Dave Kurlan's Blog - The Authority on Sales Force Excellence

Top Recommended Personality Assessments for Sales

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Mon, Jan 09, 2023 @ 12:01 PM

My Chrome home page often displays articles that Google thinks I might be interested in. Red Sox, Patriots, politics, software applications, gadgets, and for the first time, sales assessments! I thought, "Is this for real?"

The first article was the 7 Best Personality Assessments for Your Sales Team. Regular readers already know that personality assessments are not predictive of sales success because they measure personality traits, not sales core competencies. That said, they included and mis-categorized Objective Management Group (OMG) as a personality assessment. Oh well. At least they knew to include it. Interestingly, I previously published articles about some of the assessments they listed comparing them to OMG:

Compared to DISC

Compared to Caliper

Compared to Myers-Briggs

The second article was How to Pass a Sales Personality Test.

Again, OMG is not a personality test so it's not surprising that it didn't appear on the list.

The first assessment they named was Caliper which they incorrectly stated shows how personality traits correlate to on-the-job performance. That would be predictive validity - when findings correlate to on-the-job performance. It's worth noting that OMG is the only sales assessment that uses predictive validity. Most assessments use construct validity which states that findings are consistent with what they say they are measuring. Personality assessments have never been and are not now predictive of sales success.

Listing the OPQ as a sales assessment is pretty funny. They don't even suggest that it is appropriate for sales use!

Hogan is a personality assessment that has been adapted for sales but as with all personality assessments you can be sure of one thing. They are measuring personality traits, not sales core competencies and as such, they are making assumptions about selling.

Myers-Briggs and DISC round out this list.

To get a better sense of how assessment companies adapt (market) personality tests for sales, the best article that informs on this topic is Exposed - Personality Tests Disguised as Sales Assessments.

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Topics: Dave Kurlan, caliper, 16PF, sales assessments, personality assessment, DISC, OMG Assessment, myers-briggs

The Difference Between OMG and Extended DISC Assessments

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Wed, Oct 07, 2020 @ 12:10 PM

Legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen is dead at 65 - ABC News

This is gonna be fun!

In 2005, GM produced four mini-vans known as the Buick Terraza, Chevrolet Uplander, Pontiac Montana SV6 and Saturn Relay. These four cars were exactly the same, with the brand logos being the only differentiators.

Today, some Luxury car companies dress up the cars from their primary brands as Toyota is known to do with its Lexuses, Nissan with its Infinities, Honda with its Acuras, and Ford with its Lincolns. But we all know this.

What about something you might not know? With Eddie Van Halen's passing yesterday, I was thinking about great guitarists and that led me to who actually manufactured your well-known Japanese guitar brand ?

And then there are the cheap Chinese rip-offs of quality American products.

When it comes to sales assessments, things are also not what they appear to be. For example, take the FinXS Extended DISC which, at first glance, appears to have much in common with Objective Management Group's (OMG) Salesperson Evaluations and Sales Candidate Assessments. But are they the same, similar, or is it more like the Chinese rip-off?

Let's take a look under the hoods of both assessments and then you can decide. We'll begin with a comparison of the two respective dashboards.

FinxS Extended DISC Objective Management Group Salesperson Evaluation

While they don't look the same, the FinxS Extended DISC has copied 8 of the 21 Sales Competencies that OMG measures, as well as 5 of the underlying attributes from other competencies. So on the surface it appears to measure 13 of the competencies that OMG measures. But does it really? Let's dig deeper.

DISC assessments have four dimensions, one for each letter in its name. For those who aren't familiar, they include Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance. While there are some variations to the questions and formats of the various DISC tests, what they all have in common is that the questions are asked in a social context. This particular assessment also asks some questions in the context of selling. You can see some DISC questions here.

All of OMG's questions are asked in the context of selling; what you do, how you do it, when you do it, what causes you to do it, how you think about it, what you believe, etc. None of the questions are in a social context because people act and behave differently in social settings than they do in business settings.

From 30,000 feet, the first question that must be asked is how in the world does the FinxS Extended DISC arrive at findings like Prospecting, Qualifying, Handling Objections or Sales Process from a DISC assessment with only the four dimensions?

The quick answer is that they can't! If you dig deeper into the FinxS Extended DISC report, they actually measure something quite different from what their summary says.

For example, look at this description of the prospecting finding:

See it? Whether one scores low or high, it's about a mindset, not a sales capability or competency. So what does FinxS Extended DISC mean when they refer to a prospecting mindset? Let's dig further! This is their description of the Hunter mindset.

Huh? It's instant gratification! I'm not kidding! It gets worse. Let's dig further! This is their description of what the Prospecting score actually measures:

That's right - it has nothing at all to do with prospecting. They are lying to you in their dashboard summary!

For comparison, look at what OMG measures for the Prospecting or, as OMG calls it, the Hunting competency:

It should be obvious that OMG's prospecting competency is all about hunting for new business, right? So you might be thinking I picked Prospecting because that's the FinxS Extended DISC score that's easiest for me to debunk. Think again.

What if we repeat this process with Qualifying? This is the Qualifying score in the FinxS Extended DISC:

Whether the salesperson has a high or low score, they are telling you that it's about uncovering whether the prospect is a good fit through questioning and listening.

They are talking about a mindset again - this time it's about finding the truth:

Okay. So in a social setting, perhaps that's asking a question like, "Where are you?" "Who are you with?" "When will you be home?" Is that really the same as Qualifying an opportunity? And what are they actually measuring?

Once again, what they can actually measure has nothing to do with qualifying a sales opportunity. And the best part is that they are reusing Hunter! Remember? Instant gratification! You can't make this stuff up!

And what does OMG measure and report on for the Qualifying competency?

Does that look like finding the truth? It looks exactly like what a salesperson must do when qualifying an opportunity.

I can do this for all 18 of their supposed sales scores but all you need to know is this. As with ALL personality and behavioral assessments passing themselves off as sales assessments so as to compete with OMG, they lie. They have no ability to measure a sales competency. You can't report on what you can't measure and personality and behavorial styles assessments simply can't measure sales capabilities.

The assessment business has much in common with both the Chinese rip-off model as well as the Japanese guitar manufacturing model. The FinxS Extended DISC is like the Chinese rip-off because it appears to be measuring the same things, but upon closer inspection it measures little of what it purports to measure. Other assessments fall under the Japanese model. For example, 16PF is an assessment that most people haven't heard of yet they produce more assessments than anyone else, but under different brand names! Consultants can design an assessment and use the underlying 16PF, choose which of their findings to include, and then call those findings whatever they choose! The lie!

If you want to evaluate your sales force and learn why they aren't performing as well as you need them to, or assess your sales candidates to identify those who will succeed in your business, stop messing around with imposters and get the real deal. Objective Management Group (OMG) has been named the Top Sales Assessment in the world for nine straight years. It's hard to argue with that. It's even harder to argue with the science. It's the only sales assessment that has been validated using predictive validity. That means that OMG's findings have been correlated to on the job performance. Try doing that with a personality or behavioral styles assessment!

Knowledge is power. Now you have the knowledge to choose the proper tool to evaluate your current sales team for development purposes, and to assess sales candidates for selection purposes.

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Topics: Dave Kurlan, assessment, sales evaluation, improving your sales team, personality test, DISC, sales selelction

New: The 21 Sales Core Competencies for 2020 And Beyond

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Sun, Sep 27, 2020 @ 16:09 PM

Had an update lately?

I get an Office 365 update on Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote at least every week. Yawn. It seems half of them are to fix something that broke in the previous release.

Apple updates the operating systems of their various devices on a fairly regular basis. The software for my Apple watch was updated twice in the past month. IOS, the operating system for the iPhone and iPad was just updated as was the software for AppleTV. OS x, the operating system for the Mac, was recently updated. Most of these updates occur automatically and without fanfare but when an update advances to the next number - from 13.62 to 14.0 - it's a big deal and means significant updates to features, stability, security and usability are included.

Such is the case with Objective Management Group. Like Apple, OMG updates its assessments on a non-stop basis but rolls out significant updates a couple of times per year. Last week OMG introduced the latest revision to the 21 Sales Core Competencies.

There are thirty competencies in all, each with between six and twelve attributes but some are more important than others and OMG measures twenty-one of them in the following three categories:

Will to Sell includes 5 sales competencies that differentiate between whether a salesperson CAN sell, versus whether they WILL sell.
Sales DNA includes 6 competencies which, when appearing as strengths, support a salesperson's ability to execute sales process, sales methodology, sales strategy and sales tactics. However, when these competencies appear as weakness, they sabotage a salesperson's ability to execute sales process, sales methodology, sales strategy and sales tactics.
Tactical Selling has 10 sales competencies that show the degree to which a salesperson has developed the required skills to effectively sell in today's ever-changing world of selling.

OMG's latest release includes several changes to the 21 Sales Core Competencies.

There is a new competency called Sales Technology which wraps three sales competencies into one:

Video Proficient is a brand new competency that looks at a salesperson's use of video platforms, how well they have learned those platforms, and to what degree they have embraced video for virtual selling.
CRM Savvy was previously included in the 21 sales competencies before being rolled into Sales Technology.
Mastery of Social Selling was also included in the 21 sales competencies prior to being rolled into Sales Technology.

Sales Technology is a great example of how quickly OMG moves to not only remain current as selling evolves, but to lead the way and standardize the competencies which experts in the sales development space view as core to success.

OMG has had a finding called Reaches Decision Makers since 1990 and in recent years it became a full-blown competency that included eight attributes. In the latest update, OMG moves Reaches Decision Makers into the primary group of 21 because our research shows that salespeople are 900% less likely to move the opportunity to closable if they are not talking directly with the actual decision maker.

There is a very good reason that OMG has been named the Top Sales Assessment Tool in the World for nine consecutive years. It is not only extremely accurate, it is also incredibly predictive and insightful. In the screen shot below, you can see all 21 Sales Core Competencies, as well as some of the other competencies OMG measures and reports on, as shown on the coaching dashboard of a sales evaluation.

Personality assessments (like Caliper) and behavioral styles assessments (like DiSC) ask their questions in a social context, measure personality traits and behavioral styles and then ADAPT (GUESS) those findings for sales. This is crucial for understanding the differences! OMG asks all of its questions in the context of sales, measures actual sales knowledge and capabilities in the context of the sales competencies above, and ACCURATELY REPORTS on those sales competency scores.

You can view and filter by industry some of OMG's data in 21 Sales Core Competencies and even see how your salespeople compare by clicking here. You can check out OMG's accurate and predictive sales candidate assessments here.

Image copyright 123RF

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Topics: Dave Kurlan, Consultative Selling, sales process, Personality Tests, caliper, sales test, selling value, DISC

Exposed - Personality Tests Disguised as Sales Assessments

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Wed, Jan 28, 2009 @ 09:01 AM

Yesterday, I met with a long-time client who, in his previous company, used OMG's Assessments to identify what needed to change in order to double revenue from $30 million to $60 million. In his new company, which is already about 12x that size, he wants to double revenue again. He said, "I just wasted two years with the _____ Assessment." The assessment to which he referred was a personality assessment marketed as a sales assessment. It could have referred to any personality or behavioral-styles assessment.

Many people are not going to like this article. I am about to expose the findings in personality-based and behavioral-based assessments which companies have been marketing as sales assessments for the last dozen years.

First, you'll need to read this piece, Personality Assessments for Sales - The Definitive Case Study. Really, you need to read it first!

There isn't a tremendous difference between personality assessments and behavioral-styles assessments. Popular behavioral-styles assessments, like the various versions of DISC, produce findings along four dimensions (categories) while some personality assessments, like those using the PF16 as their underlying instrument, can measure traits in as many as sixteen dimensions.

But Personality Assessments and Behavioral-Styles assessments are not predictive of sales performance. They don't conduct Predictive Validity studies, as we do, because their assessments don't predict. Instead, they conduct Construct Validity studies which only show to what extent an assessment measures a specific trait and not the traits about which you want to know, but the traits which they actually can measure.

Here's the problem. Their marketing material usually says something like, "Salespeople must be able to Prospect, Question, Manage Objections and Close. They must have Product Knowledge. They must be accountable, have drive, be self-starters and be coachable." You read those words and say, "Yes, yes. That is exactly what we need." And the masquerade goes on.

As I wrote in the other article, personality-based sales assessments don't really measure what you need to know. Instead, they report on what they can actually measure. In the table below, I'll list some of the most common "findings" in personality and behavioral-styles tests (which are marketed as sales assessments), describe what is really being measured and compare those to what Objective Management Group (OMG) measures and reports.

Finding	*Measures*	*OMG Finding*	*What OMG Actually Measures*
Drive or achievement	General need to achieve	Desire	How important it is to achieve success in sales
Resilience	General ability to cope with adversity	Sales DNA	The sales specific scenarios that will be problematic and the individual's ability to handle them
Rejection	How the individual reacts to generally not being accepted or not having their ideas accepted	Rejection Proof	The impact that getting hung up on or getting a 'no' will have when they close have and how long it may take to recover.
Emotions	emotional steadiness	Ability to Control Emotions	the likelihood that when a salesperson is caught off guard or in an uncomfortable situation they will panic and lose control of the sales call
Sociable	how comfortable they feel and how appropriately they behave in social situations	Bonding and Rapport	How quickly they develop relationships with their Prospects
Confidence	whether they are a confident person	Supportive Beliefs	The sales specific beliefs that support or sabotage their sales outcomes
Coachable	whether they are open to new ideas	Will to Sell	whether they have the incentive to improve their sales competencies

These are just some of the most common findings. Since OMG's Assessments are so sales-specific, there are literally dozens of findings covering everything which can possibly happen in sales including, but not limited, to prospecting, closing, qualifying, account management, farming, use of the sales process, ability to handle stalls, put-offs, objections, working remotely, growth potential, development needs and more. What's most important to understand about assessments is that:

The personality tests' questions are asked in the context of social settings, not sales settings, so none of the findings are sales-specific.
Because personality assessments' findings are not sales-specific, they are not predictive.
Personality assessments are generally one-size-fits-all, without regard to your market, its challenges, your competition, your pricing, the resistance your salespeople will face, your compensation plan and how specific selling strengths and weaknesses will impact those conditions.
Assessments of your existing salespeople should be useful for development. If you don't have sales-specific findings, you're only developing them as people, not salespeople.
How is OMG different? Assessments are only a minor part of an effective sales force evaluation. The most important part is to be able to learn:
- What impact sales management is having on the salespeople,
- Whether you've been hiring the right people,
- Whether your sales force can execute your strategies,
- Whether your systems and processes support the sales force,
- How effective is your sales management,
- If you can develop more of a sales culture,
- Whether the salespeople can make a transition such as account manager types to hunters and closers; presenters and quoters to consultative sales types; transactional sale to a solution sale, etc.,
- Who can be developed?,
- If you're attempting to down-size or right-sales the sales force, who are the individuals with the abilities to help you do more with less?,
- How much better can they get?,
- What it will take?,
- What would be the ROI on development,
- Why you get the specific results you get,
- What's the quality of your pipeline?,
- Etc.
When used for Hiring and Selection, an assessment must be an accurate predictor of sales success for a particular sales role in your particular company, calling on your particular market, with its particular challenges and competition. A personality assessment won't consistently identify the people who will succeed, but OMG's Assessment will, with its 95% Predictive Validity. We can differentiate between Hirable (they meet our criteria and yours), Hirable - Ideal (they're hirable and will ramp up more quickly than normal), and Hirable - Perfect (they're hirable, ideal and meet additional customized criteria which match up with your most effective producers).

in summary, whether you're using a personality assessment, behavioral-styles assessment, psychological assessment, or psychometric (describes all of the above) assessment, it's the marketing that's sales-specific, not the findings. Use them at your own risk.

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Topics: sales assessment, Dave Kurlan, sales force evaluation, Sales Candidate, sales evaluation, caliper, sales profile, 16PF, Trimetric, MySalesAssessment, SalesAssessment.com, SalesAssessmentTesting, SalesForceAssessments.com, SalesTestOnLine.com.com, personality test, personality assessment, DISC

Tale of Two Assessments - Comparing Value

Posted by Dave Kurlan on Wed, Dec 17, 2008 @ 20:12 PM

A potential client wanted to know how Objective Management Group could justify the cost of a our license (unlimited candidate assessments for one year or until the specified number of salespeople are hired) versus what seemed at face value to be a lower cost for DISC assessments.

There are several factors here but they are all worth noting.

Actual Use. Using best practices, and by properly using the assessment, you would assess candidates as their resumes arrive using our simple automation process. Our data shows that you would assess at least 20 candidates per hire. Don't know where you would find 20 candidates per hire? We provide more than just the use of a great tool; we also help you build a process that impacts the quantity and quality of the candidate pool. If you follow our process the candidates will come!
Predictive Validity. Objective Management Group's assessment was built for sales and is only used for sales. As such it is highly predictive of on the job success with a predictive validity around 95%. 92% of the candidates we recommend that are hired move to the top half of their sales force within 12 months while 75% of those we don't recommend who get hired anyway (clients who are smarter than we are) fail within 6 months. Behavioral Styles assessments (like DISC) are not predictive of on the job performance. But suppose the DISC was predictive. How much more predictive would our assessment have to be in order to justify a higher price? If we were only one candidate more predictive it would more than justify the difference.
Case Histories. More than one company has asked us to assess their top producers. If they were applying for a job, our assessment would have recommended 90% of their top producers.
Intended Use. Behavioral Styles and personality assessments were designed to show how people are different. That's essentially their purpose. Today they show the different ways in which people communicate, and how they might behave in different scenarios, given their tendencies and traits. Objective Management Group's assessment was built to predict sales success in your company and industry, selling into your market, against your competition, with your pricing strategy, expectations, sales cycle and challenges all factored in. Ours isn't a one size fits all sales assessment. Could you imagine using the same selection criteria for selecting a route salesperson selling Leggs to convenience stores as well as a salesperson selling 6-figure custom designed capital solutions? That's how DISC and others like them are used.
Price Comparisons. - If one is to compare prices, it should be on the exact same assessment from different sources; comparing the price of DISC to the price of an OMG is like comparing the price of a Kia to the price of a Lexus!
Summary. I'm biased. I developed OMG's assessments nearly twenty years ago and continue to enhance them to be more even more predictive with every passing month. What is the cost of a single sales hiring mistake? And what is the upside to getting it right by selecting a strong, successful salesperson - each and every time? Use the right tool within the right process and you'll avoid the mistakes that most companies make.