There Really Is a “Sales Gene”

MIT Sloan School of Management’s Juanjuan Zhang and three co-researchers—Shiyang Gong (Beijing Normal University), Qian Li (Beijing Foreign Studies University), and Song Su (Beijing Normal University)—explored the relationship between genetics and sales performance. They studied 117 salespeople at an Asian telemarketing company over the course of 13 months. They cross-referenced employee DNA with performance metrics, such as revenue produced, the ability to identify selling opportunities, and effort. The conclusion: There really is a “sales gene.”