Use a metal detector when hiring a salesperson

When we fly out of Denver International Airport, we pass through a metal detector. If the detector picks up metal on our person, a sensor goes off alerting Transportation Security Administration staff. Wouldn’t it be nice if such a device existed to screen and hire salespeople?

So often, we hear from frustrated leaders that they hired a person with a good track record, perhaps even from a strong competitor or a referral from a friend, only to end up carrying the salesperson longer than their mother did without any real or strong sales performance.

The challenge lies herein. Often, it’s not a question of whether the salesperson can sell, but rather will they sell. While this can be difficult to detect, predictive indicator tools are available to the hiring leader to better assess the candidate’s true potential for sales performance.

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When those tools are employed, it doesn’t always guarantee success, but can provide enough insight to pass on a candidate who was destined to be a costly sales mis-hire. The other advantage to using these screening tools is that, if you make the hire, it gives you a stronger picture of the candidate’s blind spots so you won’t be surprised when the honeymoon is over. Furthermore, it provides an upfront agreement for a development plan for the salesperson in the blind-spot areas. This saves months of lost opportunity and difficult conversations when the salesperson’s performance is lagging.

When faced with the prospect of using a sales hiring assessment, business professionals understand that the assessment needs to be valid. However, other concerns surface as well. Organizations also have concerns about investing the money upfront to screen a salesperson when their former process was to quickly hire people that were available when they had an open chair. Legality is another concern, often raised by the human-resources department.

Let’s take a look at these three areas of concern:

Technical validity addresses whether an assessment is well designed and whether it measures what it is supposed to measure. Well-developed assessments have technical manuals that detail how the assessment was built, including statistical data about types of evidence. Without proper evidence of validity, the quality of the assessment is in question. The challenge in understanding validity in this context is that technical expertise and training is required to accurately interpret the information. The best instruments have built-in distortion factors to protect against candidates providing answers they think the assessment or employer is looking for.

Return on investment: Not surprisingly, organizations interested in using assessments want to know if they add value. To assess ROI of the assessment, it’s important to tally the cost of past mis-hires in the last year or two. With those figures in hand you can judge if it is a justifiable expense to invest in the assessment to curb those mis-hire expenses which drain the bottom line. The average cost of a sales mis-hire can range between $50,000 and $200,000 per mis-hire.

Legal: The question, “Is it valid?” also can refer to the legality of an assessment’s use and the defensibility of the assessment process. A well informed HR or legal professional often will remind that the assessment must be used consistently and all candidates must be judged on the same criteria – in other words, it shouldn’t be selective. If an organization has concerns about legality, it is always recommended to engage the services of an attorney familiar with use of assessments in the workplace.

Of course, just having the data often is not enough to realize the true value of the assessment. A qualified professional must interpret and evaluate the information to help the organization interpret it, much like a doctor who sees hundreds and hundreds of x-rays and MRIs will see things the layperson will miss. This can especially become a pitfall when using low-cost assessments available on the Web. Imagine having an MRI done that way and interpreting the results with a “go-forward – don’t go forward” question on having an expensive surgery done.

In the end, organizations that employ benchmarking assessment tools in their sales hiring process make smarter hires, have fewer surprises and much better success hiring strong sales performers.

Bob Bolak is president of Sandler Training. Contact him at bbolak@sandler.com.