All Salespeople Are Just Salespeople, Right, RIGHT?  

How to Hire The Perfect Sales Person for Your Company  

You’ve seen them all.  

The wolf on the hunt, chasing new logos like a caffeine-fueled shark. The relationship gardener, nurturing accounts with the patience of a saint. The strategist, quietly setting traps, letting the leads come to them.  

And yes… the occasional chaos agent who can sell sand in the desert, stairs to the owner of a ranch house, or an oil change to a Tesla driver, but leaves a CRM looking like a crime scene.  

Here’s the truth: not all salespeople are created equal.  

Hiring the right one isn’t about résumés, quota history, or LinkedIn endorsements. It’s about archetype, personality, and psychology. Add in some data from The Predictive Index, and suddenly hiring stops being a gamble.  

Get the parameters of your search right, ask insightful questions, and land yourself a revenue-generating, relationship-building, brand-amplifying sales rockstar.  

The Classic Three: Hunter, Farmer, Trapper  

Long before modern sales frameworks, every organization had three types of reps:  

Hunter – The Go-Getter  

The hunter thrives on action, risk, and new business. They are competitive, persuasive, and love the thrill of closing a deal.  

PI Profile: Maverick  

• High Dominance, High Extraversion, Low Patience, Low/Moderate Formality  

• Venturesome, competitive, ambitious, restless  

• Vibe: Charismatic, energetic, fearless, thrives in chaos  

• Best Role: New business development, cold calling, territory acquisition  

Hunters fill your pipeline fast, but don’t expect them to nurture accounts or track every detail in your CRM.  

Farmer – The Relationship Builder  

Farmers are steady, patient, and deeply loyal. They nurture accounts over months and years, turning one-time deals into long-term partnerships.  

PI Profile: Collaborator  

• Moderate Dominance, Moderate Extraversion, High Patience, High Formality  

• Easy-going, approachable, patient, cooperative  

• Vibe: Warm, trustworthy, reliable  

• Best Role: Account management, renewals, upsells  

Put a farmer in a cold-calling role, and they will burn out quickly. Pair them with a hunter, and suddenly you have a pipeline that is both full and flourishing.  

Trapper – The Strategist  

Trappers don’t chase. They attract. They design systems, campaigns, and inbound funnels that lure opportunities toward them. Patience is their superpower.  

PI Profile: Strategist  

• Moderate Dominance, Moderate/Low Extraversion, High Patience, High Formality  

• Thoughtful, disciplined, detail-oriented, imaginative  

• Vibe: Calculated, methodical, systems-focused  

• Best Role: Inbound-heavy sales, enterprise, or marketing-aligned roles  

Give a trapper an empty territory with no leads, and they will spend months building frameworks. In the right environment, they are lead magnets.  

Not Just Semantics: Sales vs. BD vs. Lead Gen vs. Account Management  

Too many companies use “sales” as a catch-all. It is not.  

• Business Development is about market entry and relationship building, often with a long-term lens.  

• Lead Generation focuses on filling the top of the funnel — think prospecting, qualifying, and appointment setting.  

• Sales (Closing) is converting opportunities into revenue. This is where hunters shine.  

• Account Management/Executive Roles protect and grow existing revenue streams by deepening relationships and providing solutions.  

• Technical Sales bridges the gap between product expertise and customer needs, translating features into business value.  

Lumping these together is why so many hires fail. A brilliant technical sales engineer might suffocate in a cold-calling-heavy role, while a pure hunter might implode in a long-cycle enterprise deal. The Harvard Business Review has shownthat matching selling style to the buying process is key to increasing win rates.  

Predictive Index: Making Hiring Less of a Guess  

Predictive Index measures four drives: Dominance, Extraversion, Patience, and Formality. Here’s how it maps to sales archetypes:  

Archetype	PI Profile	Vibe Summary
Hunter	Maverick	Competitive, energetic, thrives on new business
Farmer	Collaborator	Steady, loyal, relationship-focused
Trapper	Strategist	Analytical, sets up systems, attracts inbound opportunities
Enterprise Strategist / Sage	Scholar	Consultative, detail-oriented, thrives on long cycles
Charismatic Closer / Hero	Persuader	Energetic, persuasive, thrives in high-stakes moments
Transactional / “Used Car”	Venturer	Aggressive, quota-focused, improvises for results

The Predictive Index reports that using behavioral data in hiring can enhance a client’s hiring process by 98%, which directly impacts retention and quota attainment (PI Research).  

Layering in Jungian Archetypes  

Carl Jung had 12 archetypes. You don’t need all 12 for sales, but a few map perfectly:  

• The Hero: Quota crusher, thrives under pressure, loves challenges  

• The Sage: Enterprise strategist, consultative, enjoys long-cycle deals  

• The Lover: Relationship-driven, loyal, trusted by clients  

• The Explorer: Always seeking new markets, loves novelty  

• The Jester: Uses humor to break down walls and build rapport  

Two hunters could look identical on paper, but one might be a Hero and one an Explorer. Same end goal, different energy and approach.  

The Brand Ambassador Factor  

Here’s where most companies go wrong: They hire someone who can sell but forget that every call, email, and meeting is a brand moment.  

Your salesperson is your culture in the wild. They are the story your prospect tells their boss. They are the impressions that stick long after the handshake.  

According to Gallup, highly engaged employees drive 23% more profitability and 18% higher sales productivity. Which means hiring culture-aligned salespeople is not just “nice to have” — it is a revenue lever.  

In short, the experience a prospect has with your salesperson is an experience with your brand. How the salesperson approaches, interacts, listens, and follows up with a prospect will define how that prospect views and experiences your brand. Get it right, and there is powerful synergy that takes place. Get it wrong and you lose the opportunity for a sale, and more than that, an opportunity to build something special.  

The Best Interview Questions to Ask Sales Candidates  

The right questions surface how a salesperson thinks, reacts, and represents your brand.  

• “Walk me through a deal you lost and what you learned from it.”  

Red flag: They blame everyone but themselves, or show zero reflection.  

• “Tell me about a time you had to win back a frustrated customer.”  

Red flag: They solved it only by discounting rather than repairing trust.  

• “If I called your last manager, what three words would they use to describe you?”  

Red flag: Vague, generic answers like “hard-working.” Listen for honest, specific insight.  

• “How do you keep yourself motivated when your pipeline is empty?”  

Red flag: Over-reliance on external motivators. Great reps have internal systems.  

• “Describe your process for preparing for a sales call with a new prospect.”  

Red flag: “I just wing it.” Process matters, even for hunters.  

• “If we gave you this job, what would you do in your first 30 days?”  

Red flag: They focus on watching and waiting instead of proactively connecting and generating activity.  

• “Tell me about the deal/sale you are most proud of. What was your role in the sale? What objections/hurdles did you overcome, and where is the prospect now?” The salesperson should be able to go into detail about their achievements, who they worked with, what challenges they faced, and why it meant so much to them.  

Red flag: They just talked about the size of the deal and are vague about everything else. This might indicate they were part of the process, but someone else did the heavy lifting.  

These questions reveal more than skill. They expose character, style, and whether this person will elevate or erode your culture.  

Bottom Line  

Great salespeople are not just quota machines. They are culture carriers, brand evangelists, and relationship architects.  

Understanding archetypes, classic hunters, farmers, and trappers, and combining that with Predictive Index insight, gives you the superpower of predictable hiring.  

Hire for drives, not just résumés. Hire for character, not just numbers. Build a team that not only hits quota but strengthens your culture and reputation with every interaction.  

Looking for Your Next Sales Rockstar?  

Hiring a salesperson too early can drain resources. Waiting too long can cost you revenue. That’s why we recently hosted The Truth About Timing Your Next Sales Hire with Bill Poole, President of Convergo, and Jonathan D. Reynolds, CEO & Visionary at Titus Talent Strategies; a practical conversation on how to get the timing right and make a high-impact hire when you do.

Looking for your next sales rockstar? At Titus Talent Strategies, we help companies build high-performing sales teams using data-driven strategies, culture-amplifying assessment tools, and a proven process designed to deliver top performers. If you’re ready to take the guesswork out of hiring and bring in salespeople who elevate your results and your culture, let’s talk.