Graduate Assessment Days: Are They Still the Best Way to Hire Sales Talent?
For decades, the graduate assessment day has been a staple of sales recruitment. When surveyed, 64% of employers said they used assessment centres as part of their graduate hiring process. Bring in a group of candidates, run them through a series of exercises, and see who performs best under pressure. It’s been a default for graduate schemes and sales hiring teams alike.
But times have changed. If you’re still relying on traditional assessment centres to find and hire sales talent, it might be time to rethink your approach. Sales roles have evolved, so why hasn’t how we hire for them?
At This is Prime, we’ve moved away from old-school assessment centres and replaced them with something far more powerful: sales training days. They’re not just better for candidates, they’re more effective for employers, too.
What are Graduate Assessment Days?
Assessment days are designed to evaluate multiple candidates at once. They use activities like group work, presentations, and interviews to assess a range of skills that are desirable to sales leaders. These can include teamwork, communication, and problem-solving.
They’ve long been a popular way to hire graduate salespeople because they appear to give a well-rounded view of each candidate in a short space of time. When you have people who don’t have relevant experience yet in your process, this seems like the best way to evaluate them. But, when you break them down, the flaws become clear.
The Limitations of Sales Assessment Days
While assessment centres may appear efficient, they often create more problems than they solve. In a world where sales roles require adaptability, empathy, and resilience, traditional methods can leave the best talent overlooked.
They reward confidence, not potential
Assessment days can be a very high-pressure environment. So, if you have a particularly gregarious candidate, they may dominate the session. But in sales (particularly tech sales and SaaS sales), long-term success isn’t just about confidence. It’s about coachability, resilience and emotional intelligence. Traditional assessment days can overlook these qualities and favour the most outgoing.
They create artificial behaviour
When people know they’re being judged, they’re more likely to perform rather than be themselves. This can make it harder to spot genuine interpersonal skills or identify candidates that will excel with training & support.
Training days make candidates feel less like they’re being observed and more like they’re there to learn. When people are learning, they’re less likely to have their guard up.
Candidates come away empty-handed
Job-hunting – especially for your first corporate role – is a difficult time. Applying with so many companies and hearing nothing back can make candidates less likely to engage. But, if they know they’ll learn some new skills, be in front of prospective employers and have award-winning training on their CV, their time feels respected from the beginning of the process.
Businesses can’t afford to ignore how their recruitment process makes people feel anymore. If graduates feel unsupported or misled, that feedback doesn’t stay private. So, make sure their great experience starts before they sign the contract.
Why Training Days Are a Better Way to Hire Sales Talent
At Prime, we do things a little differently. Before being sent out to interview, every shortlisted candidate receives a place on one of our award-winning sales training days. These aren’t just about testing candidates, they’re about teaching them.
They also give clients a better understanding of the talent pool on offer. When you work with Prime, you have the chance to sit in on training days and get first pick of the attendees. If you’re looking to hire a group of new salespeople, we even offer exclusive sessions where every candidate is chosen to meet your specific needs.
Here’s how they work:
- Candidates go through our two-step vetting process with one of our consultants. We get to understand what motivates them into a sales career as well as their achievements and communication skills.
- Once on the session, every candidate has their own time to introduce themselves, break the ice with a personal anecdote and eventually pitch why they would be a great fit for sales and their reasons for choosing the industry.
- We give a session of our award-winning sales training, covering topics like communication styles and effective questioning.
- Attendees also take part in group activities in breakout rooms to test their teamwork and communication skills.
The Commercial Benefits of Training Days for Employers
Switching from graduate assessment days to sales training days isn’t just beneficial for candidates attending, they deliver real, measurable results for you as an employer.
Better retention
When graduates understand the role and what would be expected of them in a sales career, they’re more likely to stick around. Our training days give a baseline of sales knowledge as well as testing for a great culture fit. That’s why Prime placements have a 90% retention rate, even after over a decade in the industry.
Faster ramp-up times
Because candidates already start learning before they even sit down for their interview, they join your team with a head start. But, if you’re looking to optimise your SDR experience through onboarding and beyond, our Prime Sales Academy is there to help.
Higher-quality hires
Our Training Day format helps us identify coachable, high-potential individuals who may not stand out in traditional assessments – but who go on to become top performers with the right support.
What Our Candidates Say
We’ve worked with countless sales leaders and hiring teams to replace outdated graduate recruitment models with a more human – and more effective – approach.
“Prime’s Training days make the process stand out, with a good standard of candidates and a good educational segment as part of the Training Day. Candidates all seem to take something away from the Training Days and they come out of them with better sales skills than when they entered.” – Leading Financial News Organisation
“The training days provide a much more accurate insight into how candidates will perform in their roles compared to traditional interview methods. Additionally, they save valuable time for our management team, as Prime has already handled much of the groundwork.
The personality types training was particularly insightful. The pitch presentations were also a standout, as they allowed candidates to take ownership of their opportunity to impress us.” – Specialist Funding Consultancy Firm
Rethink How You Hire Sales Talent in 2025
Graduate hiring doesn’t have to be a gamble. When you replace outdated processes with a development-first approach, you don’t just hire better people. You build a stronger sales team from the ground up.
At Prime, we have partnered with businesses across the UK to help them identify, attract, and retain over 13,000 people through our award-winning Training Days.
If you’re ready to build a team that performs and sticks around – let’s talk.
Contact us through our website (www.thisisprime.co.uk) or drop us an email at hello@thisisprime.co.uk to find out more.
