Digg It - Business

I have to tell you that when I was first introduced to psychometrics in 1983, I was somewhat sceptical and that scepticism has remained with me ever since; I will explain why in a moment but first a little background information – this might be the borin

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

g bit but do stay with it!

Psychometrics evolved from the need to examine ability. At the end of the 19th century, French psychologist Alfred Binet worked on some of the first tests to measure children’s ability. The US army developed its own tes

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

ts to help recruit fresh troops for the first world war, the so-called Alpha tests designed to work quickly through the hundreds of thousands of applicants and work out who had the required education and background. More notoriously, the tests went throu

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

gh a period of popularity with eugenicists – something psychologists are still trying to live down – with the invention of IQ and aptitude tests.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of psychometric tests. The first measures ability – verbal or numeric

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

al reasoning, for example. The second measures personality traits such as how a person might behave in a given situation or what motivates them. In the world of work, tests are increasingly tailored to the jobs they are used for. The choice of test is ab

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

solutely crucial: In order to decide to use a test, you must first analyse a job in terms of what makes one person more successful at it than another. You must be absolutely clear that what you’re measuring is relevant to the job performance

So why my s

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

cepticism and why do I believe that psychometric testing and professional salespeople are uncomfortable bedfellows?

Pick up a typical company report and what words do you find? Verbs like analyse, forecast, plan, assess and schedule, are used by organis

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

ations that are efficient, productive and predictable. What set of people are required? Obviously, people who are efficient, effective, proficient, competent, productive and co-operative. These traits we can measure and predict using psychometric testing

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

.

But I believe we need to go beyond – as business captains we need to be inspired, motivated, creators, who are enthusiastic and able to consistently deliver against our key objectives. We should be developing individuals who are not afraid to challeng

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

e paradigms, who are prepared to go that extra yard in search of excellence and who understand that success is 80% attitude and only 20% aptitude. And this where my sceptism has its roots because the “personality” element or the “attitude” in my Attit

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

ude + Skills + Process + Knowledge = Success selling formula, cannot be accurately benchmarked.

Witness the admission of John Rust, professor of psychometrics at City University and director of the Cambridge Assessment Centre, “Some skills

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

such as numeracy or language are easy to test. Others – creativity, for example – are more nebulous. Lots of people criticise creativity tests because they are very hard to do”.

The question is, are any of these assessments reliable or valid? Rust

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

does believe creativity can be tested. He cites the example, now used more often in psychology lectures than HR departments, of giving a candidate a brick and asking them to come up with as many uses for it as possible.(The mind boggles) Here psychometri

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

cs enters a grey area. “Using personality tests for personnel selection is sometimes regarded as controversial. The difficulty is that people can often perceive what characteristics are desirable – you’re unlikely to admit to having hallucinations. Pe

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

ople who answer honestly might be at a disadvantage and this tends to show up if you look at the relationship between test scores and performance”.

“Correlations between personality test scores and job performance are often weaker than a similar

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

comparison with ability-based tests”, he adds. “Ultimately, psychometrics can only ever used by companies in the context of a wider selection process, the test will only inform the decision – it won’t make the decision”.

You see, returning to my

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

ASP + K formula, at what point does a psychometric finding have reliable relevance? The attitude element is uncertain and for me this is critical, as it drives the motivation of all the other elements: Skills, including; negotiation, pr

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

esentation, account management, relationship building, opportunity assessment etc, cannot be assessed. The individual’s commitment to appropriate sales process which might include; forecasting, pipeline development, activity analysis etc, cannot b

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

e assessed. And finally, knowledge, that includes industry knowledge, sector knowledge, company knowledge, product knowledge and even self-knowledge, cannot be assessed.

Having recruited, trained, mentored, coached and developed literally thousan

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ds of front-line sales professionals, my question is a simple one:

“In the field of professional selling, have we been seduced into allowing psychometric testing to become our bedfellows?”

Copyright © 2007 Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserve

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.diggit.org.ua/article/36203/diggit-Psychometric-Testing-And-Professional-Salespeople--Uncomfortable-Bedfellows.html">Psychometric Testing And Professional Salespeople - Uncomfortable Bedfellows?</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.diggit.org.ua/article/36203/diggit-Psychometric-Testing-And-Professional-Salespeople--Uncomfortable-Bedfellows.html]Psychometric Testing And Professional Salespeople - Uncomfortable Bedfellows?[/url]

Symbols are pictures which we use to give a message to other beings and to those that will come after us. The interpretation of the symbol is very personal and unique to each individual.

Do you try to do more in a day than is possible? Do you need know how much time you spend delegating tasks to increase your time?

Yup -- it's hot and sticky and you don't feel like doing much of anything -- let alone working on publicity for your business. But July and August can actually be a great time to get publicity. Think about it. In these lazy days of summer, chances are your competitors have slowed down their efforts considerably, so you've got the edge. And with not much going on right about now, media people are probably more receptive to a fresh story idea -- hopefully your story!

Tags

Links

Digg It - Psychometric Testing And Professional Salespeople - Uncomfortable Bedfellows?

Related Articles: