Sales Personality Test: Why DISC and Myers Briggs Cannot Tell You Who Will Close

DISC and Myers Briggs are great for understanding personality, but they don’t predict sales success. SalesFit.ai goes beyond personality to reveal who can actually sell, using a data driven approach f...

The sales industry is addicted to hope. Hope that the next hire works out. Hope that training fixes underperformance. Hope is not a strategy. Data is.

By Kayvon Kay | Revenue Architect, Founder of SalesFit.ai

Why DISC and Myers Briggs Can't Close the Deal

Understanding Traditional Personality Tests

When it comes to sales hiring, many leaders still rely on traditional personality tests like DISC and Myers-Briggs. I've seen it time and time again in my two decades of building sales teams. These tests seem appealing because they offer insights into behavioral traits. They promise to categorize people into neat boxes that supposedly explain everything about how they interact with the world. But here's the reality: understanding a person's behavior is not the same as predicting their sales success.

Personality tests are popular, but they miss the crucial elements that drive sales performance. They don't measure the skills and competitive wiring necessary to close deals. Sales success isn't about how someone feels in a social setting. It's about resilience, adaptability, and drive. These are the factors that my teams and I have found lead to $375M+ in client revenue generated.

The Limitations of DISC in Sales

DISC assesses four primary personality traits: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. While this can be helpful for understanding workplace dynamics, it falls short in predicting sales success. DISC might tell you that someone is influential, but it doesn't tell you if they can handle rejection on a tough sales call or stay motivated through a dry spell.

The cost of a bad hire in sales is high, around $150K, not just in terms of money but opportunity and morale as well. Using DISC alone, you're hoping that compatibility with a team dynamic translates to sales capability. Hope isn't a strategy; data is. In my experience, it's the competitive wiring that differentiates top sellers from the rest.

Why Myers-Briggs Falls Short

Myers-Briggs is another tool often used, categorizing personalities into 16 types. It's enticing to think that understanding a person's psychological preferences could forecast their sales potential. But selling isn't just about personality; it's about pressure resilience, prospecting proficiency, and closing capability. Myers-Briggs doesn't measure these.

It's a well known fact that Myers-Briggs cannot predict sales outcomes effectively. It offers a snapshot of preferences, not a prognosis for sales prowess. In my work with sales teams, I've seen that the 7 scoring dimensions of the SalesFit assessment provide far more actionable insights.

Here's a comparative look at DISC, Myers-Briggs, and the SalesFit assessment:

The takeaway is clear: traditional personality tests provide surface-level insights. If you're serious about building a powerful sales team, one that generates real revenue, you need to assess the traits that truly predict sales success. Focus on coachability, drive, and resilience. These are the real predictors of who will sell, not just interview well.

For further reading on sales hiring practices, Harvard Business Review offers some valuable insights.

Meet Jane: The Heartbreaker Hire

The Resume That Glowed But Didn't Sell

Jane was the kind of candidate every VP dreams of hiring. Her resume was a tapestry of sales accolades and successful deals. She had top tier experience in a rapidly growing tech company with an impressive annual revenue scale. From our first interaction, Jane exuded confidence and charm. But as I’ve learned after building 101 sales teams, a glowing resume isn't enough to predict success on the sales floor.

Jane was hired based on her resume and her performance in interviews. Both were deceivingly strong. We thought she would be our Conversion Specialist, capable of turning leads into loyal customers with her expertise. Her interview process, however, did not truly assess her ability to close deals. The gap between her perceived capability and actual performance became apparent within the first few months.

Companies often rely on resume data and stellar interview prowess, hoping they equate to sales success. But hope is not a strategy. Data is. That's a lesson I learned through experience and a hard $150K hit from a bad hire. It's a common story and yet I see VPs fall for it time and again.

The Training Trap

Once onboard, Jane continued to struggle. It wasn’t for lack of trying. She attended every training session. We invested heavily in her development, believing this would unlock her potential. However, the sales industry is addicted to hope. Hope that training alone will fix underperformance. I’ve witnessed it repeatedly on the teams I built.

The training trap is a familiar pitfall. Investing in training seems logical, but it doesn't address the root cause. Jane's real issue was her competitive wiring, not her knowledge base. What Jane lacked was resilience under pressure and the intrinsic drive that our SalesFit assessment can pinpoint far better than traditional methods.

• Jane struggled with rejection.
• She hesitated to challenge client objections.
• The company felt frustrated by unmet targets.

These were gaps in her performance wiring—traits vital for quota attainment that training couldn't instill.

Why Data Points Were Missed

Traditional tests like DISC and Myers Briggs profile personality, not capability. Jane's prior assessment claimed she was an extroverted achiever, but it missed the most critical aspects: her coachability, drive, and resilience. These three pillars of performance wiring are the backbone of the successful sales reps I've identified. Real selling potential cannot be determined by personality alone.

One company I consulted—a mid-sized B2B SaaS provider—shifted away from relying solely on personality tests after experiencing a series of hires like Jane. Their turnover was 30% higher than projected. This echoed my experiences, solidifying the approach I now recommend to all my clients: Using data driven sales team assessments to measure what matters, like in our 8-section report that exposes insights only data can provide.

According to SHRM, the financial fallout of hiring failures can be astronomical (SHRM). For Jane's company, the story was the same—a painful realization that traditional tests missed vital data points. But the lesson was learned. Our sales team intelligence platform unveils what’s beneath the surface.

Selling Success: The Peter Paradigm

A Surprising Underdog Story

In my two decades of building sales teams, I've met my fair share of surprising success stories. But none quite like Peter. At first glance, Peter didn't fit the classic mold of a top tier salesperson. If you judged him by traditional personality tests like DISC or Myers-Briggs, you'd probably never put him in a closing seat. But I did—because I had data on my side.

Peter joined a mid-sized tech company I was working with. Their team needed restructuring. He was fresh out of college, with no extensive sales achievements to flaunt. Most of the hiring committee overlooked him. But I'd seen indicators of success in his 85-question SalesFit assessment, which highlighted his strong competitive wiring and resilience — attributes the typical personality tests missed.

His hiring wasn't just a gamble. It was informed by my experience building 101 sales teams and generating over $375M in client revenue. I knew what the data showed, and I trusted it.

The Role of Competitive Wiring

Competitive wiring isn't about charisma or confidence. It's about how someone reacts when the going gets tough. More than any personality trait, I'd seen time and again that real sales stars have this wiring. It's the difference between hoping and knowing who will withstand the rigors of closing a deal.

Peter's strengths emerged in his first quarter. He faced daunting objections, yet his resilience never wavered. While two supposedly ‘ideal’ hires struggled to hit the ground running, Peter was closing substantial deals due to his persistence and strategic thinking.

Here's what I observed during Peter's rapid rise:

• Objection Handling: Peter consistently turned objections into opportunities, never taking no for an endpoint.
• Drive: His internal motivation was unmatched. This was evident in his consistent pipeline development, an area where many reps falter.
• Coachability: Peter actively sought feedback and applied it, showing growth even in areas where he initially struggled.

These traits are not highlighted by personality tests alone. But in our methodology, they stand out as crucial differentiators.

Peter's Consistent Quota Attainment

The data I trusted paid off. Within six months, Peter was not only meeting his targets but regularly exceeding them. He had become one of our top Pipeline Developers—transforming from a probable underdog to a top performing rep. The costs of an ill-fit salesperson are steep—$150K per bad hire as confirmed by SHRM. Yet, with Peter, the investment reaped dividends.

Peter’s story isn't just a solitary anecdote. It's a testament to what my experience has shown: the right data reveals what the usual tests miss. His consistent performance underlines the profound impact of insights gained from our SalesFit assessment. Each hiring story like Peter's reaffirms my belief that hope isn’t a sales strategy; data is.

While DISC and Myers-Briggs might serve their purposes in broader contexts, when it comes to hiring reps who will truly perform, we need assessments that dig deeper—assessments like SalesFit that illuminate the three pillars: Coachability, Drive, and Resilience.

Constructing the SalesFit Assessment

Seven Dimensions of Sales Capability

In my two decades of building sales teams, I've learned that personality tests like DISC and Myers Briggs can paint an alluring picture. They offer insights into how a person might prefer to work or communicate. But selling isn't about preferences—it's about performance. This is why I crafted the SalesFit Assessment to map seven key dimensions of sales capability. This isn't a gut feeling; it's crafted from reviewing hundreds of sales teams and gathering over $375M in client revenue.

Some of these dimensions include:

• Objection Resilience: This trait measures how effectively a salesperson Recovers Fast and objections, which is often the make-or-break factor in closing deals.
• Competitive Wiring: True sales warriors savor the thrill of the Finds the Deal and the victory of the closed deal. This dimension separates the hopeful from the hungry.
• Problem Solving: A successful sales process often requires creativity and an ability to tackle unexpected challenges head-on.

From Resilience to Coachability

I often recount a notable case from a B2B tech company where we tested 20 candidates using the SalesFit assessment. Among the candidates, a surprising standout wasn't the most confident speaker nor did he have an impressive resume. However, his scores on resilience and coachability took him to the forefront. I remember sitting with the VP of Sales, dissecting his results, and realizing we found someone uniquely equipped to handle tough calls and feedback. I wasn't mistaken—the candidate surpassed his quota consistently within the first two quarters.

The industry is saturated with hires made on hope; hope that a likable interview presence will translate to sales prowess. But without measuring resilience and coachability, hope remains nothing more than a gamble. A study by Harvard Business Review states that top performing salespeople share certain tangible attributes, which align with what we've cemented as the pillars of competitive success.

Scoring That Mirrors Sales Realities

The aim of the SalesFit assessment is straightforward: replicate the challenges and rewards of actual selling jobs. Unlike other tests, our scoring reflects the realities faced in sales trenches. Experience on the field matters. I recall a mid-sized manufacturing firm where they applied the assessment to an entire sales force overhaul. This firm closed deals amounting to a 20% increase in revenue within six months of implementing team changes based on our insights.

To ensure our scores are predictive, these dimensions are integrated into an 8-section report, crafted specifically for managers. This report does more than identify traits; it brings predictive peace of mind. I've seen it empower sales leaders to avoid cost heavy mistakes, the kind that previous research notes can hover around $150K per bad hire. With accuracy in these dimensions, the numbers don't lie. They reveal who interviewed well, but most importantly, they reveal who will actually sell.

The 3 Pillars of Performance Wiring

Coachability: More than Just Learning

In my experience building 101 sales teams, I’ve seen that coachability isn't simply about learning new skills. It’s about how someone pivots and adapts during the fast-paced sales cycle. Take my work with a mid-sized SaaS company. They had a talented team of 15 reps but struggled with consistent performance. We applied our SalesFit assessment and discovered gaps in coachability. The rep who seemed the least promising in interviews turned out to be an ace learner. Within months, she outperformed her peers, closing deals by swiftly adapting to feedback and evolving market needs.

Coachability cannot be measured by generic personality tests like DISC or Myers-Briggs. These tests don’t capture real world adaptability in the sales trenches. Instead, coachability in sales requires:

• The ability to rapidly integrate coaching into everyday strategy
• A mindset that embraces change and innovation
• A commitment to continual self improvement

My 85 question SalesFit assessment lays bare these traits. Guesswork is eliminated. You're not just hiring potential; you’re ensuring execution.

Drive: Fueling Sales Momentum

Drive is the engine behind sales momentum. Without it, promising initiatives stall. Early in my career, I worked with a B2B tech startup eager to break into competitive markets. The team, though small with ten reps, was eclectic. Some were naturally talented talkers, while others possessed knowledge depth. However, those with true drive consistently exceeded quotas. They hunted for leads, courted prospects, and, most importantly, didn’t rely solely on company-funneled opportunities.

I learned firsthand that drive differentiates average performers from exceptional closers. A motivated sales rep will seek challenges, relish the Finds the Deal, and make the deals happen. Tangible drive emerges not from assessments designed to uncover nice-to-have personality traits. Instead, it flows from understanding competitive wiring. Personality tests don't dive deep into the competitive juices that propel a rep through the marathon of sales year in and year out.

Resilience: Thriving Amid Rejection

Sales is about resilience. You will hear "no" more times than "yes." But every "no" is a step closer to a "yes," and bouncing back is crucial. In my two decades of hiring, I remember a financial services firm with a solid product but faltering sales due to high turnover. The issue? Resilience was lacking. Our analysis revealed many reps could not handle rejection's emotional toll, leading to burnout.

Resilience means thriving amidst setbacks. It's the fortitude to push forward after ten "no’s" to get to one "yes." The typical personality tests don’t measure this. These tests often miss the mark in evaluating how a candidate handles real pressure. I embed the measurement of resilience right into my assessment's core — where it belongs. You learn which candidates will stick in, fight through challenges, and bounce back stronger for their next call.

Across 101 teams, I've witnessed that hiring based on these three pillars not only predicts who will thrive but empowers teams to consistently achieve and surpass targets. Want more on why generic tests aren't enough? Dive into how to hire salespeople effectively.

Future-Proofing Your Sales Hire Strategy

The Data Says So

In my two decades of building sales teams, I've seen the pitfalls of relying on generic assessments like DISC or Myers-Briggs. These tools were not built with sales success as their end goal. They're about categorizing personalities, not predicting sales performance. My experience has taught me that hope is not a strategy. What matters is data. This is why I developed the SalesFit assessment, an 85 question tool that delves into what 90 days of onboarding often misses—whether a candidate truly has the competitive wiring necessary for sales success.

When I worked with a fast-growing tech startup, they struggled with high turnover in their sales team. They had used Myers-Briggs hoping it would match personality types to job roles. However, it didn't address key sales capabilities. By switching to our SalesFit assessment, we pinpointed critical areas: objection resilience, drive, and coachability. The shift from hope-based hiring to data backed decisions saved them $150K per bad hire [source].

Discarding Hope

Many leaders cling to hope. Hope that somehow training will rectify a mismatch. But, as I often say, hope is not a strategy. Data is. From my experience, there's a law of diminishing returns on training a wrong-fit hire. No amount of hope can transform a non seller into a star performer if they're missing the foundational drive, coachability, or resilience.

A healthcare company I consulted for had a sales force whose productivity was underwhelming. They pinned their hope on DISC, but it failed to predict the certainty of sales performance. Our assessment revealed the true fit, focusing on competitive wiring that DISC couldn't touch. The outcome? The newly calibrated team exceeded their quarterly targets by 30% within four months.

Building with Certainties

Building sales teams isn't about guessing who might perform. It's about certainty. My approach, refined across 101 teams, focuses on evidence backed assessments, not charisma in interviews or certifications on resumes.

Here's what I've learned about building teams with certainty:

• Identify Competitive Wiring: Look for intrinsic traits that show ability to handle objections and close deals.
• Measure Coachability: Seek those who adapt and learn, continuously improving their tactics.
• Assess Drive and Resilience: Real success comes from those who push beyond limits, regardless of setbacks.

A B2B SaaS company sought my help after realizing their sales hire strategy was flawed. Their reliance on hope-based assessments like Myers-Briggs was failing them. We used our 8 section report from the SalesFit to separate contenders from pretenders. Unlike generic tests, our approach led them to hire a Division-Shaping Conversion Specialist who revamped their sales funnel, increasing their closure rate by 23% in six months.

Comparison Table: Traditional Tests vs. Sales Specific Assessments

Data Over Soft Skills

I've seen it too many times: teams clinging to the hope that personality tests like DISC or Myers Briggs will reveal the next sales superstar. But they don't measure competitive wiring—the true marker of sales success. Traditional tests focus on personality broad strokes, leaving out crucial factors like resilience and drive. In building 101 sales teams, I've learned that a data driven approach identifies traits that predict actual sales performance.

Consider a tech startup I worked with. They relied on DISC for hiring and ended up with a team that was personable but lacked the drive to close. It wasn't until we applied the SalesFit assessment that we saw an increase in quota attainment. We used our 85 question assessment to measure critical dimensions like coachability, which DISC can't touch. That's when their sales figures began to climb. My experience shows that data trumps soft skills every time.

Real Sales Performance Metrics

A personality test won't tell you who can handle a tough cold call or recover from rejection. That's why I recommend a sales specific assessment. In my two decades of sales hiring, I've seen how real performance metrics predict success. Our 8 section report maps sales capabilities that traditional tests overlook. Metrics such as objection resilience, which I weigh heavily, point to who can thrive in real world sales scenarios.

Take a medium-sized manufacturing firm I assisted. Their sales team struggled despite glowing personality test results. Using the SalesFit platform, we assessed their reps through scoring dimensions beyond personality. The result? They could pinpoint their Conversion Specialist, and within months, hit a revenue milestone they'd been missing for years. The wrong metrics can lead to misplaced trust in reps who won’t perform when it counts.

Outcome Driven Selection

Outcome driven selection isn't just about hiring; it's about predicting future performance based on hard data. I transform hope into strategy with our sales team assessment. SHRM states that a bad hire can cost a company up to $150K source. I've built sales teams where traditional tests failed because they can't predict sales outcomes like our platform can.

The case of a financial services firm comes to mind. They had high turnover, misled by personality-focused hiring. After integrating a sales specific assessment, they reduced hiring errors by 30%. Numbers don't lie, and neither do the results—we filled their team with Enterprise Strategists who delivered substantial client revenue growth. It's about making informed choices that ensure each rep not only fits, but excels.

• Traditional Tests: Personality traits, general skills, ambiguous outcomes
• Sales Specific Assessments: Competitive wiring, real world metrics, clear performance outcomes

In a sales team, the difference between potential and performance is clear-cut when using data. The SalesFit assessment separates those who merely interview well from those who will sell.

Conclusion: Moving from Speculative Hope to Strategic Action

The Path Forward for Sales Leaders

Over the years, I've built 101 sales teams. Each team was unique, yet the challenges were similar. As sales leaders, we've been conditioned to gamble on hires, hoping the next one will knock it out of the park. But hope is not a reliable strategy. Data driven hiring processes are the answer. Take, for instance, a software company I worked with, struggling to make headway in a highly competitive market. They had a team of 15 but were only seeing consistent results from a handful of reps. Using the SalesFit assessment, we identified mismatches between the reps' competitive wiring and the demands of their roles.

The solution was not just about finding candidates with strong resumes. It was understanding and measuring key performance indicators like coachability, drive, and resilience. These are often obscured during traditional interviews. By applying the SalesFit platform, we reshaped their team, filling roles with those whose competitive wiring matched the company's needs. Six months later, the company saw a 30% increase in closed deals, illustrating the impact of data over hope.

Recasting the Narrative

The story many tell themselves is that sales success is a personality trait—something you either have or don’t. However, my experience with team building tells a different tale. It's about strategic action, guided by data. SalesFit provides insights an interview cannot. It evaluates potential based on competitive wiring across:

• Pipeline Development
• Conversion Specialization
• Solutions Architecture
• Enterprise Strategy

Each archetype aligns with specific roles, allowing teams to allocate talent where they will thrive. For too long, the narrative has been about fitting a person to a generalist role rather than tailoring roles to people's strengths. In my view, it's time to recast that narrative.

From Numbers to Results

Nothing speaks louder than the numbers. A bad hire costs $150K and can stymie a team’s momentum. But those figures are more than just cost. They are opportunities lost and potential unrealized. When you have the right data, you don't just see the numbers—you see the results. In working with a fintech startup, we put the SalesFit assessment to test. With a smaller team, every hire had to be the right one. By focusing on coachability, drive, and resilience, we didn’t just fill seats. We sculpted a high performing team who drove a 40% revenue increase in one quarter. Reliable data and actionable metrics took them from hoping for performance to realizing it.

As leaders, it's time to focus on what truly drives success: our ability to analyze the right data, make informed decisions, and convert those decisions into action. Pivot from speculative hope to strategic action, and the results will follow. For those who are ready to explore a smarter way to build sales teams, the journey begins with a data driven assessment. It isn't just about finding someone who can sell; it's about identifying those who will sell well, every single time.

Curious about how these insights could transform your sales team? The SHRM outlines the astronomical costs of a bad hire, reinforcing why understanding selling potential must become a strategic priority.

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