Hell for a sales position merely the relationships they have from their old jobs would be more valuable than any work-test they could ever complete.
Sell me this pen.
That doesn't tell me how the applicant will manage a department or implement new techniques. It's a test for line sales staff, not departmental managers.
It is a test that is not good enough to hire the applicant, but it is enough to fail the applicant.
"Find a person who can sell me both this pen and a pen that does not yet exist"
Most of the sales managers I've seen rose from the ranks of line sales.
But that's not the question. This question is 'how do we find the best guy for the job.' Saying 'this is how we always did it' is circular reasoning.
Re:Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men (1924)
by saalweachter on Friday March 21, 2014 @01:54PM
(#7443653)
Just out of curiosity, not being a salesman, is a great salesman actually expected to be able to sell anything to anyone?
Bragging aside, I would assume this is one of those cases where a huge portion of the job is differentiating likely and unlikely sales targets, and applying effort accordingly.
How, exactly, do you do a work-sample test for a chief sales executive anyway? "Hey, can you run our global sales division for a couple of hours, then we can evaluate if your methods really bring in the sales"?
Edit: to clarify on the work-sample question, in the story, the employee has been expressly hired to teach the existing staff new methods, which they actively recognise that they don't understand. How do you make a meaningful work-sample test for a sales chief that can be interpreted by a naif?