Salespeople Psych Out Psych Tests

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 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

george.dudley@bsrpinc.com

This news release was issued on behalf of Newswise(TM). For more
information, visit http://www.newswise.com . SOURCE Baylor University