A powerful salesforce can turn your medium-sized, unassuming company into a competitor to be reckoned with. It’s why hiring for sales should be taken seriously. Be mindful not to bring on your next employee haphazardly just because you need to fill a slot. You must be meticulous, calculated and confident in your choices. Many hiring managers, however, go into the process believing they’re doing their due diligence – checking references and conducting comprehensive interviews, and still wind up with an ill-fitting employee that lacks long term potential. It’s very easy to make a mistake using traditional hiring practices, because so much of a person’s true sales personality comes out over time.
Sales Hiring Evaluations
What if hiring committees were awarded more insight into how their candidates are likely to do on the job? Thankfully there are sales personality tests such as those available through SalesTestOnline that do just this. First the testing company does a thorough analysis of every open position, developing a target profile for each one, measuring the ideal motivational style, level of assertiveness, sense of urgency, emotional maturity, and stamina required of the employee filling it. Then, a sales enterprise asks each of their applicants to take a short, non-invasive test; and their results are compared against this benchmark — which allows them to analyze the best sales people for the specific sales role they want to fill. With a 90% accuracy rate, they’ll be able to rest assured knowing those they’re bringing onto their team do in fact possess the sales personality demanded from the job.
Interviewing
Some sales employers still believe in interviewing, despite the amount of hiring risk involved. In an interview setting, it’s very easy for a candidate to play up the persona they think their prospective employer wants to see, irrespective of whether they’re able to follow through on the job. For those that still like interviews for the sake of getting to know their candidates, utilizing a sales test beforehand will at least guarantee the people you’re bringing into the room are all well-suited for the position and have the soft skills necessary to find success at the company. Some sales enterprises will even save themselves time and resources by only inviting people to send in resumes once they’ve achieved a certain score. While it may seem extreme, many of these companies have found talented personnel faster by being more selective at the start – exemplified by the test’s 97% reorder rate.
Soft Skills
Are you working to fill an open sales position in hopes of solidifying your dream team? Don’t underestimate the importance of the soft skills, like sociability, communicativeness, and the ability to empathize. At the end of the day, those working in sales must have the ability to foster trusted relationships with their customers and clients; only then will they create loyalties, and revenue for the company. High turnover rates make achieving this type of consistency challenging. Sometimes it’s nearly impossible if the product or service is a harder sell. But by hiring the strongest people from the get-go, you’ll move towards your targets more efficiently.
