| WACO, Texas, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ --
Psychological tests have been used to
probe and analyze salespeople for decades.
Mountains of scholarly papers have
been based on results. Management practices
altered. But according to
research presented at the Nov. 3, 2005 convention
of the Society for Marketing
Advances in San Antonio, Texas, salespeople
could be psyching-out the psych
tests. "Over 50% of the answers on
psychological sales tests are probably
faked," says Jeff Tanner, professor
of Marketing at Baylor University's
Hankamer School of Business.
Tanner and co-author, George W. Dudley at
the Behavioral Sciences Research
Press (http://www.bsrpinc.com/research/papers.htm
) in Dallas, studied the
test-taking behavior of over 94,000 salespeople
scattered across several
nations. The researchers used a psychological
test specifically designed to
measure business-building and deception
in salespeople. "Salespeople in the
U.S. fake the most," Dudley reported,
"while salespeople in New Zealand and
Singapore fake less." The study found
that salesmen spin their answers
slightly more than saleswomen, but the actual
difference is surprisingly
small.
Sales managers and executives should be
extremely cautious when using
results from psychological tests to inform
their decisions and guide their
practices, the scientists warned. "Our
research shows that we probably don't
know as much about salespeople as we thought
we did," Tanner said, "and
finding good salespeople is still challenging
because many salespeople are
better at selling themselves on psychological
tests than selling the products
and services they represent."
What about those online sales personality
tests hyped on the web? Are
they an improvement? "Probably not,"
Dudley said. "Salespeople in the U.K.
and Australia actually faked more on sales
tests administered online than on
old fashion paper-and-pencil tests."
The ethics of modern salespeople are featured
in the forthcoming book, The
Hard Truth About Soft Selling, by George
Dudley with Jeff Tanner, published by
Behavioral Sciences Research Press. The
book is available this month.
About Baylor Business
The Hankamer School of Business holds to
a visionary standard of
excellence whereby integrity stands shoulder
to shoulder with analytic and
strategic strengths to build leaders, not
simply careers. The school is
ranked 12th among non-doctoral business
schools, 24th among private business
schools and 66th in the nation, according
to U.S. News "Best Undergraduate
Programs." Visit http://www.baylor.edu/business
for more information.
Media Contacts:
Cynthia Jackson
254-710-7628 (office)
254-749-4055 (cell)
Cynthia_Jackson@baylor.edu
George W. Dudley
1-800-323-4659
This news release was issued on behalf
of Newswise(TM). For more
information, visit http://www.newswise.com
.
SOURCE Baylor University
Web Site: http://www.baylor.edu http://www.baylor.edu/business
http://www.bsrpinc.com/research/papers.htm
|
Contact
Us