Best Buy for Business implements a comprehensive assessment solution to attract, qualify and select the top sales performers
Best Buy has a history of innovation and success as it continues to look at new revenue opportunities that drive growth. Key to the ongoing growth of Best Buy as a Fortune 100 company is its business-to-business division – Best Buy For Business (BBFB). The growth is driven by its outside sales representatives, internally referred to as Business Technical Consultants (BTCs). The BTCs work with clients developing and selling products and services to meet business customer needs. In order for the performance of the BTCs to meet the growth needs of BBFB, they need to possess a much different set of competencies and skills than the retail sales reps found in Best Buy stores. The team at BBFB knew they needed to accurately qualify a potential salesperson’s ability to possess and execute the required sales behaviors that create and close new business for BBFB.
Best Buy For Business was looking for a simple assessment to qualify their outside sales representatives. BBFB chose Employee Continuum's Candidate Evaluation System because it not only provided assessments but job simulations and job branding services. Jay Devers, director of outside sales development for Best Buy for Business, stated, "I think many sales leaders are initially looking at the same thing we were – an assessment layer or step in the process to add some risk mitigation to the hiring process." Devers continues, "We found much more than that with the Candidate Evaluation System. In addition to a world-class assessment platform, we learned much about branding approaches to our roles, and we feel the simulation steps are just as effective as the assessment. It's a complete solution." One of BBFB objectives was to explain to candidates about the BTC role and how it is different than other sales positions at Best Buy. Employee Continuum accomplished this through job branding. The candidate site was designed by Employee Continuum to mirror Best Buy's corporate and career site. The candidate site includes a job branding video that clearly conveys the opportunities at BBFB and how the sales position is significantly different from retail sales. After watching the video starring incumbent sales reps, candidates choose if they’d like to proceed in the qualification process. Candidates go through a pre-screening module to verify specific requirements, certifications, and experience. Candidates are then sent through a series of business-to-business video sales simulations, and then finish the qualification process with a sales behavioral assessment. BBFB hiring managers have real-time access to the candidate qualification dashboard to quickly identify potential top performers and ensure consistency in the hiring process.
Since implementing the Candidate Evaluation System, BBFB has seen 10-30% productivity increases month after month reflecting the high quality of candidates that are being identified through the Candidate Evaluation System. Jay Devers stated, "Overall revenue dollars ebbs and flows. We look at this metric as a sign that we're replacing our churn with a more qualified candidate for this role. For example, in a time of heavy churn, it's possible for revenue to stay flat or even go down even though average revenue per headcount increases."
Employee Continuum's implementation process unified sales, marketing, HR and recruiting leaders. Consequently Best Buy and BBFB are seen as innovators in talent acquisition by industry experts. Late in 2007, Jay Devers accepted a Stevie Award in the Hiring and Recruitment Program of the Year category. Devers acknowledges Employee Continuum's Candidate Evaluation System was instrumental in winning the 2007 Stevie Award. "The recognition and internal buzz generated from the award has brought significant credibility to the BBFB sales organization." BBFB has since added the inside sales role to the evaluation system and expects to see the same increase in quality candidates and productivity..
