Trick to Hiring ONLY Salespeople Who Know How to Close a Deal
No matter your product or service, it’s not going to sell itself. At least not in enough volume to make your enterprise viable. The solution is to build a marketing team and salesforce capable of capturing business in an ever-expanding sphere. And a certain percentage of your salesforce needs to be very proficient in how to close a deal.
They are your outside sales hunters. They are the lifeblood of any sales organization, as they are able to drum up business even in new markets and against tough competitors. Their skills are invaluable.
Finding talented outside sales hunters who know how to close a deal is one of the vital tasks of sales managers and executives. And there is a proven method which can help make this process much less painful.
It’s called the Advanced Personality Questionnaire. And it can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars while potentially making you millions by hiring the best people possible.
What is the Advanced Personality Questionnaire?
The APQ is an assessment with 81 questions designed to measure a candidate’s personality strengths and weaknesses when compared with successful scores for specific positions. Both primary and secondary traits are measured and plotted against ideal ranges for over 20 sales, administrative and management jobs. These include sales managers, inside sales farmers, and yes, the outside sales hunters.
Here are the traits assessed:
Main Traits
- Intensity/drive
- Independence
- Need to analyze
- Need to serve
- Assertiveness
- Self-protection
- Drive for recognition
- Interpersonal trust
- Optimism
Secondary Traits
- Achievement motivation
- Empathy to understand the needs of others
- Prospecting motivation
- Employment stability
- Receptivity to coaching/supervision
- Ability to handle confrontation
- Proficiency to manage time and resources
- Charisma to influence others to buy
- Confidence/persistence to close the sale
- Customer service orientation
Those who know how to close a deal will have strong scores in some of the above traits, and low scores in others.
Save time, money, and frustration
It’s been estimated that hiring a poor outside sales hunter can cost you about $150,000 in onboarding, training, draw, and lost opportunity costs. The APQ can help you avoid making this very costly mistake in a very affordable and streamlined way.
For about the price of a couple of business lunches, you can peer inside your candidate’s mind and see what makes him or her tick. Instead of relying on guesswork, intuition, or the recruit’s word that they know how to close a deal, you can know if you have a potential dud on your hands – in about 30 minutes or less!
To get started with the APQ, please contact us today. We can have you set up in minutes, and provide volume discounts. This makes it cost-effective to test not only new recruits, but your existing sales personnel as well. You will be surprised at how many shifts you might have to make because of people in the wrong roles, based on their personality. The good news is that once they move, productivity should jump.
