People frequently ask me about the advisability of testing sales people for pre-employment or succession planning. Don’t do it!

I discourage the practice for several reasons. First, the skill set of sales people differs from that of others in the organization. Certainly, the battery of tests I use would determine if a given sales professional has some of the requisite personality traits for success: high achievement drive, a willingness to overcome obstacles, a competitive attitude, an ability to bounce back from disappointment, and the talent for “reading” people and situations.

In today’s economy, ordinary just won’t work anymore. Now organizations increasingly depend on cutting-edge solutions to never-before-seen problems and clever ideas for those recurring headaches that have always plagued them. However, research indicates that only a handful of star performers create the vast majority of valuable ideas for their organizations.