There's nothing inherently wrong with that process. The trouble begins when those conversations become the primary evidence that someone will succeed.
Salespeople, particularly experienced ones, are often very good at presenting themselves. They know how to build rapport, communicate confidently, and make a persuasive case for why they should be hired.
Those are useful abilities, but they don't necessarily tell you whether someone will prospect when they don't feel like it, challenge a prospect's assumptions, or walk away from an opportunity that isn't qualified.
I've seen plenty of situations where a candidate's interview performance created expectations that their actual selling behavior couldn't support.
The question leaders need to ask is whether their hiring process measures the behaviors required for success or simply rewards the ability to interview well.
What Does the Research Say About Sales Hiring Assessments?
Objective Management Group (OMG) has conducted extensive research into the competencies associated with sales performance.
In its research article, Candidate Assessments Are Crucial to Finding and Keeping Top-Performing Salespeople, OMG reported findings from its candidate assessment validation survey.
Among the participating organizations:
72% of hired candidates rated "Recommended" by the assessment ranked in the top half of their sales teams within 12 months.
None of the hired candidates rated "Not Recommended" ranked in the top half during that period.
First-year turnover was 9% among Recommended hires, compared with 33% among Not Recommended hires.
These findings are from OMG's own validation research, not a guarantee that every recommended candidate will become a top performer. They do, however, illustrate why sales leaders should consider validated, job-specific evidence alongside their interviews.
More recent OMG research also emphasizes the importance of evaluating factors beyond experience and personality.
Its article, Your Company Already Has an Assessment. Sales Still Needs Its Own, explains why assessments designed for general workplace behavior may not adequately measure the competencies required for successful selling.
The distinction is important. Knowing how someone prefers to communicate isn't the same as knowing how effectively they'll execute a sales process.
What Should a Sales Candidate Assessment Measure?
When I talk with leaders about improving their hiring process, I encourage them to think beyond whether someone has sales experience.
Experience tells you where someone has been. It doesn't always explain how they achieved their results or whether those same behaviors will work in your organization.
There are several areas worth evaluating.
1. Will to Sell
Does the candidate have the motivation, commitment, and personal accountability to consistently do what's necessary to succeed?
Sales involves rejection, uncertainty, and conversations that can be uncomfortable. Someone may understand exactly what they should do but still struggle to do it consistently.
A candidate's willingness to take responsibility for outcomes is particularly important. When results fall short, do they examine their own behavior or immediately blame the market, their territory, or the quality of their leads?
2. Sales DNA
Sales DNA refers to the underlying beliefs and tendencies that can either support or interfere with effective selling.
Consider a salesperson who knows they should ask questions about a prospect's budget but avoids the conversation because they're uncomfortable discussing money.
Or someone who understands the importance of qualification but continues pursuing weak opportunities because they don't want to hear no.
Those aren't necessarily knowledge problems. They're often related to beliefs and behaviors that need to be understood before they can be improved.
OMG's sales candidate assessment research explores these underlying competencies and their relationship to sales performance.
3. Tactical Selling Skills
Can the candidate actually execute the responsibilities of the role?
Depending on the position, that might include prospecting, asking effective questions, uncovering business problems, qualifying opportunities, navigating multiple decision-makers, and gaining clear commitments.
A candidate who has spent ten years managing established accounts may be excellent at relationship management but poorly suited to a position requiring consistent new-business development.
Neither role is inherently more valuable. They simply require different capabilities.
4. Fit for the Specific Sales Role
This is one of the areas I believe organizations frequently overlook.
A salesperson who succeeds in a short, transactional sales cycle may struggle in a complex consultative environment. Someone who thrives with inbound opportunities may not be prepared for a role where they must create most of their own conversations.
The assessment should reflect the actual demands of the position, including the buying process, prospecting expectations, level of autonomy, and complexity of the sale.
The goal isn't to identify a universally perfect salesperson. It's to identify someone whose capabilities align with the job you need them to perform.
How Should Companies Use Assessments in the Sales Hiring Process?
The most effective approach is to use a sales-specific assessment as one component of a structured hiring process, rather than treating its results as the final hiring decision.
I would encourage leaders to start by defining what successful performance looks like before they begin interviewing candidates.
What activities will this person be expected to perform? What types of buyers will they work with? How much prospecting is required? What skills distinguish your strongest performers?
Once those expectations are clear, an appropriate assessment can help identify areas that deserve closer examination.
For example, if an assessment suggests that a candidate may struggle with discussing money, the interview should include questions and realistic scenarios that explore how the candidate handles budget conversations.
If prospecting commitment appears to be a concern, ask for specific examples of how the candidate has generated opportunities without relying on marketing or referrals.
I also recommend including a practical exercise. Have the candidate conduct a discovery conversation, respond to a realistic sales challenge, or demonstrate how they would qualify a potential opportunity.
The point is to gather consistent evidence from multiple sources.
It's also important to use assessments that are appropriately validated for the role, applied consistently, and reviewed for fairness and legal compliance.
A hiring assessment should improve the quality of your decision, not create an artificial sense of certainty.
Hiring the Right Person Is Only Part of the Equation
Here's something else I think sales leaders need to recognize.
You can hire a capable salesperson and still create an environment where that person struggles.
If your expectations are unclear, your sales process is inconsistent, or your managers don't know how to coach, even a strong candidate can underperform.
That's why I don't view hiring assessments as an isolated solution.
They should be part of a broader strategy for building a sales organization that performs consistently.
In my article, The Executive's Guide to Building a Sales Organization That Performs Consistently, I discuss why performance problems are often connected to the systems, habits, and management practices within an organization.
Hiring is one part of that system.
Once you've selected someone, the next step is making sure they understand the behaviors, expectations, and sales process required to succeed.
That means having a structured onboarding plan, establishing clear activity and performance expectations, and providing ongoing coaching rather than assuming previous experience will translate automatically into results.
It's also where the Sandler approach becomes particularly valuable.
How Sandler Helps Leaders Connect Assessment Results to Sales Performance
At Sandler by Sales Heart Partners, we help organizations look beyond surface-level sales results to understand what's driving performance.
The Sandler methodology recognizes that sustainable sales improvement involves more than teaching techniques. It requires attention to attitude, behavior, and technique, often referred to as the Sandler Success Triangle.
An assessment can help identify potential gaps. A structured development process helps address them.
For example, a salesperson may understand how to qualify an opportunity but struggle to ask the questions necessary to uncover the prospect's real business problems.
Through Sandler training and coaching, that person can work on the beliefs, behaviors, and conversational skills that influence how they approach those situations.
The same principle applies to sales leadership. Managers need to understand how to reinforce the right behaviors, coach individuals effectively, and hold people accountable to agreed-upon expectations.
Our Sales Heart Partners website provides information about our sales training, sales leadership development, and assessment solutions.
I also encourage leaders to read my article, No Free Consulting: When Helping the Prospect Starts Hurting the Sale. It's a practical example of how a salesperson can have considerable knowledge and good intentions but still struggle because of the way they approach a sales conversation.
These are the kinds of performance gaps that become easier to address when leaders understand what's happening beneath the surface.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sales Hiring Assessments
Are sales hiring assessments worth using?
Sales hiring assessments can be a worthwhile investment when they measure competencies relevant to the role and are used alongside structured interviews, practical exercises, and reference checks. They help leaders make decisions using more than résumés and first impressions.
What is the difference between a personality test and a sales assessment?
A personality or behavioral assessment generally measures characteristics such as communication preferences and interpersonal tendencies. A sales-specific assessment evaluates competencies more directly related to selling, such as prospecting, qualification, motivation, sales beliefs, and the ability to execute a sales process.
Can a sales assessment predict whether someone will succeed?
A validated sales assessment can provide useful evidence about a candidate's potential performance, but no assessment can guarantee success. Management, onboarding, market conditions, role expectations, and coaching also influence results.
When should a company use a sales assessment?
A company can introduce a sales assessment early in its selection process, after establishing the requirements of the position. The results can help guide subsequent interviews and practical evaluations. Assessments can also be useful for understanding the development needs of existing salespeople.
Can sales assessments help reduce employee turnover?
They may help reduce avoidable turnover by identifying potential mismatches between candidates and job requirements before hiring. However, retention also depends on factors such as compensation, leadership, onboarding, and organizational culture.
How can Sandler help improve sales hiring and development?
Sandler by Sales Heart Partners helps organizations evaluate sales performance challenges and develop the skills, behaviors, and leadership practices needed for consistent results. Assessment insights can inform hiring decisions, onboarding, coaching, and ongoing sales development.
Before You Make Your Next Sales Hire, Ask Better Questions
One of the most expensive hiring mistakes isn't necessarily choosing someone who lacks talent.
It's choosing someone without having enough information to understand whether their talent matches what the role requires.
A great interview can tell you a lot about a person. It just can't tell you everything you need to know about how they'll perform.
Sales hiring assessments help close that information gap. When they're combined with thoughtful interviews, realistic expectations, and a strong development process, they can give leaders a more reliable foundation for making hiring decisions.
If you're preparing to expand your sales team, replace an underperforming position, or improve the consistency of your hiring process, it may be worth examining how you're evaluating candidates today.
At Sandler by Sales Heart Partners, we work with business owners and sales leaders who want to make better decisions about their people and build stronger, more consistent sales organizations.
Connect with Sandler by Sales Heart Partners to start a conversation about your hiring process, sales assessments, and leadership development.