When applying for a job as sales executive, who will have more chances: manager with sales background or a salesman with more sales background?

Manager will be overqualified for the sales executive job.
Hence the Salesman will have more chance to get selected.

critically looking at the business in question,  I can confidently say a Salesman with strong sales background would walk away smiling. Though it depends on the company's needs, for a  commercial company where the focus is on profit margin, a salesman takes priority simply because of speciality in this field that is untainted with other responsibility. 

Secondly often times, such hiring company already  enjoy good management system in place, hence they wouldn't need a rivalry who will poke nose on areas which are not his/her jurisdiction.

Yes! A salesman has got higher chance to take up this position of sales executive than a manager with sales background.

SALES MAN

That's smart question , I think in my opinion this question MUST be applied in all sections or divisions not only the sales and the answer I think the Manager EXCEPT one thing in the managers and I will mention at the end , But why I choose the manager and not the sales man because the manager MUST passed and being through a sales man in the first of his / her work history which means he / she faced a lots of problems and situations during the work life time which had making add value by solving these problems and how to make an ideal sales structure to any company to reach up for the best target required but may be exceed it , But for the exception I mention in the above for the MANAGERS is those managers who reach up for that title by recommendations or any relations or even being son of the owner of the company and through a real history of being a sales man which means he / she didn't start from the scratch or zero in order to know all the information of being a sales manager.

Now this totally depends on the job posted, and the kind of candidate an organization is looking, infact both of them hold chances because of their specialities.