Improving assessment center criterion validity for salesperson selection

Abstract

Assessment centers (ACs) are one of the most common selection and recruitment methods in today’s business world, with very high acceptance in practice. The AC research literature, however, has focused on managerial performance and neglected sales performance. Therefore, we assessed the features of ACs for sales positions. The results indicated that AC ratings designed for sales positions exhibited good interrater agreement and were distinct. The criterion-related validity of AC observer ratings was in the normal range of ACs designed for managerial jobs in terms of overall assessment rating scores. Additionally, we tested a new approach to ACs for salesperson selection based on the socioanalytic theory of personality. We hypothesized and found that motivation for sales success combined with social competence predicts field sales performance one year later. This interaction effect explained incremental variance in objective performance above and beyond exercises and overall assessment rating scores. Operational validity compared to the traditional approach increased by 25%. The true score criterion validity of the new approach was .49. We discuss implications and limitations.