If you would like to make sure you hired the right sales person, sometimes you may want to use an assessment tool to make sure that you had made the right choice.

However, even according to one of the most sophisticated and predictive assessment tools available for sales people, HR Chally, there are limitations as to what an assessment tool can tell you about the candidate.

At best, the most predictive assessment tools are 85% accurate, and even HR Chally recommends that you can only base 30% of your hiring decision based on its assessments, while basing 30% on a structured behavioural interview, 30% on reference checks and 10% on your gut feel..

Hence, there are fewer companies who are willing to pay for assessment tools if they are going to base 30% or less of their hiring decisions.  This is especially true for sales positions where the staff turnover rate can be rather high.

The solution?  Create your own sales assessment tool!

In the above diagram, we measure in the Y-axis if a sales candidate is fast and spontaneous, or if he is slow and deliberate.  In the X-axis, we measure if the sales candidate is results-oriented or if he is relationship-oriented.

As you can also see from the above diagram, this is based on the DISC assessment.  Yet, if you are unwilling to pay for a DISC assessment, you can still ask the candidate the following questions just to have a feel of his inclination:

When customers make a request,

• do you first consider how to respond as quickly as possible; OR (fast and spontaneous)

• do you first consider how to make sure you provide a well-prepared response (slow and deliberate)

When you approach customers,

• Do you want to first make sure you help them achieve better results; OR (result-oriented)

• Do you want to first build a good relationship with them (relationship-oriented)

Using this next diagram, you can also measure if the sales candidate prefers to sell concrete products with shorter sales-cycles, or abstract solutions with longer sales-cycles.  You can also measure if the sales candidate is more high-touch, i.e. he is willing to spend more time to make sure customer satisfaction, or if he is low-touch, where he is more focused in closing the sale.  Here's how you can ask:
 

When you sell to customers,

• Do you prefer to provide them with readily-available products; OR (concrete)

• Do you prefer to provide them with products that you need to configure on your own (abstract)

During your sales meeting with your customer,

• Do you usually find out how you can make the customer buy ASAP? OR (low-touch)

• Do you usually help the customer find out what buying risks are involved? (high-touch)

One thing to note is that there are no right or wrong answers, as there are only answers that match or don't match your winning sales strategies used by your other sales people.

One more important thing to note is that such DIY assessment tools are no way as accurate as the paid versions.  These are used more as a complementary tool for a rigorous sales hiring process, where you just want to be doubly sure.

If you would like to find out how you can create your own DIY assessment tool, you can e-mail info@directions-consulting.com or call +86-136 7190 2505 or Skype: cydj001