10 Reasons - Don't Worry When Sales Candidates Don't Take the Test

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan
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Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving - By Dave Kurlan

We instruct clients to have their sales candidates take the Sales Candidateassessmentvery early in the recruiting process. It's the first step after the client receives their resumes. Clients carefully spell out exactly how the entire process will work and explain that the assessment is simply the first step.

Recent statistics show that only 34% of the candidates are taking the assessment without additional prompts. Isn't that awful?

Maybe. Let's explore it further.

We should consider that all ofthe following ten scenarios arepossible reasons why candidates fail to complete the assessment:

RISK AVERSE - They think it's a scam and they're afraid to click the link.
NARCISSISTIC - They think they are above such nonsense as having to take an assessment.
POOR ATTENTION TO DETAIL - They suck at following directions.
LACK OF CONFIDENCE - They do click the link, take one look at the questions and realize they are over their head.
NOT QUALIFIED - Individuals are not salespeople, so this prevents them from pursuing the opportunity.
POOR FIT - They don't have the background for which you are looking, so they won't pursue the opportunity.
CAN'T MULTI-TASK - They begin taking the assessment, get called away and never return to complete it.
LONE RANGER - They didn't take the process which you laid out seriously.
POOR NOTE TAKER - They intended to take the assessment and forgot to do it.
REACTIVE - They were waiting for you to call and ask them to take the assessment.

I would be the first to say that 34% is a terrible completion percentage. But considering most of the reasons, would you really want to waste one minute of your time reviewing their resumes, talking with them on the phone, interviewing them face-to-face or even considering them for the position? If you are doing the hiring, is the 34% completetion really such a bad thing?

Instead, the 66% who don't complete the assessment, simply become the victims of the first filter. The assessment itself is the second filter - recommending only 25% - 50% of those who do take the assessment. The variation is a direct result of the configuration of the assessment and how strong you need your salespeople to be, based on the challenges they will face.

The next filter is a phone call with the the recommended candidates. Clients learn that of those recommended, they don't all sound great and some don't fit. The best of the candidates, who survive the first 3 filters, get interviewed the first time in the process where the hiring manager really has to invest any time. Interviewing skills are extremely important for this step, where the hiring manager must determine if the candidate owns what is written on their resume or they simply penned a work of fiction.

Is your sales recruiting process this efficient? Do you have and use the skills necessary for being able to conduct a thorough, intensive, challenging 30-minute interview and know at that point whether you have found your next salesperson?

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Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving - By Dave Kurlan

About the Author: Dave Kurlan

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Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan).
Click here to visit Dave's website.

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