I love the line - we have two kinds of sales people, rich and new.<p>There is a definite truth to the fundamentally different psychology of top sales people compared to engineering talent. Sales works best as a very objective judge by results environment - with great rewards at the top and a short walk off the plank for non-performers. I find, having done both, that a lot of engineers find it difficult or impossible to put themselves in the mind of a sales person and truly understand what motivates them, if they've not done it extensively themselves.<p>Glengarry Glen Ross gets it right with First Prize a new BMW, Second Prize a set of steal knives, Third Prize you're fired. If you're an engineer watch that movie or Boiler Room with horror and recognize that many sales people see those as very realistic expositions of certain kinds of aggressive sales environments.
There's a very fine line on hiring salespeople. It is great to have super confident people. It's ruin to have bullies who over-promise to hit quotas. There is a fine line as you need the former to stay in business and grow, but the latter is a cancer.