Imagine owning a crystal ball that could predict with a great deal of certainty whether a new employee had “the right stuff” to make it in sales. That would make life as a recruiter or sales manager much easier, wouldn’t it?

Well, while we at Asher don’t have an actual magical crystal ball to offer you, we do offer the next best thing: the APQ aptitude assessment.

Natural born salesperson?

Are salespeople born or made? Training undoubtedly plays a very important role is determining salesperson success. Having trained salespeople for close to three decades, I can assure you that you can work wonders with good training. However, these years as a trainer have also demonstrated to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you try to train people with no aptitude for sales, you get very poor results.

So, in my view, salespeople are born – the basic traits needed for success are built into their DNA — but the truly GREAT salespeople are created through training. No one is born a top producer, only with the potential to become one.

Top producers make the bulk of the money

You could fire 80 to 90 percent of a typical sales team and experience only a small drop in revenue, if any. This harsh truth stems from the fact that most sales come from the top 10 to 20 percent of any sales force. You’ve heard of the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 Rule. This is that precept in action.

Well, what if you replaced the 80 or 90 percent you offload, one for one, with new top producers or potential top producers? You would be playing with a sales All-Star Team, and the APQ aptitude assessment is the best way to identify the right “players” for you to draft to your dream team.

Stretch to Success

The APQ is not only an excellent recruitment tool, but it also helps those who are already on the team. By identifying traits where each individual is out of range for optimal success, they can be coached into altering these traits for the better.

For example, say someone’s scores show they lack a bit of empathy. This is something they could consciously work on improving, maybe even by “faking it until they make it” and empathy becomes more natural for them. We call this aspect of the APQ “Stretch to Success,” where we try to stretch traits from non-optimum scores to more acceptable ranges.

By making this salesperson more empathetic, it would make them seem more favorable to buyers who are sensitive or emotional, whereas previously these same buyers might have been completely turned off by the salesperson’s aloof attitude.

We have experienced amazing results with the APQ aptitude assessment. We know you will too. Please contact us today to set up a demonstration or receive a sample test with no obligations.