Narcissism and Achievement Motivation as Related to Three Facets of the Sales Role: Attraction, Satisfaction and Performance

Relationships were posited between two personality constructs—narcissism and achievement motivation—and three facets of the sales role: attraction, satisfaction and performance. As predicted, currently and previously employed salespeople were more narcissistic and had stronger needs for achievement than individuals who were never employed in sales. Narcissism was positively associated with overall sales satisfaction and with level of comfort with ethically questionable sales behaviors; narcissism was unrelated to sales performance. In contrast, need for achievement was unrelated to sales satisfaction, negatively related to comfort with ethically questionable sales behaviors, but positively related to sales performance. Practical implications of these findings for sales recruiters and trainers are discussed.