Having the right person in the right job at the right time is "as good as gold". As baby boomers leave the workforce, statistics point to a labor shortage. The media loves to hype this less than appealing fact and every employee resignation sends chills down your spine as you worry about replacing them. Replacing good sales professionals can often require a virtual miracle.

One of our earliest clients has just experienced the loss of a valuable leader in her organization. The culture in this organization is so unique that outside hires have not always been successful. So, my client, a very forwarding thinking President made a daring decision to restructure her teams into "self directed" teams to see "what leaders may bubble to the top"? While this experiment is likely to succeed in this organization due to their culture of continuous learning, it is not a strategy I would recommend for most companies, especially in the sales arena.

The solution to the labor shortage should be a proactive strategy that identifies existing talent and creates individual development plans to groom employees for future roles. Talent, skill and aptitude assessments are increasingly more sophisticated and have become critical tools for management in uncovering your leaders of the future.

Sales teams are effectively using such assessments to fill in skills gaps with new hires or to train current reps who can assume higher level sales responsibilities. Companies in transition from service to sales cultures or from transaction selling to consultative selling are increasingly turning to assessment tools to identify in-house talent before jumping to outside recruitment.

You can very effectively use assessments to:

• develop a "sales competency model" based on the results from your top producers
• build a team with the right mix of skills
• plan for succession to crucial positions
• target training with real precision

Good interviewing skills and gut reactions are not good enough to build highly effective teams inside or outside of sales. Whether your challenge is replacing an employee, restructuring a department or attracting new talent, well researched, designed and validated talent assessments are valuable tools in the fight against a shrinking workforce. An effective assessment strategy can deliver the talented employees that are as "good as gold"!