Is Your Sales Team Engine Misfiring?

 

Who doesn’t love the Matildas? After their inspiring run to the semi-finals at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, they became national heroes, setting unprecedented expectations for consistent top performance.

 

Yet, despite their immense talent and ‘champion’ status, there have been periods since where they haven’t always consistently ‘fired’ at that same peak, reminding us that even the best teams can face challenges in maintaining their highest gear, whether due to squad depth, immense pressure, or evolving competition.

 

This isn’t just a hypothetical scenario; it’s the stark reality for many sales teams across Australia and New Zealand today. As sales leaders, we’re constantly striving for peak performance, yet finding and getting the best from those ‘star’ salespeople seems harder than ever.

 

In a market transformed by rapid digital adoption and evolving customer expectations, the old playbooks simply fall short.

 

The Hidden Drain on Your Bottom Line 

 

For years, we’ve relied on personality tests, intuition, and traditional hiring methods, perhaps repeating the old adage, “If you can sell, you can sell anything.” But the data paints a different, and frankly, concerning picture.

 

Recent analyses suggest that a significant portion of sales professionals across ANZ are consistently falling short of their targets.

 

Consider these contemporary statistics for 2024-2025:

 

• Budget achievement rates are often hovering below 50% for many Australian sales teams (based on internal market analysis and recent industry reports from Australian sales recruitment firms). This isn’t just a minor blip; it represents a substantial amount of untapped revenue potential.

 

• While overall employee turnover has seen some shifts, sales roles in Australia continue to experience higher churn than many other departments, with estimates often ranging between 15-25% annually, depending on the industry and company. This constant revolving door is incredibly costly.

 

• The cost of a bad hire in Australia can be significant, easily reaching tens of thousands of dollars when you factor in recruitment fees, lost productivity, onboarding, training, and the impact on team morale and client relationships. This isn’t just an expense on the books; it’s a direct hit to your profitability.

 

The stark truth is that a significant percentage of individuals in sales roles may lack the inherent attributes to truly excel, or they’re simply misaligned with the specific demands of their role and the dynamic market.

 

This misalignment isn’t just inefficient; it’s a continuous drain on your revenue, your team’s morale, and your strategic growth initiatives.

Precision Talent Engineering for Sales Success

 

So, how do we shift from managing underperformance to cultivating an unstoppable sales force, worthy of a ‘triple-threat’ status? The answer lies in moving beyond guesswork and embracing a contemporary scientific, data-driven approach to talent acquisition and development.

 

Just as we wouldn’t build a new home without solid foundations and blueprints, we shouldn’t build our sales teams without understanding their inherent “sales DNA.” This is where advanced assessment tools become indispensable. By leveraging objective, validated, and reliable methodologies, you can:

 

1. Identify Core Attributes: Uncover what truly differentiates your top performers. What are their unique behavioural traits, motivators, and cognitive abilities that drive their success?

Local research and global best practices consistently point to traits like conscientiousness, adaptability, emotional intelligence, resilience, advanced reasoning, motivations, and an empathetic, customer-centric approach as critical for today’s top Australian sellers.

 

2. Benchmark for Excellence: Create a customised job profile benchmark based on your company’s most successful salespeople, not generic industry averages. It’s a frequent, costly error: headhunting a top salesperson from a direct competitor, like bringing a star from Coca-Cola to Pepsi, only to see them fail within months.

This often happens because success isn’t just about product knowledge and sales competencies; it’s profoundly tied to the specific fit with your company’s unique culture, the leadership style of their manager, and the dynamics of their new team and role.

Advanced assessment tools are precisely designed to uncover these critical ‘fit’ factors, ensuring you secure talent that truly thrives within your specific environment. This allows you to understand the specific “work genes” critical to success within your unique culture and market.

 

3. Predict Performance with Precision: Make recruitment decisions with significantly higher accuracy. By adopting the right assessment tools, Australian businesses can report up to a 3x increase in hiring success for high performers and a substantial reduction in sales department turnover, often exceeding 25%. This directly addresses the exorbitant costs associated with frequent employee churn, wasted training investment, and lost sales from empty seats.

 

4. Optimise for Modern Selling: In an era where digital tools and hybrid work models are now standard in Australian sales, understanding how candidates adapt to virtual selling environments is crucial. The attributes for traditional face-to-face success don’t always translate, and assessments can highlight those who possess the adaptability and digital fluency required.

 

5. Develop Targeted Coaching: Pinpoint specific development areas for average and underperforming reps, allowing for tailored coaching that maximises their potential and boosts overall team productivity. Australian companies investing in ongoing sales training consistently report a significant uplift in individual and team sales results.

 

And remember, these days, integrating sales and marketing efforts is no longer optional; it’s essential for competitive advantage in the Australian market.

 

Businesses with closely aligned sales and marketing teams consistently outperform their peers, demonstrating stronger revenue growth and customer retention. The right assessment tools can help identify candidates who are inherently collaborative and understand the importance of this synergy.

 

If you’re content with average sales results, then by all means, maintain the status quo. However, if you are driven to unlock the full potential of your sales team, mitigate the hidden costs of mis-hires, and significantly increase your business performance, it’s time for a strategic shift.

 

Stop relying on ‘gut feel’ and start building your sales team on a foundation of data and science. Talk to Great People Inside today about our award-winning sales assessments, trusted by organisations across Australia. We’re so confident in our approach that we’ll even let you try us fee-free.

 

Click HERE to connect with us and redefine what’s possible for your sales team.

What truly underpins your business’s sustained success?

It’s not just brilliant strategies or innovative products. It’s the collective drive, passion, and synergy of your team. Imagine a workforce where every individual feels deeply connected to your mission, highly engaged in their role, and consistently performing at their peak. This isn’t just about hiring for skills; it’s about cultural alignment.

Studies, particularly from Australia, consistently highlight how hiring employees who genuinely resonate with your company’s culture impacts everything from retention rates to engagement levels and, ultimately, your bottom line..

The Real Outcomes of Cultural Misalignment

When cultural alignment is overlooked, businesses face tangible and often costly repercussions:

• Retention:The Exodus of Talent

Australian research repeatedly points to poor fit as a primary driver of employee turnover. The leading culprit? Culture misalignment. A staggering 65% of professionals state this was the primary reason they actively sought new jobs. While work-life balance and unmanageable workloads contribute, it’s clear that a fundamental mismatch with the environment is a major catalyst for departures. Every lost employee means significant costs in recruitment, onboarding, and lost productivity.

• Engagement:The Silent Drain on Productivity

According to a Gallup study, a worrying 60% of Australian workers are not engaged, and 16% are “actively disengaged.” As a manager or business owner, it’s a tough pill to swallow: paying employees who, in essence, couldn’t care less about your vision, your mission, or your customers. Cultural alignment is a crucial factor in inspiring and engaging teams. When employees connect with your values, they’re not just showing up; they’re investing themselves.

• Performance:The Unseen Ceiling

Research indicates employees who align well with an organisation’s culture are 20% more likely to achieve high performance levels. When individuals feel connected to the larger mission and values, their intrinsic motivation skyrockets. They work for meaning, not just rewards. This enhanced individual performance naturally compounds at the organisational level, creating a powerful engine for growth. 

Want Innovation, Not Clones?

It’s important to acknowledge the conversation in Australian HR circles about balancing “cultural fit” with “cultural addition.” While traditional “fit” aims for compatibility with the current culture, “addition” champions bringing in fresh perspectives, experiences, and ideas to enhance the existing culture. Over-reliance on “fit” can inadvertently stifle diversity, limit innovation, and may even lead to homogeneous organisations.

At GPI, we understand this nuance. Our gr8pi award winning platform is designed to help you find candidates whose core values align with your mission, while simultaneously highlighting and welcoming diverse perspectives that will enrich your team.

Think custom psychometrics break the bank? Not with GPI. Our advanced technology slashes typical costs, delivering valid and reliable assessments without the hefty price tag. There’s no lengthy training courses, just easy to use and information that’s clear and concise. We don’t charge for customisation or reports; you only pay for what you use. With our flexible pricing, any size business can access powerful tools without financial strain.

Are you ready to transform your hiring success and cultivate a thriving, aligned culture? Explore how Great People Inside can be the flexible foundation for your talent strategy: www.greatpeopleinside.com.au

The volatile global landscape amplifies the risk of bad hires, making reliable candidate assessment paramount.

 

While no one aims to hire poorly, it happens with frustrating regularity, why is that?

 

Experts tell us its due to factors like flawed processes, time pressure, bias, poor interviewing, and insufficient reference checks.

 

However, a key contributor is the use of wrong assessments. An HBR study highlights that 80% of employee turnover stems from poor hiring decisions.

 

Alarmingly, many companies use generic assessments unsuited for pre-employment screening; tools like Myers-Briggs, while useful for development, aren’t validated predictors of job performance.

 

The Limitations of a Generic Approach

 

Your job descriptions aren’t one-size-fits-all, so why should your candidate assessment be? Generic psychometric tests offer broad insights but lack the specific lens to evaluate candidates for your unique roles.

They might reveal general personality or cognitive abilities but often miss crucial role-specific competencies, emotional intelligence, behaviours, and motivations that drive success.

 

The Price of Inaction

 

Ignoring tailored assessments carries a significant cost. Hiring failures can cost businesses 30% to 60% of the departing employee’s salary. Relying on generic tools risks misjudgements, leading to lost productivity, decreased morale, and the costly rehiring cycle. Its frustrating, you invest in onboarding someone ultimately unsuitable because the initial assessment lacked precision.

 

The Power of Precision: Tailoring Talent Identification

 

The solution lies in customisation. Tailoring psychometric tests aligns them directly with each job’s specific demands through:

 

• In-depth Job Analysis:Using technology to pinpoint crucial skills, knowledge, and abilities

 

• Targeted Competency Mapping: Clearly defining vital competencies for high performance.

 

• Strategic Dimension Selection and Adaptation: Precisely choosing psychometric dimensions to measure identified deliverables and competencies.

 

The Tangible Benefits of a Tailored Approach

 

Using bespoke assessments yields significant returns:

 

• Perfect Fit, Not Nearest Fit:Customisation dramatically improves matching candidates to specific job requirements, focusing on what truly matters for success.

 

• Tailored to Organisational Culture & Performance:Bespoke assessments better predict job performance by measuring role-relevant competencies and cultural fit, leading to higher satisfaction and potentially 15% lower turnover over five years for companies prioritising culture.

 

• Reduced Hiring Bias:Focusing on objective, job-related criteria mitigates unconscious bias, ensuring merit-based decisions.

 

• Enhanced Accuracy and Candidate Experience:Tailored assessments reduce irrelevant “noise,” providing a clearer suitability picture and improving candidate engagement. Well-validated psychometric assessments can boost employee performance by 24%.

 

• Optimised Talent Development:Tailored assessments identify development needs for new and existing employees, enabling targeted training.

 

Remember, your job descriptions and culture are unique. Shouldn’t your psychometric tests be too?

Ready to eliminate hiring guesswork? Request a free trial today to see how tailored assessments can safeguard your team — learn more at www.greatpeopleinside.com.au

We have all seen firsthand the seismic shifts impacting our workplaces. The rise of AI is no longer a futuristic fantasy; it’s here, transforming how we operate and demanding a smarter approach to our most valuable asset – our people. In this muddled chaotic world having the best people that are the right job fit and have a strong cultural alignment is more critical than ever.

For too long, hiring and development decisions have relied heavily on personality tests, subjective interviews and gut feelings. While experience counts, in today’s insight-driven world, can we afford to leave such crucial decisions to chance? The answer, unequivocally, is no.

That’s where reliable valid robust psychometric assessments come in, offering objective insights that go beyond the surface. In fact, a study by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology revealed that companies employing psychometric assessments witnessed a 29% increase in productivity and savings of approximately $1.7 million annually per 1,000 employees.

Let me share a story about a client of ours we’ve been working with for 12 months. This thriving SME distributor based in Sydney,  like many businesses realised the importance of promoting leaders from within, upskilling their people and making successful hires.

However, like many businesses, they were grappling with these very challenges. Despite a dedicated HR team and experienced operational managers, they were enduring a plateau in growth and mismatches in their new recruits.

Having trialed GPI, the client decided to partner with us to implement our assessment technology, as they were impressed by our ability to:

• Precisely tailor assessments to their needs
• Delve deep into individual capabilities, personality traits, and values.
• Give their team simple tools to evaluate job fit and cultural compatibility

Following consultation we focused on 3 key areas:

1. Identifying Future Leaders

By assessing key leadership competencies and potential within their existing workforce, our client was able to pinpoint high-potential employees who might have been overlooked through traditional performance reviews and gut feel alone. This allowed them to create targeted development programs, nurturing internal talent and ensuring a strong leadership pipeline for the future.

2. Clear Understanding of Training Needs

Instead of broad, generic training programs, the assessment highlighted specific skill gaps and development areas within different teams. This enabled our client to tailor their training initiatives, investing resources where they would have the most significant impact on individual and organisational performance. The result? More engaged employees who felt their development was truly valued and relevant.

3. Increased Hiring success

Finally, and perhaps most crucially, GPI assessments significantly improved their hiring success rate and early failure rate. By incorporating  assessments into their recruitment process, they were able to use objective data to predict candidates’ suitability for specific roles and their alignment with the company’s culture. This went beyond the resume and interview, providing insights into how candidates were likely to perform and integrate within the team. The feedback was remarkable – new hires onboarded faster, were more productive from the outset, and demonstrated a stronger commitment to the company’s values.

 

Keeping Humanity in HR

This success isn’t unique. In an era where AI is transforming the very nature of work, understanding and retaining the human element is paramount. GPI assessments offer a powerful, data-driven approach to ensure you have the right people in the right roles, fostering a thriving culture and driving your organisation towards greater success.

It’s time to move beyond “gut feel” and embrace the tried and tested power of GPI psychometrics to build a resilient and future-ready workforce. Isn’t it time you explored how GPI assessment can help your business reach its full potential?

Learn more: www.greatpeopleinside.com.au

 

 

When Amazon canceled its AI recruitment program in 2016 due to serious bias issues, it sparked debate about the effectiveness of AI in talent acquisition. Fast forward to today, and while AI has come a long way, it still has its quirks- like forgetting how to human. 

A recent post by Andreea Lungulescu , (founder of Talent Crunch and a big fan like most of us of Josh Bersin’s work), analysed information presented in a podcast by Bersin on the future of AI in HR. She found 85 problems!! For both of our sakes, I’m not going to explore the 85 problems here, but it’s an interesting analysis and very relevant when exploring the implications of AI in Recruitment.

Why AI Still Has Homework to Do

Unlike traditional psychometric assessments – which have gone through rigorous scientific processes, rely on robust norming procedures, and have been validated – AI tools often rely on limited datasets and lack the kind of rigorous checks that keep biases at bay.

This doesn’t mean AI is a no-go. It just means we need to approach it with caution and a strong dose of responsibility. Fairness, transparency, and ethics should be non-negotiables when incorporating AI into hiring.

The Future of AI in HR

On the other hand, AI does have potential in HR. AI can play a valuable role, and the post mentioned above explores this in great detail.

Nonetheless, most would agree it’s crucial to ensure that AI-powered tools are developed and used responsibly, with a focus on fairness, transparency, and ethical considerations.

Right now, AI is not yet ready to fully replace traditional psychometric assessments. A human-centered approach, combined with high quality science based valid and reliable assessments is the way to go when hiring. 

Why GPI Stands Out?

Science-backed psychometric assessments remain the gold standard for predicting job performance. And if you’re wondering how GPI stacks up:

✅ We meet or exceed the British Psychological Society’s standards.

✅ Technical manuals are available for all dimensions (because transparency matters).

✅ Our assessments are tried, tested, and trusted by HR professionals worldwide.

If you’d like to learn more about our unique assessments please request here.