In the research paper authors investigated reasons of huge and costly staff turnover in sales sector (50% in the first year and 80% in first 3 years). According to Robert N. McMurry, high staff turnover is really a big problem due to high expenses on education and trainings. Authors decided to develop a new concept of sales ability essence to solve the problem.
Authors point out that there are 2 essentials of a salesperson. They are empathy and ego drive. Empathy (E) is the ability to feel and understand other people. Ego drive (D) is an inner need to conquer. Empathy is something that helps you to be flexible enough to react on dynamic customer actions (change in mind, etc.) in a proper way. From the other side, ego drive enables salesman to concentrate on the target and close the deal with profit.
Authors state that ability to sale depends on the combination of these 2 characteristics. There are 4 main combinations: “ED”, “Ed”, “eD”, “ed” (capital letters represent high value of a characteristic, small letters – low). Person with “ED” has enough qualities to become a good sales person. “Ed” – will be a good guy not passionate enough to close the deal with profit for the company. “eD” is like a bulldozer; such salesman will miss lots of deals due to lack of flexibility. Person “ed” – does not have enough empathy or drive to become a good salesperson.
During the tests, an interesting fact appeared. It turned out, that all previous psychological tests in the field of human personality failed to determine qualities, required for a good sales person. In fact, they even hide some major information about applicants. There are four main arguments, proving that previous tests were wrong.
First of all, tests were investigating people’s interests, not abilities. The main concept of these tests is that interests are equal to abilities. The authors find this concept the biggest failure of sales studying. The fact that one wants to be an Olympics swimming champion does not give him the ability to swim as good as Michele Phelps. So interests are not equal to abilities.
Secondly, many of the tests taken from job applicants do not present real data because applicants tend to give expected answers. These tests do not represent the real qualities of people.
Thirdly, job application does not test people for unusual thinking or creativity, although sales job requires both of them.
And the last but not the least, most tests try to isolate fractional traits rather than reveal the whole dynamics. However, sales process involves all personal characteristics in combination; therefore, estimations based on isolated skills are not representative.
In addition, authors impugn role of experience and trainings for a salesperson. The main message is that without a proper level of E and D, experience or trainings cannot make “ed” person a good salesman. These statements are proven by number of examples.
In my opinion, presented concepts are realistic and represent real life. Results received in terms of research show credibility of developed measures (ED) and their applicability. I have some experience in sales jobs and can confidently state that in most cases standard tests are failing to determine the ability of a person to work in sales sector. Therefore, we are in need of new tools to determine whether person can be a salesman or not. Described method can be a good try to find such tool.
Mayer, David, and Herbert Greenberg. "What makes a good salesman." Harvard Business Review: 118-125. Web. 31 May 2014.
