Does Measuring Assessment Performance Using Sales Results Work?
Short answer: sometimes, but only if you measure the right results in the right way.
Most companies judge an assessment by asking, “Did our sales go up?” That instinct is common and often misleading. Sales outcomes depend on territory potential, pricing, manager quality, quota setting, product fit, and market conditions. If you credit every change in revenue to the assessment, you risk confusing luck with lift.
At Objective Management Group (OMG), we treat sales results as the destination on a roadmap, not the first checkpoint. The job of an assessment is to help you select and develop people who are more likely to succeed, and to inform managers where to coach. To know if it is working, build a chain of evidence: competencies lead to field behaviors, behaviors shape pipeline quality, and pipeline quality drives win rates and revenue. When those links tighten in sequence, you can trust the destination.
The problems with “revenue only” measurement
- Confounding factors. New pricing, fresh territories, or a manager change can mask or mimic impact.
- Selection bias. Stronger reps may receive better accounts and also pass assessments, which blurs cause and effect.
- Survivorship bias. You often measure the performance of those still on the team, while missing early exits that the assessment could have prevented.
- Timing gaps. Training improves capability first; revenue, especially with long cycles, often lags by a quarter or more.
What to measure instead, and in what order
- Skill improvement (leading).
Tactical competencies such as Consultative Selling, Qualification, and Reaching Decision Makers. After targeted coaching, track improvement throughout the year. Validated competencies are the closest “cause” of field performance. - Behavioral and Psychological improvement (early to mid).
Typically, changing behaviors and beliefs is a long-term process that requires self-awareness and reinforcement. As a result, improving Behavioral and Belief-based competencies will lag Tactical competencies. - Pipeline quality (mid).
Watch stage conversion rates, time in stage, and qualified pipeline per rep versus the prior period. Quality tends to improve before revenue lands. - Sales outcomes (lagging).
Track win rate, cycle time, deal size, retention or expansion, new-hire ramp, and hire quality at month size and month 12. These are the business results you ultimately care about, measured after the upstream links are working.
A practical evaluation design you can run
- Matched cohorts. Compare reps hired or coached with the assessment to a similar group without it. Match on tenure, territory, manager, and segment.
- Time windows. Allow at least nine months for competency development—but ideally 12 or more months to see real behavior changes, 12 or more months for pipeline signals, and 18 months for revenue.
- Defined success criteria. For example: +10 points in average Qualification scores, +15% stage conversion, +5 points in win rate, and a 10% reduction in cycle time.
- Manager instrumentation. Require one weekly note on targeted behaviors. Coaching without notes rarely sticks.
- New-hire quality. Measure the share of new hires on or ahead of ramp at day 90 and day 180. Hiring assessments should shine here.
Write down a simple hypothesis before you start: “If we coach Reaching Decision Makers and Discovery Depth, we expect more executive meetings and fewer late-stage losses.” Hold yourselves to it.
So, does measuring assessment performance using sales results work?
When you follow the chain-of-evidence approach, it does. We consistently see faster ramp for new hires screened with role-specific criteria, higher stage conversion after competency-focused coaching, better win rates when managers coach the few behaviors the data flags, and more defensible hiring with fewer false positives.
Assessments are not magic. They are maps that help you decide who to hire, what to coach, and what to stop doing. The win comes from using the map with discipline and measuring in the right order.
Bottom line
You can measure assessment performance with sales results but do it at the end of a deliberate sequence. Begin by focusing on competencies, demonstrating behavior change, monitoring pipeline quality improvements, and then holding the individual accountable by revenue. That is how you confirm the assessment is driving real performance, not just riding the tide.