Pre-employment profiles being used statewide; brings in better employees

BOULDER — Excelling at sales is more than being born with a gift of gab. In fact, one’s ability to sell can be measured and many companies use pre-employment profiling to find applicants qualified to sell its products and services.

As a supplement to the normal employee screenings and interviews, Micro Motion in Boulder uses personality and psychological testing, said Jennifer Whiting, manager of corporate communications for the company.

?We’re able to assess critical thinking, management, leadership, interpersonal, communication, motivation and self-management skills,? she said. ?These have proven to be the attributes of our strongest salespeople.?

Like most companies using these tests, Micro Motion contracts with an outside company to administer them. The tests can cost up to $1,500 each. For companies willing to do it themselves, tests range from $100 to $500 each.

The cost makes sense to companies considering the high cost of potential turnover.

?As a result (of the profiling), we get a stronger, more dedicated workforce,? Whiting said. ?(It) has helped us develop a very strong salesforce with low turnover.?

Personality profiling also helps boost profits for General Air Services and Supply Company in Denver.

?I really believe in them,? said Art Waskey, president of sales and marketing. ?A natural influencer will want to meet new people. Their prospect number will be high. Without profiling, I wouldn’t get the call frequency. We expect two new prospects per day.?

Sales Partnerships in Boulder administers sales applicant analysis, as well as providing training and outsource sales staff.

?Sales hinge on the ability to build rapport between people, and the salesman’s ability to convince the customer of where they’re coming from,? said Fred Kessler, company president. ?Unfortunately, a resume doesn’t say everything.?

Personality testing, called behavioral assessment by industry experts, can sometimes read between the lines.

?It’s more important to test behavior,? said Garry Duncan, president of Lakewood-based Leadership Connections. ?Behavior is experiences and beliefs that make us who we are. When I hire someone, I look for what I can’t train, such as self-esteem, low need for approval, initiative and energy. I can train product knowledge.?

Leadership Connections provides sales training and behavior assessment.

Those more intangible qualities necessary for sales include ?integrity, honesty, creativity, organization and self-motivation,? Kessler said. ?We have to make sure someone won’t short-sell a customer. They have to have a solid moral center, so we ask about honesty.

?Creativity is important to be able to help people see what will help them. And you have to be an organized individual to get people the right information. With self-motivation, that’s the person’s willingness to succeed.?

Randy Austad, assessment consultant in Denver working with Waco, Texas-based Profiles International, a behavior assessment outsource company, believes assessment boils down to what experts call The Big Five.

?These personality traits hardly ever change over time,? he said. ?They are agreeableness/independence, contentiousness/spontaneity, introverted/extroverted, emotionally sensitive/emotionally stable, and open to new ideas/closed to new ideas.?

But to know which of these traits are desirable, screeners ?must consider what item is being sold,? Austad said. ?Our research shows that someone who is successful selling one thing can’t sell something else.?

The knowledge that one is being assessed can also skew the results.

?There is some faking with all of the (assessments),? Kessler said. ?But most of the profiles we use are 85 percent to 90 percent accurate.?

Assessment creators, such as Target Training International based in Scottsdale, Ariz., plan for fibbers.

?It’s built into the assessment,? said Bill Bonnstetter, owner of TTI. ?We have 24 questions, but it’s really the same question disguised in different terms.?

Keywords are also helpful.

?We put in questions that include the words ?always’ and ?never,’? Austad said. ?If they create a socially-desirable appearance, the experts invalidate them.?

Assessments often depend more upon how the applicant answers questions than the answers themselves.

?We ask people why they’re number two or number three in sales,? Kessler said. ?If they come back to excuses, such as the economy was bad, that’s a red flag.?

Applicants who give legitimate answers, such as admitting to the need for personal improvement, score more favorably.

?It matters that they say where they need work,? Kessler said.

The assessment’s accuracy also depends upon its importance in the hiring process. ?A business should never rely on any one tool, but cross-validate to get the big picture,? Austad said.

Sometimes, well-qualified sales candidates aren’t always right for that particular position. ?You should interview and match people to the type of position you’re offering,? Kessler said.

As with any applicant-screening process, behavioral assessment can carry liability for the employer.

?It can be very sticky for a company without a reliable, valid product,? said Jim Sirbasku, chief executive officer with Profiles International. ?It’s not risky as long as the product is properly validated with age, gender, ethnic groups and those speaking English as a second language.

?The Department of Labor lays out 13 principles that include using an assessment that is reliable and valid.?

Even completely legitimate assessments can ?tend to pigeonhole people,? Waskey said. ?Some people can be successful in sales without matching profiles.?

For Waskey, the real test is observation.

?If I’m out calling with (a salesperson), I can tell if they’re bonding with people,? he said, ?and if they enter into the conversation.

?I also look at how many calls they make. They’re pleasers, and they get success from building new relationships.?

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