Why the PSS is Unique
PSS Case Studies
20 PSS Skill Categories
The PSS Feedback Report
PSS Research and Validation

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Professional Selling SkillMap ^TM

Research and Validation

The Professional Selling SkillMap is not a behavioral profile or psychological assessment; it measures specific skills, habits and attitudes, not personality traits or styles. Because it is a self-reporting instrument that can be effected by internal bias (a person having a higher or lower opinion of their own skill level than would be warranted by objective observation) it SHOULD NOT be used to compare the relative strengths of two or more employees.

Important note – SkillMap™ Assessment and Development Guidebooks are NOT behavioral profiles. They are self-assessments of skills and habits (which are of course closely related to behavioral characteristics, but the distinction is important) so the accepted methods of determining validity and reliability are distinct from the requirements of psychological or behavioral profiles. The first stage of development for a SkillMap is the creation of a competency model.

The 20 categories of the Professional Selling SkillMap have been identified, refined and validated through four avenues of research:

• Behavioral Observation. The development group analyzed their observations of salespeople and identified the skills, habits and attitudes that were consistently present in high-performers and absent in low-performers.

• Surveys of more than 700 sales managers and interviews with more than 1200 individual salespeople provided further insight into the characteristics of  sales achievers. On this basis, 20 categories were defined and placed in a theoretical model for measuring selling skills, habits and attitudes.

• Review of Literature. An extensive review was conducted of published literature (see bibliography) on selling skills and characteristics of successful salespeople. The research confirmed the model postulated by the development group, and at the same time provided further insights into specific sales techniques and strategies related to individual categories.

• Development and Delivery of Sales Training. Through consulting relationships with a broad range of client organizations, hundreds of sales training programs have been developed and delivered, and the efficacy of specific skills, techniques and strategies has been continually assessed. This process has produced an ongoing refinement of the competency model over the past 16 years, resulting in a thoroughly validated model which is applicable to practically any consultative selling situation and environment.

In addition, research findings were obtained from surveys of more than 1600 sales managers and interviews with more than 300 individual salespeople. Their characteristics are shown in the following summary:

Age: Median age was 32, and the highest represented age category was aged 50-59 (12%).

Education: 57% of the group had a college degree or higher.

Industry: The group included representation of every major industry and market segment, with business-to-business sales making up 72% of respondents and business-to-consumer sales 28% of respondents.

Geographical region: Survey responses and interviews were conducted throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, with no geographic region (within this group) representing more than 12% of the sample.

Heritage: 74% of respondents and interviewees identified themselves as Caucasian.  Heritage was not identified by 4% of respondents. 22% indicated minority status, with African Americans contributing 11% of the total sample.

Gender: The sample was comprised of 67% male and 33% female participants.