Business leaders lament that sales teams are ineffective, and they do not understand why they are not hitting the mark. Many are surprised to learn that 75% of sales representatives miss their quotas, and the main reason they lose sales is they do not understand customers’ needs.
Clearly, hiring top sales talent is essential to meet revenue and growth goals, which is why U.S. businesses spend $800 billion annually on sales salaries and commissions and invest over $15 billion in sales training.
Since a high-performing sales team is essential for success, companies implement a top assessment solution and use sales aptitude tests in while hiring.
How Sales Aptitude Tests Help Companies Improve Hiring
Organizations use the best sales aptitude tests to recruit top candidates and evaluate whether they are a good fit for a job and their corporate culture. These are some reasons why:
- Simplify Initial Screening: Companies receive hundreds of responses for job postings, and reviewing them manually is counterproductive. So, HR teams use sales aptitude tests to identify top candidates. When they review applicants’ assessments, they can instantly see which ones have the required sales skills and experience and focus their efforts on them.
- Create Custom Assessments: Top assessment solutions allow HR professionals to use pre-prepared sales aptitude tests or build custom assessments. Recruiters can modify assessments by adding and deleting questions and designating difficulty levels for questions. They can also create a sales aptitude test that meets their exact needs by selecting questions from hundreds of validated job- and subject-based skills tests.
For instance, if you are hiring a sales representative for an insurance company, the best sales aptitude test would have questions that test applicants’ sales abilities and questions from the eSkill Commercial Insurance and Life and Health Insurance skills tests to assess candidates’ industry knowledge.
- Simulations: The best sales aptitude tests show whether candidates have the right skills but not whether they can apply them. So, HR professionals include simulations in sales aptitude tests. Simulations mimic realistic job situations and ask applicants to solve problems. For example, candidates might be asked how they would sell a product, overcome objections, or work with a difficult client. Hiring team members then observe each candidate’s performance and add ratings and comments.
- Video Response Questions: Video response questions are perfect for situations where skills cannot be evaluated with written tests, such as assessing verbal communication skills. Sales representatives must conduct sales presentations in person and online, so they must sound professional and pleasant in person, on the phone, and during video calls. The only way to verify candidates are articulate is to listen to them speak.
Selecting The Best Sales Aptitude Tests
Sales representatives must be experts at selling the value of products and services and building relationships with customers. They must also be good communicators and excellent negotiators. These are the eSkill sales aptitude tests HR teams use to evaluate these skills:
- Sales Concepts: Confirms candidates understand sales strategies and tactics, assesses their closing skills, and evaluates how well they can work with customers and prospects.
- Sales Representative: Shows how diligent candidates are at following up on sales leads, their ability to sell and promote products and services, build customer relationships, and close sales.
- Negotiating: Evaluates candidates’ strategic thinking and problem-solving abilities and how well they make decisions.
- Emotional Intelligence: Shows whether applicants are aware of their emotions and understand how these emotions can affect their relationships with customers and prospects.
- Email Etiquette: Confirms that candidates understand basic email etiquette, appreciate the importance of clearly written messages, and can compose clear, complete, and tactful messages.
- Videoconference Communication and Etiquette: Confirms applicants know how to use popular video conference applications and understand videoconferencing etiquette.
Do Sales Aptitude Tests Work?
Customers and prospects often ask if sales aptitude tests work. There is no silver bullet when it comes to hiring sales representatives, but studies show that using customized sales aptitude tests significantly improves hiring outcomes. This company used assessments to enhance the quality of hire:
A company used personality assessments to hire sales representatives but was not pleased with the results. The hiring process took too long, and only 50% of the sales hires still worked for the company 12 months later.
Managers compared the abilities and attributes of top sales performers hired during the past two years with recently hired salespeople who had left the company or were about to leave. They developed a sales aptitude test focused on these team members’ attributes and required all subsequent sales representative candidates to complete it.
The sales representatives they hired using the assessment began producing revenue significantly faster—within 33 days versus 58 days—and had a higher average order value–$2,275/month compared to $1,550/month. They also improved retention. After 12 months, 90% of the new hires still worked for the company.
Get Started with The Best Sales Aptitude Tests
The best sales aptitude tests help companies recruit sales rock stars who can develop new business, build relationships with customers, and close business. Industry-leading assessment solutions also help organizations reduce recruiting costs and decrease time-to-hire. Companies that use the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM have decreased hiring costs by about 70% and time-to-hire by around 60%.
Do you want to implement the best sales aptitude tests and up your selling game? Contact eSkill to request a demo.
