"The assessment process has allowed us to highlight the traits that drive success in our organization. By using these tests, we have also been able to source, hire and train people that possess a skill set that is specifically tailored to meet the needs of our company. I would highly recommend the process to anyone interested in reducing turnover and poor hiring decisions."

Karen Gilhooly
VP Sales
Language Line Services
Monterey, CA

Frequently Asked Questions Concerning Sales Assessment Tests and our Testing Process

1. What do your sales assessment tests measure?

2. What is a benchmark?

3. What do I do if I don't have any top sales performers?

4. How does someone actually take the sales assessment tests?

5. How long does it take to complete the sales assessment tests?

6. Why does it take so long to complete the sales assessment tests?

7. How often do job candidates refuse to invest the time required to complete the sales assessment tests?

8. Do participants have to complete the sales assessment tests in one sitting?

9. Don't sales assessment test participants know how to answer the questions?

10. How long does it take to receive sales assessment test results?

11. Are the sales assessment tests just for job applicants, or can they be used with employees, too?

12. Do you have different tests for different sales jobs?

13. Are you psychologists?

14. I am a very experienced interviewer. Why should I consider using sales sales assessment tests?

1. What do your sales assessment tests measure?

Our sales assessment tests measure an individual's strength or weakness in a variety of sales-related talents. Then, each individual's sales assessment test results are compared against customized top sales performer benchmarks that are created for your specific sales position(s). The results of these comparisons are used to predict the following critical sales performance characteristics:

Learning Rate
Ability to Communicate Precisely and Effectively
Ability to Qualify Opportunities
Ability to Manage Cost Justification/ROI Conversations
Problem Solving Ability
Motivation (Internal vs. External)
Prospecting Effectiveness
Closing Effectiveness
Primary Selling Style
Willingness to Comply with Administrative Requirements
Ability to Work Effectively with Team Members

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2. What is a benchmark?

A benchmark is created by analyzing sales assessment test results for top sales performers. Here are the steps we follow to create a benchmark:

Assess a minimum of three top-performing salespeople.
Sophisticated software assigns a score of between one and ten to each talent that is measured by the sales assessment tests.
The sales assessment test scores are merged together for the top sales performers. This produces a “desirable score range” (usually three to four numbers wide) for each talent.
The combination of desirable score ranges for all of the talents measured by the sales assessment tests makes up the benchmark.

Once a benchmark has been developed, other individuals can be assessed and their scores compared against the benchmark. If an individual’s scores are a close match to the benchmark, their talents are similar to those of the top sales performers whose scores were used to create the benchmark. If these talents are developed through training and experience, these individuals are much more likely to become top sales performers than people whose sales assessment test scores do not closely match the benchmark.

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3. What do I do if I don't have any top sales performers?

We have used the results of thousands of sales assessment tests to develop excellent "composite" top sales performer benchmarks. While these benchmarks will not be as accurate as benchmarks constructed from your own company's top sales performer assessment test results, they provide very effective starting points.

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4. How does someone actually take the sales assessment tests?

The sales assessment tests are scheduled on a dedicated assessment website. Sales assessment test participants receive an e-mail that contains a website link and a unique username and password. Participants can complete the sales assessment tests on any computer that has internet access.

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5. How long does it take to complete the sales assessment tests?

We use two tests when assessing salespeople. One test takes approximately one hour. The other takes fifteen minutes.

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6. Why does it take so long to complete the sales assessment tests?

Selling is a complex process. People must have numerous talents and skills if they are going to be successful in sales. How can something so complex be measured accurately in just 15 or 20 minutes? Our sales assessment tests ask more than 500 questions to enable them to accurately predict future sales performance.

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7. How often do job candidates refuse to invest the time required to complete the sales assessment tests?

It happens, but it's pretty rare. It is easy to justify the time investment to a job candidate by saying something like the following:

"(Name), deciding whether to invite you to join our team is a very important decision for both of us. That's why we ask you to invest approximately an hour and fifteen minutes to complete two online sales assessment tests. The assessments provide objective information that helps us determine how good a fit we are for each other."

Our clients feel that if a job candidate is not willing to invest an hour and fifteen minutes, they are not truly serious about the job!

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8. Do participants have to complete the sales assessment tests in one sitting?

No. If a participant decides to stop working on a sales assessment test and return to it later, when they log back in the online system will return them to the last completed section. They can continue their work from this point.

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9. Don't sales assessment test participants know how to answer the questions?

Participants may attempt to provide what they perceive to be the "right" answers to test questions. However, both sales assessment tests include a sophisticated "distortion scale" that identifies whether participants have attempted to "polish" their answers to test questions. This enables us to determine whether an individual's sales assessment test results accurately reflect the individual's talents, abilities, and expected performance and behaviors.

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10. How long does it take before I receive sales assessment test results?

Upon completion, each sales assessment test is scored instantaneously by sophisticated software and a comprehensive sales assessment test report (16 pages and 8 pages respectively) is sent immediately via e-mail to authorized recipients. These reports highlight whether and by how much each participant's scores differ from the score ranges for top sales performers and predict the participant's performance and behaviors.

MySalesTest.com personnel also review each participant's sales assessment test reports and prepare a 3-5 page summary of findings. This summary is sent to you via e-mail within 24 hours after an individual completes the second sales assessment test.

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11. Are the sales assessment tests just for job applicants, or can they be used with employees, too?

We strongly recommend that you use sales assessment tests with all of your existing sales employees as there is no better way to "take inventory" of the talents of your existing salespeople. Plus, the sales assessment test results from your top sales performers will be used to create customized benchmarks against which all other sales assessment tests for your organization will be compared.

A second benefit of using these sales assessment tests with existing employees is the tests can help you identify each salesperson's unique training needs. If you supply targeted training to address each individual's unique training needs, it is possible to achieve dramatic performance improvements...IF the individual has the talents required to succeed in sales.

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12. Do you have different tests for different sales jobs?

The same two tests are used for all sales jobs. However, the customized benchmarks developed using top sales performer sales assessment results are unique for each sales job.

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13. Are you psychologists?

Our sales assessment tests were developed by teams of industrial psychologists, but we are not psychologists. We are sales performance experts. Our expertise in helping companies build and manage top-performing sales teams enables us to provide more comprehensive solutions to sales performance problems than psychologists, coaches, trainers, and human resources generalists can usually offer.

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14. I am a very experienced interviewer. Why should I consider using sales assessment tests?

Even the most experienced interviewer can be fooled. According to Lou Adler, author of Hire With Your Head,

"More errors are made during the first 30 minutes of an interview than at any other time. Emotions, biases, perceptions, stereotypes, and first impressions are powerful human forces that profoundly affect individual judgment."

Our sales assessment tests will provide you with specific, objective information about your sales job candidates. When you add objective information to the subjective information gathered during the other steps in the recruiting process, you can dramatically reduce the chances of making expensive sales hiring mistakes.

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MySalesTest.com
10559 East Tierra Buena Lane
Scottsdale, AZ 85255
Toll Free: (866) 531-3917