Peer Review

Personality Assessment for Selling

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Reviewed:: Mar 26, 2004 by Business

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Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: "Personality Assessment for Selling" is an on-line testing device to measure the
dominant personality of students. In as little as three or four minutes, a
participant can obtain a quick, but limited personality assessment that
categorizes the respondent into one of four classifications: Socializer,
Thinker, Relater, and Director. People exhibit traits of all four, however, one
category is dominant in each person. The premise behind the testing is the
Platinum Rule, which states, "do unto others what they would like you to do"
rather than the Golden Rule, which states, "do unto others what you would have
them do unto you."

The assessment is
web-based, and simple to use. Categorizations are based on responses to
eighteen multiple choice type questions and the analysis process takes only a
few seconds. However, this is a commercial site, and the "free" information
provided is restricted to a very short summary of key strengths, weaknesses,
irritation level, goals, fears, and motivators. Participants have an opportunity
to purchase an extended assessment report for $19.95.
Type of Material:: Online testing.
Recommended Uses:: Online courses or those with online support (Blackboard, WebCT, etc.) may choose
to offer a link to the website as an example of one(of many) personality
assessment tools.
Technical Requirements:: Only one assessment per email address is available; an error message advising
the user to enter a different email address will be displayed should an
individual attempt the assessment multiple times.

Additional technical requirements include the following, as excerpted from the
PlatinumRule.com website:

"Windows
Intel? Pentium? processor
Microsoft? Windows? 98, Windows NT? 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
32 MB of RAM (64 MB recommended)
Internet Explorer 5.0 or Netscape Navigator 6.2.3 or greater
Macintosh
PowerPC? processor
Mac OS software version 8.6, 9, or X
32 MB of RAM (64 MB recommended)
Internet Explorer 5.0 or Netscape Navigator 6.2.3 or greater
Internet Access and Email Accounts
You will need Internet access to use Online Assessments. To administer Online
Assessments from Associate and Corporate admin sites, you will need a valid
email account. Each end user and observer must also have a unique email address.
Two or more end users or observers cannot share the same email address.

Online Assessments should be viewed on Netscape Navigator version 6.2.3 or later
or Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or later. Using an earlier browser
version will not display and process the contents of Online Assessments
correctly.

Third Party Software

Adobe Acrobat Reader - Some documents and reports on Online Assessments will
require Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing and printing. If you do not have this
program, it is available free from Adobe
Internet Explorer Browser - Free Upgrade to latest version.
Netscape Browser - Free Upgrade to latest version.
Accept Cookies
In order for Online Assessments to function properly, your browser must accept
cookies. For instructions on setting your browser to accept cookies, please
refer to your browser's help section.

Back Button
Avoid using your browser's BACK button to navigate to a previous page. This can

disrupt certain processing functions, such as when purchasing Online
Assessments. Functional pages are provided with their own BACK buttons. Use
these instead."

Source: http://platinumrule.com/systemreq.asp
Retrieved March 9, 2004
Identify Major Learning Goals:: The major learning goal would be to have students understand themselves and
others and how they are perceived. Other learning goals are for students to
become aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, plus develop adaptability to
specific selling situations.
Target Student Population:: Students in Professional Selling courses are the target student population, but
students in human resources, general management, and interpersonal communication
could benefit from the learning experience. Psychology students, or those
interested in measurement, may also be interested in the assessment in terms of
questionnaire design.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: No prerequisites are required. However, to be of value, it is imperative that
the exercise be supplemented with readings or lecture explaining this model of
personality assessment. Relying on the exercise alone is of very limited value,
as students obtain insight with respect to only one of the four personality
classifications.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: The strength of the material is the simplicity of a complex and interesting
subject into an easy to understand format. Students like this information
because it's "fun to know". It also has many applications and can be
supplemented by films, stories, etc. It depicts reality and in large sample
sizes would be accurate. It teaches valuable concepts.
Concerns:: No overview of the various personality categories is provided. Furthermore, the
free information provides nothing in the way of cues, indicators, or tips that
would be helpful in terms of classifying the personality of other people. As
salespeople are highly concerned with identifying communication styles or
personalities of prospects, this assessment offers little. The simple nature of
the test attempts to take a very complex subject, behavior of individuals, and
categorize people into four easy to understand areas. Also good judgment about
how to adapt to the different styles is a critical component of this learning
experience and a bad instructor could give bad advice.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: These types of tests are very easy to administer and students love to
participate and learn more about their own behavior. Participants can gain an
understanding of their key strengths or weaknesses, which may be helpful in
recognizing areas for improvement or skills to be capitalized upon. Also, there
are numerous supplemental ways to add to the learning experience.
Concerns:: The complimentary analysis results provide little in the way of true insights.
If not discussed in depth, simply categorizing students into quadrants can be a
subpar learning experience.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: Access via the web makes the assessment appropriate for both face-to-face and
online forums. The "Personality Assessment" is very easy to use for both
students and faculty, either on-line or "paper and pencil." A "paper and
pencil" administration and is anonymous nature so that no one sees the
personality assessment results but the student.
Concerns:: This is not a stand along assessment; faculty must be prepared to provide
supplimentary information to explain the personality typing model in use, and
how it can be applied to identifying the personality of others. It is
also important that the faculty provides a method to take this assessment in an
anonymous setting. People will not be completely truthful if they think others
can see their responses.

Other Issues and Comments:: Personality testing is a very useful learning experience in a selling course,
any course for that matter which deals with personal effectiveness.
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