Boost Your Bottom Line with Aptitude Tests for Sales Jobs

Every business leader looks for ways to increase profits. Since increasing sales leads to higher profits, building a strong sales team is a top priority, and U.S. companies spend $800 billion yearly on sales salaries and commissions and invest $15 billion in sales training. 

The best way to increase revenue is to hire top sales performers who are likely to stay with your company. Veteran sales representatives build strong customer relationships and become trusted advisors. This is impossible if you have a high turnover on your sales team.

Organizations worldwide are implementing assessment solutions and using aptitude tests for sales jobs to identify top sales talent. Avoiding hiring mistakes also helps them reduce turnover so they can concentrate on increasing revenue and penetrating new markets instead of replacing and training new hires.

Why Companies Need Aptitude Tests for Sales Jobs

Business leaders see aptitude tests for sales jobs as indispensable because they enable managers to identify top-quality sales representative applicants. This is particularly true because hiring is more challenging due to the current unprecedented talent shortage.

Organizations in all industries are finding it challenging to recruit qualified candidates to fill critical job vacancies, including sales representative positions. This is partly due to the fact that 47.4 million workers quit their jobs. However, the main cause is a skills misalignment that has been developing for around ten years.

Many organizations have adopted new technology and implemented digital transformation initiatives, which means their hiring needs have changed. Many applicants’ skills have not kept pace, and they lack the in-demand skills that companies need. This has caused a knowledge gap that is so serious that over 70% of CEOs say a talent shortage is their biggest business challenge.

Another problem is that hiring managers can no longer assume candidates’ information is correct. According to HireRight, 85% of candidates lie on their resumes and during interviews. So, a candidate who looks and sounds perfect could turn out to be a costly hiring mistake.

Companies strive to minimize turnover because it is expensive and disrupts productivity. Sales rep turnover is particularly costly because losing good sales talent directly impacts your bottom line. This is why sales managers dread hearing that a top sales performer is leaving. They know they could lose the sales representative’s product knowledge and client relationships, which could harm existing and future businesses.

How Aptitude Tests for Sales Jobs Help You Improve Hiring

When companies implement an assessment solution, hiring teams can use aptitude tests for sales jobs to screen candidates quickly and efficiently. Instead of spending hours manually reviewing resumes, they can instantly screen applicants and identify those who are best qualified. Aptitude tests for sales jobs also help HR leaders determine which candidates are the best cultural fit for their organization. This allows them to build a top sales team that can develop new business, build customer relationships, and close sales.

This is how aptitude tests for sales jobs help companies hire top sales talent:

• Instantly Screen Candidates: Companies often receive hundreds of responses when they post a job for a sales representative position. Reviewing resumes manually is counterproductive and takes hours. It is also difficult to see if candidates have the skills you need. Aptitude tests for sales jobs help HR teams screen applicants quickly, identify top contenders, and weed out those who are unqualified.

• Create Custom Aptitude Tests for Sales Job: Leading assessment solutions include a library of job- and subject-based skills tests. You can use them as-is or build aptitude tests for sales jobs by selecting questions from multiple skills tests. For example, if you are hiring a sales representative for a financial services company and need candidates familiar with common industry terms and regulations. You can create an aptitude test for a sales job with assessment questions that test sales ability and skills tests such as the eSkill Money Handling, Financial Statements, and Debt Collection tests.

• Simulations Questions: Written aptitude tests for sales jobs help hiring teams verify candidates have the required skills but not whether they can apply them. So, many HR teams and hiring managers include simulation questions in aptitude tests for sales jobs that replicate realistic scenarios. For example, you could ask applicants to overcome objections, sell against a competitor, or solve a problem for a difficult customer.

• Video Response Questions: Including video response questions in aptitude tests for sales jobs allows hiring managers to evaluate abilities that cannot be measured with a written test, such as verbal communication skills. Sales representatives must sound pleasant and professional in person, on the phone, and in video meetings. Video response questions help you verify candidates are articulate and also allow you to evaluate other job requirements, such as foreign language abilities.

Get Started with Aptitude Tests for Sales Jobs

Aptitude tests for sales jobs help organizations build sales teams that develop and close business so you can increase profits and improve productivity. Businesses that use industry-leading assessment solutions also improve hiring outcomes while reducing HR costs and decreasing time-to-hire. Many companies that use the eSkill Talent Assessment Platform^TM have decreased recruiting costs by up to 70% and reduced time-to-hire by around 60%.

Do you want to learn how aptitude tests for sales jobs can help you build a high-performing sales team? Contact eSkill to request a demo.