What are the types of salespeople? The best answer I know comes from a study that watched 800 salespeople in live sales meetings and found eight types: Experts, Closers, Consultants, Socialisers, Storytellers, Narrators, Focusers and Aggressors. Only three of them, the Experts, Closers and Consultants, consistently close. The other five are busy, likeable and often very hard-working, and they still struggle to move the buyer to a decision. Let me walk you through all eight, and what I do when I meet them in a training room.
If you manage a sales team, you've probably felt this without being able to put a name on it. Two people with the same training, the same product and the same targets. One closes. The other has lovely meetings. And when you ask the second one how it went, the answer is always "really well."
I'm a big believer in watching what salespeople actually do in front of a customer. The pipeline report tells you what happened. The meeting tells you why.
The research behind the 8 types
Lynette Ryals of Cranfield School of Management and Iain Davies of the University of Bath wanted to understand the gap between what companies invest in their sales teams and what those teams deliver. So they did something most sales research doesn't bother to do. They sat in on 800 live sales meetings and mapped how each salesperson behaved with real buyers. Their findings were published in Harvard Business Review in December 2010.
They found eight distinct types, each with its own default way of selling. Only three of those defaults were linked to consistently closing. Those three types made up 37% of the people studied. The other 63% underperformed, and effort had nothing to do with it. It came down to how they behaved in the meeting.
Well, that doesn't surprise me one bit. Put a sales team through a few role plays and the patterns show up within the hour. Everyone has a default. The question is whether their default closes.
I've seen it happen right in front of me. In one session, partway through a role play, someone's default showed up so clearly that they stopped and realised it themselves: they'd spent nearly all their time talking about the product, and hardly any of it on value for the buyer. Nobody needed to point it out. Once you can see your own default, you can start to change it.
The 3 types who close
1. The Expert
Experts made up 9% of the people studied, and they make selling look effortless. Buyers trust them and raise very few objections. They plan, they listen, they question, they adapt, and they know how to move a conversation from exploring to agreeing to deciding. There's no single trick. They simply do everything well, and they do it on purpose.
2. The Consultant
Consultants, 15% of the sample, are strong listeners and problem solvers. They spend the meeting in the buyer's world, working out what's really going on and shaping a solution around it. It rarely feels like selling, which is exactly why buyers trust them.
3. The Closer
Closers, 13% of the sample, can win big deals. They're confident, direct and comfortable asking for the business, and they handle objections well. Their smooth style won't suit every buyer, especially one who needs to feel understood before committing. In the right sale, though, Closers get deals over the line.
So what do these three have in common? They keep their attention on the buyer and the value the buyer gets. They read how the buyer makes decisions. They ask great questions, they really listen, and they coach the buyer towards a good decision by the end of the meeting. The research also linked careful planning before the meeting to sales success. They walk in with a strategy, and they build the close as they go.
The 5 types who struggle to close
4. The Socialiser: the friend to everybody
We tend to picture the best salespeople as warm, sociable extroverts, great company at any table. The research says otherwise. Socialisers spend so much time making friends and getting involved in the buyer's personal world that the purpose of the meeting gets lost: moving the buyer one decision closer to buying.
I've met Socialisers in lots of organisations, and honestly, they're lovely to be around. With them, we gave every meeting more structure. Keep the warmth, absolutely. But know your intention going in, and know the outcome you want coming out. That one change made their meetings go somewhere.
5. The Storyteller
Storytellers bring value to life by sharing how other customers succeeded, which is a real strength. At least their gab focuses on how other clients used the product or solved the problem! The trouble starts when the story has nothing to do with the buyer sitting in front of them. The buyer gets bored or switches off, and the buying signals get missed because the salesperson is busy with past wins instead of asking about today's problem. The question to ask yourself is whether this is the right story, for this person, right now.
6. The Narrator: the product seller
Narrators lean on product knowledge, the same pitch every time, and marketing material that really belongs on paper. When the buyer goes off-script, they can come across as rigid or unsure. Product knowledge is a must, of course. On its own, though, it won't sell anything to a buyer who wants to dig into the value.
With Narrators, we turned them into questioners. Instead of walking the buyer through the product, they learned to ask, and to let the buyer's answers decide what they showed. If this sounds like your team, have a read of what value-based selling is.
7. The Focuser: the master of detail
Focusers stick to a formula and walk the buyer through every technical ins and out, at the expense of listening, probing and getting a feel for the bigger picture: who else is involved, what worries them, what the decision really hinges on. They confuse sharing product knowledge with closing the sale in the buyer's mind.
8. The Aggressor: the pushy one
Aggressors treat the meeting as a price negotiation and drag the conversation into the price pit. They can win deals, but plenty of buyers dislike the combative style, and it often costs the relationship, the company's reputation and the margin. Doing business with them feels like a battle, and somebody always loses.
What about hunters and farmers?
You'll come across plenty of other ways of grouping salespeople. Some split them into hunters, who win new business, and farmers, who grow existing accounts. Others talk about three or four types based on personality. These can be handy when you're deciding who sits in which role.
I keep coming back to the Ryals and Davies research because it's based on what people actually do in real sales meetings. And behaviour is something you can see, and something you can change. I can't coach anyone out of being an introvert, and I wouldn't want to. I can absolutely coach them out of reciting the product brochure.
Which types are on your team?
Here's a simple way to start finding out. Next time you sit in on a sales call, or listen back to one, ask yourself one question: how much of that meeting was about the buyer, and how much was about us?
Your answer will tell you more about your team's close rate than any CRM report. If you want more on what to look for, read 6 questions sales managers should ask about their sales teams.
How to move your people into the top three
The researchers found that a lot of sales training goes on the wrong things, like polishing the presentation. That's exactly where Socialisers, Narrators and Focusers already feel comfortable, so more of it only deepens the pattern. A product presentation is where the selling starts, and the sale gets made somewhere else entirely.
What moves people into the top three is better questions, better listening, a strategy for every meeting, and the courage to take small risks in the conversation, like checking agreement as you go. Underneath all of that is the meaning each person gives to the moments that scare them: a silence, a "no," a question about price. When that meaning shifts, the behaviour follows.
That's why my in-house sales training starts by showing each person their own default, then works on it with training, short coaching workshops and 1-to-1 coaching on their live deals, with follow-up so it sticks. And if you'd like to see how the very best think, read what the best salespeople do differently.
More sales guides
- Why your sales team isn't hitting targets
- How to handle sales objections
- How to handle price objections
- What is value-based selling?
- Consultative selling techniques
- The top 3 sales skills
- The 3-3-3 rule in sales
- Sales training vs sales coaching
Sales training and coaching: in-house sales training · objection handling workshop · negotiation skills training · key account management training · 1-to-1 sales coaching (online worldwide or in Dublin) · Sales Pitch Workshop
Types of salespeople: FAQs
What are the different types of salespeople?
Research by Lynette Ryals and Iain Davies, published in Harvard Business Review, identified eight types of salespeople by observing 800 salespeople in live sales meetings: Experts, Closers, Consultants, Socialisers, Storytellers, Narrators, Focusers and Aggressors. Only Experts, Closers and Consultants consistently closed sales.
What are the 8 types of salespeople?
Experts, who make selling look effortless; Consultants, who listen and solve problems; Closers, who win big deals; Socialisers, who focus on the relationship; Storytellers, who rely on customer stories; Narrators, who recite the product pitch; Focusers, who get lost in technical detail; and Aggressors, who push hard on price.
Which type of salesperson closes the most sales?
Experts, Closers and Consultants, who together made up 37% of the salespeople in the study. Experts were the most complete: highly trusted, with very few objections raised.
Are extroverted, sociable people the best salespeople?
Not according to this research. Socialisers, who focus on building friendships with buyers, were not among the types that consistently closed. Being likeable helps when the meeting stays focused on moving the buyer towards a decision.
What are the main types of salespeople by role?
By role, salespeople are often grouped as hunters, who win new business, and farmers, who manage and grow existing accounts, with some doing both. Role-based models help with hiring and territory planning; behaviour-based models like the 8 types help you coach how people actually sell.
Can a salesperson change type?
Yes. The types describe default behaviours, and defaults can change. With training and coaching on questioning, listening, meeting strategy and the beliefs that drive their habits, salespeople can move towards the Expert, Consultant and Closer patterns.
If you're wondering which types are on your team, I'd be glad to talk it through. 👉 Book a free 15-minute call with me
📘 Read next: What the best salespeople do differently
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