Recommended tests for assessing sales skills
There are lots of skills used in sales, some are specific to roles and some are generic and can apply to all roles. These skills include
Interpersonal skills
Verbal reasoning
Emotional intelligence
Abstract reasoning
Numerical reasoning.
Interpersonal skills test
The interpersonal skills test assesses how you communicate and interact with different people. The test is made up of multiple-choice questions based on scenarios, both positive and negative, to identify how individuals respond. This is a more accurate way of understanding rather than reading it within a CV.
Working in sales consists of a lot of interactions. It may include talking to customers, other team members or customers or product suppliers over the phone. No matter what the role, it is important that all successful candidates have a high level of interpersonal skills.
Verbal reasoning test
The verbal reasoning test is used to assess an individual's ability to read, understand and determine the meaning of data within a small passage of written text. It uses random information where the candidates need no prior knowledge and then asks multiple questions about the text. The candidate shows their understanding of the text by answering the questions accurately.
Verbal reasoning is essential for working within sales as there is a lot of communication through emails and letters with customers, suppliers and even different levels of management. It is important the employees can understand the information and act appropriately on the information.
Emotional intelligence test
The emotional intelligence test is used within the hiring process to identify if a candidate can understand and manage emotions as well as how they affect others. The skills test measures how well the candidate can recognize emotions through pictures and scenarios, and then how to be supportive and empathetic to others who are affected by any negative emotions.
This is crucial in sales as when talking and interacting with customers, it is key to understand how they are feeling and know how to best approach it to improve the situation. This can also be beneficial with other staff members, especially for a manager.
Abstract reasoning test
The abstract reasoning test assesses and evaluates a candidate's ability to spot patterns and trends in data and information. The candidate does not need any information about the data as it is best when the information is unknown and new. This is done with multiple choice questions which each consist of a photo containing a pattern and four options to choose from.
When working in sales it is important to have abstract reasoning skills in case any of the products or regular patterns are disrupted. Especially when handling the product and financial side, it is key to be able to spot trends easily, especially when they are incorrect or different - either in a good or bad way.
Numerical reasoning test
The numerical reasoning test is used in a variety of roles which have quantitative involvement. The test assesses an individual's ability to read and understand data when presented in a graph, chart or table. Even though the numerical reasoning test is not a maths test, it does assess mathematical knowledge in relation to data and different presentation methods.
The test is made up of multiple choice questions, where each question has a range of data, presented in one of the formats mentioned above, and then a question which can be answered by manipulating and understanding the data.
When working within sales, understanding numerical data is important in all roles. Data could consist of the financial profits of the company, the amount of products left or information regarding the staff. It is important that the candidates can understand the data presented in all forms and know what the data is implying and representing.
