The Counselor Salesperson Challenge
Organizations are frequently looking for ways to increase the use of new skills in the workplace. The Counselor Salesperson Challenge (CSP Challenge) is a Situational Judgment Test approach to supporting the application of skills from Wilson Learning's The Counselor Salesperson (CSP) program. This tool is an effective way to help managers coach their salespeople more effectively, extend the transfer of CSP skills back to the job, and diagnose salespeople's CSP skills prior to learning.
Introduction
Users of The Counselor Salesperson have often asked for a tool to:
- Assess salespeople's skills before attending CSP, but in a way that does not require customer feedback
- Provide salespeople with a post-course assessment of their abilities to apply the skills to key sales situations
- Help managers coach their salespeople in the application of CSP skills
Now these can all be accomplished with the CSP Challenge, a Situational Judgment Test tool that supports the learning and use of CSP skills.
What is a Situational Judgment Test?
A Situational Judgment Test (SJT) is an assessment of a person's ability to apply their knowledge. A work situation is presented, along with four possible responses to the situation. The individual's task is to select the response that is judged to be most appropriate for that situation.
For The Counselor Salesperson Challenge, CSP experts rated each response on its degree of correctness. Thus, one response is judged to be the best, others are partly correct, and others are incorrect. Individuals receive feedback based upon the percent correct for each situation, as well as overall scores for Relating, Discovering, Advocating, and Supporting.
The Counselor Salesperson Challenge as a Coaching Tool
One of the most valuable uses of The Counselor Salesperson Challenge is as a tool to support sales managers in coaching their salespeople. We have created a Manager Coaching Guide so sales managers can hold coaching sessions with salespeople to discuss the results of The Counselor Salesperson Challenge, how these results affect their interactions with customers, and how best to approach customers throughout the Relating, Discovering, Advocating, and Supporting process.
The Counselor Salesperson Challenge Components
The The Counselor Salesperson Challenge includes components for both the salesperson and sales manager, all of which are delivered through our online Wil Learn system.
Salesperson
The Salesperson component is for individual salespeople and provides feedback on how well they apply the CSP skills to key sales situations. Included are:
- The online Situational Judgment Test, which takes about 20 minutes to complete
- A printable results report
- A downloadable Interpretation Guide
Sales Manager
The Sales Manager component is the same as the Salesperson, with the inclusion of the Manager Coaching Guide. Sales managers take the test and receive individual feedback just like their salespeople, then use the guide to debrief results with their sales team, review key CSP models, and coach their salespeople in performance improvement. Included are:
- The online Situational Judgment Test
- A printable results report
- A downloadable Interpretation Guide
- A downloadable Manager Coaching Guide