How do you choose the best salesperson?
Products
Sunday 07 December 2025
Today, competition is very high in every market. Your organization's success largely depends on how effective your sales teams are. The more skilled your sales professionals are, the higher your sales will be.
The ideal salesperson not only knows their product inside and out but is also able to build relationships with prospects and customers. They need to have strong verbal and social skills and the ability to read between the lines and empathize effectively. The top salesperson aligns their thinking with the customer's perspective. It's not the product that drives the conversation, but the customer's needs.
Recruiting and selecting sales people is far from an easy task. Some salespeople are particularly good at selling themselves, but once hired, they consistently fail to meet their targets. At sales meetings, they often have all sorts of good reasons for this, which they know how to sell with verve. But the following month nothing changes.
Many studies show how sales teams perform. They consistently find that 20% of sales professionals are top performers, while another 20% perform poorly. The remaining 60% meet their targets each month. This means that your sales team may also have a few people who are not performing well.
The reason for underperformance can vary. It doesn’t mean someone is a bad salesperson; they might just be in the wrong role. For example, you could have hired a Negotiator when you actually need a Hunter. Or, a great team player might be in a position that requires someone who works better alone.
Selecting sales professionals
Even in a tight labor market, you must be selective. It is better to keep a position temporarily vacant than to fill it with an unsuitable candidate. But how do you select the right candidate?
Take the time to answer a few questions prior to recruitment. Are you looking for someone who will fit in especially well with the team, or someone who will fit with the market? Do you want a team player or an individualist? Translate this into concrete characteristics that the candidate must meet.
You can then convert the desired characteristics into selection criteria that form the basis of an assessment form and formulate a number of questions to test to what extent the candidate meets the requirements.
Online sales assessment
Setting up a selection strategy takes a lot of time and thought. With TestGroup's online sales assessment, this process is a breeze. You can use this assessment for the selection of applicants, but also to empower existing employees.
In developing the assessment, TestGroup used - in addition to more than 15 years of experience in online assessments - scientific techniques and experience from the field.
The online sales assessment has also more than proven itself in practice. Every day the assessment is used by hundreds of recruiters worldwide.
The online sales assessment provides you with a handy and clear sales assessment report in which all the commercial success and risk factors of your applicant are clearly displayed.
Video: sales assessment
TestGroup provides an online sales assessment to enhance employee sales skills and support hiring decisions. It measures key skills to identify potential successful salespeople, focusing on six steps in the sales process: (1) Planning, (2) Contact, (3) Building desire, (4) Presenting options, (5) Closing deals, and (6) Managing relationships.
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How do you choose the best salesperson for a vacancy?
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The best way to choose a strong salesperson is to combine several sources of information: a clear sales profile, structured interviews, reference checks and an objective sales assessment. By looking at both personality and sales competencies, you reduce the chance of hiring on “gut feeling” only.
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Why is a clear sales profile so important?
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Without a clear profile, you do not really know what you are selecting on. A good sales profile describes the goals of the role, type of customers, sales cycle and key competencies such as commercial drive, resilience and relationship building. This makes it much easier to compare candidates fairly.
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What does the online sales assessment from TestGroup add to the selection process?
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The online sales assessment from TestGroup gives objective insight into a candidate’s sales style, strengths and risk factors. You see how someone scores on key sales competencies and in which parts of the sales process they are likely to perform best. This helps you quickly see who really fits the role and your sales culture.
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Which competencies are most important when choosing a salesperson?
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Important competencies often include commercial drive, persuasion, resilience, customer focus, networking, closing ability and dealing with setbacks. Depending on the role, strategic thinking, negotiation and relationship management can also be crucial. The online sales assessment from TestGroup measures these competencies in a structured and objective way.
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Is it enough to rely on interviews and a good CV?
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Interviews and CVs are important, but they show only part of the picture. Many salespeople present themselves very convincingly, while their underlying competencies or work style may not fit the role. With the online sales assessment from TestGroup, you look beyond first impressions and base your decision on data.
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How do you combine interview results with the online sales assessment?
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Use the TestGroup sales report as a starting point for your interview. Ask concrete questions about practical situations that match the scores in the report. In this way, you check whether the test results are visible in daily behavior and can better assess how someone will perform in your team.
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Is a different profile needed for new business and account management?
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Yes. New business roles often require more hunting, resilience and result orientation, while account management asks more for relationship building, service and long term thinking. The online sales assessment from TestGroup shows whether someone is more of a hunter, farmer or consultant type and how this fits your vacancy.
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Can you also use the online sales assessment from TestGroup for development?
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Definitely. You can use the results to create personal development plans, choose the right sales training and have targeted coaching conversations. This helps sales employees grow in their role and strengthens the performance of the whole sales team.
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How do you reduce the risk of a wrong hire in sales?
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You reduce this risk by working with a clear profile, structured interviews, the online sales assessment from TestGroup and, where possible, reference checks. When these elements point in the same direction, the chance that you choose the best salesperson for the job becomes much higher.
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