What are the 21 sales competencies that matters in sales hiring and sales training?

Objective Management Group (OMG) evaluates 21 sales competencies that predict sales performance. For sales hiring, assessing sales competencies are far better than résumés, charisma, or “years of experience.”

For development, it is also critical to understand where the hurdles will be in your personal and professional development. So if you are a sales professional and you are starting to work with us in a sales training of some sort, ahead of the debrief of your profile, watch the video below. This will help you to get familiar with the framework.

The power of the model is its simplicity: those 21 competencies fall into three buckets that explain why reps perform (or stall), and what to coach.

1) Will to Sell is the fuel. It covers the desire and commitment to succeed in sales, and the motivation to do the uncomfortable work consistently - prospecting, following up, holding the line on value. When this bucket is low, you can train tactics all day and still get “good intentions, zero pipeline.”

2) Sales DNA is the wiring. Think beliefs, habits, and reflexes under pressure: handling rejection, staying consultative, asking tough questions, discussing money, and not getting needy or approval-seeking. Weak DNA is why smart reps discount too early, talk too much, or avoid real decision conversations.

3) Tactical Competencies are the visible skills: hunting, qualifying, questioning, presenting, and managing the pipeline and process.

In short: tactics are coachable, but only if will and DNA don’t sabotage execution. Diagnose first, then prescribe - because training without diagnosis is just expensive hope.