4 Things to Consider When Evaluating Potential Hires With a Test Sales Call
Finding the right candidates to join your company’s sales team often requires plenty of patience and forethought. Scheduling interviews, digging into competing resumes, and checking references all add up to be quite the time-sink.
Looking to streamline the hiring process without sacrificing due diligence? Consider implementing a test sales call to evaluate how new candidates would fit into your organization. Test sales calls are simple and reproducible forms of appraisal used to evaluate how your candidates would perform on the job, even before learning your internal processes.
So, what should managers look out for when conducting a test sales call with a potential new hire? And in what ways do these evaluations differ from internal testing with an established sales team?
1. Setting Proper Expectations
Before conducting a test sales call, be sure to carefully outline the requirements and parameters of the test to your candidates. This process does not need to be as formal or exhaustive as the sales call tests you conduct with your existing sales team. Regardless, provide your candidates with sufficient time to prepare and organize themselves before the test.
Remember, the primary goal of the test sales call is not to determine how well your candidates adhere to your specific sales process, but rather to get a sense of their specific strengths and shortcomings, their responsiveness, and their personalities.
If you feel as though a promising candidate has underperformed on the call, confer with them following the test’s conclusion. If the candidate recognizes which aspects of the test where they fell short, consider providing them with a second opportunity to address those problem areas.
2. The Specific Skills to Seek Out
When conducting test sales calls for new candidates, be sure to pay attention to the following:
Their overall communication skills.
Their ability to evaluate the prospect's personality and tailor their pitch to them.
Their knowledge of the product or service they are selling.
Their honesty.
Their ability to communicate and set deadlines and expectations with the prospect.
Do not expect the majority of your candidates to score perfectly in each of these areas. Rather, take note of the aspects of the test in which they have excelled, as well as their potential areas of improvement. If they have underperformed in certain areas, is your organization currently equipped for further training and development?
3. Hitting the Right Benchmarks
Following the completion of their test sales call, listen for whether or not your candidates tell the prospect they will follow up. Did they provide a timeframe? Did they express gratitude and thank the prospect for their time and consideration? Candidates worth pursuing will not need to be reminded to hit certain benchmarks when conducting a test sales call.
Test sales calls provide an opportunity for managers to uncover which aspects of the sales process are second nature to potential hires. Sales call evaluations not only highlight skills and traits that may not be apparent during a formal interview, but they can also reveal how well the candidate will adapt to your team’s specific sales process.
4. Paying Attention to Personality
Specific communication skills and benchmarks are not the only aspects of a test sales call that managers should be evaluating. Non-objective elements such as personality, temperament, confidence, and courtesy are equally as important as those related to performance. Not every promising candidate will necessarily be a good fit for your team’s established culture.
For reference, compare these test sales calls to those conducted for members of your current sales team. Can you envision your candidates one day representing your firm as effectively as your established employees? Or would their personalities cause potential undue friction with other members of your sales team? Practice sales calls can reveal the answer during the scenario in which such a personality clash would be the most apparent.
Consult with an Objective Third Party
Seeking further guidance on effectively conducting and evaluating test sales calls for potential hires? At Sebastian Lane Consulting, we offer unbiased and professional feedback for test sales call performances, both for candidates and existing employees.
Get in touch with our office today to discover how either a one-time evaluation or a recurring evaluation service can transform your hiring process and ensure that your organization is attracting top talent in the sales market and onboarding the right candidates to join your team. Call Sebastian Lane Consulting at 443-534-6783 or email us at jesse@sebastianlaneconsulting.com.