We recommend you first consider the candidate's sales personality. Using the Standard Success Profile, look at the number of scores inside the success zones (shaded areas). At a minimum, try to hire candidates who have personality scores that fall somewhere inside most of these success zones. If possible, look for candidates who have scores in the higher end of these ranges. In general, higher potential candidates will have personality scores that will fall in all or almost all of the shaded ranges. Further, the best candidates will most often have scores that fall in the high ends of the shaded ranges.

The Sales Personality Success Index is a weighted scoring of the strength of these desirable personality characteristics. Possible scores vary from 0 to 48. From our research using earned sales compensation as a criterion, we recommend you avoid candidates with index scores below 19 and recommend you pursue candidates with scores of 24 or higher.

Sales Knowledge

Next, we recommend you consider Ms. Example's knowledge of effective consultative sales strategies. Her scores in this section of SalesMax are an indication of how well she knows what to do in various selling situations. If she is an experienced salesperson, this may be very important information. However, if she has little or no experience and you expect to put her through a good sales training program, low scores in this area may not influence your decision to hire her but may help you to target areas for her training.

Sales Motivations

If you decide, based on her sales personality and knowledge results and your interview, that you want to hire Ms. Example, the results of this section may be helpful in deciding if her motivational needs are a good fit for the job and your supervisory style. Are the things most important to her available as rewards? Can you effectively manage her given her needs and the potential rewards you have under your control?