Take a tour around the SalesTestOnline.com promo site and you will quickly see that one of the great features of our service is that it is customizable to the specifics of your sales role(s). Briefly, customization to your criteria is important because all sales roles differ. In order to evaluate candidates most effectively, and therefore to understand whether you should hire them, it is critical to compare and rate them against your unique criteria. Customization does this!
Navigate to our Articles or Blog pages and you will see numerous articles about the many aspects of this customization and how predictive of sales success it is. Why then, might you ask, do we offer both a customized and a non-customized version at our pricing/sign-up page and what are the differences? The intent of this article is to explain how they differ so that prospective clients can make an informed decision.
Similarities
So where are they the same? Firstly, the test that candidates complete and the entire candidate experience are identical. Secondly, the reporting format of test results is also identical. This is the case whether the service is used for sales or non-sales roles. Thirdly, you also have the flexibility to test for as many different roles as you require. Fourth, it is just as ‘scalable’ in its set up, meaning that we can set up access for multiple managers. Finally, our legendary customer service is also just as legendary for both.
Differences
From a functional perspective there is really only one important difference. That is, users of the customized version will have a Suitability Rating on test results. This rating is a score (eg. 80-100% Excellent) that compares the candidate to the specific sets of traits i.e. Target Profiles, necessary for success in that role. These Suitability Rating scores have proven to be highly predictive of sales success. Setting these Target Profiles is a human function that is performed by our trained experts against a backdrop of over 3 decades of sales testing and literally millions of sales assessments.
Users of our customized testing have the ability to communicate to us about the roles for which they are testing. This is done online in your account via our Job Profile Form. We look at this and other pieces of information, such as a job description, employment advertising and your company website. As well, most new clients choose to test their top sales performers so that we may conduct an analysis of their results as an important additional part of the mix.
A key to why this works so well is that we have such a storehouse of knowledge to draw from when we are preparing to set your Target Profiles. Even when we might not have tested sales candidates for roles that are identical to yours, we have most likely tested candidates for roles that are extremely close. It is this deep, relevant and practical experience that accounts for why the resulting Suitability Ratings tend to be so predictive of sales success.
It might surprise you that the second area where the customized version differs has nothing at all to do with the technical issues’ or ’functional aspects’ of the service. This key difference to which I refer is the price per report. More surprisingly, it is the fact that, on a per report basis, the customized version costs significantly less.
Why is this? Here is a link to our pricing page. As you can see, our testing is purchased exclusively in pre-paid blocks, with the non-customized coming in packages of 5, 10 and 15 tests while the customized version comes in minimums of 25 tests, but with the customization included for an unlimited number of roles.
The significance of the lower per report cost is that it fundamentally alters the way to use the testing. Specifically, it means you can affordably test relatively large numbers of candidates very early in the hiring process by having them take the test online prior to actually having to meet them. This capability, coupled with the Suitability Rating score on their test results, lets you know immediately who has high potential and therefore which candidates truly deserve an interview.
While many larger clients do test every single candidate, the majority will give the test to large numbers ‘close to the top of the funnel’ but not to everybody. The point at which it is used in the process tends to vary from client to client. Given the low cost of the customized service, and bearing in mind that the tests do not ‘expire’, many of our clients for the customized version might hire just 3-4 people per year. In this scenario it is not unusual for them to test 20-25 candidates over this time period.
On the other hand, the non-customized version of our service is typically purchased by smaller businesses. These clients might hire one or two people per year and usually choose to have only their short listed candidates take the test. For these clients, not having a Suitability Rating score is not really a problem since the reports still contain all the detail needed to make an informed decision. Besides, they are welcome to give us a call for us for guidance and advice.
Conclusion
Given the challenges and risks inherent in hiring sales people I believe both levels of our service offer tremendous value. No matter the size of your organization, sales hiring mistakes are very expensive mistakes!
I do hope you have enjoyed this article. If you have any questions I would be very pleased to hear from you and would welcome the opportunity to learn about your particular hiring challenges. I’m happy to share what we have learned and I promise to be very frank and forthright in any of our conversations.
