When do sales tests work? The people who sell them would advocate that you should use them as a screening tool prior to ever considering a candidate. I advise against that. I typically use the tool if I suspect that a candidate is viable and I’ve interviewed them and developed my own sense of their profile and achievement history. Wait until you have enough evidence to justify investing in the online sales test.
Is a sales test a panacea? Absolutely not. Oftentimes we’ve overruled the conclusion of the sales test and made a different decision than the conclusion that was given to us. What the sales test does do, is give you another set of objective information and another view of the candidate. Typically what I do, is use it to catch any blind spots or expose other issues that we may have missed as a team through the sales interview process.
If you’re thinking about using online sales profiling tools or tests, my suggestion is that it should become an integral part of your sales hiring process. The one that we like the most is the Express Screens from the Objective Management Group at www.objectivemanagement.com. It’s not the only one…there certainly are others, but it’s the one that we’ve used with good results.
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