A research program involving over 20,000 door-to-door salesmen resulted in the development of an objectively scored mail questionnaire which effectively eliminated 3/4 of those who failed to meet minimum standards of sales performance. The content of the questionnaire and the scoring key clearly indicated that the personal characteristics which made for sales success were contrary to what the company had previously believed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.