Personality and Attractiveness of Activities Within Sales Jobs

Abstract

The sales literature has been marked with a continuing interest in assessing perceptions and attitudes toward sales as a potential career. This study adds to the literature by investigating the relationship between personality and attractiveness of activities within sales jobs. Participants (n = 202) in an experiment completed a measure of the Big Five dimensions of personality and indicated the degree to which they viewed various sales activities in the Moncrief (1986) sales taxonomy as attractive. Multiple regression results indicate that extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness are related to attractiveness of the activities within sales jobs. Moreover, gender was found to be related to attractiveness of the activities. Implications for sales recruits, sales managers, and university sales courses are discussed.