The present study examined the relationship between personality, general job performance, and sales performance. Five Factor Model (FFM) traits were used to predict performance in sales and advisory roles. The distribution of performance indicators was also investigated to further understand individual performance contributions. Two hundred eighty-eight participants completed an FFM-based personality measure. General job performance was evaluated based on managerial ratings, and sales performance criteria were measured by the number of sales completed through inbound and outbound sales channels. The results indicated low to medium correlations between personality and both performance domains. Support for conscientiousness and extraversion in predicting general job performance was found. Interestingly, extraversion showed a negative relationship with inbound sales, contradicting some earlier studies. Analyses of sales performance data indicated that a power-law distribution provided a better fit than a normal distribution. The findings have implications for organizations’ personnel selection practices.
Norbom et al. (2026) studied this question.