Predictive Testing For Salespeople. No Reason Not To Do It.

I’ve been a proponent of psychometric/predictive testing for salespeople for many years.  I was a non-believer until Nancy Martini, now CEO at PI Worldwide, put me through their Predictive Index and SSAT (see below) in 2001.  After I took the two tests online, Nancy emailed me the manager’s version of my results and I nearly fell off my chair—the appraisal was that accurate.

My friend,  sales trainer Steve Waterhouse, is a PI consultant as well.  Those tests are terrific tools for a sales trainer to have for diagnosis.

Let me state this clearly:  One of the root causes of the many B2B sales challenges companies have today is that they have too many unqualified people in sales jobs.  Among ESR’s clients and the companies we spoke with as many as 25% to 33% (depending on the industry) of sales people aren’t suited for the jobs they hold.  That means, based upon skill and trait gaps between what is required for success and what those reps possess, there isn’t enough time or money for them to ever come up to speed.  The solution is simple, but not easy.  Don’t hire people that can’t get the job done.

We know for a fact that profiling and a structured interview process are critical for hiring success.  We also know that psychometric and skills testing saves interview cycle time and significantly reduces risk.

I posed some questions to Todd Harris, Ph.D., Director of Research at PI Worldwide.

Dave Stein: Why is predictive testing so important for a company’s sales effectiveness?

Todd Harris: Twenty-five years of research clearly indicates that personality factors significantly impact sales success.  For example, in a recent Predictive Index® (PI) study of 32 outside sales representatives tasked with selling manufacturing equipment to medium-sized businesses, those who were more independent, confident, assertive and embracing of change achieved over five times more sales volume during a 27-month period than those who were not.

DS: How accurate are your tests?

Assigning Sales Territories by Personality Traits?

One of our clients from Minnesota told me about a fascinating Wall Street Journal article about regional personality traits across America.   From the article:

“Certain regional stereotypes have long since become cliches: The stressed-out New Yorker. The laid-back Californian.

But the conscientious Floridian? The neurotic Kentuckian?

You bet — at least, according to new research on the geography of personality. Based on more than 600,000 questionnaires and published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, the study maps regional clusters of personality traits, then overlays state-by-state data on crime, health and economic development in search of correlations.”

Minnesota, for example, ranks 5th in extroversion, 2nd in agreeableness, 22nd in conscientiousness, 41st in neuroticism, and 40th in openness.  New York, where I lived until 2006, ranks 37th in extraversion, 5th in agreeableness, 42nd in conscientiousness, 3rd in neuroticism, and 2nd in openness.  (Aha! This explains a lot!)

What bearing might this have on how effective a salesperson is who sells in a state where buyers’ characteristics are considerably different from their own?  I don’t know of anyone who has studied this.  If you have, please let me know.  But I can tell you that in my early days of selling, some customers in the deep south didn’t like my New York style.  (Some still don’t!)  Two CEOs even asked the CEO of my company to “send someone else down here.” 

Over the years I learned to better understand regional, national and other personality and cultural differences. But I never thought about it in the way the WSJ presented it.  Should this analysis be taken into account when hiring?  When assigning geographic territories?  I curious about those of you in other parts of the world as well.  Please let me know your thoughts.

A New Approach to Leadership Development

I enjoyed breakfast earlier in the week with Art DeLorenzo, retired group vice president at American Express and co-founder of MYT Group, LLC.  Art came up through the financial services industry and, over the years, leveraged his training and mentoring skills to maximize the selling capabilities of the advisors who reported to him.

MYT provides clients’ executives emotional intelligence training that improves work productivity through practical applications of emotional competence skill development.  Here is how their process works:

1. A corporate communication is sent explaining the program to those invited to attend.
2. All participants complete two sets of profiles immediately prior to the workshop.  These enable a baseline to be determined.  Among the areas assessed are stress level, positive states, anger inventory, quality of life, physical vitality and EQI (Emotional Quotient Inventory).
3. Participants attend a full day workshop where “performance enhancement skills” are taught. 
4. Observer training is conducted via a telephone conference call whereby the participant and two observers (one at home and one at work) are taught how to provide feedback to the participant.  
5. IDPs (Individual Development Plans) are developed and presented to the participants via a telephone conference call. 
6. Four coaching sessions are held at approximately 6 week intervals via a telephone conference call. 
7. At the conclusion of the 6 months, new profiles are completed by the participants and submitted to MYT. 
8. A final wrap-up session is presented to each participant where by we review their profile differences and if applicable, their productivity results.
9. A conference call is conducted with the corporate leaders to share results.

Here is one reason why I decided to introduce MYT to you via this blog:  MYT is ready, willing and able to measure the direct impact of their approach in business and personal development terms.  During seven pilot projects (with 89 financial service advisors, nine vice presidents and six administrative assistants) at Ameriprise, MYT measured the sales and quality of life impact of their program.  The results are quite convincing.  For details you can download a white paper on their site.