What is Predictive Sales Hiring?

Any sales-based business model hinges on the success of the company’s sales representatives. Finding, hiring, and training sales reps is an ongoing process for most sales-focused companies. Some industries that focus on highly specialized products, techniques, and tools require specialized training that can take months. Hiring managers who handle these onboarding processes need to know the time and resources they invest in new salespeople will be beneficial to the company in the long run, and predictive sales hiring is one of the best ways to ensure this.

Predictive Sales Hiring Reveals a Candidate’s Sales DNA

A predictive sales hiring system analyzes a candidate based on various criteria to create a complete profile of that applicant. It helps reveal what’s known as “Sales DNA” – a salesperson’s fundamental traits, competencies, and underlying strengths and weaknesses. Are they a self-starter? Do they make excuses or lack urgency? Do their beliefs support or sabotage ideal sales outcomes?

The predictive hiring system then compares the candidate’s Sales DNA, along with other critical factors, to the company’s sales environment and hiring criteria to determine if the candidate is a good fit and the likelihood of success. It may sound simple, but hiring sales talent is a complex process, and hiring managers need to invest in the right people to avoid revolving-door sales teams that make it hard to cultivate relationships with customers and develop their salespeople.  

A company can tailor their predictive sales hiring system to the characteristics they want to see most from new hires based on the specific sales role. This may include basic work history factors like job experience, professional certifications, selling capabilities, and communication skills. The predictive hiring system then predicts how a candidate will perform in the future and whether hiring the candidate would meet the company’s goals for the position.

The Science Says Predictive Sales Hiring Works

Some companies have adopted multiple predictive modeling systems capable of layering screening criteria for the most accurate results. Machine learning tools can enable a predictive hiring system to learn from past interactions and adapt to new hiring criteria. Data analysts can help identify trends in post-hire performance and other types of candidate data to constantly improve a predictive hiring system.

Ultimately, a predictive hiring system offers a company a more streamlined and accurate method of predicting how an employee will work with the company in the long term. It’s possible to discover a seemingly ideal sales representative, only to find a few months later that he or she doesn’t perform at the expected level or was simply looking for a stop-gap position. Predictive hiring systems don’t just look for the “best candidate” for a position; they create a full sales assessment for each candidate to predict long-term viability with the company.

Predictive hiring systems allow hiring managers to make better hiring decisions and reduce uncertainty in the hiring process. These systems help companies diminish employee turnover and cut down on resources spent on hiring and training processes. To learn more about the science behind predictive sales hiring, download our Science Behind Sales Success whitepaper.