THE PRIMARY ASSESSMENT
The SPQ*GOLD sales test
A candidate can look impressive on paper and perform brilliantly at interview. The commercial question is different: will they actually sell?
SPQ*GOLD adds objective, sales-specific evidence to the hiring decision. It helps identify how comfortable someone is likely to be with the activities, pressures and behaviours required to create and progress sales opportunities.
WHAT IT ADDS
Keep the interview. Add some science.
Sales activity
Evidence about likely comfort with proactive prospecting, sustained effort and the everyday demands of generating opportunities.
Specific risks
Focused concern areas that may otherwise remain hidden behind confident, polished or well-rehearsed interview answers.
Practical action
Role-specific questions, watch-fors, onboarding priorities and management actions—not simply a score or automated test output.
THE COMMERCIAL CASE
The cost of a bad sales hire is not confined to payroll
Recruitment fees, salary, commission guarantees, onboarding and training are the visible costs. The larger loss is often the revenue that never appears.
Lost opportunities
Prospects are not contacted, follow-up weakens and potentially valuable conversations are allowed to drift.
Management time
Managers spend months coaching, monitoring and compensating for activity or resilience that never becomes consistent.
Starting again
Once the mismatch is clear, the business absorbs the disruption and delay of replacing the hire and rebuilding the pipeline.
TWO REAL REPORT EXAMPLES
What a good profile and a very mixed profile look like
These examples show why SPQ*GOLD is decision support—not a simplistic pass/fail test. Both reports turn the evidence into questions and actions, but the scale and commercial significance of the concerns are very different.
GOOD PROFILE · LEWIS
Overall score: 228
- Above the recommended activity threshold
- Accuracy indicators clear
- Strong prospecting motivation and solid goal focus
- Two primary concerns requiring focused interview probing
- Targeted onboarding around assertiveness and commercial closing
Decision implication: broadly positive sales evidence, with two clearly defined risks to test rather than ignore.
VERY MIXED PROFILE · SAMUEL
Overall score: 143
- Below the recommended activity threshold
- Accuracy indicators clear
- Eight primary concerns across motivation, goals and core sales behaviours
- Additional secondary concerns to investigate
- A materially more intensive onboarding and management requirement
Decision implication: a far more substantial mismatch risk for a proactive sales role, requiring careful evidence before proceeding.
The comparison above and the Decision Support Filter preview are drawn directly from the supplied very mixed report.
What the comparison demonstrates
The difference is not that one candidate has concerns and the other does not. Lewis still has important risks to test. The difference is the volume, severity and operational relevance of the evidence—and therefore the confidence, questioning and management commitment the hiring decision should require.
How the process works
01 — Role context
We establish what the role genuinely demands.
02 — Secure assessment
The candidate completes SPQ*GOLD online.
03 — Interpretation
You receive a contextual report and focused questions.
04 — Better decision
You test the evidence and plan onboarding accordingly.
