CPQ Assessment and CPQ Personality Test for Understanding Workplace Personality and Behavioral Traits – Asher Strategies
Asher Strategies provides sales-focused assessment solutions that help organizations better understand candidates and sales professionals through structured behavioral and personality evaluation. A CPQ assessment test can be useful for organizations looking to evaluate sales-related characteristics, improve hiring decisions, identify coaching opportunities, and understand how an individual’s natural tendencies may align with different sales roles.
Asher Strategies has a long history with the Craft Personality Questionnaire, commonly referred to as the CPQ, which was specifically developed for sales positions. The company’s current assessment offering, the Advanced Personality Questionnaire (APQ), builds on this sales-specific assessment heritage and is designed to provide insights for hiring, coaching, team alignment, and retention.
1. What Is a CPQ Assessment?
A CPQ assessment is a personality and behavioral assessment associated with sales-role evaluation. Unlike a general personality test created for broad personal or workplace use, the original CPQ was developed specifically to examine characteristics relevant to sales professionals.
Sales positions can require different behavioral tendencies depending on the role. A salesperson responsible for prospecting may need a different combination of characteristics from an account manager focused on long-term relationships.
A sales-focused assessment can therefore provide organizations with additional information when evaluating whether a candidate’s behavioral profile fits the demands of a particular position.
2. What Is a CPQ Personality Test?
A CPQ personality test evaluates personality-related characteristics that may influence how an individual approaches sales activities and workplace situations.
The purpose is not simply to determine whether someone has a “good” or “bad” personality. Instead, assessment results can help organizations understand behavioral tendencies and consider how those characteristics may fit specific sales responsibilities.
Asher Strategies’ current APQ evaluates nine sales personality traits, including areas such as drive to close, rejection tolerance, urgency, empathy and listening, and adaptability.
These types of insights can complement interviews, experience, references, and performance information.
3. The History Behind the CPQ
The CPQ has a significant history in sales assessment. Asher Strategies explains that its original Craft Personality Questionnaire was created specifically for sales roles and had been administered more than one million times.
The company subsequently developed the Advanced Personality Questionnaire as an updated sales assessment. The APQ continues the sales-specific approach while providing additional insights intended for modern hiring and sales-development requirements.
This history is important for organizations searching for a CPQ assessment because the term is closely associated with Asher Strategies’ sales-assessment heritage.
4. Why Use a CPQ Personality Assessment?
Recruiting sales professionals can be challenging. Resumes generally describe previous experience, while interviews show how candidates communicate in a particular setting. Neither necessarily provides a complete picture of how someone may respond to rejection, pressure, coaching, customer interactions, or sales targets.
A structured personality assessment can add another layer of information.
Organizations may use sales assessments to:
- Support hiring decisions
- Evaluate role compatibility
- Identify behavioral strengths
- Recognize development opportunities
- Improve interview discussions
- Support sales coaching
- Align employees with appropriate roles
- Improve team development
The assessment should be considered one part of a broader decision-making process rather than the sole basis for hiring.
5. Sales Personality and Role Compatibility
Different sales roles can demand different characteristics. For example, a prospecting-focused position may involve frequent outreach and rejection, while an account-management role may place greater emphasis on relationship development and customer communication.
A sales personality assessment can help organizations consider whether an individual’s characteristics are compatible with the requirements of a particular role.
Asher Strategies’ current assessment is designed to map results to multiple sales job profiles. The company states that its APQ maps assessment results to more than 20 sales job profiles.
This role-oriented approach can provide more practical information than simply assigning an overall personality label.
6. Understanding Sales Personality Traits
Sales success involves numerous behaviors. Some professionals may naturally demonstrate strong persistence, while others may excel at listening and relationship development.
Asher Strategies identifies several sales personality traits measured by its current APQ, including:
- Drive to close
- Rejection tolerance
- Urgency
- Empathy and listening
- Adaptability
These traits can influence how salespeople approach prospects, customers, goals, and setbacks.
Understanding these tendencies can help managers develop more individualized coaching strategies.
7. CPQ Assessment for Sales Hiring
A CPQ assessment can be incorporated into a structured recruitment process. Instead of relying exclusively on an interviewer’s impression, companies can use assessment information alongside other candidate data.
A typical hiring process could include:
- Resume review
- Initial screening
- Structured interview
- Sales personality assessment
- Skills evaluation
- Reference checking
- Final hiring decision
This approach creates multiple opportunities to evaluate a candidate before making an offer.
Assessment results can also help interviewers identify areas that deserve additional discussion during later stages of the recruitment process.
8. Supporting More Objective Hiring
Hiring decisions can sometimes be influenced by unconscious preferences or the candidate’s ability to perform well during a short interview. A standardized assessment gives candidates a consistent evaluation method.
Asher Strategies positions its sales assessment as a way to provide more objective information about sales aptitude and personality characteristics.
Objective information can help hiring teams make more informed comparisons, although it should always be considered together with qualifications, experience, job requirements, interviews, and other appropriate selection criteria.
9. CPQ Assessment for Sales Coaching
The value of a personality assessment does not end when an employee is hired. Assessment results can also help managers understand how to approach coaching.
For example, one salesperson might need support with handling rejection, while another might benefit from improving listening skills or adapting communication styles.
Asher Strategies describes its current assessment as providing coaching guidance that can help managers and sales professionals understand strengths and areas that may benefit from development.
Personalized coaching can make training more relevant because managers can focus on specific behavioral areas rather than applying identical strategies to every salesperson.
10. Identifying Strengths
Every sales professional has a unique combination of characteristics. A personality assessment can help organizations identify strengths that may be useful in particular roles.
For example, an employee may demonstrate strong persistence and competitive drive, while another may show strong empathy and listening. Both characteristics can be valuable, but potentially in different sales situations.
Assessment results can therefore encourage managers to think about how individual strengths can be applied effectively within a sales organization.
11. Recognizing Development Opportunities
Personality assessments can also highlight areas where an employee may benefit from coaching. The goal should not be to treat every difference as a weakness.
Instead, managers can use assessment information to identify behaviors that may need attention in relation to a specific job.
Development activities could include:
- Sales coaching
- Role-playing exercises
- Communication training
- Negotiation practice
- Prospecting practice
- Listening exercises
- Time-management support
- Personalized mentoring
Connecting assessment insights with practical development can make the information more useful.
12. Building Better Sales Teams
Sales teams often contain professionals with different personalities, experiences, and approaches. Understanding these differences can help managers improve communication and team alignment.
Assessment information may provide additional insight into how team members approach sales situations.
Asher Strategies states that its assessment can be used for hiring, coaching, team alignment, and retention.
Managers can combine assessment insights with sales-performance data, customer feedback, and coaching observations to develop a more complete understanding of their team.
13. CPQ Personality Test for Existing Employees
Organizations can use personality assessments not only for applicants but also for current employees. Existing sales professionals may benefit from assessment-based coaching when they move into new roles or when managers want to develop their capabilities.
For example, a salesperson transitioning from inside sales to enterprise sales may face different demands. Assessment information can become one component of a broader development discussion.
It can also help managers identify where additional training could be valuable.
14. Online Assessment Experience
Modern assessment platforms make it easier for organizations to evaluate candidates and employees without complicated administrative processes.
Asher Strategies states that its current APQ is completed online, is self-guided, and generally takes approximately 20–25 minutes. The company also states that reports and results are available immediately after completion.
An online format can be convenient for organizations conducting assessments across multiple locations or evaluating candidates during remote recruitment processes.
15. Assessment Reports
The usefulness of a personality assessment depends heavily on how results are interpreted. A good report should provide information that can be connected to actual job requirements and development objectives.
Asher Strategies describes reports that provide information related to hiring compatibility, coaching, and team alignment.
Hiring managers can use these insights to develop follow-up questions, explore potential role compatibility, and identify possible coaching priorities.
16. CPQ Assessment and Sales Training
Assessment and training can work together effectively. An assessment can identify behavioral characteristics, while training provides employees with techniques and knowledge that can help them improve their performance.
Asher Strategies provides sales training and coaching solutions alongside its assessment technology. Its programs cover areas such as sales skills, closing, prospecting, and sales leadership.
This creates a more complete approach in which assessment information can be followed by targeted development.
17. Why Choose Asher Strategies?
Asher Strategies has specialized in sales training and assessment for many years. The company states that it has worked with more than 2,100 companies over two decades and has extensive experience helping organizations improve sales performance.
Its history with the CPQ and its current APQ offering make the company particularly relevant for organizations looking for a sales-specific personality assessment rather than a general-purpose personality test.
Potential benefits include:
- Sales-specific assessment
- Role compatibility insights
- Structured candidate evaluation
- Personality and behavioral information
- Coaching guidance
- Team-alignment insights
- Online assessment administration
- Support for sales development
18. How Businesses Can Use CPQ Results
The most effective way to use a CPQ personality test is as part of a larger talent-management process.
Organizations can combine assessment results with:
- Job descriptions
- Structured interviews
- Sales experience
- Performance metrics
- References
- Training records
- Manager observations
- Customer feedback
This broader approach provides a more complete picture of a candidate or employee.
Assessment results should be interpreted in the context of the specific position rather than assuming that one personality profile is automatically ideal for every sales role.
Conclusion
A CPQ personality test can provide valuable sales-focused behavioral information for organizations evaluating candidates and developing sales professionals. The original Craft Personality Questionnaire was developed specifically for sales roles, establishing a long history of sales-oriented assessment at Asher Strategies. The company’s current Advanced Personality Questionnaire (APQ) continues this approach with updated assessment capabilities for hiring, coaching, team alignment, and retention.
For employers, sales personality assessment can add another source of structured information to the recruitment process. It can help organizations explore role compatibility, understand behavioral tendencies, identify potential coaching opportunities, and develop more personalized sales strategies.
For sales professionals, assessment insights can provide a framework for understanding individual strengths and development areas. When combined with practical training, coaching, and performance feedback, these insights can contribute to a more focused professional-development process. For more visit us!