A life insurance company has developed a test believed to measure success at personal face-to-face sales. It has used this test to choose new life insurance agents, believing that persons selected in this way will generate high levels of sales. Yet this has not happened. People who score very high on the test are not outselling the company’s existing agents, who never took the test before they were hired. What’s going on here?
1. Do you think the test of “selling ability” might be at fault? For instance, could it be that this test is not really valid? How would you find out if it is or is not?
2. What other factors might be involved? Assuming the test is valid, could the fact that the new agents lack experience be contributing to their relatively poor performance? If so, would you expect this will improve as they gain experience?
3. If you conclude that the test of selling ability is not really valid, how could you help the company develop a better test—one that really does measure this important ability?