DO ASSESSMENTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE SALES ORGANIZATION?

Asking if assessments make a difference in sales is an important question because if they don’t, then companies shouldn’t waste their money and if they do, every company should be following suit.

But if you ask this question to the executives at 100 companies the results will look something like this:

50 companies don’t use assessments because they don’t believe assessments are useful.

25 companies used and/or have used assessments with mixed results

12 companies used assessments and found no value

12 companies continue to use assessments because they have value.

How can the results be so varied?

As an assessment expert, and the founder and former CEO of an assessment company, I can share that the answer has more to do with fit than anything else.  Let’s use golf clubs as an example.  If I use a driver to putt the ball will always travel much too far. If I use a putter to hit from the tee box, the ball will probably travel 200 fewer yards than I need.  I will experience horrendous results – every time – no matter how many times I try.  That’s what I mean by fit.  Yes, both are golf clubs just as the various assessments are all psychometric instruments. But buyer beware – assessments are not created equal

There are hundreds of different assessments and most of them look at personality or behavioral styles.  Informationally, personality can be useful to determine whether someone would be compatible in your organization and with its culture.  However, personality assessments and behavioral styles assessments are in no way predictive of sales success.  Regardless of what those assessment companies say, or how they tweak their reports, they can only report on what they measure, and they are measuring personality and asking their questions in a social context.  There is no correlation between a personality type and sales success. Never. Ever.

There is one assessment that measures 21 Sales Core Competencies. Companies that use Objective Management Group’s (OMG) assessments fall into the 12% that get value.  One of their assessments is specifically designed to help companies succeed with sales selection and they have versions for sales, sales management and sales leadership.  They have another assessment that’s built to examine existing sales teams and through its many analyses, identify the reasons why revenue isn’t as great as it could be. This is perfect for creating appropriate training and coaching requirements, getting the right people into the right seats, and understanding where the bottlenecks are. They provide the top 24 priorities for short term growth.

Swapping my assessment expert hat for my sales development expert hat…

I’ve been in professional sales development since 1986.  I trained and coached salespeople, sales managers and sales leaders before there were assessments, then with assessments, and finally with sales-specific assessments.  The difference in results between using sales-specific assessments and the other two options is nothing short of remarkable.  Why?  We know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.  It’s purposeful.  It’s relevant.  It’s aligned.  It identifies the problems to be solved.  Whether it’s setting expectations, predicting revenue growth, aligning training content with gaps in competencies, helping salespeople understand what they need to learn from the training to fill their gaps, getting buy-in, monitoring progress or understanding actual reasons why deals go off the tracks, the right assessments are a game changer.

You don’t have to use assessments if you don’t want to.

You don’t have to use an attorney for legal issues, an accountant for tax issues or a bank to keep your money – but you do – it’s stupid not to.

And it’s stupid to not use sales-specific assessments to improve sales selection and performance.