If you are thinking about introducing a sales assessment test into your hiring process there are many items, both large and small that must be considered. Here, in this article you will find a checklist for selecting a sales test.
Before any other consideration though, it makes sense to see if the sales assessment is predictive of sales success i.e. can it identify top performers? If a sales assessment test does not do this, then how can you, as a hiring manager possibly rely on it? Four recent studies of the effectiveness of our sales assessment clearly show that SalesTestOnline.com is an extremely powerful tool for identifying top sales talent and is therefore highly predictive of sales success.
First off by way of explanation, SalesTestOnline.com test results contain a Suitability Rating (eg 80-100% Excellent) score that compares the person being tested to the specific needs of that particular sales role. A higher score means the candidate is a close match to the Target Profiles that we have established for the position through analysis. Therefore, a high Suitability Rating = high potential for success.
By studying the test results of the top performers we are looking for a correlation between their performance and their Suitability Ratings. If a high percentage of these top performers are identified as having high potential via their Suitability Rating then our sales test is predictive of success. In all four studies below, the number of top performers who were ranked either Excellent or Good was very high.
Company number one is a large timeshare developer and sales organization. They hire closers who work on straight commission. They have approximately 1000 sales closers. The top 57 were tested. 68.5% scored either Excellent or Good.
19.5% or 11 people scored Excellent
49% or 28 people scored Good
17.5% or 10 people scored Fair
10.5% or 6 people scored Poor
3.5% or 2 scored Very Poor
Company number two is a global research and consulting organization. They hire Business Development Executives, ‘hunters’ to obtain appointments with C-level executives in Fortune 500 companies. They have between 250-300 BDE’s in this population. We tested their 12 top hunters. 75% scored either Excellent or Good.
25% or 3 people scored Excellent
50% or 6 people scored Good
8% or 1 person scored Fair
17% or 2 people scored Poor
0% or 0 scored Very Poor
Company number three is the leading online marketplace for home services in the world. They hire sales consultants to contact home service contractors in order to have them join their marketplace. Sales are performed on the phone and the position is highly incentive-oriented. They have several hundred people in this role. The following is our analysis of their top 15, the best of the best. 80% scored either Excellent or Good.
26.67% or 4 people scored Excellent
53.33% or 8 people scored Good
20% or 3 people scored Fair
0% or 0 people scored Poor
0% or 0 scored Very Poor
Company number four is an award winning automotive dealer with 18 locations selling numerous brands. They have approximately 150 sales associates. Our analysis focused on the top 23 in this role. 73% scored either Excellent or Good.
17% or 4 people scored Excellent
56% or 13 people scored Good
13% or 3 people scored Fair
13% or 3 people scored Poor
0% or 0 scored Very Poor
Having a Suitability Rating system with this degree of accuracy on sales candidates means you will know prior to hiring, whether the candidate has potential because in essence, the score tells you how they compare to the success traits of your top performers. How much grief, time and expense would a highly predictive Suitability Rating such as the examples above save you and your organization?
If you are interested in learning more about our sales assessment tests and perhaps in having us perform a study of your top performers I would enjoy hearing from you.