Assessments for Sales Representatives Used Beyond Hiring

Assessments for sales representatives are most commonly used to identify, interview and hire top performing workers who will add value to your sales team. However, you also can use assessments to strengthen your sales team beyond the hiring process.

Sales managers are taught to observe and coach, meaning they spend every available moment observing their team and stressing the use of sales strategies and techniques to advance the sales cycle in pre-call and post-call coaching sessions.

According to a SalesVantage.com article by Jim Kasper, president and CEO of Interactive Resource Group, the use of an assessment can help with your coaching efforts by telling you what areas to focus on and what areas should be less of a concern.

Kasper notes that a properly structured assessment report should identify characteristics of your sales representatives that could be helpful or harmful to your sales team and provide you with coaching advice on how to handle them.

"For example: The assessment data tells you your new 'A Player' is very social. In sales, we know that's a good thing as we'd prefer having our prospects and customers relating to a personable, outgoing rep instead of a remote, indifferent one.

However, your rep's need for social interaction can stymie sales performance. If the rep takes too much time 'making friends instead of sales,' sales will suffer as the result of too many 'howdy calls' instead of executing calls with a clear sales objective. There are also prospects and customers who'd rather stick to business and forgo rapport-building. Your rep needs to know the difference between the two and react and respond accordingly."

In addition, assessments for sales representatives can help sales managers figure out who their successor should be by providing insights into candidates and narrowing down the number of people who are capable of filling the position.