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Businesses that sell products and services depend on sales executives to achieve their desired return on investment. Talented salespersons have all the right sales skills that set them apart from the others and increase their market value. Candidate applying for a sales job must have the required technical skills and personality traits to be the perfect fit for the job and the company culture.
Recruiters tasked with hiring sales executives analyse a series of technical and soft skills every salesperson must-have. A proper analysis of these skills helps to predict the candidate’s ability to improve product reach, expand the customer base, bring profitability, improve customer satisfaction, and facilitate business expansion.
Technical and Soft Skills Required for Sales Executives
The primary responsibilities of every sales executive include demonstrating new products and services, offering guidance, and addressing customer queries. Sales is a stressful job, so individuals in this field of work need to harness the stress and use it to achieve their targets. All this can be done only if the candidate possesses the right skills. Some of the most indispensable soft skills a sales executive must have are listed below.
- Ability to build a rapport with customers
- Simple, clear and customer-centric communication
- Critical thinking skills
- Excellent listening skills and ability to empathise with customers needs
- Work with the intention of benefiting the customer
- Excellent business communication skills
- Problem-solving abilities
- Time management skills
- Storytelling skills
- Ability to work in a collaborative environment
- Conflict resolution skills
Apart from these skills, there are certain must-have technical skills a salesman can acquire through work experience, workshops, training courses, etc.
- In-depth knowledge of the products and services they are selling
- Understanding of competitor products
- Knowledge of the latest industry-specific technologies
- Ability to set short and long term goals to achieve targets
- Functional knowledge of standard business tools, techniques, and software
- Information gathering skills
- Research and planning skills
- Ability to create sales presentations
- Knowledge of business policies
- Computer literacy that enables data collection
- Working knowledge of CRM software that is used to collect and retrieve details of customers and other prospects
- Ability to conduct market research
- Knowledge of Information management systems to make use of data collected through software systems
A skill assessment test can provide recruiters with an overview of the candidate’s skills, abilities, and character traits. They can use this information to make objective hiring decisions.
Applications of MeritTrac Assessment Solutions - Hiring and Workforce Development
MeritTrac’s assessment test platforms can be used for the timely analysis of sales skills. You can make use of the platforms to assess cognitive, behavioural, and domain-specific skills. Most of these tests are automated, and they come with auto evaluation and report generation features. This helps in the accurate and timely analysis of the test results.
MeritTrac’s assessment solutions can also be used for developing the skills of your current sales team. You can identify top performers and employees who require the training to bridge any skills gaps. The scientifically-derived test result data provides valuable information to the L&D teams who can then build high impact development programs.
MeritTrac Solutions for Sales Executive Recruitment
MeritTrac’s end-to-end assessment solutions are based on a scientific process that ensures consistent, accurate, and reliable results every time. Our assessments are designed by an experienced and knowledgeable team of subject matter experts and psychometricians. SSPQ, LearningBranch, and SpeechTrac are some of MeritTrac’s most used assessment solutions to find talented sales professionals.
SpeechTrac is used to measure a sales executive’s speech fluency, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. This automated spoken English assessment platform lets you assess communication skills against 40 phonemes. Identifying faults in reading and impromptu speech becomes easy with the Patented Carnegie Speech engine and pinpointing technology. You can administer and monitor the test remotely.
SSPQ, widely known as the Sales Situational Personality Questionnaire, is used to evaluate six crucial personality traits of sales executives. These include motivation, sociability, integrity, flexibility, organisational skills at work, and stress tolerance. The test features a range of situational judgment type questions that helps to understand how a candidate would respond to various job-related situations. Recruiters are provided with descriptive feedback for a detailed analysis of the answers. You also have the option to benchmark the scores against an ideal candidate profile. This helps you make quick and informed hiring decisions.
LearningBranch can be used to evaluate speaking, listening, and writing skills of sales job applicants. This automated web-based assessment and training platform is used to measure vocabulary, comprehension, and pronunciation against key metrics. The Willow™ Intelligent Voice Analysis system auto evaluates the candidate’s responses during a live performance. You can also use this platform to train your current employees with regards to voice, grammar, and more
FAQ
1. How can MeritTrac’s assessment platforms be used for hiring sales executives?
A sales executive must possess communication skills, domain-specific knowledge, behavioural traits and attitudes, and a range of job-specific skills to do a successful job. Analysing these skills using traditional hiring methods can be a challenge. MeritTrac’s skill assessment tests make this task easy by providing you with an accurate and descriptive analysis of a job applicant’s knowledge and expertise.
2. What are the types of questions featured in MeritTrac’s sales skills assessments?
The skill assessment questionnaires and tests feature situational judgment type questions, multiple-choice, and multiple answer questions, true or false questions, fill in the blanks, etc.
3. Do you need technical experience to administer tests?
MeritTrac’s assessment platforms are simple and easy to use so, anyone can administer and deliver tests through these platforms. The answers are auto evaluated, and the performance benchmarking tools make it easy to analyse the results.
4. What are the USPs of MeritTrac assessment platforms?
- Author unique test catalogues for sales skill assessment
- Evaluate a range of cognitive, behavioural, analytical, and other skills
- Option to administer online and computer-based tests
- Intelligent on-screen marking solutions
- Remote monitoring of tests to avoid malpractice
- Auto evaluation for quick decision making
- Supports multiple web-enabled devices
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