The Sales Management. Simplified. Podcast with Mike Weinberg
Jun 11, 2026 · 26 min · 10 segments
In Episode 110, Mike shares a sad personal update and tackles one of the most important and most misunderstood sales leadership issues: Sales DNA. Prompted by client work, fresh research, and a…
So obviously and I, I've had a few thoughts on my mind, but one of them has to do with sales DNA.
And it seems like I'm having this conversation with almost everybody I'm working with, including my colleagues in the industry, as there's just been challenging in the sales world when it comes to smart talent management the past, I don't know, couple years, but in particularly in this year, it's just been interesting.
And one of these large clients I referenced actually asked me to put together a new piece of material, which is not something I do very often 'cause I've got plenty of my basic foundational material, but they asked me to do a, a session exclusively on sales DNA.
And I took it very seriously because this particular client of mine is a franchisor with offices everywhere, and most of the offices are typically small and have one salesperson.
And one of the things I uncovered during some work I did for them last year was how much lack of confidence, lack of surety the owners of these franchises, you know, the franchisees themselves, how little confidence they had in hiring salespeople and how much failure they were experiencing.
And yeah, you can really ramp up accountability, and you can observe and do coaching, and you could lead good meetings, and you could have really smart compensation that drives the right behavior and results.
But if you've got people wired like zookeepers in hunting roles, you're screwed.
And in particularly in a small company where you have one person, if that one person is not a fit for the job, it's over.
So in the process of working with these particular franchise owners and my other clients and doing this research and gathering data from all over the place, um, and even using AI a bit to coalesce my thoughts and amalgamate a bunch of the research and feed it in along with my own material onIn Sales Manager Simplified, I talked about sales talent.
You know, it's not a one-size-fits-all game, and that's where I introduced the term zookeeper versus farmer, because I feel like there's a lot of really relational people in account management or territory management roles, and they're really good at so many aspects of the job.
And I think zookeeper is a better, I don't know if it's analogy, metaphor, uh, label, and I never know which word to use there, but the zookeeper, I think, is more properly illustrative.
Did I say that right? The zookeeper, it paints a picture of that human better than the word farmer.
And I get there's a lot of farming analogies in sales as well, but the zookeeper, like that person lives to protect the animals entrusted to their care, right? And they feed the animal when it's hungry, and they shovel the poop when it, you know, makes a mess, and they protect it from predators that are trying to eat it, you know, competitors coming after the customer.
Like this person is totally jazzed by the relational aspects of loving, serving, caring for, protecting the things entrusted to its care, and I see a lot of salespeople wired like that.
The problem is that that person tends to be highly relational, more conflict-averse.
They are wired like peacekeepers and harmonizers, and that's their beauty as humans.
But that's really a challenge when it comes to picking up new business because, friends, there are three ever-present factors when it comes to new business development and sales hunting.
And I don't know that I've ever shared this on this show before, but this crystallized for me as I was preparing the sales DNA session.
So obviously and I, I've had a few thoughts on my mind, but one of them has to do with sales DNA.
And it seems like I'm having this conversation with almost everybody I'm working with, including my colleagues in the industry, as there's just been challenging in the sales world when it comes to smart talent management the past, I don't know, couple years, but in particularly in this year, it's just been interesting.
And one of these large clients I referenced actually asked me to put together a new piece of material, which is not something I do very often 'cause I've got plenty of my basic foundational material, but they asked me to do a, a session exclusively on sales DNA.
And I took it very seriously because this particular client of mine is a franchisor with offices everywhere, and most of the offices are typically small and have one salesperson.
And one of the things I uncovered during some work I did for them last year was how much lack of confidence, lack of surety the owners of these franchises, you know, the franchisees themselves, how little confidence they had in hiring salespeople and how much failure they were experiencing.
And yeah, you can really ramp up accountability, and you can observe and do coaching, and you could lead good meetings, and you could have really smart compensation that drives the right behavior and results.
But if you've got people wired like zookeepers in hunting roles, you're screwed.
And in particularly in a small company where you have one person, if that one person is not a fit for the job, it's over.
So in the process of working with these particular franchise owners and my other clients and doing this research and gathering data from all over the place, um, and even using AI a bit to coalesce my thoughts and amalgamate a bunch of the research and feed it in along with my own material onIn Sales Manager Simplified, I talked about sales talent.
You know, it's not a one-size-fits-all game, and that's where I introduced the term zookeeper versus farmer, because I feel like there's a lot of really relational people in account management or territory management roles, and they're really good at so many aspects of the job.
And I think zookeeper is a better, I don't know if it's analogy, metaphor, uh, label, and I never know which word to use there, but the zookeeper, I think, is more properly illustrative.
Did I say that right? The zookeeper, it paints a picture of that human better than the word farmer.
And I get there's a lot of farming analogies in sales as well, but the zookeeper, like that person lives to protect the animals entrusted to their care, right? And they feed the animal when it's hungry, and they shovel the poop when it, you know, makes a mess, and they protect it from predators that are trying to eat it, you know, competitors coming after the customer.
Like this person is totally jazzed by the relational aspects of loving, serving, caring for, protecting the things entrusted to its care, and I see a lot of salespeople wired like that.
The problem is that that person tends to be highly relational, more conflict-averse.
They are wired like peacekeepers and harmonizers, and that's their beauty as humans.
But that's really a challenge when it comes to picking up new business because, friends, there are three ever-present factors when it comes to new business development and sales hunting.
And I don't know that I've ever shared this on this show before, but this crystallized for me as I was preparing the sales DNA session.
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