Comparison of Top & Bottom Ranked Financial Services Salespeople In a National Call Center

Dr. David K. Barnett & Dr. Michael D. Barnett

What differentiates the very top and very bottom-ranked salespeople in a national call center for a major U.S. financial services company? SalesKey® scores of the top 1% of salespeople were compared with scores from those of the lowest 1%. Productivity is defined by assets brought under management.

The study is limited by the small sample size (N=27). Results may not generalize to the broader population.

Kolmogorov-Smirnov test confirmed that data conform to a normal distribution. Independent Samples T-Test showed that four scales strongly differentiated top and bottom performers in the sample (p<.05). The four measures are: Sales Initiative, Sales Aptitude, Telephone, and UpMarket.

Sales Initiative is the overall measure of Contact Hesitation, the disposition of a salesperson to make excuses or make sales contacts. Sales Initiative is a key Level 1 measurement; Level 1 of Barnett’s Integrated Developmental Model is made up of foundational career behaviors not cost-effective to train. The fact that Sales Initiative shows up in this study as a key differentiator adds credence to the Barnett’s developmental model.

Sales Aptitude measures the sales knowledge an individual might possess and belongs to Level 2 in Barnett’s Four Levels, Level 2 behaviors are those that impact the cost of training and managing a salesperson.

The final two differentiating scales are Telephone and UpMarket. Both are part of Level 4 of Barnett’s Developmental Model, behaviors and skills that improve the overall productivity of the salesperson. Interestingly, in this sample the significant Level 4 differentiators are “reversed;” that is, top performers scored lower than poor performers. Since the Telephone scale measures the degree to which a salesperson uses the phone without emotional barriers in the sales process, lower Telephone scores among top producers is extremely problematic in a phone sales environment and may help explain the high levels of burn-out among even top-rated salespeople.

UpMarket is a measure of social intimidation. Individuals with higher UpMarket scores are less likely to be intimidated by wealthy or influential buyers. In this study, top performing salespeople score lower, meaning they are somewhat intimidated by wealthy clientele. The reversed nature of these and other Level 4 scales probably indicate an overall lack of Level 4 development in the organization.

Although not meeting the statistical tests of certainty, descriptive statistics show that two other scales could be important in differentiating top performing salespeople from the poor performers. Goal is a Level 1 measure of the degree to which a salesperson is motivated by goals. The top 1% are driven more to excel and appear to be intrinsically motivated to do a good job.

Level 3 of Barnett’s Developmental Model addresses communication preferences within a sales dialogue. Top salespeople are somewhat more likely than poor performers to control the sales conversation and do not hesitate to ask for the business and handle objections. However, both groups score in the above average range.

The following recommendations were made by the researchers.
1. Hiring protocols should continue to focus on strong Level 1 attainment with a particular emphasis on Sales Initiative and intrinsic Goal-orientation.

2. The best way to help poor performers should be to help managers better diagnose and coach effectively to those Level 1 issues at which they are underperforming.

3. Training for top performers should focus on phone effectiveness overall and with up-market clientele specifically.