Things to Remember When Hiring At the Entry Level

Hiring fresh faces just out of school can give your enterprise a much-needed energy shift; recent graduates tend to be incredibly motivated in the sales sector, eager to please and perform well. They may also offer business solutions from a perspective that others on your team don’t have. Alongside all the positive opportunities new hires bring however, the potential for making mistakes also increases; a fundamental part of a new employee’s success is how well they can handle the pressure and regulate their emotions and reactions while meeting it head on.

Skills Aren’t Everything

While an impressive resume can score your candidate an interview, what they know, and what they can theoretically put into practise will always be challenged when responding in the moment on a call with their clients. Rather than focusing on skill-based assessment throughout your hiring process, really consider whether applicants display the right sales personality for a given position.

Do they have a compatible motivational style, decent stamina, emotional maturity, a sense of urgency or enough assertiveness to flourish? Luckily sales personality tests can help recruiters and hiring managers cut the wheat from the chaff when it comes to hiring for a position in sales.

Interviewing Abilities Can Be Deceiving

Those on your hiring committee may believe they have the instincts to feel out a strong applicant, but appearances can be misleading nonetheless. The sales sector has some of the highest employee turnover rates and much of that is owing to managers following their gut after an interview without looking for some tangible evidence that speaks to an employee’s potential.

Furthermore, applicants may play up the persona they believe their interviewers want to see only to display some very different traits post hire. Cut through these facades by utilizing tools designed to make interviewing more transparent.

Hiring Risks Are Ever Present

It’s so easy for hiring managers to make the wrong call about an applicant, finding that in just a few short months, they’ll have to let them go and undergo the costly hiring process from the beginning. With tools like a sales personality test however, a hiring committee will see more clearly whether someone embodies the essential sales qualities a position demands.

These tests, available from providers such as SalesTestOnline, only take candidates about ten minutes to complete, are available in six different languages for accessibility, and boast a 90% accuracy rate. By implementing a test early on, you’ll know every applicant you’re meeting with will have the soft-skills necessary to stay in the industry.

More significant than what’s written in a cover letter, and even more important than the sociability somebody can perform in an interview is whether their true sales personality will enable them to shine in the entry-level position they’re applying for. Even if a candidate doesn’t have a whole lot of real-world experience, bear in mind that sales skills can be taught, what can’t be learned easily is stamina, emotional regulation, and a natural sense of empathy when talking with prospective clients. Introduce a sales personality test and watch the cream of the crop move towards the forefront.