We’re sourcing for an outside sales position in a sunny climate (not here in Minnesota) and had a candidate respond to an ad. He has tremendous industry experience and was good on the phone screen. He was quite inquisitive and asked strong questions about our customer and their market position. He did his due diligence in researching the company which led to his questions. As is our process, we asked him to complete the online assessments as the next step.
The candidate paused. He did not complete them. Instead, he decided to research sales assessments and then contacted us to run through his questions on this topic. We answered some of the questions but not all of them since they may have influenced his answers.
We asked him again to complete the assessments. He said he would get to them that day. 2 days later he finally completed them. By this point, we had moved on to other stronger candidates. Unfortunately for him, this position requires a strong business development ability. There is research to be done in targeting accounts, but there is also a pressing need to simply contact the accounts. Before even assessing this candidate, we knew this area would be a struggle for him. You can research a topic forever. At some point you have to pick up the phone and contact them.
His assessments revealed extreme weakness in 3 aptitudes that revealed this weakness – sense of timing, initiative and self-starting ability. 3 strikes – he’s out.
Some times you don’t need an online assessment and that is precisely why we use phone and email screens. Even if you are not using an assessment tool today (you should be), the screen will still reveal specific sales traits of an external candidate. That information alone may spare you the lost dollars of hiring the wrong salesperson.