When Should You Give a Sales Candidate an Assessment?

Are you requiring candidates to “pass” an assessment? In a pass-or-fail environment, figuring out the best time to insert an assessment into the recruiting process matters more than most companies realize.

Issue the assessment too soon, and you may severely limit the talent pool. Request it too late in the process, and if the candidate “fails,” you’ve potentially wasted a huge amount of recruiting and interview time.

That wasted time on “fails” is the real dilemma.

Inefficiency tempts many ambitious software companies to test candidates from the first hello. The reason is obvious: wasting time goes against our better judgment. Why invest time in a candidate you can’t even hire? If you’re like most companies, assessing as soon as possible feels like the most effective solution.

What’s the best way to solve this while maximizing recruiting results and keeping the candidate experience positive?

In-Demand Companies Can Assess Early

If you’re a large, well-known organization with an excellent reputation and a generous compensation plan, with salespeople practically stalking hiring managers to work there, go ahead and assess candidates right out of the gate.

The process looks like this: apply, assess, and proceed to interview only if the candidate passes.

In this situation, assessing candidates at the very beginning won’t hurt much of anything. Most candidates will rightfully assume they were selected from a huge pool of applicants to take the assessment.

If they don’t pass, chances are they won’t feel upset or negative about the company. They perceive the reason for not passing as external to themselves, attributed to a hyper-competitive situation rather than a personal or company failure.

They’re also more likely to see assessments positively when the company has career-changing opportunities to offer. There are always more applicants than jobs for large organizations with respected brands and growth ahead of them, and candidates are more likely to accept the assessment as part of the process because of it.

But the perceived value of working for an in-demand company, and what companies at that level can get away with, is very different from what the rest of us face.

For the Rest of Us, There’s a Better Way

Imagine you’re like most software companies, not in the rocketship-growth category. Say every strong candidate for your sales roles ultimately needs to be recruited from the passive talent pool because your hiring profile is prohibitively specific.

In this common situation, assessing candidates from the start will leave even lackluster sales talent unimpressed.

Here’s a proposed interview schedule:

Call One: A 30 to 45 minute phone interview with the candidate, done by an internal or external recruiter.

Call Two: A 30-minute call with the hiring manager. This one’s about giving information, not just getting it. Share insights about the company, the opportunity, and the sales culture, and leave enough time for the candidate to ask questions. Mention that the next step is an assessment, followed by a deeper call to review specific sales achievements.

Call Three: The recruiter calls the candidate to walk through assessment details and next steps, and wishes them good luck.

Next: The assessment happens, results get reviewed, and next steps get determined.

This schedule isn’t the fastest option, but it keeps talented candidates from dropping out too early. It protects you from negative Glassdoor reviews and builds a positive first impression.

It does require investing time in candidates who ultimately won’t pass, with the biggest time investment falling on the recruiter.

We saw exactly this play out with a client who wanted to assess candidates right after the initial recruiter screen. The assessment wasn’t something anyone could knock out on a lunch break, it required real preparation, math included, and candidates weren’t hired unless they passed. Drop-out rates were high.

We moved the assessment later, after the candidate had met with the hiring manager and one person from the current team. The candidate bottleneck improved by more than 60%.

Where you place the assessment has a real impact on your interview cycle. Putting it early might feel efficient, but that doesn’t make it effective.

Do Speedy Alternatives Work?

Some companies are tempted to copy in-demand companies and assess immediately. It saves time and it’s efficient, and most corporate teams are wired to love both.

But efficiency doesn’t always produce the best results. Top salespeople may not be willing to be assessed right out of the gate. Assessing too soon can send the wrong message. It can feel cold and impersonal. It can feel insulting and premature.

Alex MacDuff, a former job seeker, put it this way:

“Now you want me to jump through some more hoops before I even have a phone screen? Wowee, what an opportunity! Congratulations! We’ve reviewed your resume and work history, but despite these things, we will assume that you’re a moron. We’ll need you to go ahead and fill out this intelligence test now. Thanks.” 

Workforce put it this way: “Companies lose otherwise qualified candidates for various reasons in the application process, but they frequently lose them at the assessment stage. Jobseekers exit the process if they view the test as too lengthy or time-consuming. They also bail on a company if the assessment content is not perceived as relevant or if that content startles them.”

Focus on the Candidate Experience

The candidate experience has become a strategic differentiator in recruiting, and assessing too early is one of the more common sales recruiting mistakes we see.

There are many ways to design an acceptable interview process, but it’s worth remembering that people don’t enjoy feeling unimportant, especially to a potential employer.

Starting new relationships with a few brief conversations instead of an assessment improves the candidate experience. Only a small number of well-known, fast-growing organizations can assess applicants immediately without it costing them.

Interviewing builds connection. Starting with conversation instead of an assessment helps companies engage top talent and improves the experience for everyone involved.

Competing for top talent right now is exactly that: fierce competition. Think about what assessing after the first hello signals to a candidate with plenty of other options. Most will move on fast, and you’ll miss out on top performers.

If your team needs help designing a process that doesn’t cost you strong candidates, it may be time to partner with a sales recruiter.