Sales Assessment Tests
A sales assessment test is an instrument employers use to gauge how well a candidate can sell. Employers ask applicants to take assessments during the selection process. Top sales pre-hire tests have strong validity in predicting a candidate’s performance. We provide info on best practices for hiring top salespeople.
Sales assessment tests are essential for businesses looking to hire successful salespeople. To increase their sales and maximize profits, companies must identify qualified candidates with the right skill set and demonstrate a strong aptitude for sales. Businesses risk hiring unqualified personnel with inadequate sales performance without adequately evaluating potential hires.
To ensure that they make a successful hire, many businesses rely on an assessment test as part of the hiring process. An assessment test can help employers determine if a candidate has the skills, beliefs, and grit necessary to be a successful salesperson. It allows them to identify qualified candidates to strengthen their team, drive more sales, and increase profits.
Although assessment tests offer numerous advantages for businesses, certain challenges are associated with identifying the perfect candidate for a role in sales. These include finding people with the appropriate motivation, beliefs, and selling skills required for success in this profession. With so much at stake, it is important to find a way to evaluate prospective hires that match their desired criteria properly. This is where taking advantage of an assessment test can come into play.
Why Do Companies Fail in Hiring Top Salespeople?
Hiring salespeople is a tricky thing. These folks are difficult to assess through normal interviewing techniques because they are:
- Skilled at presenting themselves,
- Good at finding common ground, and
- Great at persuading interviewers to buy what they are selling –themselves
How often have you heard a sales manager say, “They were great in the interview, but 90 days after I hired them, I was wondering…what happened to the sales superstar I interviewed?”
The bottom line is that we suck at selecting top-producing salespeople, which is why we need to use pre-hiring assessments! That might be a harsh statement, but it’s true! Don’t believe me? Look at these mind-boggling stats…
- Salesforce.com reports 57% of sales reps are expected to miss their quota in 2019.
- A 2018 CSO Talent Study reports only 22.6% of Chief Sales Officers believe hiring salespeople is an organizational strength.
- The CSO study also reports that only 16% of companies felt they had the sales talent needed to succeed.
- The Objective Management Group reports that companies hire the wrong salesperson 77% of the time.
10 Reasons Why Companies Should Use a Pre-Hire Sales Assessment
#1. You will improve the speed to hire. In a tight talent market, the top talent is off the market in 15 days!
#2. You will dramatically reduce time reading resumes and conducting interviews with salespeople who don’t fit or can’t hit quota. This helps in a weak market with many people responding to job openings.
#3. You will identify hidden information that won’t come out in the resume, interview, or reference checks.
#4. You will identify what candidates will accomplish since 78% of candidates’ resumes contain misleading statements.
#5. You will add objective, data-driven metrics to your hiring process and eliminate positive unconscious bias, especially if you are under pressure to fill some open positions.
#6. You will eliminate negative unconscious bias. (A Deloitte study notes that removing unconscious bias increased the hiring of top performers by 25-46 %)
#7. You will increase legal defensibility through objective and valid metrics.
#8. You will increase retention and reduce turnover due to determining a better fit.
#9. You will identify what training, development, and coaching salespeople will need.
#10. You will be a step ahead of your competitors because most firms do not use the right assessments or use them the right way.
Keep in mind that even though the right pre-hire assessment is a great tool, you will still make hiring mistakes, albeit, there will be fewer of them.
When Should You Use a Pre-Hire Sales Assessment?
Hiring managers should use a sales assessment before interviewing a candidate.
Many hiring managers rely on the gut-intuition to select sales candidates, resulting in a predictive validation of only 20%. Essentially, managers who hire salespeople based on gut instinct are wrong 80% of the time.
When managers make decisions based on just their gut feeling, they often ignore important factors. In staff selection, this means companies wind up hiring costly under-performing salespeople who flame out in 3-6 months.
It’s a brutally competitive environment for most companies. If your company does a better job of selecting sales staff, your sales team can crush the competition.
Identifying Qualified Candidates Using Sales Assessment Tests
Sales assessment tests are invaluable for businesses looking to recruit successful salespeople. Employers can use an assessment test during the hiring process to identify qualified candidates with the motivation, mindset, and skills necessary to succeed.
Using a sales assessment test allows employers to gain a deeper insight into how candidates will likely perform in a sales role. This helps them make informed decisions about whom they should hire for their team. It also gives them access to a larger pool of potential hires by providing them with a broader range of data points for evaluating applicants.
The types of questions that should be included in a sales assessment test depend on the job position and the desired qualities required from its potential occupants. The questions should focus on sales beliefs that support or undermine sales, sales skills, sales process, and fit for the position, such as BDR, outside sales, account manager, or major accounts rep. In addition, it is essential to ask questions that can assess the candidate’s motivation levels and ambition to ensure they have what it takes to succeed as a successful salesperson.
Overall, using an assessment test during the hiring process helps businesses make well-informed decisions when selecting the best candidate for their team while maximizing their chances of making high profits due to increased sales performance.
The First Steps in Selecting a Sales Assessment Test
The “correct” pre-employment assessment is the single best predictor of a sales candidate’s success. I have discovered no single assessment works for everyone.
Before you start to review specific sales assessments, you must:
First: Conduct a detailed job analysis to update the key functions and accountabilities of the sales position because that determines what you need to measure.
Second: Know the most important parts of the job, and be confident that you know what will help you determine if your sales hire is successful.
The Importance of Properly Evaluating Candidates for Sales Positions
Making the right hire can have a dramatic effect on a company’s success, particularly in sales roles. To ensure that they make the best decision, businesses often rely on a sales assessment test as part of their hiring process. This type of test helps to identify qualified candidates with the appropriate combination of skills, beliefs, and grit necessary to succeed in the profession. But what exactly should employers look for when evaluating potential hires?
First of all, it is important to determine whether or not a candidate has the technical and interpersonal skills required for success as a salesperson. Questions related to sales beliefs that support or undermine sales, sales skills, sales process, and fit for the position such as BDR, outside sales, account manager or major accounts rep. In addition, it is also essential to assess motivation and ambition levels when assessing prospective salespeople.
The results of an assessment test can provide employers with invaluable insights into how well a particular individual may perform in their role as a salesperson. By properly leveraging this data during the hiring process, businesses can maximize their chances of making successful hires and increase their profits through increased sales performance.
Personality and Behavioral Tests Don’t Predict Sales Performance
Make sure you use assessments specifically designed to predict sales performance.
Personality or behavioral assessments have a place in the hiring process. These tests help you determine the applicant’s social style and work style. These assessments will also give insight into how to manage, how to communicate, and culture fit. However, these tests will not predict a potential rep’s ability to hit quota.
For example, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a widely used personality assessment. The developers of MBTI state that they did not design this tool to use in hiring or to predict employee performance. Companies should use behavioral assessments such as the MBTI after they hire employees.
Intelligence tests are also a great tool; just be careful about picking the correct one. Some come with the legal risk associated with “adverse impact.”
Enhancing Training Programs Through Assessment Tests
Training programs are an important part of any successful business, especially ones in the sales industry. Providing employees with the right tools and strategies for success can help companies maximize their profits and build more effective teams.
One of the best ways to shape a training program is through assessment tests. By taking advantage of assessment tests during the onboarding process, employers can gain insight into each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to tailor their training programs accordingly. This will ensure that each employee receives the necessary instruction they need to succeed in their role.
In addition, by re-assessing individual performance both before and after a training session, employers can gauge its effectiveness and make adjustments as necessary. This will allow them to continuously refine their training program and create an environment where team members are consistently improving their skills and knowledge.
Overall, leveraging assessment tests when designing training programs enables businesses to better understand what their employees need to succeed in their roles while also helping them identify potential hires who may be well-suited for positions within the company. By taking these steps, companies can ensure that they build strong teams capable of achieving long-term success while also maximizing profits through increased sales performance.
What Sales Assessment is Best for Your Company?
The right assessment for you will boil down to:
- What you are trying to measure and determine about a sales candidate before you hire him or her, and
- How well can the assessment help you tell the difference between a top producer and an average (or below average producer) even before the first interview?
The good news is, once you determine what you need to measure, you can use a multi-measurement pre-hire sales assessment to increase your ability to predict a candidate’s ability to hit quota by 71-92%.
—————————-
Guide: For more detail on the top assessments, request a summary of our Definitive Guide to the Best Sales Assessments for Hiring Quota-Busting Salespeople.
Related Video: “How to Determine Which Sales Assessment to Use”
Contact us: Contact our sales assessment company to quickly find out which assessment is right for you.