Introduction
The fear of prospecting, Sales Call Reluctance® and sales hesitation can be measured using the SPQ*GOLD® questionnaire, an online Assessment. The SPQ*GOLD® measures the prospecting fitness of people in sales, sales management and customer contact careers. The SPQ*GOLD® is an attitude and activity based questionnaire that gives an objective measurement regarding Call Reluctance® and sales hesitation, an individual’s hesitance to prospect and self-promote for new business. SPQ*GOLD® identifies how much initiative, energy and drive an individual devotes to proactive sales prospecting and the amount of energy spent on coping with inhibitors such as fear. It is best suited for anyone responsible for meeting sales and revenue targets whether you call yourself a sales person or not.
Barrett Consultants understand that many people find prospecting for business and closing sales very hard work and for most people it is distressing and this causes hesitations that cost sales. Research shows that less than 20% of salespeople are fully effective when prospecting and less than 30% are fully effective at closing sales.
If the fear of prospecting and hesitation to close sales is resulting in missed opportunities for your business – what is the potential cost to your organisation?
Our ongoing client research demonstrates that it costs organisations an average of 5 new units of business per month and on average, up to $50,000 per month in lost business per sales person. Transactional selling environments could see higher unit losses and organisations in complex and high-end selling environments could be losing significantly larger revenues.
With SPQ Gold we can help you understand and estimate the cost of hesitation that exists in your organisation and show you how to stop missing sales opportunities.
With over 20 years experience and 80,000+ Sales Preference Questionnaire (SPQ GOLD®) Assessments to our name, we are the market leader in understanding sales hesitation and behaviour.
Contact one of our consultants to identify how SPQ Gold could assist your organisation overcome the fear of prospecting and remove sales hesitations.
Applications
SPQ*GOLD® for recruitment and selection purposes:
- Online Assessment
- Reports are automatically generated and sent to the hiring manager or recruiter.
- Reports highlight individual areas of strength or development.
- Barrett provide feedback to the hiring manager or recruiter on the candidates “match fitness”
- Additionally, Barrett can provide behavioural interview questions that will further investigate the areas that have been highlighted as potential challenges.
- Confidential management and individual feedback of reports.
SPQ*GOLD® for development purposes
- Online Assessment
- Individual reports automatically generated and provided to participant.
- Reports highlight individual areas of strength and development suggestions.
- Approximately 45 minutes of personalised feedback can be provided to the participant.
- Team trend summary reports are generated.
- Team based Training Needs Analysis is provided.
- Customised action plans for selling skills and behaviour development.
What does SPQ*Gold® Measure:
SPQ*Gold® measures all critical areas that will determine a person’s ability to effectively prospect, self promote and close sales.
SPQ Gold® provides Prospecting Brake and Accelerator scores that represent the percentage of motivational energy currently being directed to coping with prospecting (hesitation to prospect) or actual prospecting behaviour. The Brake & Accelerator scores are inversely related – the lower the brake score, the higher the accelerator the better.
All 12 types of Call Reluctance® behaviours are measured in the SPQ Gold® assessment. These are exacerbations of otherwise normal behaviour and are representing above average to extreme responses of the fear of self-promotion or prospecting. The higher the score the more likely the behaviour(s) will adversely affect sales and prospecting activities. All forms of Call Reluctance® behaviours are forms of procrastination.
| 12 types of Call Reluctance® | |
| 1. Doomsayer™ | *Worries instead of doing *Forecasts worst-case scenarios *Prefers limited social involvement *Measures success by absence of failure |
| 2. Over-Preparer™ | *Over-reliance on information such as brochures and technical specs *Over-invests energy in always getting ready *Never enough information or feel adequately prepared *Over-analyses, under acts |
| 3. Hyper-Pro™ | *Over-concerned with professional image and credibility •*May see prospecting as demeaning and unnecessary *May not listen *May talk over people *Needs to be seen as better than average |
| 4. Stage Fright™ | *High discomfort with giving group presentations *May avoid group activities *One-on-one sales may be completely unimpaired. |
| 5. Role Rejection™ | *Nagging guilt and shame associated with being in a sales career generally based on negative stereotypes *May use ‘deflected identities’ to disguise the sales role *Tries to be overly positive *Highly contagious |
| 6. Yielder™ | *Hesitates to close due to fear of appearing rude, pushy or intrusive *Says ‘yes’ when should say ‘no’ *Avoids confrontation and needs to feel liked *Can gossip to remain ‘in the loop’. |
| 7. Social Self-Consciousness™ | *Avoids prospects that have power, wealth, education or prestige *Doesn’t target the key decisions makers *Over reliance on self-help materials.. |
| 8. Separationist Sales™ | *Hesitates to prospect to personal friends *Views selling to friends as exploitive *Resists giving friends names as referrals |
| 9. Emotionally Unemancipated™ | *Hesitates to prospect to family *Views selling to family as exploitive *Resists giving relatives names as referrals. |
| 10. Referral Aversion™ | *Hesitates to ask for referrals from clients for fear of jeopardising existing relationships *Initiating first contact or cold calling may not be an issue. |
| 11. Telephobia™ | *Avoids using the telephone to prospect *Prefers to prospect face to face *Other forms of prospecting may be totally unimpaired. *Over reliance on other techniques. |
| 12. Oppositional Reflex™ | *Reflexively criticises and finds fault *not always open to being coached or trained *Avoids loss of control *Likes to be right *Can appear aggressive and regret outbursts later |
SPQ*Gold® also indentifies four Call Reluctance® “impostors”. These are specific areas which can affect prospecting sales fitness, however they are not related to fear based issues such as hesitation. They are related to health and wellbeing, goal clarity, priorities and tenacity all which can affect prospecting fitness.
| 4 Call Reluctance® Impostors | |
| Prospecting Motivation | • level of raw physical energy and achievement drive used to support goal directed sales behaviour • raw physical energy can be affected by lifestyle, diet, sleep, exercise, intake habits (e.g. smoking, eating, drinking, drugs), and physical and emotional traumas |
| Prospecting Goal Level | • degree of clarity or focus on goals and outcomes • ability to set achievable work related goals • the goal level determines where motivation energy actually goes • |
| Prospecting Goal Diffusion | • degree to which available energy is dispersed or scattered across multiple or competing goals • the lower the score the more prioritised the person is likely to be |
| Problem Solving | |
Sample SPQ*Gold® Reports
Speak to us about your assessment needs.
Talk to us, your selling better advisory team, and we’ll be able to advise you on the best training solution for your business.
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