Revolutionizing Sales Recruitment with Personality Tests

Hiring exceptional salespeople is crucial for any organization’s success, yet it has historically been a difficult task. 

Sales recruiters have relied heavily on resumes, interviews, and subjective impressions of candidates when making this critical decision. 

However, advances in psychometric testing are helping sales leaders take some of the guesswork out of building high-performing sales teams.

Personality and behavioral assessments offer data-driven insights into candidates that interview alone often fail to reveal. 

By scientifically measuring traits like resilience, motivation, work ethic, and interpersonal skills, tests can benchmark sales candidates against the qualities necessary for high-performance. 

This enables recruiters to go beyond credentials and vibes when determining whether someone will excel in the field.

According to a 2013 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, roughly 18% of companies currently use personality tests in the hiring process, and this number is growing at a rate of 10-15% per year. 

As more sales departments join the ranks leveraging assessments, we will see continued innovation in the depth and precision of personality insights provided.

For example, trait emotional intelligence assessments are gaining traction for their ability to gauge skills like influence, self-control, and empathy which are vital for sales relationship-building. 

Virtual reality assessments will immerse candidates in AI-generated simulations of sales scenarios to evaluate high-pressure performance.

Likewise, machine learning promises more accurate test score benchmarking and predictive correlation analysis. Platforms will leverage big datasets to tell recruiters with uncanny precision how a sales candidate with specific assessment results is likely to fare in the real world of sales.

The right combination of personality assessment tools allows managers to construct sales teams built to thrive in fast-paced, competitive environments.

By optimizing the “people analytics” of the sales function, companies ensure only candidates with the right attributes to hit the ground running are ultimately placed in revenue-driving roles. 

In doing so, they set their sales organization up for scalable, efficient growth. This article will explore best practices around leveraging personality tests to revolutionize sales recruitment.

The Value of Personality Testing for Sales Teams

Personality assessments can provide vital insights that enable managers to assemble sales teams with the optimal blend of attributes to drive performance. Studies have shown correlations between certain traits and sales success.

For example, conscientiousness – characterized by organization, motivation, and attention to detail – has been proven to make salespeople more effective at critical tasks like systematic lead follow-up. 

Extraversion tends to equate to superior networking skills and an ability to build relationships key for closing deals.

Likewise, tests help identify candidates likely to thrive in the unique environment of sales roles. Competitiveness, persistence through rejection, and a capacity to work autonomously are prerequisites for sales excellence. 

Assessments assist in vetting for these intangibles that interviews and resumes alone can miss.

By screening for both performance-related personality traits as well as contextual fit, assessments enable hiring managers to build sales teams tailored for productivity from day one. 

The data from sales assessments minimizes mis-hires that could undermine revenue goals.

Using Diverse Assessments in the Hiring Process

While validated personality tests can screen for traits predictive of sales excellence, relying solely on a single instrument provides an incomplete picture of candidates. Savvy recruiters combine multiple assessments for a well-rounded perspective.

For instance, general personality tests, like Myers-Briggs, provide a broad framework, while targeted sales-specific assessments, like The DriveTest^®, measure niche qualities like hunting capabilities (Drive), competitiveness, and optimism.

Skill-based instruments can quantify abilities in areas like cold-calling, building rapport, and presenting.

When paired with traditional interviews and role-playing exercises meant to simulate real sales scenarios, assessments enable recruiters to evaluate both selling skills and inherent personality. 

This diversity of evaluation modes limits bias and ensures the highest-quality hires.

According to studies, while assessment results should significantly influence selection, they should be weighted appropriately rather than used as sole determining criteria. 

Experienced sales leaders know how to leverage testing as part of a holistic analysis of a sales candidate’s potential.

Implementing Testing in a Legal, Ethical Way

While assessments can optimize the sales hiring process, recruiting leaders must implement them thoughtfully to avoid legal or ethical issues. Certain best practices ensure testing improves results without enabling hiring discrimination.

First, any assessment used should demonstrably connect to bona fide occupational requirements. 

The traits measured should have a proven, direct relationship with sales role duties. Testing things like general intelligence rather than sales-specific abilities can introduce adverse impacts against protected classes.

Companies should provide candidates with full transparency about why tests are given and how their results will be used. Explaining the intent to hire the best sales talent through objective evaluation tends to mitigate test-taker anxiety.

Moreover, recruitment teams should ensure they have diversity and inclusion staff helping frame appropriate testing policies. Relying solely on the perspectives of sales managers when designing the process can inadvertently introduce bias.

By partnering with legal/HR and providing test takers with proper context, sales executives can leverage assessments while minimizing legal exposure or ethical concerns.

The Future of Personality Testing in Recruiting

As pre-employment testing becomes an integral part of sales hiring strategy, experts forecast exponential advancement in the assessments available to recruitment teams. 

Already, the adoption of testing is growing rapidly. One survey found use of assessments among US companies rose 30% from 2021 to 2022.

We will see continued innovation in the depth and precision of personality insights provided. 

As algorithms grow more advanced, they will enable custom assessment API integration directly into hiring platforms. 

This will allow recruiters instant, comprehensive personality profiles of applicants without any manual test administration required.

While interviews will always play a role in vetting cultural fit, data-driven personality assessments will increasingly serve as the competitive advantage for sales teams building high-velocity revenue engines. 

The most informed recruitment strategies will tap into these bleeding-edge advancements.

Final Thoughts

Personality testing for sales candidates represents a profound shift towards objectivity in a domain long considered an inexact art. 

Just as analytics and data govern modern sales techniques, so too do psychometrics provide hard insights to strengthen recruiting.

The right combination of validated behavioral and competency assessments gives hiring managers clarity impossible to attain from traditional hiring modes alone. 

They enable the assembly of revenue-driving dream teams tailored with precisely the persistence, intelligence, and Drive necessary in competitive sales climates.

But testing is not a silver bullet without thoughtful policy and interpreter discretion. As with any talent analytics initiative, organizations must ensure ethical, diverse implementation and weight results as part of a holistic evaluation.

Used properly, personality assessments can elevate sales recruiting from a qualitative guessing game to a quantifiable science. 

They allow managers to pick winning sales DNA based not just on hunches, but on empirical evidence aligning human attributes with sales excellence. 

As the adoption of these instruments continues accelerating, top-performing sales teams will rely heavily on the competitive edge psychometric testing confers.

Start assessing your sales candidates today with a complimentary DriveTest^® sales assessment.