Thirty statements about how you sell, about 4 minutes, no email. Your first and second selling style, with a full written report, the moment you finish.
In a first meeting, I ask questions for a long time before I mention what I am selling
I am comfortable contacting someone who does not know who I am
I keep in regular contact with customers after the sale, even when I have nothing to sell them
When I think a customer is ready, I ask directly for the order
Before I approach someone new, I look for a person who could introduce me
What you get
A full written report in six parts, free, with no email. Save it as a PDF or send the link to your manager. See a sample report.
All five styles scored side by side and drawn as one shape, with what your second style adds when the first runs out.
Where your way of selling is the right tool, where it costs you, and what gets the best from you as a colleague or a report.
Cold outreach to handover with the one thing to check in each, what happens to your style under pressure, and how to share an account with each of the five.
The model
The names come from how sales teams already talk. Under each one is a pattern of measured traits, which is why the same person can be a natural Hunter and a reluctant Farmer.
| Type | How they sell | Trait pattern | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter You open doors. | You get your energy from the start of a sale: the cold call, the first meeting, the new name in the pipeline. A no does not stay with you for long, and an empty calendar makes you restless rather than anxious. | High assertiveness and activity level, with steady nerves after a no. | Often a fit for SDR, BDR and new-business roles. Pair with a Farmer so what you win is kept. |
| Farmer You keep and grow what is won. | You play the long game. You remember what a customer told you last spring, you fix problems before they are raised, and your accounts renew because leaving you would feel like a loss. Your numbers arrive quietly and keep arriving. | High dutifulness, trust and patience. | Often a fit for account management and customer success. Pair with a Closer when a renewal needs a firm ask. |
| Consultant You diagnose before you prescribe. | You sell by understanding. You ask more questions than most, you know the product and the market in depth, and buyers treat you as an adviser. Complex deals suit you, because complexity is where your preparation shows. | High curiosity and intellect, with a real interest in the buyer's problem. | Often a fit for solutions, technical and enterprise sales. Pair with a Closer to bring long deals to a decision. |
| Closer You ask for the business. | You are at your best when a decision is on the table. You are comfortable talking about money, you find out who signs and by when, and you would rather hear a clear no than a friendly maybe. Deals around you end, one way or the other. | High assertiveness and self-belief, and calm in a negotiation. | Often a fit for full-cycle account executive roles. Pair with a Consultant on complex deals and a Farmer after the signature. |
| Connector You sell through people. | You know everyone, and you like it that way. Your best leads come from introductions, your customers send you their friends, and you remember names, children and birthdays without trying. People buy from you because they trust you first. | High friendliness and sociability. | Often a fit for partnerships, channel sales and relationship-led fields. Pair with a Closer to turn goodwill into revenue. |
Step two, optional
The 30 statements ask what you do. The full test measures the traits underneath, as percentiles against everyone who has taken it, so you can see whether your drive, your warmth or your steadiness is doing the selling.
For sales managers and founders
A sales aptitude test measures the stable traits that make quota-carrying work easier or harder for a person, so you can interview on evidence instead of charm.
Ours gives every candidate the same 60 questions, scores them by a published formula with no AI in the number, and reads the result against the role: an SDR profile weights resilience and prospecting, an enterprise profile weights negotiation. Each report shows the eight competencies below, the likely derailers, and interview questions for the gaps.
| Competency | What it reads |
|---|---|
| Prospecting discipline | Self-started effort when nobody is watching. Self-discipline and achievement striving. |
| Calibrated skepticism | Telling a real opportunity from a friendly chat. Intellect and measured caution. |
| Rapport depth | Warmth that reads as interest, not technique. Friendliness and altruism. |
| Assertive closing | Asking for the decision clearly and at the right moment. Assertiveness and self-belief. |
| Rejection resilience | How quickly someone resets after a no. Low anxiety and low vulnerability. |
| Pipeline discipline | Forecast hygiene, records and next steps. Dutifulness and self-discipline. |
| Learning agility | Speed with new products, markets and objections. Adventurousness and openness. |
| Negotiation stance | Holding value without breaking the relationship. Assertiveness with calibrated cooperation. |
We have not run a criterion validity study for any one sales role, so treat the weights as informed starting points. Use the score beside a structured interview, never instead of one.
Read this before you rely on it
Where we stand
The 30-statement test is a reflective tool we wrote for this page. It has not been piloted or validated as a psychometric instrument, and it describes a preference, not a talent or an aptitude. The 60-question test is the measured part. Even there the link between personality and sales results is modest: traits tilt the odds, and training, territory and product do the rest. No style is the right one. Teams need all five.
For sales meetings and kick-offs
A 15-question short form of the test on four printable pages, with a scoring key and the five style descriptions. Free to copy for a team session. The full 30-statement test and its report are online only.
Common questions
Yes. The 30-statement test, the 60-question Big Five test and both reports are free, with no account or email needed to take them or read them. The printable PDF is free to download and copy.
This test uses five plain descriptions of how people sell. Hunters open new business. Farmers keep and grow accounts. Consultants diagnose before they prescribe. Closers bring deals to a decision. Connectors sell through relationships and referrals. They are working labels from the sales trade, not categories established by research, and most salespeople are a blend of two. That is why the report shows your score on all five and names a second style.
In everyday use the two names describe the same kind of questionnaire: stable traits read against the demands of selling. "Aptitude" can also mean ability or skill, which a personality questionnaire does not measure. Employers usually mean a pre-hire assessment; individuals usually mean a quiz about their selling style. This page has both, and keeps them apart.
Yes. Employers can build a sales hiring assessment on our hiring page, send one link to every candidate, and read each report as it arrives. It is free to start. Each candidate answers the 60-question test, and the report scores eight sales competencies against the role you described and suggests interview questions for the gaps.
Most measure one or more of three things: personality traits linked to sales performance, selling skills such as discovery or objection handling, and reasoning ability. Ours measures the first. Meta-analyses find that achievement striving and assertiveness are the most consistent personality correlates of sales results (Vinchur and colleagues, 1998), and that the effects are modest. Skills and ability need their own tests.
Yes. In a study of 340 outbound sales staff, people in the middle of the extraversion scale sold more than strong extraverts or strong introverts (Grant, 2013). Listening is a selling skill, and quieter people tend to bring it by default. Asking good questions and looking after customers are ways of selling that do not depend on being outgoing.
No. Personality predicts job performance modestly, so treat a score as one input beside a structured interview, a work sample and references. In the United States a test used for selection must also be related to the job and applied the same way to every candidate. This is guidance, not legal advice.
Related tests
About this page
Michael Hodge (BSc Psychology, University of Wollongong) wrote the 30 statements and reviews the scoring of every questionnaire on this site. More about the author.
The 60-question test is the same Big Five personality test the rest of the site runs on. Personality is one input into how someone sells. It informs a decision and never makes one.
Start here
Four minutes to name how you sell.