Predictive Sales Assessments Can Help Gauge Strengths

Sales assessments increase win rates by 10% and decreased turnover by over 30%!* What is in your wheelhouse — your area of expertise, the place where you operate with confidence and skill?

Do you even know the areas in selling situations where you perform best? Most salespeople can’t articulate their strengths, and they rarely, if ever, receive feedback from sales managers about their strengths.

When it was once common wisdom to focus improvement efforts on eliminating weaknesses, research is now finding that building on strengths has better outcomes. Over the past dozen years or so, studies have found that focusing on strengths, sometimes called strength-based leadership, results in better performance on the job. Specifically, employees who focus on their strengths are more likely to achieve their goals, experience less stress, have greater energy, be more engaged on the job, have higher levels of self-esteem, and be more confident. Just as important, they are more likely to remain with their employer longer.

Too many salespeople avoid this type of self-discovery altogether, leaving development and coaching efforts to their sales manager. Instead, every salesperson should take responsibility to identify and understand their strengths in the selling environment, especially in today’s highly competitive and constantly changing business landscape.

A strength-based conversation is critical to the salesperson’s career and for his/her own personal satisfaction at work.

Many Richardson Sales Performance clients begin their journey in sales performance improvement by identifying core competencies. Then, they conduct assessments of their team to build a talent inventory.

Richardson Sales Performance, in partnership with Caliper Management, offers TalentGauge™,  online predictive sales assessments that help determine whether the right people are in the right roles. By completing a thorough questionnaire that evaluates behaviors and motivators that drive success, salespeople are rated based on specific predictors of performance.

Each sales assessment is tailored to the company, based on sales skills that have been identified as most critical to success within each role. This isn’t a pass-or-fail test, as results measure the potential of individuals to perform in a certain role based on actuarial science, along with identifying key motivational characteristics.

For example, an individual might value being seen as having achieved top status with the field, so any public recognition of achievement would be highly encouraging. With this knowledge, the sales manager can set measurable goals and objectives that can be rewarded with perks or visible kudos, inspiring that individual to take even greater efforts and earn more recognition.

By participating in sales assessments, individuals can see where they shine and then focus on those strength-based areas. Just as important, sales managers get clear direction on the natural strengths and development opportunities to help their team grow and improve.

* CSO Insights