Personality Assessments for Sales - The Definitive Case Study
Personality Assessments for Sales - The Definitive Case Study
Over a period of 18 months, a team of PHD's whose primary expertise is in testing, worked with us to map the formulas, measures, and research of a very well researched personality instrument (the basis for many well known personality tests) to our new Management Assessment. When we were ready to have a small test group take the assessment, the results of round one were not impressive. The scores were very inconsistent with the findings we wanted to present. I was extremely disappointed with our progress.
The project was escalated up to two PHD's with even more expertise. After 6 more months of understanding the findings we wanted to provide and the formulas they had in their "vault", the second round of testing yielded results that were no closer than in the first round. We were failing to get accurate results, running out of patience and running out of time.
I have had many occasions to speak and write about how personality tests, behavioral styles tests and psychometric tests, which are all very similar, differ from Objective Management Group's Sales Force Evaluations and Assessments. As a matter of fact, you can read four such articles right here:
* Top Five Reasons Why the OMG Sales Assessment is More Predictive
* How to Be More Effective Selecting Sales Candidates
* How Are Assessments Used?
* Tale of Two Assessments - Comparing Value
I have always said that personality tests, although they contain several elements that are important for sales, wern't built to predict sales success and, even when modified, can't go wide enough or deep enough to predict likely challenges or diagnose why salespeople get the results they get. As a result, they can not be used as development tools and they are very risky and inconsistent as hiring tools.
So how did we come to go down this path where we were going to use a personality assessment as the instrument behind our new Management Assessment? After all, weren't we being hypocritical?
We were convinced by a PHD/testing expert that the research existed to map to our findings.
Well the research does exist - except - their findings aren't the same as what we want to provide. As with a sales assessment, they're identifying findings that they can measure - like emotional steadiness - and saying they can provide a score for that. Well they can - except, like nearly all of the findings from personality tests, the findings are out of context. The questions have nothing to do with selling or managing and someone who might control their emotions quite well socially, might not be equally effective in a sales or business setting. This example holds true over nearly every one of their findings and the questions they target to drive those findings. So the findings that show up in most personality assessments are not necessarily what you need to know, they are simply what these assessments are capable of measuring!
So back to the story.
We realized that we got away from one of our core competencies - our ability to identify the right questions to uncover the data to provide accurate, predictive, job specific findings. So we wrote the questions, resumed the beta and went about the engineering required to complete the development of this very powerful, very different assessment. As I reviewed the descriptors - the specific traits we would "measure" to reveal our findings - I realized that over the last several months, the PHD's at the personality testing company had gradually and subtly modified the descriptors enough so that we too would report what they were capable of measuring, rather than what we wanted to measure.
So now, when I explain why a personality assessment which wasn't built for sales, isn't predictive or sales specific enough even when modified for sales, we have an 18 month research project that details, demonstrates, and proves, once and for all, that a personality assessment can't measure much more than dimensions of personality and can't predict much more than some basic human behaviors. They just can't measure the things we really want to know about a salesperson's or a sales manager's or an Executive Manager's competencies.
Final Word - stay tuned for our March launch of what will be the most useful assessment to date for your Executive Management Team. I think you'll love it as much as I do.
Personality Assessments for Sales The Definitive Case Study - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Kurlan's Website.
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Nearly two years ago we began development of an exciting new way to evaluate Executive Management Teams. We brainstormed, conducted surveys, performed research and identified 16 qualities that CEO's wanted their Executive Managers to possess, along with 9 Styles crucial to a Management Team's ability to grow their companies. These Qualities and Styles are not presented in any other assessments on the market today.
Over a period of 18 months, a team of PHD's whose primary expertise is in testing, worked with us to map the formulas, measures, and research of a very well researched personality instrument (the basis for many well known personality tests) to our new Management Assessment. When we were ready to have a small test group take the assessment, the results of round one were not impressive. The scores were very inconsistent with the findings we wanted to present. I was extremely disappointed with our progress.
The project was escalated up to two PHD's with even more expertise. After 6 more months of understanding the findings we wanted to provide and the formulas they had in their "vault", the second round of testing yielded results that were no closer than in the first round. We were failing to get accurate results, running out of patience and running out of time.
I have had many occasions to speak and write about how personality tests, behavioral styles tests and psychometric tests, which are all very similar, differ from Objective Management Group's Sales Force Evaluations and Assessments. As a matter of fact, you can read four such articles right here:
* Top Five Reasons Why the OMG Sales Assessment is More Predictive
* How to Be More Effective Selecting Sales Candidates
* How Are Assessments Used?
* Tale of Two Assessments - Comparing Value
I have always said that personality tests, although they contain several elements that are important for sales, wern't built to predict sales success and, even when modified, can't go wide enough or deep enough to predict likely challenges or diagnose why salespeople get the results they get. As a result, they can not be used as development tools and they are very risky and inconsistent as hiring tools.
So how did we come to go down this path where we were going to use a personality assessment as the instrument behind our new Management Assessment? After all, weren't we being hypocritical?
We were convinced by a PHD/testing expert that the research existed to map to our findings.
Well the research does exist - except - their findings aren't the same as what we want to provide. As with a sales assessment, they're identifying findings that they can measure - like emotional steadiness - and saying they can provide a score for that. Well they can - except, like nearly all of the findings from personality tests, the findings are out of context. The questions have nothing to do with selling or managing and someone who might control their emotions quite well socially, might not be equally effective in a sales or business setting. This example holds true over nearly every one of their findings and the questions they target to drive those findings. So the findings that show up in most personality assessments are not necessarily what you need to know, they are simply what these assessments are capable of measuring!
So back to the story.
We realized that we got away from one of our core competencies - our ability to identify the right questions to uncover the data to provide accurate, predictive, job specific findings. So we wrote the questions, resumed the beta and went about the engineering required to complete the development of this very powerful, very different assessment. As I reviewed the descriptors - the specific traits we would "measure" to reveal our findings - I realized that over the last several months, the PHD's at the personality testing company had gradually and subtly modified the descriptors enough so that we too would report what they were capable of measuring, rather than what we wanted to measure.
So now, when I explain why a personality assessment which wasn't built for sales, isn't predictive or sales specific enough even when modified for sales, we have an 18 month research project that details, demonstrates, and proves, once and for all, that a personality assessment can't measure much more than dimensions of personality and can't predict much more than some basic human behaviors. They just can't measure the things we really want to know about a salesperson's or a sales manager's or an Executive Manager's competencies.
Final Word - stay tuned for our March launch of what will be the most useful assessment to date for your Executive Management Team. I think you'll love it as much as I do.
Personality Assessments for Sales The Definitive Case Study - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Kurlan's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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