The Sales Boss

CHAPTER 8 Use the Power of Science in Selection

Humans have for ages tried to use science to understand the behaviors and actions of people, with various levels of success. Going back to Greek times, the physician Galen popularized the idea that people were influenced by their blood types; the Chinese believed that the year of a person’s birth influenced who he or she was; and almost every society since has had ways of categorizing people. Fortunately for us, the science of human behavior has come a long way and it now is absolutely possible to predict human behavior using scientific assessments.

It is critical that your company use a scientific assessment tool to complete the picture of the potential sales candidate to ensure you are making the best possible decision. I’m addressing the topic in this chapter at the end of the process of hiring, although the use of assessments and its actual place in the hiring process could be before the phone screen, before the first interview, after the first interview, or in conjunction with the performance interview. Typically, the earlier in the process you use an assessment tool, the better, as it prevents you from becoming emotionally attached to a candidate the tool indicates is a bad fit. The reason companies might choose to wait until later in the process is to control their costs. A company should expect to invest between $250 and $400 per serious candidate in assessment costs.

What can you expect from an assessment tool? An assessment ...