Improving The Odds For Hiring Success

Businesses are using personality testing to check out their own hunches about salespeople.

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If performing the following activities paid the same compensation and carried equal status, which would you choose: a) representing clients in court; b) performing as a concert pianist; c) commanding a ship; d) advising on electronics problems?

Among these statements, which best describes you: a) I don't need to be the focus of attention at parties; b) I have a better understanding of what politicians are up to than most of my associates do; c) I don't delay making decisions that are unpleasant?

Your answers, when evaluated along with the responses to more than 170 other questions, could say something about your potential as a salesperson, says Herbert Greenberg, president of Personality Dynamics Inc. (PDI), a Princeton, N.J., management consulting and testing company.

Although many people regard personality tests with distaste and skepticism, others report that they are a cost-effective way to make wiser hiring decisions. One example is L. "Fritz" Covillo, senior vice-president and general manager for United Foods Inc. in Denver. "People razzle-dazzle me in an interview," admits Covillo, who heads up a sales force of more than 50 people, "but how do I know if they have drive, if they can handle rejection, or if they can be self-disciplined enough to go out and sell in the boonies? Good vibes are okay, but how do I get inside a guy's head?"

Covillo began using personality testing more than five years ago. It has, he reports, not only helped confirm his hunches but has also challenged his first impressions about people.

To those who question testing's validity, Covillo argues that subjective feelings after interviews and reference checks are even less valid as predictors of sales success. "The interview is the greatest lying tool in the world," says Greenberg of PDI. "It's a sophisticated world. People know how to handle themselves; they know how to dress and what to say. They have resumes professionally prepared and give reference checks that are going to look good. Everything is beautifully designed to put up a very nice facade." Conversely, he notes, people with no track record in sales may present an unpolished appearance that belies their sales ability.

For more than 20 years, Herbert Greenberg and his wife, Jeanne, have studied salespeople to try to understand what makes them successful. During the 1960s they surveyed 18,000 salespeople in 14 different industries and found that success was not related to experience, sex, age, or education -- the criteria upon which many people base their hiring decisions. A recent study conducted by Xerox Learning Systems in Stamford, Conn., which analyzed more than 500 sales calls in more than 20 companies, also found that age, college education, sex, or years of experience had no correlation with success. Instead, a person's behavior during the sales call -- including how well he or she listened to the client, handled objections, and closed the interview -- was what determined success.

While the Greenbergs agree with Xerox's conclusion that sales skills can be learned, they argue that companies should start out with the best raw material possible. Their research has shown that certain basic characteristics -- which can be partly revealed, they say, through testing -- are found in nearly all successful salespeople. For example, most top performers display strong drive marked by an intense desire to persuade others, not so much because of money but because of a feeling that they have to make a sale These people also have "empathy" -- they listen well and can tailor an interview to suit a customer. Finally, the best performers are resilient, even when they repeatedly lose sales.

But the Greenbergs also emphasize that each sales job requires a different balance of strengths and that the most difficult part of the hiring process, understanding the job well enough to match the right person with it, always precedes recruiting. For example, Harvey Kimmel of Edward Don & Co. of New Jersey, a Mt. Laurel restaurant supply distributorship, points out that independence, aggressiveness, and the ability to take rejection are a lot more important to job success at his company than a college degree. "We're selling pots and pans out of 30-pound bags," explains Kimmel. "This isn't high tech."

PDI's test consists of 181 questions. "To a certain extent, we know people are going to put up a facade -- just as when they interview or when they prepare a resume," says Herbert Greenberg. "They're going to at least put their best foot forward. If we ask them, 'Do you want to be a salesperson or a forest ranger?' do you really think they're going to tell us they want to be a forest ranger? Or if they blush easily, are they going to admit it? We analyze the perfect person they tell us they are, and that gives us clues to the person they really are."

Companies that use PDI's test pay $125 to have the results evaluated. A PDI account executive calls the client with an evaluation within 24 hours of receiving the test. The call is followed by a written report. Once the fee is paid, PDI will review the results as often as the client wishes. For example, when Lumbermen's Underwriting Alliance in Boca Raton, Fla., considers promoting a salesperson to a management position, the company asks for a reevaluation of the test results in light of the new position. "We know we've got a chocolate cookie," says Bill Weston, assistant vice-president of Lumberman's. "But can we make angel food cake out of the same ingredients?"

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