terrier you understand their personality—bouncing, high energy, curious, very active—short attention span.  Terriers are smart dogs, but they tend to lack discipline.  They can be taught but with difficulty as they tend to believe they know best, or at least are determined to do things their way whether their master likes it or not.  They are often very friendly dogs, but tend to be quite vocal–very often too vocal, what people describe as yappy. When I suggested that although terriers often made good salespeople, hounds often prove to be better producers, they objected.  They didn’t see the hound personality as a ‘sales’ personality.  Their view of the hound was lazy, disinterested, far too quiet.I admitted that on the surface that’s what one sees in a hound.  Hounds tend to be much slower, lumbering even.  Unlike the terrier, you aren’t going to find them scurrying all over the place looking for something to get into.  They are much more methodical, even tempered, and laidback than the terrier. If the only time you ever saw a hound was when they weren’t hunting, you’d think they had the energy of a sloth, the curiosity of a rock, and the personality of dirt.

You’d be wrong.

Look deeper into the hound and what you find is an extremely smart animal who is fully committed to doing one thing—hunting.  Hounds are some of the most proficient hunters in the animal kingdom.  They have incredible stamina; will stay on the trail of their prey for as long as it takes to track them down; and they have the skills and commitment to track and backtrack to keep their quarry in their sites until they have finally treed them.

No, hounds don’t tend to be the life of the party, they don’t tend to be boisterous, they don’t tend to draw attention to themselves.  Instead, they replace ‘enthusiasm’ with determination, ‘outgoing’ with grit, visible ‘passion’ with a real love for the hunt.  Instead of the ceaseless yapping that is often viewed as enthusiasm and passion, they speak when they have something of import to say.  Slow and unassuming much of the time, their personality is transformed when the hunt begins.  They morph from quiet and comfortable to aggressive, disciplined, hunters in a spit second.

Are all those with outgoing personalities and an inability to shut their mouth terriers?  No, of course not.  And neither are all who appear to be hounds, hounds.However, highly successful salespeople come from more than a single breed.  Many sales assessments are designed to find terriers, ignoring the hounds.  Fortunately, however, many assessments have discovered that there is more than a single successful breed within the sales industry.

If you’re looking for top producing salespeople, don’t automatically discard the hounds you find as the gentlemen I spoke with yesterday do (just as an interesting side note, of the four sales managers I spoke to within the company, only two were terriers).  Every organization could use a few good hounds that may not make your sales meetings lively; they’ll just bring in the business.