Assessment Tools : Developing Higher Performing Employees

The Problem
It has long been accepted that 80 percent of all products and services are sold by 20 percent of the salespeople. The so-called “80/20” rule is a challenge to all sales executives who strive to build exceptional sales organizations.
Profiles International has developed a tool for those who want to break with tradition and banish the “80/20” rule forever. The Profiles Sales Indicator™ measures the essential qualities of salespeople. When people make an honest effort to do a good job and fail, it is usually because they were in jobs they did not fit. Matching people with the work they do is a primary mission of Profiles.

This suggests about half of the people in sales should never have been hired for sales jobs in the first place and another 25 percent should have been hired to sell something else. Thus, the typical employer may be making three hiring mistakes for each correct one. Obviously, the best place to attack the “80/20” rule is in the hiring process.

When hiring salespeople, the objective is to hire only those who have the characteristics of the top 25 percent. The challenge is to find an instrument that can assess those characteristics with a high degree of accuracy. The Profiles Sales Indicator is the solution.