PUBLISHER:
Behavioral Sciences Research Press,
Dallas, Texas, USA.
DATE OF ORIGINAL
COPYRIGHT:
1980
AUTHORS:
George W. Dudley and Shannon L. Goodson
PURPOSE:
To diagnose the presence, nature and
extent of Inhibited Social Contact
Initiation Syndrome in salespeople
and personnel who influence salespeople.
SCOPE:
International; most widely used psychometric
application for diagnosis of sales
call reluctance® in the world.
More than 300,000 applications worldwide.
DESCRIPTION:
SPQ is the abbreviation for Sales
Preference Questionnaire™, the
formal name of the test booklet. SPQ*GOLD®:
The Sales Call Reluctance® Scale
is the name given to the computer
scored printouts of test results.
For more information about the theoretical
background of the device, see SPQ*GOLD®
Theoretical Foundations.
RELEVANT APPLICATIONS:
SPQ*GOLD® can be administered
to anyone in a contact-dependent work
setting. This includes, but is not
limited to, veteran salespeople, new
salespeople, prospective salespeople,
sales managers, trainers, supervisors,
outside consultants, psychologists,
human resources practitioners and
other groups and individuals, including
senior management, who are either
in sales or may influence the attitudes
or behaviors of those who are in sales.
NORMS
(AVAILABILITY):
Since 1980 SPQ*GOLD® has been
used in a series of studies with samples
representative of many organizations,
industries and countries. The result
is a formidable array of norms detailing
differences both within and between
groups of interest. Norms for age,
gender, education and other demographic
variables of interest have also been
obtained.
NORM DATA
(SOURCES):
Includes U.S., Australia, New Zealand,
Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, U.K., Italy,
Spain, South Africa, Canada and others.
SCORING:
At present, SPQ*GOLD® can be scored
via ROSE™ (Rapid On-site Scores
& Evaluations), a proprietary
multi-assessment computer scoring
platform for international use. Scores
are reported as simple percents. However,
transformed scores are also available
in more complex and informative standardized
formats such as "N-Stens."
Full internet access and scoring will
be available soon.
RELIABILITY:
SPQ*GOLD® scales demonstrate good
test-retest stability, averaging r=.75
over all scales (18 of the 21 scales
were significant at p<.01, the
remainder at p<.05). The stability
of the Brake score, the overall diagnostic
measure, is r=.91 (p<.01). Cronbach's
alpha, one estimate of internal consistency,
for the Brake Score is r=.84. (Coefficient
Alpha can vary somewhat because research
has shown that the sales profession
is not unidimensional.) Radically
dissimilar settings can exist within
the branch offices of the same company,
across companies within the same industry
and across industries. In each case,
the correlation of customer contact
initiation to objective outcome measures
can vary from extremely important
(certain financial services companies)
to considerably less important (some
forms of retail sales). SPQ*GOLD®
is most appropriate for growth-oriented
organizational settings where first
contact with prospective buyers on
a consistent daily basis is needed
and expected for new business generation.
VALIDITY:
SPQ*GOLD® has generated an extensive
body of research results which have
established good concurrent validity
in a variety of disparate organizational
settings, correlating significantly
with objective outcome data (almost
always measured in dollars). Some
associations are best represented
with simple linear models, while others
have benefited from more complex non-linear
explorations including some of the
first neural network modeling completed
for predicting (classifying) sales
results ("very high producer"
vs. "very low producer").
SPQ*GOLD® has also demonstrated
excellent discriminant validity between
groups such as successful salespeople,
university students, and technical
non-sales personnel as well as outplaced
and retained accountants. Construct
validity studies have shown that SPQ*GOLD®
subscale scores correlate significantly
in expected directions with scales
on established mainstream psychological
instruments such as the 16PF, 16PF
(Australian version), NEO, MBTI, CPI,
MMPI and others. Many additional construct
validity studies using objective outcome
data have been completed, including
number of interviews obtained by outplaced
non-sales management level personnel;
and psychological barriers to the
effectiveness of mentoring programs.
SPQ*GOLD® scales have been shown
to predict a range of behavioral choices,
in directions consistent with the
construct of Inhibited Social Contact
Initiation Syndrome, which is measured
by SPQ*GOLD®. For more information,
see the Research Section of this website.
PRIMARY REFERENCES:
The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance®,
Manual for the Sales Preference Questionnaire™,
Technical Supplement to Accompany
SPQ*GOLD®.
NON-U.S./NON-ENGLISH
VERSIONS AVAILABLE:
Yes
ALTERNATIVE
INSTRUMENTS:
Meeting People Questionnaire (MPQ™),
for measuring the same construct in
non-sales settings; Recruiting Power
Measure (RPM™), for measuring
the same construct in personnel expected
to contact and recruit high level
prospective staff.
AVAILABILITY:
From the publisher, or through an
international network of professional
associates.
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