Why personality assessment are not good indicators of sales specific skills and competencies

2. Organizations have been giving
behavioural tests to job candidates
since the early years of the
twentieth century. When it comes
to identifying top sales talent,
however, a standard personality
assessment is not enough. To truly
get results, you need to have an
assessment specifically designed to
identify strong sales talent.
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3. Personality assessments typically try to uncover an individual’s
personality in the general workplace. Are they nitpickers or
visionaries? Do they avoid or initiate conflict? Are they gregarious
networkers or focused individual contributors? Many companies
believe these assessments can screen out candidates with
undesirable attributes and guide managers and workers in their day-
to-day interactions. It’s estimated that 57% of large US employers
are using some type of pre-employment personality assessment, and
the number is growing.
Sales assessments are a completely different animal. There are many
companies offering sales assessments.
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4. But their common feature is that they look at specific personality
traits, attitudes, behaviours, and habits that predict future success as
a sales person.
The underlying strength of many sales assessments is that they go
beyond conventional wisdom to measure what makes a great
salesperson. Where a personality assessment might reveal broad
personality traits and characteristics, sales assessments often
evaluate the ‘sales DNA’ of each candidate to scientifically gauge
competitiveness, desire to sell, and commitment as well as sales-
specific skills like the prospecting, hunting, consultative selling,
closing, account management, and more.
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5. More companies are including sales assessments in their recruiting
and selection process. Here a just a few benefits you will see by
incorporating a sales assessment in your recruiting.
5

6. Levering an assessment is part of the screening process will help to
weed out candidates that are not a match, thus, saving valuable time
in the interview process.
6

7. Not only will an effective assessment evaluate candidate selling
skills, it will also measure compatibility with your particular sales
environment and culture to ensure longevity.
7

8. Sales skills assessments will help to identity the strengths of the
candidates as well as areas they can be improved. This knowledge
will help you develop a more customized on-boarding and training
program to help each candidate reach their full potential.
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9. Make the sales assessment one part of a comprehensive candidate
evaluation that includes education, past work history, demonstrated
sales success, and industry/product knowledge.
Work with a sales assessment testing company to develop modified
tests or benchmarks to support specific sales positions. Some sales
jobs need hunters who will work independently, others jobs need
farmers that will be closely supervised. Success in these positions
requires different behaviours.
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10. Depending on your organization’s best practices, it may be necessary
to have both a personality assessment and a sales assessment. While
this is fine, make sure to give priority to the sales assessment when
recruiting a new sales team member.
How much is a bad sales hire costing your organization? Check out
this free hiring mistake calculator and instantly receive your total
cost of hiring mistakes including your cost of recruitment,
development and lost business. Should you need help developing a
sales talent assessment, contact Revecent.
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11. Website: www.revecent.com | Phone: (800) 609-8541 | Email: info@revecent.com
We look forward to learning more about your sales
goals and how we can help you achieve greater
success
Contact Revecent