Is Aptitude Testing the Quickest Way to Sales Improvement?

When trying to get quick results as a sales manager or executive in turning around a sinking ship, lots of solutions come to mind. There are training courses, hiring new people, motivational speeches, big marketing campaigns, and more.

One excellent sales improvement remedy (which is all but overlooked) is to perform sales aptitude testing on the entire sales team — from executives on down — and then adjust the roles team members play based on the results.

Doing so is like taking a struggling sports team, holding a brand new set of tryouts, and then shifting players around to take advantage of their strengths. Until this process is done and the players really tested, it might be impossible to see the weak spots.

The same applies for a sales team seeking sales improvement. Testing can quickly help determine who has the most potential and where you should focus your attention for the most rapid sales growth; rather than doing things through trial and error.

Aptitude Testing is Backed by Science

For anyone who disputes the validity of aptitude testing, consider this press release from the Association for Psychological Science which states, “Many studies have found that aptitude tests are pretty useful for predicting how people will do later … There is research that shows sort of the expected pattern: People with higher scores end up doing better.”

Aptitude testing has proven useful in many fields, including medicine, law, and the military. And in my experience, it is equally as valuable to sales professionals. At Asher Strategies, we have tested thousands of sales people and executives all over the world, and can say without hesitation that testing saves time, money, and heartache. It allows companies to build stronger teams with people doing the jobs they are naturally best suited to do.

Benefits

Here are some of the other major benefits of career assessments/aptitude tests:

• Lessen human opinion in the hiring process — avoid making bad judgment calls
• Quick –assessments take around 30 minutes to complete
• Deep insight into character
• Test for a wide variety of sales roles, not a pass/fail test
• Staff tend to respect personnel moves when backed by objective data, such as test results, rather than subjective factors, such as popularity

Implementation

Be careful when moving staff around, as this can crash sales and hurt morale. If someone is truly happy at their job and performing well, that takes precedence over any test results and they should not be moved unwillingly.

Take care in regards to compensation matters as well. If you are shifting someone from a salaried inside sales or support job to an outside sales hunter position, consider providing a draw against commission for a few months while they build up their business.

These issues will be mitigated if you test every potential hire before onboarding and place them in the appropriate job based on the results, from day one.

In summary, putting the right people in the right roles in accordance with their scientifically proven strengths and weaknesses will not only increase their performance, it will increase their job satisfaction and team morale.

Try aptitude testing next time you are struggling with sales improvement. It might just be the “magic bullet” you were searching for. For more information on aptitude testing and getting the right salespeople in the right seats, contact us here.