A recent press announcement addresses the release of the new book Scientific Selling, Creating High Performance Sales Teams through Applied Psychology and Testing, by Nancy Martini, President and CEO of PI Worldwide.

WELLESLEY, MA. April 10, 2012 — PI Worldwide, an international consulting firm specializing in leadership and sales development, today announced that its President and CEO, Nancy Martini, has released a new book entitled Scientific Selling, Creating High Performance Sales Teams through Applied Psychology and Testing. Leveraging her 30 years of sales strategy and performance management experience, Scientific Selling shows how statistically valid measurement can improve every element of the sales environment—from management to coaching and creating long-term sustainable sales results. The book is set to release on April 10, 2012 and will be available at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and 800CEORead.com.

“New methodologies continue to affect every aspect of today’s business environment and nowhere are they used more than in the sales area,” said Martini. “Scientific Selling is an essential resource for companies and managers seeking to improve sales performance, through scientific testing and measurement, providing insight on the future of selling.”

Throughout the book, Martini offers more than a dozen specific stories demonstrating how scientific measurement improved overall sales performance through easily understood graphics, charts, and descriptions. She details how sales teams were measured and how those metrics changed as a result of better hiring practices and better targeted coaching and sales training. Through these detailed case studies, Scientific Selling illustrates the importance of measurement for steering the success of a company. Examples of case studies featured in the book include:

• Descriptions on how the Clark-Mortenson Agency used scientifically proven data based assessment tools to provide individual sales professionals with a very specific overview to determine their current strengths and areas of growth.
• Details on how Yankee Candle used scientific measurement to identify the right people to hire, and then used customer case studies and role-playing to focus on leveraging each individual’s natural behavior to sell. In turn, the brand helped sales revenue for trained individuals increase as much as 40 percent.
• Specifics on how Meadowbrook Golf’s program “Managing for Individual Success” and how the company employed scientific testing and measurement to help its top managers understand what motivates their employees.

As president and CEO for PI Worldwide, Nancy is responsible for the growth and development of the PI Worldwide organization. Since 1955, PI Worldwide has helped companies leverage science to improve performance, productivity and profitability by utilizing the insight provided by their proprietary behavioral assessment tool, Predictive Index^® (PI^®) along with the company’s Selling Skills Assessment Tool™ (SSAT) and sales training program Customer-Focused Selling™ (CFS).

In addition to the release of Scientific Selling, Martini is the author of the best-selling business book Customer-Focused Selling, which was released in August of 2007 by the Adams Media Corporation. She has also been published and quoted in leading business magazines and outlets including Selling Power Magazine, Forbes.com, Chief Learning Officer, One to One Media and Talent Management.

To learn more, contact us at 904-269-2299 or info@predictiveresults.com

Vicki Marshall has been working in the Little Caesars restaurant franchise business for nearly 35 years, beginning her career as a crew member at the age of 16 and going on to open her first Little Caesars franchise restaurant at the age of 22. Today, she and her partner Mike Insco, Market Director for the Little Caesars franchise, operate 23 stores across Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio as VDM Management.

In an industry plagued by overwhelmingly high turnover rates, selecting, developing and retaining the right managers to run a quick service food business can be a difficult and expensive task. In fact, data from the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry shows that although hourly crew member employee turnover has decreased since 2009, competition for experienced managers continued to rise steadily through 2011. For Little Caesars multi-unit franchise owner Marshall, the process of staffing and retaining qualified General Managers (GM) to run each of her 23 locations had also become a costly and labor-intensive undertaking.

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Predictive Index helps leaders understand the differences and values of all behavioral styles. The result is a far more effective leadership group.

Back in grade school you may have been taught to apply the “Five Ws and H” method when information-gathering. Back then, you were probably told that this formula of asking: Who, What, Where, When, Why (and sometimes How) when evaluating a situation is a good way to get the “full” story on something. In the professional world, researchers, journalists and police officers still use this rudimentary practice to make important determinations and predictions. With market research citing 80% of CEOs in North America have not identified a successor, perhaps it’s time executives go back to basics too and ask the following important questions:

• Who should we consider in the talent pool?
• What attributes do we need in our next generation of leaders?
• Where do we find these leaders— are they “home-grown” or brought in from the outside?
• When should we start planning for succession?
• Why have we not established a plan previously (in essence, what have been our limitations and how do we overcome them now)?
• How do we identify and assess these potential leaders? How are promising leaders developed, engaged and retained?

As business leaders address these questions and others to gain a comprehensive understanding of their current and future needs, it is imperative that all these “answers” are consistent with the company’s culture, values and overall business strategy.   They should also be flexible, measurable and supported by a broad array of tools like behavioral assessments, and experiences such as mentoring, job rotations, special assignments, etc.).

About Company:

Little Caesars® is the fastest-growing pizza chain in the world and the largest carry-out international chain with restaurants on five continents.

Vicki Marshall has been working in the Little Caesars restaurant franchise business for nearly 35 years, beginning her career as a crew member at the age of 16 and going on to open her first Little Caesars franchise restaurant at the age of 22. Today, she and her partner Mike Insco, Market Director for the Little Caesars franchise, operate 23 stores across Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio as VDM Management.

Challenge:

In an industry plagued by overwhelmingly high turnover rates, selecting, developing and retaining the right managers to run a quick service food business can be a difficult and expensive task. In fact, data from the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry shows that although hourly crew member employee turnover has decreased since 2009, competition for experienced managers continued to rise steadily through 2011. For Little Caesars multi-unit franchise owner Marshall, the process of staffing and retaining qualified General Managers (GM) to run each of her 23 locations had also become a costly and labor-intensive undertaking.

According to Marshall and Insco, in some areas each GM opening could attract hundreds of applications from external applicants and existing hires seeking promotions. Marshall and Insco would manually sort through the applicant pool to qualify candidates for the interview stage then use the interview as a way to get a “feel” for how the person would behave in the role; how he/she would manage and work with others and help drive the financial business. This approach proved unreliable as many candidates could be impressive in the interview but ultimately did not deliver the expected performance on the job.

After several seemingly successful hires turned over, it became clear that “something was missing” in their selection process and that this deficiency was costing the company several thousands of dollars. Insco estimates a loss of up to $3,600 and six weeks of training time for each General Manager turnover. In addition to the costs of onboarding, losing a General Manager was having a trickle-down effect on the organization, impacting crew member morale and productivity.

“The Predictive Index® is a valuable tool for any franchise organization because it enables you as an employer to better understand your people.
This insight into how someone is naturally wired makes it possible to coach and develop them in the right manner.”
Mike Insco, Market Director,
Little Caesars Franchise

Process:

Marshall and Insco recognized they needed a different approach to address this problem of how to better understand the natural motivations and drives of management candidates. They turned to the Predictive Index® (PI®) behavioral assessment tool because it offered a clear, science-driven solution. Working closely with ADVISA, a PI Worldwide Member Firm, Marshall and Insco first evaluated the General Manager position by looking at the behavioral requirements for the job. Using the Performance Requirement Options™ (PRO) job assessment tool from PI Worldwide, the franchise owners with their ADVISA consultant determined the key responsibilities of the role and applied the science of the PI and the PRO to understand how these requirements translated into behavioral characteristics. The PRO revealed that the General Manager needed to be operationally focused with a strong sense of ownership and a desire for collaboration. The individual would also need to have a high level of extroversion, keen attention to detail and a low tolerance for risk taking. With the job requirements established, Marshall and Insco had every GM candidate complete the PI® assessment which would deliver deep insights into the candidate’s natural workplace behaviors. Then, by overlaying an individual PI with the target PRO, Marshall and Insco could quickly see the fits and the gaps between the candidate and the job. Equipped with this Predictive Index System, they could make business decisions much more confidently and efficiently.

”The Predictive Index has helped us ‘get the right manager in the right seat on the bus,’ significantly reducing turnover and improving how we communicate and educate our staff.”
Vicki Marshall,
Multi-Unit Little Caesars Franchise Owner

Results:

Before implementing the PI and PRO tools, Marshall recalls having to run upwards of 1,500 W-2 forms for 18 locations due to the high crew member turnover. As her business and staffing needs have expanded to 23 locations, had they stayed on that trajectory that number would have grown to over 1,900. She credits the Predictive Index System with helping her to decrease this number to less than 1,100, a 42% improvement as well as an overall improvement in all-level employee retention rates.

After successfully defining the General Manager role to optimize job fit, Marshall and Insco have worked with ADVISA to create additional PROs for three other management levels: Co-Manager, Key Holder and Assistant Manager. While the desired PI patterns for each role vary slightly, Marshall and Insco have found that all management positions require someone who can multi-task with a strong sense of urgency and work collaboratively with others within a rule-driven environment. As employees build strong careers with Little Caesars, the PI continues to serve as an important tool to support their development, helping everyone make sure the right person is in the right job.

For new employees, Marshall and Insco report the selection process has become much more efficient noting that while they cannot control the number of applications for each job, integrating the Predictive Index with the job application and comparing it with the PRO has enabled them to develop a process to effectively identify the right candidates for interviews much more quickly and with greater confidence. They use the insights provided by the PI and the PRO to guide the interview discussion by developing targeted questions addressing the fit and gaps between the candidate and the job.

With the Predictive Index System on board, Little Caesars has developed a more productive hiring process resulting in lower turnover and all the associated benefits including improved morale and productivity. Marshall and Insco say the Little Caesars franchise has saved “a small fortune” in training and on boarding costs across all locations, not to mention their time and energy savings. They also rank in the top 10% of all Little Caesars franchise organizations in terms of performance and profitability, an accomplishment Marshall attributes in part to their use of the Predictive Index. Looking ahead, the successful business plans on leveraging the PI and PRO with more employees at the franchise level and within the administration of VDM Management.

PI Worldwide® is a global management consulting organization that helps companies be more successful by focusing on their most important asset-their people. Praendex Incorporated, the parent company of PI Worldwide, is publisher of the Predictive Index®, the Selling Skills Assessment Tool™ and Customer-Focused Selling™.

©Copyright 2012 Praendex Incorporated CS174 4/12
This PI Worldwide® case study is presented to you in partnership with a global PI Worldwide Member Firm organization.
Predictive Results
904-269-2299
info@predictiveresults.com

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Spherion® is a leading staffing and recruiting franchise specializing in placing job candidates in temporary and fulltime opportunities. An industry pioneer for more than 60 years, Spherion is one of the nation’s largest employers serving the workforce through a network of offices across the United States and Canada. Spherion franchise has been recognized five consecutive years as a World-Class franchisor™ by the Franchise Research Institute®.

Challenge:

In 1994, Jill Berg started a Spherion Staffing franchise to serve North Dakota and West Central Minnesota. As a seasoned business owner, Berg knew she needed to identify the people and the tools that would help to establish and grow her business. A managing partner at Eide Bailly, one of the nation’s top accounting firms and a Predictive Index® (PI®) client since 1986, suggested the 10-minute behavioral assessment survey from PI Worldwide to help her gain a deeper understanding of herself as a manager and leader.

After completing the PI survey, she was “fascinated” by the level of depth and accuracy the results provided in a short assessment. PI identified Berg’s greatest strengths as a team builder with a people-oriented sales style. While these were important strong suits, it also made her realize she needed a partner who could run the operations on the back-end with the same vigor. She explains, “I needed to find someone who could complement my behavioral skills so I could focus working on the business.”

“In a franchise community, tools are accepted or rejected based on results – PI is accepted!
Our franchisees rely on PI to make internal hiring decisions possible and use PI results in team building and team alignment.”
Sandy Mazur,
Vice President of franchise Division,
Spherion Corporate

Predictive Index® in Action at the Franchisee Level:

Using the PI for her first senior level hire, Berg selected John Funk to serve as Account Manager and head of operations. Funk’s PI pattern indicated he would run the business agenda like it was his own but would also be able to manage the day-to-day, allowing Berg to focus on what she does best—consult and sell. Like Berg, Funk was very strong in sales, but his technical, numbers-focused approach would complement Berg’s sales style.

Sixteen years after joining Spherion, Funk continues to be a key contributor to the Spherion brand. Today, he serves as an Area Manager, a position that matches his PI profile well because it allows him to think analytically and operate strategically.

Berg has continued to incorporate the PI in her personnel decisions and considers the tool an important piece of the hiring puzzle. “It’s easy to be wowed by someone in an interview or by their references but the PI is what really shows you what this person will bring to the table and how you will need to manage them.” Berg recalls one case when interviewing a candidate for a position that would require him to work on-site at a client’s location. Berg and her team were so impressed with his credentials and the way he presented himself in the interview they chose to disregard the fact that his Predictive Index showed “some red flags” with respect to the job. In this position, which required the employee to exert a lot of self-management, the candidate’s strong social drive—which originally charmed Berg and her colleagues—became a detriment in that particular role. Berg explained that as the PI had predicted, his strong desire to please others made him like a chameleon—saying and doing what he thought others wanted to hear and never actually getting any work done. This mis-hire that could have potentially damaged a client relationship served as an important lesson for Berg and her team. Berg explains, “We have never made a hiring decision since without considering the insights provided by the PI.”

As Berg’s Spherion franchise business continued to flourish, reaching the multi-million dollar mark and expanding to 15 employees across two branch offices and one on-site location, Berg began focusing her energies on the executive-level customer. To meet the needs of a broadening clientele, Berg created a specialized role called a Professional Recruiter. Using the Performance Requirements Options™ (PRO) job profiling tool, Berg was able to determine the behavioral needs of the new position. With input from her immediate colleagues as well as other franchisees, Berg concluded the ideal candidate would be someone who was assertive and persuasive without being overly promotional. Using the PRO in conjunction with the PI, Berg and her team were able to identify the right candidates for the job.

In addition to using the PRO to better understand the needs of a job, it provided Berg and her team a process to reach consensus on job descriptions to ensure every person involved in the hiring process would be on the same page. For instance, Berg recalls, when the company was hiring for an internal recruiting assistant position, there was much disagreement about what the job role looked like; some people felt the person needed to be more salesfocused.

Ultimately, using the PRO it became clear this position would be best suited for someone who would be heads down supporting the service team and taking care of all applicant details while others are doing the fulfillment. For Berg, this exercise taught her and her peers a valuable lesson for future hiring. “Not everyone can be the ‘sail;’ what we needed was a ‘rudder.’ We’ve learned as a group that we need several different positions that require very different behaviors.”

Franchisor Shares PI with Franchisee Network

As a successful and well-connected entrepreneur in her business community, Berg began sharing her Predictive Index experience with her peers. As more and more business owners came to her with questions about the tool and interest in bringing it into their organizations, the seasoned businesswoman saw a new opportunity to formally consult with local businesses on the use of PI in their organizations for talent selection and management. In 2010, Berg became an official PI Consultant for PI Midwest, a PI Worldwide member firm.

Around this time, Berg continued to be an active member of the Spherion franchise Owner community even serving on its national board. During one Owners Conference, Berg discussed the benefits her organization had realized in using PI, both in building the company and helping her employees do their jobs more effectively.

Spherion Corporate, already a PI user, realized through these discussions how much more they could be doing with the PI to support their franchisees with hiring decisions and employee development. As a result, Berg trained several senior executives to enable them to expertly manage the administration and interpretation of the Predictive Index. Berg adds, “We strategically sought to train managers who work with owners and support franchisees in the field.” As a result, Spherion Corporate began to make the PI more readily available to all franchisees. Berg introduced the tool at the Spherion National Owner Conference and it gained a good deal of interest. Today, Berg reports that the majority of the 70 franchise owners have used PI in a variety of ways; a large percentage rely on PI to support their hiring decisions.

Since the PI has been introduced to the Spherion community, feedback from owners has been overwhelmingly positive. Berg notes that owners are finding they feel more confident with their hiring decisions because they are based on objective data rather than “gut” feelings. According to Berg, the Predictive Index provides awareness inside an organization which eliminates frustration and empowers people to be successful.

According to Sandy Mazur, Vice President of franchise Division for Spherion Corporate, “In a franchise community, tools are accepted or rejected based on results – PI is accepted!” She adds, “Our franchisees rely on PI to make internal hiring decisions possible and use PI results in team building and team alignment.” As Berg notes, most franchises operate with a lean staff of less than five employees making it even more critical for a franchise owner to select and retain the right person from the start. In addition to leveraging PI as a hiring tool, Berg cites about half of franchise owners also use PI for internal team building. Many of her peers use the PI to better understand themselves and team dynamics to make work more efficient and profitable. She adds, “Every market is different and every owner is different so franchisees can really customize their roles.”

Following the wide adoption of the PI by Spherion franchisees, Spherion corporate is looking forward to developing PROs for several positions that the network can utilize in within their organizations. They are also considering implementing the tool for franchisor selection and development as well as potentially engaging with PI Worldwide in conducting a validity study aimed at determining what a top franchisee looks like from a personality standpoint. Berg concludes, “When I entered the market, I think my franchise soon rose ahead of our competitors because I had the understanding of the Predictive Index to help guide my hiring decisions. Using PI, I was able to build a strong team that would push the business forward. Today, I can’t imagine running my business without it.”

PI Worldwide® is a global management consulting organization that helps companies be more successful by focusing on their most important asset-their people.

Praendex Incorporated, the parent company of PI Worldwide, is publisher of the Predictive Index®, the Selling Skills Assessment Tool™ and Customer-Focused

Selling™. © 1998, Praendex Inc., doing business as PI Worldwide. All rights reserved.

This PI Worldwide® case study is presented to you in partnership with a global PI Worldwide Member Firm organization.
Predictive Results
904-269-2299
info@predictiveresults.com

Download Spherion Case Study PDF