Out of every professional industry, the sales sector is the one that experiences the most employee turnover. In most industries, quick turnover is due to the unstable nature of a job, or weak company culture; in sales however, it has everything to do with mis-hiring. Time and time again, employers invite applicants ill-suited for a position into the interviewing room. They know how challenging it is to see whether a salesperson will be good at their job before putting them to the test, so they tend to rely on their intuition. Intuition unfortunately can be unreliable, particularly when there are applicants playing up a certain persona to win their prospective employer over.
It’s unsurprising, then, that after a few months at their desk, a new hire’s performance starts suffering; they can’t keep up the façade any longer. It is at this point an employer sees things more clearly and lets them go. Having already wasted company time and resources, they set off once more to find someone dependable and transparent, someone that has long-term potential, but there’s no guarantee they’ll find the right person. Many hiring managers describe it as somewhat of a lottery.
Sales companies tired of hiring inconsistency will search for tools to help make the whole process more satisfying. Many turn to what are known as sales personality tests, developed by industry psychologists to give them some insight into an applicant’s potential (or lack thereof) before they hire. Available through entities like SalesTestOnline, these tests measure traits related to sales style, such as assertiveness, stamina, emotional maturity, and dependence. An applicant’s results are then compared against the target profile created for the company – an 80% score or higher indicates that the candidate is indeed suited for the work.
Visit the SalesTestOnline Blog to read engaging pieces on the test and the various sales profiles that are generated — which often include a rigorous analysis of the position and the sales company’s needs. A benchmark profile can also be custom made – a sales enterprise simply distributes a mock test amongst its top players employed in similar roles. For skeptics, the test boasts a 90% accuracy rate and 97% reorder rate when additional positions open. What it does is streamline the hiring process. By implementing this short ten-minute test at the start of an application process, hiring committees save themselves time by identifying the candidates they feel are best suited to the position they’re hiring for, ensuring that they don’t end up hiring an employee that’s bound to not work out.
Hiring risk is a serious problem in the sales industry; when performance and success rely on the manner in which one interacts on a call, companies require more than a good resume or strong interviewing skills. What they need is a professional tool that picks up on possible red flags faster than they would by intuition alone. By utilizing a sales personality test early on in the hiring process, employers can see more clearly which applicants embody the sales style that’ll help them stick with the company for the long haul.
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