Frequently Asked Questions About 

Sales Assessment Tests and the Testing Process

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

Pricing begins at $295 per person assessed and declines as quantities increase. What you receive for your investment is:

  • Two comprehensive, online, sales assessment tests that take a total of approximately one hour to complete.

  • Two detailed assessment reports that compare the individual's scores to top sales performer benchmarks and describe how the individual should be expected to perform specific sales-related activities based upon the individual's own assessment scores.

  • A 3-to-5 page summary of findings that highlights sales-related strengths and weaknesses. This summary includes suggested interview questions (for sales job candidates) or questions that will help you get to the root of performance problems (for existing sales employees). The summary is sent via email within 24 hours of completion of both sales assessment tests.

  • As much time as you care to spend on the telephone discussing completed assessment results.

A benchmark is used for comparison, in this case comparing an assessment participant's scores to top sales performer scores. Here are the steps we follow to create a custom benchmark:

  • We assess between 3 and 12 top-performing salespeople.

  • Sophisticated software assigns a score of between 1 and 10 to each talent that is measured by the sales assessment tests.

  • The sales assessment test scores are merged together for the top performers. This produces a "desirable score range" (usually three to four numbers wide) for each talent.

  • We discuss the top performer score ranges and determine whether any of them should be "tweaked." (Just because we are talking about your top performers doesn't mean you want to replicate every one of their behaviors.)

  • The decisions reached during the benchmark discussion produce a preliminary custom benchmark.

  • Over time we add data from new top performers and continue to fine tune the custom benchmark.

Once a preliminary custom 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 are NOT a close match to the benchmark.

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.

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.

We use two tests when assessing salespeople. One test takes approximately 45 minutes. The other takes approximately 15 minutes.

Selling is a complex process. People must have numerous talents and skills if they are going to succeed in sales. How can something so complex be measured accurately in just 15 or 20 minutes?

It happens, but it's pretty rare. It's 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 one hour 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."

Many of our clients appreciate the fact that completing the assessments requires a time commitment from a job candidate. Their reasoning is if a job candidate is not willing to invest one hour, they're not truly serious about the job!

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.

For some parts of the assessments the answer is a resounding "no" - the structure of the questions simply don't lend themselves to manipulation.

For other parts of the assessments there is the possibility that participants may try to tell you what they think you want to hear. However, both sales assessment tests include sophisticated "distortion scales" that identify 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.

If you would like to order one or more sales test bundles, you can do so on our ordering page. Please be sure to also use our contact us form to send us the first name, last name and email address for the individuals you would like to have assessed, along with the name(s) and email address(es) of the individual(s) in your company that you would like to have receive reports when assessments are completed.

Upon completion, each sales assessment test is scored instantaneously by sophisticated software. Following the completion of the second sales assessment test, two comprehensive reports are immediately sent 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 following the receipt of the two sales assessment test reports.

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!

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 position.

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 suggest more comprehensive solutions to sales performance problems than psychologists, coaches, trainers, and human resources generalists can usually offer.

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!