What is the ideal sales assessment tool to use when recruiting sales people? Part 1

2.     Predictive Ability: Psychometric assessments should account for no more than 20% of your decision-making criteria. They can never be 100% predictive of performance and if anyone claims an assessment, by itself, can have predictive ability over 60% they are not being truthful. Sadly, many people rely on overly simplistic grid type assessments that are not predictive of sales success nor purpose built for sales recruitment and are even less reliable than ‘gut’ feel.

3.     Purpose Built: Use recruitment grade psychometric assessments that have been purpose built to measure specific qualities, abilities or attributes. Quality assessment tools will present information and inform you of the following:

a.     Relevant: Make sure the assessment(s) is designed for use in selection for a ‘normal’ (rather than clinical) population, is calibrated to the appropriate level (eg. management, supervisory, entry level) and has occupational context, ie. sales.

b.     Practical: Make sure the test/questionnaire is easy to administer, undertake and score. Check what facilities and equipment are required to complete the assessment and how quickly reports can be generated.

c.     Technical quality: Technical information is typically presented in a test manual and hence, the absence of a test manual should raise some doubts. In terms of technical properties, you need to consider: Reliability, Validity and Norm groups (these are common technical terms used in psychometrics). All genuine assessments will provide this data. Wading through statistical information can be dry and confusing for some people. If that includes you, seek the assistance of a Psychologist or other person familiar with the correct use of psychometrics. If you decide to ignore technical evidence, because it all seems too hard, it could be at your peril.

4.     What to measure: You are unlikely to get all the information you need from one assessment. There are a variety of assessments you can use in isolation or in combination and you need to select the ones that will determine what you need to measure for your role.  For example:

a.     Cognitive Abilities – verbal and numerical reasoning, conceptual reasoning, critical thinking, mechanical reasoning, etc.

b.     Personality – everyday preferences, personal and learning styles, self management, team orientation, ambition, etc.

c.     Motives & Values – what makes people happy at work, what drives them, what makes them unhappy.

d.     Coping & Derailing Behaviours – learned behaviours and attitudes that can adversely affect sales and leadership performance when under pressure or operating from a fear or frustration.

5.     Cost: cost will inevitably be a consideration. In an ideal world you would test everyone with every relevant assessment, however that is not realistic for most businesses. If you have simple screening tools which you use in conjunction with resume and telephone screening this can be useful as long as they are measuring the right things for your role and business.

However, these simple tools, while cheap, are not usually robust enough to give you the real detail you need to make informed decisions. Most businesses reserve the more stringent psychometric assessment process until after they have developed a short list of candidates who have been through the initial screening parameters and a thorough Behavioural Interview. By doing it this way you can manage your costs well. A number of our clients use assessments as a mandatory part of their selection processes and incorporate this information across all the findings. This saves them time and money in the long run. So, balance the cost of including psychometric tools in your recruitment process against the cost of one or more poor selection decisions. Which bill would you rather pay?

Getting it right when it comes to hiring your sales team is critical. A successful sales person will not only enable your organisation to ride out the economic uncertainty but will ensure you are ready to seize the opportunities that present during the recovery. As your sales teams are the primary interface between your organisation and your clients, it’s only when you get that interface right that you will achieve true competitive advantage. Using a robust psychometric assessment process as part of your selection strategy can really assist you. Next week we will discuss the different types of sales assessments available to you, and show you how and when you should use them.

Remember, everybody lives by selling something.

Sue Barrett practices as a coach, advisor, speaker, facilitator, consultant and writer and works across all market segments with her skilful team at BARRETT. Sue and her team take the guess work out of selling and help people from many different careers become aware of their sales capabilities and enable them to take the steps to becoming effective and productive when it comes to selling, sales coaching or sales leadership.To hone your sales skills or learn how to sell go to www.barrett.com.au.