the ultimate sales(wo)man

[felafel]

*gone for fear of scaring tiny little children*

[munenori2]

I imagine that it would be an ExFx type. Someone personable, if they are intelligent then even better, persuasive, and engaging. There are probably better sales people for the wares they are selling and the emphasized types of their respective markets.

[FDG]

I definitely am not (as an ENTj). I only am a very good salesman when I strongly believe that the product is something very useful, innovative, cheap - overall fantastic. EP people are the best at it.

[Creepy-Diana]

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[Suomea]

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[machintruc]

EIE's are very commercial.

[Slacker]

The two people in my life who have been the best salespeople are ESFj and ESFp. I don't think it's limited to any given type, but I think the two things that probably help most are strength in Se (but not necessarily an ego function or even a quadra value) and being either and Fi or Fe type.

[Joy]

See, Eie, Ese, Sle

[Expat]

See, Eie, Ese, Sle

Yes I agree with that generally.

I have worked with a lot of sales people, but usually technical sales. The most common types I've seen so far are EIE and SEI; a couple of IEEs, and SEE and SLE.

For sales generally, not technical, Joy's selection is best imo.

[Suomea]

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[misutii]

Te is useful in sales but much more effective in management vs. direct sales. Ti is really good with direct sales. Fe is debatable, more of a PR role than sales, when I used to work at Blockbuster in highschool my Fe often led me to not repeat the "special offer" bullshit that we were supposed to repeat with every customer to "inform" them because when ppl do that to me it pisses me off, and also I'd take ppl's late fees off all the time to avoid arguments cuz my mood > blockbuster bottom line lol

[jewels]

I read somewhere that S is better for selling tangibles, and N for intangibles. Makes sense to me.

Like selling a couch (all the details about the couch) versus selling a marketing idea and how it will improve the business in five years to implement big-picture concepts.

[Suomea]

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[Dioklecian]

From what I have seen, INFPs are pretty good too. ESFJs are good, ISFJs, and ENTJs certainly. I will try to type some famous sales people if you have anyone that interests you. Like top salesperson at some company and so forth.

[Expat]

interesting replies. the reason i suggested entj is coz i believe that the combination of Ni and Te in them makes them very effective at "closing a sale" (ie. actually selling). In selling it is very important to properly "qualify" the customer first, and i believe Ni might be very good at this: in qualifying the customer one needs to deduct why the customer is there (retail sales example), what their potential for buying is and what exactly they are looking to buy. While Fi and Fe (and perhaps Ne as well) might be prattling away about one thing or another with almost all customers without making an quick judgment about who to concentrate their energy and resources on, Ni is actually sorting out the demand(so to speak) and identifying the customers that will purchase and might also return (thus creating a client base). Te, on the other hand, is helpful in terms of posing questions to the customer in such way that the customer will be left with simple options to choose from (less confound than, say, s/he would be from Ne) and more inclined to decide guided by Ni and Te combined. Te also possess impressive persuasive powers and, from what I have noticed, is able to "make the choice for the customer" and offer it to them in a way that almost cannot be refused.

Overall, Fi and Fe are important in connecting with the customer, but more often than not that is not the most important aspect of sales. Ne, on the other hand, has a tendency to confuse the customer even more by offering too much and simply re-enforcing the idea the customer had first entered the store: that they cannot decide and will need more time. That being said, i believe Fi is important in maintaining the relation with the customer so that they return, but Te could do that too by offering the right information and options at the right time.

any thoughts on my thoguhts ?

I think your reasoning is very good, but the reason why it doesn't really work in practice, in my experience, is that ENTj's low Fe makes it difficult for them to actually "package" the product in a way the customer wants to see, if it's not quite what the product is. Also, unfortunately, too many customers or potential customers expect a sort of emotional engagement that ENTjs are inclined to see as ass-kissing, which makes it difficult for them to convincingly adopt.

also, i believe enfj-s, esfp-s, estp-s etc are ubiquitous in sales, but that might have to do with the fact that they seem to like working with people. That doesn't necessarily make them "great" sellers. They seem to be more concentrated on selling themselves than the product.I also think these types would tend to burn out pretty quickly in a sales environment - one really needs to focus and makes judgments on a regular basis.
..perhaps with the exception of esfj-s ....i should re-think this....

Glad you said it, not me. I have observed this. For such people, the best environment is one where they can play "fast and loose", that is, moving on from customer to customer quickly, focusing on establishing contacts and making presentations, but not actually having to engage with the customer intensively in the longer-term. I think Se dominants' low Ni - making them ignore the longer-term consequences of their actions for the sake of short-term expediency - particularly cripples them here.

[Dioklecian]

that'd be cool, but i can't afford you - i'm too broke...

if you don't do something about it, you will stay that way

[Gilly]

I think the classic image of a salesman is SLE for sure. However I think the BEST potential salesman would have a good bit of Fe and would have to really not sound like he was full of shit. Also, I think a lot of people these days hate feeling pressured into buying something, whereas in the past when people tended to be more uninformed via lack of information technology, if someone seemed insistent about one thing or the other, I would guess that people just assumed he/she was confident about the product.

Given all this, I think Alpha SFs would probably be the best salespeople, leaning towards SEIs. They're persuasive, good at making people feel comfortable, non-threatening (Se 7th>Se 8th helps here), and rarely seem like know-it-alls (Te PoLR beats Te Role for sure).