Why Test
— Using Sales Tests as a Hiring Tool

Are sales tests worth the investment?
Is sales testing helpful?
What sales tests should you use and when?

The answer to all three questions is yes, no, and it depends! When hiring salespeople, there’s no doubt that sales tests have merit. But first, why test at all?

Why Bother With Sales Testing

Hiring salespeople isn’t like hiring for other positions where you can sift through the resumes, conduct a standard hiring interview, and do the usual reference checks. Although this process works well, it is flawed when we use it to hire salespeople. Salespeople represent a different type of hiring challenge.

Hiring Salespeople is Different

What makes hiring salespeople so different is that they’re salespeople! And if there’s one thing salespeople excel at, it’s selling themselves. Unfortunately, sometimes that’s the only thing they can sell. That’s where sales testing can help. A sales test can help separate the wheat from the chaff, the winners from the losers.

Types of Sales Assessment Tests

There are basically three types of simple sales assessment tests for testing salespeople:

• Sales Temperament Tests
• Selling Skills Tests
• Sales Personality Tests

All three types have their place in the hiring process.

Sales Temperament Tests

Temperament is similar to personality. Think of personality as being the distinctive qualities or characteristics of a person, while temperament is a measure of how that person naturally responds and reacts to the world around him or her; i.e. how the person will go about doing his or her job.

Our Sales Temperament Assessment sales test rates the candidate on two factors:

1. the candidate's suitability for sales in general (on a scale of 1-10)
2. the candidate's suitability for your particular selling environment (on a scale of 1-10)

These two ratings are then combined to give you an overall assessment of the candidate’s chances of success, expressed as one of the following statements:

1. Has the potential to be a top performer
2. Has the potential to be a good performer
3. Has the potential to perform well with a minimum of supervision
4. May succeed in sales if given proper guidance, supervision, and coaching
5. May succeed in sales only if possessing a great deal of desire, drive, and discipline

As the investment is only US$75, we recommend that our Sales Temperament Assessment sales test be used early in the hiring process to screen out unsuitable candidates and help make a better job match before investing too much additional time or money.

Selling Skills Tests

There is no doubt that you’d like to know if the candidate can actually sell before you hire the person for a sales position. Unfortunately, most selling skills tests will only gauge a person’s knowledge of selling, not his or her actual skill level.

While confirming a person’s selling skills through reference checking is appropriate, many previous employers are hesitant to give a former employee a bad reference and may not tell you the truth.

A better way to assess a candidate’s selling skills is to have the person do a simulated sales call. The nice thing about this technique is that it costs you nothing but time. (You can have access to a sample sales call simulation and other free hiring resources by opening an account with us.)

This kind of sales testing is best done at the second or third interview when the candidate is on your short list.

Sales Personality Tests

This type of sales test can provide in-depth insights into a number of factors such as:

• an individual's traits
• communication style
• decision-making style
• how the person works with others
• what motivates
• how to manage
• strengths and weaknesses
• problem-solving abilities
• people skills

For the most part, this is good information and is very valuable to have once you’ve decided to hire the candidate because it helps you manage the person even more effectively. With prices ranging up to several hundred dollars per report, they are usually considered too costly to use with every candidate.

This type of sales test is recommended for use with candidates who are on your short list and under serious consideration.

Summary

Use the following guidelines when testing salespeople:

1. Sales Temperament Tests: Use an inexpensive sales test such as our Sales Temperament Assessment as a selection/screening tool early in your hiring process so that you don’t waste time and money on unsuitable candidates.

2. Selling Skills Tests: Don’t rely on a written test to evaluate selling skills. Develop your own sales simulation/role-play that can be used during the interview process. We can help with that.

3. Sales Personality Tests: Use the more comprehensive and more expensive sales personality tests only for those people who are being seriously considered and are on your short list.

Learn more about how our sales test can help you build a strong sales team.