Why OMG's Sales Candidate Assessments Can't Help These Companies

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

Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.

car dealership

Car dealers, and most copier, office supply, long distance, insurance agencies, real estate agencies, and other companies that don't really care who they hire. Did I say that most of those companies don't care who they hire? I'm sorry, they care, as long as those that sign up are breathing and have family and friends to sell to. I'm exaggerating, but not by much!

So what does that have to do withOMG's (Objective Management Group) assessments?

Clients use OMG's assessments as part of a sophisticatedrecruiting process" href="http://www.omghub.com/CorporateRecruitingSystem/RequestInformation/tabid/22561/Default.aspx" target="_self">sales specific, Topgrading compatible, recruiting process. The candidate is asked to complete the assessment as soon as a resume is received via email or an applicant applies on line. Criteria for a hiring recommendation varies by client and depends on the many customized requirements resulting in some candidates being recommended and some not. The percentage is in direct proportion to how effectively the client's posting attracted the desired pool of candidates, and how difficult it may have been to meet the specific criteria for a recommendation. I randomly chose 10 such processes taking place right now. As you will see below, the ratio of total candidates assessed to candidates recommened has a range of between 2.6:1 and 8:1 depending on the role, geography and requirements.

Scenario 1 - Outside salesperson to call on C Suite in competitive vertical - 8:1

Scenario 2 - Inside Salesperson - Manufacturing 3:1

Scenario 3 - National Sales Manager - Logistics 2.6:1

Scenario 4 - Territory Sales - Industial Distribution - 3:1

Scenario 5 - Sales Manager - Industrial Distribution - 2.9:1

Scenario 6 - Territory Sales - Food Service - 3.5:1

Scenario 7 - VP Sales - Medical Devices - 3.4:1

Scenario 8 - Territory Sales - Technology to call on CFO's - 5:1

Scenario 9 - Territory Sales - Technology to call on CIO's - 2.75:1

Scenario 10 - Territory Sales - Heavy Equipment - 3.75:1

If you consider that only about 65% of all applicants actually complete the assessment, the adjusted ratio of total candidates to recommended candidates has a range of between 3.5:1 and 11:1.

Getting back to the original question - why won't OMG's assessments help car dealers and the others like them? Suppose they currently hire 7 of every 10 candidates willing to sell their cars and copiers but the assessment only recommends 2 of those candidates. You can understand their fear; they won't have enough candidates to keep up with their significant churn.

They confuse the candidate to recommended ratio with their churn rate. Instead they should apply the ratio to the churn because of this ironic connection: the 2 we actually recommend will succeed and stay, thereby reducing the churn enough to negate the need for all of the undesirable candidates!

In other words, if they hire the right salespeople to begin with, their churn problem disappears!

For more on this topic, refer tothis article from 2009, andthis one from 2006.

Finally, if you are feeling especially helpful, today is the final day (12-12-11) to vote for your choices to win the 14 categories of Top Sales & Marketing Awards.

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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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