Great short post about how many recruiters fear sales assessments –> (Many Recruiters Fear Sales Assessments, by the Objective Management Group, a sales assessment company so it’s a bit of an advertorial). He is right that most recruiters, are not inclined to use assessments – and it should be no surprise, whether they are internal or external to the company, as they are typically incented/compensated to fill seats so the focus is on “first best” and “selling” candidates to the hiring manager rather than properly assessing candidate abilities. The sales manager, on the other hand, is measured by sales outputs resulting from the hire, so they care about abilities.
I would take it a step further, and add that most recruiters don’t know what a sales assessment is let alone fear them. When we do sales force audits, hiring projects, or provide guidance to our clients, we support the use of several different types of assessments for different types of positions (management vs. rep), for measuring different types of attributes (skills vs. temperamen/DNA) at various stages in hiring or management (screening vs. in-depth analysis). We also recommend the assessments be customized to a particular selling environment+role and that they are benchmarked to top performers in that role in the hiring company.
Assessments aren’t 100% reliable for predicting top performers in a certain sales environment, but when combined with other methods of assessment such as interviews, role plays, background checks, etc., skill tests and temperament assessments, provide useful objective insight and are an important component of accurately evaluating sales staff or potential hires.
relpost-thumb-wrapper
Related posts
Eliot Burdett
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)
- 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
- How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader – September 15, 2021
- Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021
