Why OMG’s Sales Candidate Assessments Can’t Help These Companies

Car dealers, and most copier, office supply, long distance, insurance agencies, real estate agencies, are among companies that don’t really care who they hire.  Did I say that most of those companies don’t care who they hire?  I’m sorry, they care, as long as those that sign up are breathing and have family and friends to sell to.  I’m exaggerating, but not by much!

So what does that have to do with OMG’s (Objective Management Group) assessments?

Clients use OMG’s assessments as part of a sophisticated sales specific, Topgrading compatible, recruiting process.  The candidate is asked to complete the assessment as soon as a resume is received via email or an applicant applies on line. Criteria for a hiring recommendation varies by client and depends on the many customized requirements resulting in some candidates being recommended and some not.  The percentage is in direct proportion to how effectively the client’s posting attracted the desired pool of candidates, and how difficult it may have been to meet the specific criteria for a recommendation.  I randomly chose 10 such processes taking place right now.  As you will see below, the ratio of total candidates assessed to candidates recommended has a range of between 2.6:1 and 8:1 depending on the role, geography and requirements.

Scenario 1 – Outside salesperson to call on C Suite in competitive vertical – 8:1
Scenario 2 – Inside Salesperson – Manufacturing 3:1
Scenario 3 – National Sales Manager – Logistics 2.6:1
Scenario 4 – Territory Sales – Industrial Distribution – 3:1
Scenario 5 – Sales Manager – Industrial Distribution – 2.9:1
Scenario 6 – Territory Sales – Food Service – 3.5:1
Scenario 7 – VP Sales – Medical Devices – 3.4:1
Scenario 8 – Territory Sales – Technology to call on CFO’s – 5:1
Scenario 9 – Territory Sales – Technology to call on CIO’s – 2.75:1
Scenario 10 – Territory Sales – Heavy Equipment – 3.75:1

If you consider that only about 65% of all applicants actually complete the assessment, the adjusted ratio of total candidates to recommended candidates has a range of between 3.5:1 and 11:1.

Getting back to the original question – why won’t OMG’s assessments help car dealers and the others like them?  Suppose they currently hire 7 of every 10 candidates willing to sell their cars and copiers but the assessment only recommends 2 of those candidates. You can understand their fear; they won’t have enough candidates to keep up with their significant churn.

They confuse the candidate to recommended ratio with their churn rate.  Instead they should apply the ratio to the churn because of this ironic connection: the 2 we actually recommend will succeed and stay, thereby reducing the churn enough to negate the need for all of the undesirable candidates!

In other words, if they hire the right salespeople to begin with, their churn problem disappears!

For more on this topic, refer to this article from 2009, and this one from 2006.