Hiring is an art and a science. While first impressions are key, when it comes to hiring effective sales people, you need more than a gut instinct. You need a proven track record of success, a host of positive personality traits, the right selling skills, a fierce drive to succeed, and an organizational fit. You need qualities you might not even be thinking of. Learn how sales assessment tests can improve your hire quality.

HireDNA® offers leading sales recruiting services to help you build a winning sales team. Contact us for more information.

Why Do You Need a Sales Assessment?

Hiring managers can quickly fall into biases that impact hiring decisions. Objective assessments take the guesswork out of the hiring process. They provide a uniform set of standards and help hiring managers see the full picture of prospective sales candidates. Learn about how they work and how HireDNA can help you use them to build your strongest sales team yet!

Common Sales Hiring Pitfalls

It’s easy to fall into a hiring bias trap. After all, interviews are an inherently personal process. Candidates strive to make a good impression, and those responsible for hiring are looking for people they want to work with. With this kind of soft criteria, it can be hard to benchmark the ideal candidate and objectively decide who may be the best fit for the role.

Those making sales hiring decisions can fall into one of many biases, like:

• “Similar to me” effect: If a candidate has a similar personality, similar interests, or a similar mindset to the interviewer, the interviewer is more likely to think positively about the candidate.

• The contrast effect: Interviewing a stronger candidate after a weaker candidate can cause the interviewer to perceive the stronger candidate as the right fit for the job—when in reality, it’s just relative.

• Halo and Horn effects: The interviewer allows one statement, fact, or gesture to overshadow their entire perception of the candidate. This could be positive (halo effect) or negative (horn effect).

• Stereotyping: This may be the most common and most implicit bias that interviewers impose on candidates. Stereotyping involves making snap decisions and judgments about a candidate based on characteristics like race, gender, age, religion, etc.

The Cost of A Bad Hire

Most people interviewing for sales roles are already personable, competitive, and convincing. Knowing what biases to watch out for, you need to cut through the surface level, go deeper than the resume and degree, and really understand performance potential. With 50 percent of sales reps today consistently falling below their targets, the cost of a bad hire really adds up.

According to a study by PeopleKeep, a bad sales hire can cost between 50-75% of their annual salary. So, a sales person who make $60,000 per year could cost $30,000-$45,000 to replace.

A bad hire doesn’t just take a financial toll. A bad hire costs staff time, training resources, and general morale. It can cause top sales reps to feel disengaged and undervalued. It can also increase burnout and turnover, as other employees work harder to pick up the slack. One bad hire can make or break a team.

What will a bad hire cost you? Find out with this interactive hiring mistake calculator from Objective Management Group.

How Does a Sales Assessment Work?

So how do you make the right decision from the start? That’s where a sales assessment test comes in. HireDNA uses the Objective Management Group (OMG) Sales Candidate Assessment to screen sales candidates. OMG is one of the world’s most accurate and predictive assessments, with a success rate of 92 percent of recommended and hired candidates performing at or above expectations.

The OMG assessment defines exact hiring criteria for sales candidates, holds all candidates to the same standard, and gives your sales organization competitive hiring edge. Plus, it can be customized to your unique hiring criteria and sale environment.

The result is a tailored recommendation that shows how the candidate stacks up against industry standards, your own organization, and among candidates for the role itself.

Secure Your Hiring Success

Build your strongest team yet! HireDNA’s predictive sales candidate assessments give you a leg up on your hiring process. Our objective, proven tool goes beyond personality traits, first impressions, and gut feelings to assess 21 core selling competencies possessed by top sales performers in your industry.

Get in touch to learn more about our sales recruiting, evaluation, and training services. Let us help you build an exceptional sales team!

CONTACT US