Are You Paying Too Much for Behavioral Assessments?

Today, the customer has gained power as technology brings global competitiveness to most products and services; providing better, cheaper and faster offerings.  Yet, the Internet hasn't slashed transaction costs throughout the behavioral assessment industry and the real estate market, as it has in such areas as airline reservations.

In the real estate market, there are more than 1,000 local multiple-listing services (MLS) in the U.S.  Most are owned and controlled by local organizations under the umbrella of the National Association of Realtors.  Large, established brokers usually dominate the boards of these groups and are attempting to maintain their middleman 6% real estate fees by relegating listings by Internet using discount brokers to a less prominent status while keeping sales by owners out of the local MLS.  U.S. antitrust enforcers at the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission are putting heavy pressure on the industry to give new models a chance.  For instance, the Justice Department in September of 2005 sued the National Association of Realtors, alleging that its policy on sharing of listing information discriminates against brokers that mainly use Web sites to engage with their customers.

Today, a few assessment publishers are attempting to maintain high profit margins with pricing controls. 

Many pre-employment and personal development assessments are sold through network marketing organizations where the middleman is an independent consultant, trainer or similar free agent.   

The free agent dealer/distributor and the assessment publisher agree to build in and sustain sufficient profit margins so that both can prosper through maintaining the pricing integrity of their products.   However, when a publisher's product pricing becomes noncompetitive, other strategies, like restricting the publishing of its assessment tool pricing, can delay the erosion of publisher and middleman margins.   For instance, one assessment publisher requires their dealer/distributors to sign an agreement that the dealer....."may place _____ products on your Web site according to the following guidelines: Partner will not display the prices of any _____ Products on its Web site."

As an organizational user or dealer/distributor of assessment tools, you and your clients should beware of any assessment publisher who has such an "unadvertised product pricing" strategy.   The nonpublishing of the retail prices of assessments is a clue that the publisher's products are overpriced and depend upon the dealer/distributor to convince prospective customers to spend more than they should for each assessment tool.  To check out an assessment publisher, go to its corporate Web site and visit the publisher's dealer Web sites to see if prices of their assessment are listed.  If you don't see any pricing at one or both places, it's a clue you will be asked to pay more than market value for their assessments.

To illustrate, let's take a look at DISC-type behavioral assessment pricing offered by a number of assessment publishers. 

DISC assessments are four quadrant instruments where the D or Driver is quadrant one, I or Expressive is quadrant two, S or Amiable is quadrant three and C or Analytical is quadrant four.   Please note that an assessment publisher will label these four quadrants differently to differentiate their product from others who measure the same behavioral styles. 

For example, Birkman would label them: Red, Green, Blue and Yellow.  Alessandra/Cathcart would label them: Director, Socializer, Relater and Thinker.  Inscape, TTI, and Performax (Carlson) would label them: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance.  Profiles International (Performance Indicator or DISC-plus) would label them: I, II, III and IV.  Predictive Index would label them: A, B, C and D.  Wonderlic CPP would label them: Driver, Motivator, Supporter and Thinker.  Career Pathways would label them: Dominant, Influencing, Steady and Conscientious.

Retail pricing for each DISC-type assessment can range from Inscape Publishing's Classic 2.0 DiSC at $25-$35 to Profiles International's Performance Indicator (DISC-plus) at $69-$79 in low purchase quantities. 

To check out these and other DISC-type self assessments, go to the Self Assessment Center's DISC assessment directory at www.SelfAssessmentCenter.com

To join the Assessment Industry Network, a peer-to-peer virtual community of assessment publishers and professionals, go to: www.PersonalAssessments.com 

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organizations where the middleman is an independent consultant, trainer or similar free agent.