This is an occasional series describing (anonymously) a real challenge faced by one of my clients and my recommendation to them.
Please let me know what topics you’d like to see included in this series.
- Paul
Strength of Personality Key to Outside Sales Success
Scenario:
A sales manager for an electric motor manufacturer has two outside salespeople with similar personality patterns as reported by a personality assessment tool but vastly different sales results.
Personality Patterns (as reported by a personality assessment):
Successful Salesperson – He is Very Extroverted, Very Impatient, Dominant and Informal
Unsuccessful Salesperson – He is Extroverted, Impatient, Dominant and Informal
The Issue:
The sales manager had used a job and personality assessment system to select these two salespeople. The job assessment for the position called for somebody who was first and foremost an extrovert. Second priority in the job assessment was impatience with dominance and informality the final elements. Since both salespeople match this pattern why is one successful and the other is not?
Personality Assessment Analysis and Recommendation:
While both salespeople have personality patterns that match the job target there is an important difference between the two people that could explain the performance difference. The difference has to do with the strength relating to the drives measured in the assessment.
The successful salesperson has much stronger drives shown in his pattern. His extroversion and impatience are both very strong compared to, at best, moderate strength in his unsuccessful colleague.
The stronger measures on these PI factors means the successful salesperson feels the key drives needed for this position more intensely and should exhibit more-impactful behaviors related to the job. The sales environment for these outside salespeople is very demanding – strong competitors constantly threatened to undercut them and their industrial customers have very demanding purchasers. In the face of these pressures, the stronger personality performs more effectively.
I recommended they include drive strength as a key element in their future decisions on assignments.
Tags: columbus, dayton, hiring, management consulting, Paul Dumouchelle, pauldumo, personality assessment, sales training, selection, toledo
