[barrkel]

Perhaps sales, and its reward structure, attracts a different kind of personality. I don't think I've ever met a salesperson I liked, whether in a sales or personal setting. The overwhelming impression is of manipulative bullies who use social norms of politeness and reciprocity to lever advantage out of people. Makes me sick.

[Goladus]

I've met many salespeople I like and many I don't. They are not all self-centered manipulative bullies, though many are. Some are genuinely interested in making shopping a pleasant experience, and as a result get more sales (the particular person I am thinking of does NOT work on commission, incidentally). Some have strong relationships with specific customers, understand their needs very well and understand their company's products very well and rarely ever recommend anything that won't be valued.

[stcredzero]

Salespeople who sell big-ticket software tend strongly towards the bully type. This would be fine if it were only outwardly directed, but they often use the same tactics internally.

I think the same phenomenon manifests with corporate managers. It's all well and good if a middle manager has the teeth and claws to hold his own in the corporate jungle. She/he shouldn't necessarily use such armament in other contexts, such as when dealing with the craft-oriented techies in her own group.

Some buddhists would say something like, "One is shaped by their livelihood."

[joez]

I've been at a few big companies now and I have to agree that sales people have certain personality traits. But it might not be because sales attracts the usual stereotypes. I think it's that effective salespeople are able to better relate to upper management. At big companies, it's often someone with a stint (usually their first job) in sales who moves into the CEO (and beforehand the COO position).

If you want to be a successful salesman, you need to sell to salespeople. Most companies are driven by sales. When they want to drive more sales, the answer is to hire more salesmen. Every year, even in bad years, the sales organization will have money to spend on new initiatives. This means the VPs and SVPs of Sales have the power of the purse.

When sales guys want to sell a back end solution, it is easier to sell to not the CIO but the COO or SVP of Sales. Show them how it can return ROI by improving customer satisfaction or highlight the weak points in their sales figures. Thusly the salespeople that end up doing well are the ones that can better relate to the sales types who are now in management.

Edit: Now that I think about it, this can probably also be applied to other types that have to interact with upper management like investment bankers. But that is a whole other rant.

[roc]

In my experience, rules select players. When you notice a certain personality being over-represented in a given game, it's almost always a result of the rules weeding out the others.

So it's not too surprising that the people who remain in commission-based sales positions are overwhelmingly those who care more bout the meta-game of amassing rewards than in the business' overall well being or that of its customers.

[Goladus]

Players can adapt to different rules. Selection is not the only relevant dynamic.

[stavrianos]

That's just a subtler manifestation of the same principle. Selecting agents with behaviour X vs. selecting behaviour X within agents.

[Goladus]

It's a lot cheaper, though, and makes a huge difference when judging people.