Studies show psychometric tests were originally designed to ensure that individuals hired for safety-critical positions possess the necessary mental and emotional stability to perform their duties reliably and safely. These tests are crucial for assessing cognitive resilience, identifying psychological risks, and benchmarking essential traits such as vigilance and risk aversion, ensuring reliable performance under pressure.
However, for general employment of non-safety critical roles such as business, operations, tech roles, psychometric tests have been found ineffective as they often overemphasize self-declared personality traits over real-world skills and experience, which are more critical for most jobs. In this blog, we tear down why psychometry tests are not as effective
Oversimplification of complex traits: Psychometric tests often try to reduce complex human traits and behaviors into simplified metrics, which may not accurately capture the nuanced skills required for successful sales roles. As Margaret Heffernan notes, "People are too complex to be reduced to a set of psychological metrics." Read more on this Reddit conversion on this topic
Lack of context: These tests typically don't account for the specific context of a sales or business role or company culture. Dave Snowden points out that many psychometric tests are based on Western values and may not reflect the diversity of global business environments.
Self-assessment bias: Candidates may not always provide honest or self-aware responses, leading to inaccurate results. Some individuals may be better at "playing the test" than others, skewing the outcomes.
Limited predictive power: While psychometric tests aim to predict job performance, they often fail to account for the dynamic nature of sales and business roles and the importance of adaptability.
Potential for discrimination: Relying too heavily on psychometric tests can lead to unfair hiring practices, especially for neurodiverse candidates or those from different cultural backgrounds.
Neglect of crucial sales skills: Many psychometric tests focus on personality traits or cognitive abilities but may overlook essential business or sales-specific skills like relationship building, negotiation, or resilience.
Lack of job-specific performance standards: Organizations often implement psychometric tests without establishing valid standards for job performance in sales roles, making it difficult to correlate test results with actual on-the-job success.
Overemphasis on traits vs. skills: While traits are important, sales roles also require specific skills that can be developed through training. Focusing too much on innate traits may lead to overlooking candidates with strong potential for skill development.
While psychometric tests have limitations for sales hiring, there are several effective alternative methods to evaluate sales candidates:
Role-playing exercises: Have candidates simulate real sales scenarios to assess their skills in action. This allows you to observe their communication style, ability to handle objections, and overall sales approach.
Sales presentations: Ask candidates to prepare and deliver a sales pitch for one of your products or services. This evaluates their research skills, preparation, presentation abilities, and product knowledge.
Video introductions: Request candidates to submit short video introductions. This provides insights into their communication skills, confidence, and ability to present themselves effectively.
Phone screening: Conduct initial phone interviews to assess candidates' phone manner, ability to think on their feet, and how they handle unexpected questions.
Behavioral interviews: Use structured interviews focused on past experiences and behaviors to predict future performance. Ask candidates to provide specific examples of how they've handled sales challenges in the past.
Skills assessments: Administer tests that evaluate specific sales-related skills like negotiation, prospecting, or closing techniques.
Job shadowing or trial periods: Allow top candidates to shadow your current sales team or participate in a short trial period to see how they perform in real-world situations.
Reference checks: Conduct thorough reference checks with former employers and colleagues to gain insights into the candidate's past performance and work ethic.
Sales aptitude assessments: Use specialized sales aptitude tests that focus on
evaluating traits and behaviors specific to sales success, rather than general personality assessments.
Case studies or problem-solving exercises: Present candidates with realistic sales scenarios or challenges and ask them to develop strategies to address them. This evaluates their analytical and problem-solving skills in a sales context.
By combining several of these methods, you can create a comprehensive evaluation process that provides a more accurate picture of a candidate's sales potential than relying solely on psychometric tests. This multi-faceted approach allows you to assess various aspects of a candidate's skills, experience, and fit for your specific sales role and company culture.