5. How personality predicts candidate potential

Let’s look at the role of salesperson, one of the most common roles out there today. There are more than 13 million salespeople in the US right now – and many of them might be your legendary pink squirrel.

Here are the HEXACO traits that make a good salesperson, according to our data:

• High in conscientiousness. Detail-oriented, dependable, able to show initiative.
• Low in Emotionality. Able to keep emotions in check, to resist stress, especially when applied by other people, and to readily accept criticism.
• High in Extraversion. Prefers working with others rather than alone. Able to assert themselves.
• High in Agreeableness. Able to work well with others, and display a good-natured, cooperative attitude.
• High in Honesty-Humility. Ethical, even in the face of commercial gain.
• Low-to-average in Openness to experience. Not particularly intellectually explorative, more interested in concrete solutions and certainty.

Here’s the cool part: our Smart Interviewer can assess and profile a candidate against these requirements within 15 seconds. It does so using advanced machine learning models designed specifically for the ideal salesperson. The candidate responds to just five questions, and the Natural Language Processing does the rest. With zero effort, you have interviewed and profiled the widest possible pool of talent, and the nebulous issue of “culture fit” is circumvented entirely. You don’t need to worry about “culture fit”, because you’ve found the person with the personality best fitted to your company and its goals.