SalesTestOnline.com and Staying Safer During Covid-19

images-6

Pre-Testing Sales Candidates = Fewer Interviews

One of the great benefits of using SalesTestOnline.com is that it is feasible to test job candidates very early in the hiring process. The very low cost of the service, combined with the test being accessible by candidates from anywhere on the internet, means that testing relatively large numbers of candidates prior to an interview is both practical and economical.

Many of our clients have used SalesTestOnline.com in this manner for years since it means they can focus their valuable time interviewing only those candidates who possess high potential for success.   If you have never considered doing this, here is an article that might be of interest: https://www.salestestonline.com/sales-personality-test-when-to-use-a-sales-personality-test-in-the-hiring-process

Using SalesTestOnline.com in this ‘top of the funnel’ way, has always made great sense since it is not just a huge time saver, it is also a far more efficient and reliable way to accurately evaluate job candidates. During this period of social distancing due to Covid19, using SalesTestOnline.com in this way is even more attractive because it enables you and your team to continue vetting candidates while drastically reducing the danger of exposure to the virus. Let’s face it, having fewer face-to face interactions right now is safer for everyone.

How would this work? The good news is that you can probably keep your current processes intact. Below is the typical three step hiring process used my most companies.

  1. Resume sorting. After resumes are received you perform a process of elimination or rating to come up with a batch that appear to have promise.   At this stage you have a good idea about work history/experience, product/industry knowledge, education, skills, specific credentials and a variety of personal data.
  2. Phone interviews are conducted. Based on how well the candidates perform on the phone certain candidates are eliminated from the running. After further considering those that ‘passed’ the phone interview some, or all, of these candidates are contacted to arrange face-to-face interviews.
  3. Face to face interviews are conducted. After the interviews more candidates are eliminated. You now have your short list. Some companies make an offer at this stage while some have an additional follow up interview.
Should you test every candidate?

For certain companies that hire in large numbers yes, this makes perfect sense. For most businesses, however, the ‘sweet spot’ is for candidates who ‘pass’ the phone interview to then take our online sales test. This is as easy as sending them an email with the testing credentials. Sales test results come back to you as soon as they’ve finished the test. The candidates who do best on our sales personality test are the ones who are the best fit and therefore are the high potential candidates.   These are the candidates you should then interview!

In the typical scenario described above you might have had to conduct up to 10 face-to-face interviews in order to identify three top candidates. By pre-testing those 10 candidates instead, you arrive at your shortlist in record time.

Furthermore, when you interview these pre-tested candidates you do so knowing that they have the tools to do the job. Not only that, their test results give you ‘inside information’ about areas you should zero in on such as strengths, weaknesses and red flags. This can’t help but make you a more powerful interviewer! And of course you’ll have had just 3 face-to-face conversations rather than 10. Safer and Better!

If you are interested in learning more about using our sales test to more effectively vet sales people while being safer during this time of Covid-19 I would very much enjoy hearing from you. We have almost 35 years of experience with the challenges you face when trying to hire sales winners. I’m happy to share what we’ve learned and I promise to be very frank and forthright in any of our conversations.

Author: David Pearce

David Pearce is the President of SalesTestOnline.com. Established in 1986, SalesTestOnline.com is North America's #1 provider of sales personality tests. SalesTestOnline.com has over 1400 satisfied customers (97% re-order rate) who use our sales test to measure the suitability of sales candidates and sales employees. SalesTestOnline.com is customized to your unique criteria, fully automated, instantaneous, extremely accurate and very economical.