In the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS®), the concept of Right People, Right Seats (RPRS) is non-negotiable for sustained growth. You can have the world’s best Vision, the most innovative product, and irreplicable Core Processes, but if your people aren’t aligned, the business stalls.
Nowhere is this more critical—or more often guessed at—than in the Sales organization.
If the “sales seat” is filled by someone who lacks the capacity to hunt, the motivation to win, or the growth mindset to improve, it doesn’t matter how many advantages a business has – it’s a recipe for inevitable failure. This is where the concept of Sales DNA comes into play: rather than guessing the specific combination of skills and behaviors an individual needs to succeed in a role, the Sales DNA test measures against the 21 core competencies that have been statistically proven to correlate with a salesperson’s success.
Most companies use intuition or past job titles to define their sales “seats.” The reality is, a great sales hire requires three distinct, data-backed qualities. We can measure these qualities by connecting the EOS concept of GWC™ (Get It, Want It, Capacity to Do It) directly to the three core competency groups found in a robust Sales DNA assessment.
The alignment is staggering:
- Wants It (The Drive) = Will to Sell
- Gets It (The Mindset) = Sales DNA
- Capacity to Do It (The Skill) = Tactical Competencies
The goal of both GWC™ and the Sales DNA assessment is simple – to ensure that a specific person is well-suited for their position. For a business to scale, you need the right person with the right DNA in the right seat.
The GWC framework accomplishes this priority through the the questions of: Do They Get It? Do They Want It? Do They Have the Capacity For It? The Sales DNA Assessment answers these same questions by scoring an individual’s Will To Sell, Sales DNA, and Tactical Competencies by benchmarking them against the top 1% from the insights of the 2.5 million salespeople who have completed the assessment.
Below, we explore exactly how the GWC™ aligns to the components of the Sales DNA Test, and how incorporating the insights from the Sales DNA Test can be used to stabilize your People Component in the sales seat with EOS-aligned hiring practices.
1. The Non-Negotiable: The “Wants It” (Will to Sell)
The single strongest predictor of sales performance is not experience or skill; it’s the Will to Sell. If a person doesn’t have the intrinsic drive, no amount of training or coaching will make them a top performer.
The Will to Sell measures the salesperson’s foundational, sales-specific drive to succeed, encompassing competencies like:
- Desire & Commitment: The individual’s urgency and willingness to do whatever it takes (ethically and without conditions) to be successful.
- Motivation: Having a compelling personal dream or goal that fuels their work.
- Responsibility: The willingness to hold themselves accountable for any lack of sales results, rather than blaming the economy or competition.
The Right People Right Seats Mandate: If a candidate’s Will to Sell is weak, they are likely not a “Right Person,” regardless of their skills or past track record. You cannot coach a person to want it more.
2. The Internal Roadblocks: The “Gets It” (Sales DNA)
The “Gets It” factor in sales is all about the salesperson’s underlying beliefs—the cognitive Sales DNA that either supports or limits their execution. A high-skill salesperson with weak Sales DNA is a self-saboteur.
This group measures the core biases and beliefs that secretly undermine execution:
- Doesn’t Need Approval: The ability to challenge a prospect and ask tough questions without worrying about upsetting them. This is crucial for maintaining control and earning respect.
- Comfortable Discussing Money: The willingness to lean into budget discussions, pushing past discomfort to uncover the actual amount a prospect can spend.
- Supportive Buy Cycle: The salesperson’s own buying habits. If they think over every major purchase, comparison shop for the lowest price, or are susceptible to indecision, they will subconsciously accept the same behavior from their prospects, lengthening the sales cycle and eroding margins.
- Handles Rejection: The ability to recover quickly from rejection and move immediately to the next sales call without feeling hurt or needing time to recover.
The Right People Right Seats Mandate: You can train a skill, but you must first address a weak Sales DNA. If a rep “Gets It,” they possess the right mindset to execute the process consistently. But you cannot Lead, Manage, or hold someone Accountable for a belief system they don’t yet possess. Beware of this management trap by first understanding if a rep’s Sales DNA is wired to avoid rejection or fear money conversations, and address those issues first or your coaching will be met with resistance, not results.
3. Customizing the Seat: The “Capacity to Do It” (Tactical Skills)
Once you confirm a person Wants It (Will to Sell) and Gets It (Sales DNA), you must match their Capacity (Tactical Skills) to the Right Seat. The competencies required for success vary dramatically by role.
The Hunter / Business Development Role
This seat requires relentless, proactive activity and an almost bulletproof mentality.
The Account Executive / Consultative Selling Role
This seat requires strategic conversation, depth, and margin protection.
The Account Manager / Growth Role
This seat requires relationship depth, patience, and the ability to grow revenue within existing accounts.
Right People Right Seat Mandate #1: Beware of the “toxic producer,” or the sales superstar who possesses an elite Sales DNA (or GWC) but doesn’t share your Core Values. A high-performing salesperson who violates your Core Values can wreak havoc on your sales culture, causing more pain down the line.
Right People Right Seat Mandate #2: Look out for the dangerous “Right Person, Wrong Seat” scenario. In analyzing role misalignment, OMG Group found that 57% of salespeople were not in their ideal role, aka were in the wrong seat. This is why it is so important to objectively evaluate a team of sellers to determine whether or not each individual is a good fit for their role — someone who excels in more relationship-based channel sales may underperform in needing a hunting mindset in enterprise sales.
This same misalignment doesn’t just happen laterally within roles—it also shows up vertically on the organizational ladder. We’ve all seen it: A company takes their top-performing sales rep—the one crushing their quota every quarter—and promotes them to Sales Manager. Six months later, sales are down, the team is unhappy, and your best closer is miserable.
Why? Because the DNA required to close deals is fundamentally different from the LMA (Leadership + Management = Accountability) DNA required to coach people. You have effectively lost your best salesperson and gained a mediocre manager.
Final Takeaway: Stop Guessing, Start Measuring
You cannot inspect what you don’t measure. When you align your sales roles (your “Seats”) to the quantified, data-backed competencies of the Sales DNA assessment, you stop making costly RPRS mistakes.
The Sales DNA assessment gives your leadership team the ultimate competitive advantage: the ability to confidently answer YES to all three parts of the GWC equation for every person on your sales team, ensuring your sales engine supports the predictable growth your business needs.
Don’t let misalisgned talent stall your traction – download a sample of our Sales DNA Test below to turn the GWC filter into a science.
Download Sample Sales DNA TestAnd be sure to join us on February 18th at 1:00pm EST for a high-impact roundtable on mastering the art and science of sales hiring! Register directly here.
