• Sales call reluctance is an emotional hesitation that diminishes prospecting activity and directly decreases revenues. Catch symptoms such as avoidance, procrastination, and low outreach early to avoid lost sales.

• Use the SPQ Gold assessment to objectively measure prospecting fitness and hidden hesitation. Then apply results to recruitment, development, and tailored coaching.

• Monitor pipeline metrics, deal-stage movement and pricing behavior to identify pipeline attrition, deal stagnation and margin compression caused by reluctance.

• Leverage SPQ Gold scores to uncover root causes such as skill gaps, personality tendencies, or motivational issues and hold targeted development conversations based on assessment insights.

• Take actionable measures such as defining prospecting objectives, monitoring outreach KPIs, incorporating SPQ testing into recruitment and onboarding processes, and providing targeted training to build follow-up and negotiation confidence.

• Measure outcomes continuously by correlating SPQ results against performance benchmarks and using that correlation to inform hiring, promotions, and ongoing coaching for sustained sales performance improvement.

Sales call reluctance assessment SPQ is a questionnaire that measures a salesperson’s hesitance to make sales calls. It breaks reluctance into clear factors such as fear of rejection, low motivation, and poor time use.

The SPQ gives numeric scores that help managers plan training, coaching, or role change. Results guide specific steps to improve call habits and track progress over time in a consistent measurable way.

Defining Reluctance

Sales call reluctance is the emotional hesitation or fear that keeps salespeople from initiating contact with prospects. It appears as a head block ahead of the initial call, an anxiety that prevents salespeople from calling, emailing, or scheduling appointments. This reluctance is not mere laziness; it is an affective reaction that diminishes outreach volume and redirects effort away from prospecting activities that directly generate revenue.

Typical sales reluctance symptoms are dodging prospecting calls, habitual procrastination, and perpetually low outreach numbers. Avoidance appears as ducking cold calls, passing leads onto others, or taking cover behind non-selling activities. Procrastination comes in the form of planning or admin type work that never gets done, while outreach counts lag behind goals even with a pipeline to fill.

Over-preparing is a frequent sign: reps spend hours refining emails or slide decks instead of making contact. Others exhibit role reluctance, claiming sales isn’t for them, or demonstrate social self-consciousness, fretting over how they will be perceived on calls. Doomsayer types assume the worst, so they do not bother.

It has a direct and measurable impact on sales performance. Missed outreach leads to missed meetings and missed opportunities and revenue. Studies estimate call reluctance can result in huge losses, up to $50,000 per month per rep in missed deals and wasted capacity, depending on industry, deal size, and other factors.

Even marginal decreases in call volume accumulate over weeks and months and result in a disparity between quota and reality. Teams with unaddressed reluctance experience a skimpy pipeline, slumping conversion rates, and managers trapped in firefighting rather than coaching.

Recognizing reluctance early matters to prevent poor sales performance and lost business. Diagnostic tools such as standardized assessments, behavioral observations in role plays, and review of activity data can flag patterns fast. Routine one-on-one review meetings let managers spot avoidance before it derails a rep’s quarter.

Feedback should be specific: show missed call counts, compare to peers, and point to behavioral types like over-preparer or social self-consciousness so remediation targets the real issue.

How to address reluctance includes short daily practice, like five to ten minutes of mock calls to build muscle memory and confidence. Use persuasion principles in practice: reciprocity by offering helpful info first, scarcity by framing limited slots, and social proof by citing similar clients to ease objections.

Combine practice with measurable goals, coaching, and regular feedback loops. Diagnostic assessments guide which interventions fit each type, and small, consistent steps yield steady gains rather than sudden fixes.

The SPQ Assessment

The SPQ Gold Sales Preference Questionnaire (SPQ Gold) is a focused assessment built to spot sales call reluctance before it becomes costly. It asks targeted behavioral diagnostic questions to reveal how a candidate feels and acts around prospecting tasks. The tool does not rely on self-flattering answers. It uses structured items that map to real sales behaviors so teams can see likely on-the-job choices.

The SPQ Gold works by measuring prospecting fitness and hesitation levels through a blend of direct and indirect items. Questions probe willingness to make calls, deal with rejection, set and chase goals, and plan daily outreach. These answers are scored to show where a person will slow down or avoid key tasks.

The assessment covers 16 known types of sales call reluctance, such as fear of rejection, perfectionism, and approval-seeking. It measures seven specific call reluctance impostors that often mask as other issues.

Employers utilize SPQ Gold for recruitment, selection, and continued development. In recruiting, it screens for candidates who will faithfully complete tasks such as making a minimum number of calls or holding a minimum number of meetings per week. That predictive value is important because it costs about $2,500 to onboard a new salesperson when you factor in manager time and training.

Using SPQ in selection mitigates the risk of hiring someone who won’t implement the fundamentals of the position. For development and retention, the SPQ Gold directs coaching and training. It uncovers hidden blockers that typical interviewing overlooks.

For instance, two reps might both miss targets but for different reasons: one avoids calls due to anxiety, and another wastes time on non-sales tasks because of poor goal focus. The SPQ report provides personalized advice corresponding to each obstacle, such as brief daily call blocks for anxiety or distinct weekly KPIs for weak goal focus.

These targeted interventions assist managers in allocating coaching hours where they produce the greatest impact. Practical aspects: The assessment is taken online and lasts about 72 minutes, which balances depth with candidate time.

Research links higher motivation and goal focus to stronger sales performance, and SPQ scores reflect those dimensions. Companies using SPQ often see measurable gains. Some report under 25% increases, while others double sales in the first year when they pair hiring insights with targeted coaching.

That mix of prediction and prescriptive guidance makes the SPQ Gold a pragmatic choice for teams aiming to reduce wasted onboarding cost and lift real selling activity.

How Reluctance Erodes Performance

Sales call reluctance silently eats away at a team’s capacity to fill the funnel, advance deals, defend margins and retain customers. The effects are measurable: pipeline attrition, deal stagnation, margin compression, lower morale, and higher churn. Here are specific manifestations and warning signs, with actionable strategies connected to the SPQ Gold test.

1. Pipeline Attrition

Reluctance hacks prospecting. When reps hesitate or shirk outreach, new business drops. Fewer prospecting calls lead to fewer new leads and a smaller pipeline, which manifests as a lower lead conversion rate and a longer time to first contact.

Follow prospecting numbers — calls per day, attempted contacts, and new qualified leads — to detect attrition early. Leverage SPQ Gold scores to identify avoidance-prone reps; low initiative or high fear-of-rejection scores indicate where to coach.

A rep who averages four outreach calls daily instead of twenty will reduce monthly qualified leads by a large percent, forcing managers to either spend budget on lead generation or risk missed targets.

2. Deal Stagnation

Reluctance kills sales. When salespeople shy away from hard conversations, follow-up falls through the cracks, or they don’t push next steps, deals stall in the middle. Stalled pipelines drag out sales cycles and raise lost-opportunity rates.

Map deal stages and drop-off points to identify where reluctance is showing up most. Make a simple table of stages and average days in stage to identify anomalies.

SPQ Gold data can reveal particular triggers, such as nervousness in requesting commitment or dodging a negotiation, so training can target timed follow-ups and scripted hand-off calls that combat stalling.

3. Margin Compression

Discounts are driven by reluctance. To prevent hard price conversations, other reps cave too quickly or give away wiggle room. That kind of behavior squeezes margins and destroys profitability goals.

Watch discount frequency, discount depth, and margin per deal as indicators of deal wrangler’s remorse. Employ SPQ Gold findings to instruct on managing price objections and conduct role-playing.

Short daily practices such as scripted rebuttals and mock price conversations build confidence and protect margins.

4. Team Morale

Pervasive resistance saps spirit and participation. Teams filled with reluctant reps experience diminished passion, increased burnout and attrition, and struggle to retain their best performers.

Low morale, in turn, eats into results and hiring. Leadership coaching, SPQ-informed development plans and regular review meetings bring back confidence.

Follow pulse surveys and sentiment with performance metrics to inform interventions.

5. Customer Churn

Reluctant outreach and inconsistent relationship-building increase churn. Reluctant reps forget account follow-up and miss upsell opportunities.

Watch client contact rates and satisfaction scores to identify dangers. Use SPQ Gold results to focus retention activities and allocate mentors to vulnerable accounts.

Uncovering Root Causes

Uncover root causes with SPQ Gold testing scores to identify emotional factors and internal roadblocks behind sales reluctance. The SPQ Gold provides a map of sales task-related fears, beliefs, and resistance points. Go back over scores for fear of rejection, perfectionism, approval needs, and evaluation anxiety and identify which feeling most restricts outreach.

Combine test results with observations from role-play and live calls to connect score trends to actual behaviors. For instance, a rep with high approval needs might mumble on calls and shy away from requesting decisions. A rep with perfectionism might put off follow-up until the script is ‘just right.’

By examining test results, separate skill deficiencies from personality tendencies and lack of motivation. Skill gaps manifest themselves as common mistakes on cold-call framework, handling objections or discovery questions.

Personality predispositions manifest as consistent behaviors across situations, such as avoidance or low assertiveness. Motivational problems manifest themselves as erratic activity, like a decline in calls when deals bog down.

Apply call logs, CRM metrics, and SPQ profiles in concert. If call length is short but efforts per available ride are high, the issue may be rapport building, not drive. If time to first call is lengthy and attempts per opportunity are low, motivation or planning gaps are more probable.

Common root causes of sales reluctance include:

• Emotional barriers include fear of rejection, fear of failure, and fear of success.

• Cognitive blocks: limiting beliefs about selling or self-efficacy.

• Skill deficits: poor questioning, weak closing, inadequate follow-up.

• Process friction: unclear steps, slow handoffs, tool complexity.

• Motivation shortfalls: unclear incentives, burnout, low autonomy.

• Environmental factors: team culture, management style, market conditions.

• Data issues: missing metrics, poor tracking, unclear benchmarks.

• Habit and routine: inconsistent daily actions, poor time allocation.

Instruct managers to hold development conversations based on assessment insights to address individual weaknesses. Use SPQ and CRM data to set measurable, short-term goals tied to specific dimensions, such as increasing attempts per opportunity by 20% in eight weeks or reducing time to first call to under 48 hours.

Schedule frequent check-ins, weekly for behavior changes and monthly for trend review, to track progress and reveal where extra coaching is needed. Use diagnostic tools and behavioral observation in those meetings to validate progress and re-examine process steps every few months to find new bottlenecks.

Parse statistics to actions that map reluctance types. Track attempts per opportunity, time to first call, average call length, and contacts-to-opportunity ratio to turn fuzzy anxiety into concrete measures. Knowing what type of call reluctance you’re dealing with helps customize solutions, making coaching targeted and effective.

Interpreting SPQ Data

The SPQ Gold provides a quick insight into a rep’s call reluctance type through 12 call reluctance profiles and generates percentile scores and accelerator scores that require explicit, actionable interpretation.

Percentiles indicate how a person compares to average. Accelerators highlight fast paths and warning signs associated with behavior intensity. Use both to set priorities. A high percentile and high accelerator means a strong, fast-moving trait. A low percentile with a high accelerator may mean a risky habit that will grow if unchecked.

How to read percentile rankings and accelerator scores

Examine percentile ranks initially to identify where a rep ranks on each of the 12 types, including Doomsayer, Over-preparation, Role Rejection, and Social Self-consciousness.

An 85th percentile on Social Self-Consciousness indicates the participant is shier than the majority. A 25th percentile on Over-Preparation means the participant is less likely to over-prepare than most.

Accelerators show velocity. A high accelerator with Doomsayer suggests negative talk will quickly affect calls. Translate these into action: coaching scripts, role play, or targeted micro-training tied to the specific score.

Using results for hiring, promotion, and training

Use SPQ data pre-hiring to identify call reluctance and prevent an expensive mis-hire. In hiring, screen for traits associated with success in the role and insert possible red flags into the interview plan.

For promotion, contrast candidate profiles with benchmarked top performers. For workouts, construct a 45-minute focused schedule per rep to begin with.

That lone test frequently ships actionable insight. Fuse outcomes into the initial 90’s days plan to define priorities and tailor coaching to each individual.

Benchmarks and sample score table

For reasonable calls, compare individual scores to industry norms. The sample table below illustrates how to publish candidate scores and benchmarks.

Making data actionable

Turn fuzzy concern into hard SPQ data by measuring attempts per opportunity, time to first call, average call length, and contacts to opportunity.

Take specific, measurable objectives from the scorecard and monitor weekly for the first month, then transition to monthly. Use routine check-in meetings to make progress salient and adjust coaching.

Recall that a single laggard rep can decimate a team’s winning percentage by clogging up qualified meetings, so tackle outliers swiftly.

Actionable Strategies

A quick summary of actionable strategies, systems that transform SPQ results into quantifiable impact, with resources to maintain skill development and minimize sales call anxiety.

Design a checklist with explanation that details actionable approaches to combat sales call resistance. It should be measurable and broken down by SPQ dimension. Example items include daily call volume target (calls per day), number of qualified leads created, percentage of calls with agreed next steps, and weekly mock-call minutes.

Add behavior markers like ‘used agenda at open’ or ‘asked three discovery questions.’ For each, list a baseline, a one week, and a four week goal. Use the six principles of persuasion to shape the checklist. Note when reciprocity tactics were used, record instances of social proof or authority cited, and flag use of scarcity or consistency statements. Measure completion as a percentage and discuss in weekly feedback sessions.

Set up regular SPQ coaching workshops to support effective sales prospecting. Provide both a short daily practice and monthly deep dives. The short daily practice consists of five to ten-minute mock calls centered around one skill, such as handling objections or assertive closes.

Monthly sessions address a customized curriculum that includes negotiation clinics for low assertiveness, time-blocking and pipeline management for low task orientation, and role plays that develop liking and rapport. Use blended delivery that includes self-paced modules, live coaching, and peer review.

Make modules bite-sized and actionable. Provide templates and scripts that map to persuasion principles so reps can use reciprocity or social proof in real calls.

Set clear sales goals and track progress using objective outcome data from assessments. Convert SPQ scores into specific, measurable short-term goals tied to behavior and outcomes, such as the number of attempts, conversion rate, or qualified leads per week.

Use call logs, CRM entries, and call recordings to validate progress and spot trends. Hold regular review meetings to discuss data, adjust targets, and decide on extra support where needed. Use weekly dashboards that show checklist completion, assessment score changes, and concrete outcomes.

Publicly celebrate small wins in team meetings to reinforce progress and consistency.

Embed SPQ Gold testing in your recruitment, onboarding, and performance management processes for ongoing optimization. Let pre-hire SPQ results be a predictor of what training is likely to be needed.

Onboarding, duplicate SPQ post-training to establish personalized short-term targets. In performance cycles, tie SPQ-driven goals to coaching plans and development milestones. Use data to inform coaching, identify repeating gaps, tailor clinics, and track which interventions yield the best lift.

Conclusion

The SPQ provides a detailed roadmap of where sales call fear originates and how it sabotages performance. Use the scores to identify trends, not to brand individuals. Combine the SPQ with simple checks: listen to calls, track call counts, and ask short, direct questions. Small, steady steps always work best. Coach reps on a tight set of skills: open talks, handle no, and close with short scripts. Fix daily call goals and review one call a day. Make a point to share wins out loud and patch one vulnerability at a time.

An example: A rep raises cold-call rate by 20% after three weeks of role play and a reframed goal. Experiment with a single focused shift this week and observe the trajectory. Take the SPQ, act on one insight and see the shift.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the SPQ assessment for sales call reluctance?

The SPQ evaluates those attitudes and behaviors leading to sales call reluctance. It detects distinct obstacles so managers and reps can focus on growth and increase selling action.

Who should take the SPQ assessment?

Salespeople, managers and sales trainers benefit most. It’s great for one-on-one coaching, teams and hiring to help identify who would have a difficult time doing proactive selling.

How does call reluctance affect sales performance?

Call reluctance keeps call volume, follow-ups, and pipeline growth down. That results in lost opportunities, extended sales cycles, and diminished revenues. The SPQ aids in measuring these impacts.

What kinds of root causes does the SPQ reveal?

The SPQ emphasizes fear of rejection, perfectionism, low self-efficacy and bad prospecting habits. It reveals organizational or process issues that lead to avoidance.

How should I interpret SPQ results?

Be on the lookout for elevated scores in particular areas of reluctance. Use patterns to prioritize coaching topics. Add SPQ data to performance metrics for the complete picture.

What actionable strategies follow from SPQ findings?

With focused coaching, role-play, scripts, goal-setting, and micro-habits. Tackle mindset and skills together. Measure progress with activity and outcome metrics.

Can the SPQ be used for hiring decisions?

Yes, in conjunction with interviews and track record. It helps forecast who will be at ease with the active approach. Don’t rely on it as your exclusive hiring criteria.