Sales Assessment

Hiring the right salespeople is critical to revenue growth, customer relationships, and long-term business success. This assessment is designed to help organisations identify sales talent with the behaviours that matter most.

The Sales Assessment is built with a practical, role-relevant approach, taking into account:

• Sales Role Analysis – Developed through detailed analysis of sales roles across industries to ensure the assessment reflects real, on-the-job demands.
• Established Sales Models – Informed by well-recognised commercial sales frameworks and contemporary sales research.
• Real-World Sales Contexts – Designed to be relevant across different products, services, and sales environments.
• Modern Ways of Working – Reflective of how sales roles have evolved, including collaboration across teams and longer-term customer relationships.

The assessment measures eight key sales skills that support performance across the full sales cycle:

• Networking & Building Connections – Building strong relationships and creating new opportunities.
• Creating Impactful Messages – Communicating persuasively and adapting messages to different audiences.
• Uncovering Needs & Expectations – Understanding customer priorities through effective questioning and listening.
• Tailoring Solutions – Adapting solutions to meet individual customer needs.
• Building Collective Success – Working collaboratively to achieve shared outcomes.
• Providing Service Excellence – Delivering a positive, professional customer experience.
• Delivering on Commitments – Following through reliably and consistently.
• Driving for Results – Staying focused, resilient, and accountable for outcomes.

To give a well-rounded view of each candidate, the assessment includes a mix of engaging question formats:

• Image-Based Behavioural Questions - Candidates respond to visual images that reflect behaviour.
• Video-Based Situational Judgement Questions – Realistic sales situations assess decision-making and judgement.

Together, these elements help organisations identify sales candidates with the capability, motivation, and potential to perform, — supporting better hiring decisions and stronger sales teams.

Reliability:
The Sales Assessment demonstrates strong internal consistency, with an average reliability coefficient of 0.72 across the eight sales skills. This indicates that the assessment measures sales behaviours consistently and reliably.

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Face validity:
Candidates rated the assessment positively, reporting that it:

• Allowed them to demonstrate their suitability for a sales role (average score: 3.88 out of 5.00).

• Provided an objective way to evaluate sales skills (average score: 3.80 out of 5.00).

• Offered a positive experience completing the assessment (average score: 4.37 out of 5.00).

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These results support strong candidate engagement and help protect employer brand throughout the hiring process.

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Criterion-related validity:
Candidates with higher Sales Assessment scores also reported stronger workplace outcomes, including:

• Higher task performance (r = 0.41)

• Higher motivation and engagement (r = 0.42)

• Greater interpersonal effectiveness (r = 0.38)

This shows a clear relationship between assessment results and outcomes that matter in sales roles.

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Fairness:
Group differences were small when measured using Cohen’s effect size, indicating that when used appropriately, the assessment is unlikely to produce different outcomes based on gender, age, or ethnicity.

• Female vs. Male: -0.20

• 40 and over vs. Under 40: 0.40

• Ethnic Minority vs. White: 0.10

Sova continuously monitors and updates norms, ensuring ongoing fairness and relevance.

Sova's assessments are created by our in-house team of esteemed occupational psychologists, specialists in psychometric and skills assessment. Built on scientific research and industry best practices, each assessment is peer-reviewed, validated with real-world data, and continuously refined to ensure fairness, accuracy, and predictive power.

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With Al-driven analytics and rigorous validation, Sova delivers assessments that help organisations make confident, data-backed hiring decisions.

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