Predictive Index and The DriveTest® are both hiring assessments, but they’re not built to answer the same question. Predictive Index measures general workplace behavior — communication style, motivational needs and leadership tendencies. The DriveTest, SalesDrive’s assessment built specifically for sales hiring, measures Drive: need for achievement, competitiveness, and optimism, the traits most closely tied to sales performance.

What Are You Trying to Predict?

Should you use Predictive Index or The DriveTest to hire salespeople? The answer has less to do with which tool is “better” and more to do with what you are actually trying to find out.

Different assessments are built to answer different questions. Some are designed to explain how people work. Others are designed to predict how they’ll perform in a specific, revenue-producing role. It’s important to determine what the responsibilities of the role you’re filling requires before determining which type of tool to use.

What Predictive Index Measures

Predictive Index is one of the most widely used behavioral assessments in business today. Companies use it to better understand workplace behavior, communication styles, motivational needs, leadership tendencies, and team dynamics — how individuals are likely to operate within a work environment, how they communicate, how they collaborate, how they respond to challenges, and how they fit within a team or organizational culture.

For many companies, those insights are genuinely valuable. Predictive Index is often used for leadership development, team effectiveness, succession planning, and broader talent management initiatives, and for those purposes it can provide meaningful information.

Sales hiring introduces a different question, though — not simply how a person is likely to work, but how likely they are to produce revenue. That’s where The DriveTest comes in.

What The DriveTest Measures

The DriveTest was built specifically for sales hiring. It isn’t designed to evaluate overall workplace fit or leadership style — it’s designed to measure the level of Drive associated with success in revenue-producing sales roles.

Drive is made up of three core traits: need for achievement, competitiveness, and optimism. These traits matter because sales performance often depends on behaviors that don’t show up in an interview: prospecting when nobody’s watching, pushing through rejection, chasing difficult goals, staying persistent when results don’t come easily.

The optimism piece isn’t just theory. When psychologist Martin Seligman tested MetLife’s incoming sales agents on explanatory style, the agents who scored highest on optimism outsold the most pessimistic group by a wide margin over their first two years — and pessimists were roughly twice as likely to quit. It’s one of the more replicated findings in sales psychology, and it’s a big part of why The DriveTest treats optimism as a hard trait to screen for, not a soft one.

A candidate can be likable, culturally aligned, and articulate and still struggle in a demanding sales role. Just as often, a candidate with real sales potential presents very differently from what a hiring manager expects. That gap is exactly why The DriveTest exists — it’s measuring something an interview and a general behavioral profile can both miss.

Sales-Specific vs. General Assessments

Every hiring assessment is designed around a question. Knowing which question you’re actually asking is what determines whether the tool will help you.

General behavioral assessments (like Predictive Index), are built to answer:

• How does this person communicate and prefer to work?
• How do they lead, manage, or collaborate with others?
• How will they fit into our culture and team structure?
• Where might friction show up in day-to-day collaboration?

Sales-specific assessments (like The DriveTest by SalesDrive) are built to answer:

• Will this person prospect consistently without being told to?
• Can they absorb sustained rejection without losing momentum?
• Do they have the internal drive to chase difficult targets?
• Will performance hold up once the interview polish wears off?

There isn’t one question that is more important than another. It depends entirely on what you’re hiring for.

Predictive Index vs. The DriveTest: Side-by-Side

How to Decide Which Assessment Fits Your Hiring Need

• Use Predictive Index if your goal is understanding workplace behavior, team dynamics, leadership tendencies, or organizational fit.
• Use The DriveTest if your goal is evaluating candidates for business development, account executive, outside sales, or other revenue-producing positions.
• Use both if you want a full picture — general behavioral fit alongside a direct read on selling potential. These tools aren’t competing to answer the same question, so there’s no conflict in running them together.

The assessment needs to match the outcome you’re trying to predict. It should sharpen your sales hiring process and provide you with helpful insights you wouldn’t other have.

Compare More Assessment Options

Predictive Index and The DriveTest by SalesDrive are two of many tools used in sales hiring today, and this comparison is part of a broader guide covering the major assessment options — what each one measures, where it fits best, and which roles it’s suited for.

[Read the full assessment comparison guide →]

It’ll help you make a more informed decision about which assessment best fits your hiring needs.

Related reading: why sales personality tests fail at predicting sales performance.

Frequently Asked Questions

About the Author: Dr. Chris Croner is a clinical psychologist and Principal at SalesDrive, LLC. He developed The DriveTest® sales assessment and is co-author of Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again. He has helped more than 1,500 companies worldwide identify and hire top-performing salespeople. Connect with him on LinkedIn.