Hiring salespeople is one of the highest-stakes decisions a company can make. Hire a great one, and revenue accelerates. Hire the wrong one, and you lose time, money, customers, and momentum.

A strong interview alone isn’t enough to confidently evaluate a sales candidate — because the best “interview performers” are often the worst actual sales performers.
That’s where sales assessment tools come in.

This guide breaks down the best types of sales assessments, what they measure, how to use them, and how to avoid common mistakes that companies make when evaluating salespeople.

Why Sales Assessments Matter More Than Ever

Modern sales environments are:

More competitive
More data-driven
More fast-moving
More customer-centric
More complex

This means you need more than intuition and charisma-based hiring.
Sales assessments allow you to:

Predict future performance
Reduce mis-hire risk
Identify strengths and weaknesses
Understand selling style and behavior
Improve team composition
Reduce early-stage churn
Support development and coaching

A strong sales assessment lowers hiring risk while improving hiring speed and decision quality.

The 6 Categories of Sales Assessments (What Really Matters)

Most sales assessment tools fall into one of six categories:

Sales Personality Assessments
Sales Skills & Competency Tests
Sales Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs)
Sales Cognitive Ability Tests
Sales Motivation & Drive Assessments
Behavioral & Work-Style Assessments

Below is the breakdown of each category, how they work, and what to look for.

1. Sales Personality Assessments

These measure traits correlated with sales performance, including:

Resilience
Assertiveness
Empathy
Coachability
Competitiveness
Confidence
Self-discipline

Common tools in this category:

The Big Five–based assessments
DISC (when used correctly)
Caliper (legacy)
Predictive Index (modified for sales roles)

Traits to prioritize for most sales roles:

High resilience
Medium-high assertiveness
High follow-through
High curiosity
High coachability

Red flags:

Low resilience
Low motivation
High volatility or emotionally unstable patterns
Poor follow-through

2. Sales Skills & Competency Tests

These evaluate sales capability, such as:

Prospecting
Discovery
Qualification
Objection handling
Deal strategy
Closing skill
Presentation ability

Examples include:

Role-based scenario testing
Sales call breakdown analysis
Written communication evaluation
Demo scenario scoring

These assessments show whether a candidate can actually sell — not just talk.

3. Sales Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs)

SJTs show candidates real sales scenarios such as:

A prospect going dark
A pricing objection
A competitor undercutting
A misaligned stakeholder
A stalled deal
A difficult handoff to implementation
A quota-pressure situation

Candidates must choose how they would respond.
This surfaces:

Judgment
Problem-solving
Communication style
Ethical decision-making
Ability to navigate complexity

Top performers make choices that:

Reduce risk
Build trust
Move deals forward
Maintain integrity

4. Sales Cognitive Ability Tests

These evaluate the candidate’s ability to:

Learn quickly
Process new information
Adapt to changing conditions
Understand complex solutions
Think strategically

Cognitive ability is one of the strongest predictors of sales success in:

SaaS
Manufacturing
Industrial
Complex B2B
Technical sales

It’s less relevant (but still helpful) in:

Retail
Transactional sales
Door-to-door
Home services

5. Motivation & Drive Assessments

These measure:

Work ethic
Urgency
Internal drive
Focus
Goal-setting discipline
Willingness to push through adversity

Sales is a resilience-based profession.
Candidates with high drive outperform “naturally talented” reps every time.

6. Behavioral & Work Style Assessments

These measure:

Attention to detail
Collaboration style
Coachability
Adaptability
Potential culture fit
Stress response
Role alignment

Combining behavioral data with other assessment types gives a clear “whole picture” of the candidate.

The Most Predictive Types of Assessments (Ranked)

Based on 20 years of industry data:

Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs)
Skills/competency tests
Cognitive ability
Motivation/drive
Behavioral pattern
Personality

Personality tests alone are not predictive.
They must be used in combination with sales-specific tests.

How to Use Sales Assessments in Your Hiring Process

A winning evaluation flow looks like this:

Step 1 — Resume + Experience Screening

Look for alignment to your role (industry, deal size, ICP).

Step 2 — Initial Interview

Check communication, confidence, and basic clarity.

Step 3 — Sales Assessment

Run assessment(s) before final interviews.

Step 4 — Deep-Dive Interview + Role Play

Use assessment insights to dig deeper.

Step 5 — References (Mandatory)

Confirm what the assessments told you.

Step 6 — Final Evaluation

Score on a weighted rubric.

Proper scoring weights might look like:

40% Assessment
35% Interview
15% Experience
10% References

Top performers stand out naturally.

How to Interpret Sales Assessment Results

Great candidates tend to have:

High learning agility
Strong situational judgment
High motivation and resilience
Clear reasoning behind choices
Solid communication
Self-awareness

Poor candidates tend to have:

Emotional reactivity
Poor decision-making patterns
Unrealistic self-assessment
Lack of discipline
Weak problem solving
Defensive answers

You’re evaluating fit, not perfection.

Sales Assessment Use Cases by Role

SDR / BDR

Motivation
Resilience
Communication
Prospecting skills

AE (SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise)

Discovery
Objection handling
Deal strategy
Cognitive ability
Written/verbal communication

Outside Sales / Territory Sales

Relationship building
Travel discipline
Organization
Follow-through

Roofing & Home Services Sales

Closing urgency
Confidence
In-home selling skills
Objection handling

Manufacturing & Industrial Sales

Technical learning ability
Long-cycle judgment
Distributor/channel strategy

Sales Managers / Leaders

Coaching ability
Pipeline discipline
Problem solving
Emotional stability
Leadership judgment

Common Mistakes Companies Make With Sales Assessments

Avoid these errors:

❌ Using personality tests as the only evaluation method
❌ Interpreting results without expertise
❌ Skipping reference checks (critical)
❌ Ignoring red flags revealed by judgment tests
❌ Not validating results with interviews
❌ Changing the role criteria mid-hire
❌ Looking for a “perfect” score instead of “role alignment”

How Salesfolks Uses Sales Assessments When Interviewing Candidates

Salesfolks uses a multi-layer assessment model combining:

Skills
Judgment
Listening vs. talking
Cognitive ability
Drive for achievement
Competitiveness
Behavioral style
Work history
Interview performance
Reference validation

This gives us a dramatically more accurate picture of:

Predictive performance
Likelihood to retain
Likelihood to perform
Ramp speed
Sales capability
Coaching needs
Risk factors
Team fit

Using assessments the right way can cut mis-hire risk by 50%+.

Recommended Resources

Use this for your Resources section.

The Best Sales Assessment Tools to Predict High-Performing Salespeople