It has long been accepted that 80 percent of all products and services are sold by just 20 percent of the salespeople. The so-called “80-20 Rule” is a challenge to all sales executives who strive to build exceptional sales organizations. Profiles International, Inc. has developed a tool for those who want to break with tradition and banish the 80-20 Rule forever. It is the Profiles Sales Indicator, an assessment that measures the essential qualities of salespeople.

When people make an honest effort to do a good job and fail, it is usually because they were in jobs that they did not fit. Matching people with the work they do is a primary mission of Profiles International, and an analysis of people working in sales shows that over half of them are miscast. They lack the basic qualities required for success in sales and should be doing something else for a living. Of those remaining, half could succeed in sales, but at the moment, they are selling the wrong product or service. That leaves 20 to 30 percent of the salespeople who are in jobs that they fit. These are the people who sell about 80 percent of the world’s products and services.

This suggests that about half of the people in sales should never have been hired for sales jobs in the first place and another 25 percent should have been hired to sell something else. Thus, the typical employer may be making three hiring mistakes for each correct one. Obviously, the best place to attack the 80-20 Rule is in the hiring process.