The Gap Assessment is Archetype’s sales team assessment: we evaluate a team of 3 to 10 people against the skills your strategy needs. Your KPIs tell you what was sold. They do not tell you why a salesperson is falling behind, or whether the team will be able to sell differently in three years. We assess each person individually, in their working language (English, French or Dutch), then consolidate the results in a collective report built on your KPIs. You come away with a decision: who to train, on what, who to reposition and which profiles to recruit.
What sales figures do not show
Revenue, margin and conversion rate measure an outcome. They do not separate the salesperson who succeeds thanks to their market from the one who succeeds thanks to their method. They do not tell you whether your managers will be able to support a change of model, or who in the team could become your next Sales Director.
These questions come up before the decisions that commit the company: a commercial transformation, a reorganisation, a large training budget, the merger of two teams. That is when an external skills gap analysis is worth the most.
When to run a Gap Assessment
- Before a commercial transformation: moving from product selling to solution selling, moving upmarket, opening new markets.
- After a merger or acquisition, when two teams overlap and the new organisation has to be built.
- Before investing in training, to target the real gaps instead of training everyone in everything.
- Before recruiting, to know which roles are missing and with which profile.
- Before a restructuring, to base decisions on facts and limit bias.
Our method in seven steps
- 1 Client briefing
The role, the people to be assessed, an introductory phone call with each of them. - 2 Strategic briefing
With senior management: the target KPIs and the gap to close. - 3 Individual assessment
Interview, role-plays, competencies, KOAN. In EN, FR or NL, across several countries if needed. - 4 Individual reports
One report per employee, compared with the target profile. - 5 Collective report
The team’s strengths and gaps, consolidated against your KPIs. - 6 Strategic debrief
Spoken, with recommendations you can act on. - 7 Next steps
A training programme or targeted hires.
The strategic briefing sets the target
What is the target in two or three years? Which skills are needed to reach it? Which KPIs should you track? If the competency framework is wrong, the whole assessment is wrong too. This is the moment when we discuss your framework, and challenge it when we need to.
Each salesperson is assessed in their own language
On the Belgian market, a Flemish Account Manager looks after Walloon clients, and a Brussels-based Sales Director reports to a Dutch-speaking head office. We assess each person in their working language, so that half of the context is not lost.
The collective report is built for decisions
The individual reports describe each person’s competencies, drivers and behavioural dynamics. The collective report shows the team’s strengths, recurring gaps, risk areas and priority levers. Depending on your organisation, it can be broken down by region, customer segment or hierarchical level.
What about your distributors?
In many industrial and distribution companies, sales depend as much on distributors as on the internal sales team. We can assess both. Training your salespeople in a pitch your network will never use makes no sense.
What KOAN adds to the assessment of a salesperson
We have used KOAN for 30 years. For a sales profile it covers ten competencies:
| KOAN competency | What it describes |
|---|---|
| Customer Orientation | Focus on the client |
| Results-Orientated Approach | Focus on results |
| Commitment to Organization | Commitment to the company |
| Influencing Strategies | How the person persuades |
| Communicating and Networking | Communication and network |
| Perseverance | Persistence |
| Responsiveness | Speed of reaction |
| Positive Attitude | Outlook |
| Methods | Organisation and method |
| Example to Others | Setting the standard |
The test never decides alone. We read it alongside the interview and the role-plays: this cross-reading shows what drives a salesperson, what holds them back and how they react when the pressure rises.
From Gap Assessment to transformation programme
The report is a starting point. In most cases it launches a programme that combines:
- sales training targeted at the gaps, in the order board, then top management, then sales teams;
- hires for the skills that training will not create, handled by our recruitment team;
- follow-up to measure progress and adjust the programme.
We train in order, not in pieces. The board first, because without alignment at the top, no middle manager will carry the change. The top management next, because the people who will carry the message need to be equipped. The commercial teams last, not by default, but because by then, they’ll find a coherent organisation behind them. It’s slow, it’s demanding, and it’s the only way we know to transform a commercial team durably.
On a transformation project covering 40 people, sales staff and distribution network included, we defined with the board the skills the sales team would need in future, assessed all 40 people to get a picture of their skills against a five-year horizon, built the sales and management training programmes on those results, then recruited key profiles such as a Sales Director.
Nine sectors, one standard
We assess sales teams in automotive, transport and logistics, construction, tech, industry, beauty, medical, non-profit and distribution. A Sales Engineer in construction does not succeed for the same reasons as a Sales Engineer in tech. We know this because we also recruit and train these profiles. See our industries page.
Price
Each person is assessed in one of our three formats: Small (1 hour), Medium (2 hours) or Large (3 hours), between €1,500 and €3,000 per format. The quote for a Gap Assessment depends on the number of people, the format chosen for each and the languages. We set it after the briefing.
To assess a single manager, see our managerial skills assessment. All our formats are on the assessment centre page.
About Archetype
Archetype is a Belgian family business founded in 1993 by Marc Diamant and now co-managed with Davy Diamant and Steve Diamant. A member of Federgon, it won Talent Business Innovation of the Year 2025 for its ethical and structured use of AI.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Gap Assessment?
It is the assessment of a team of 3 to 10 people against target competencies defined with senior management. It produces one report per person and a collective report built on your KPIs.
How do you assess a sales team’s performance beyond the figures?
By observing what produces the result: sales method, attitude with clients, drivers and reaction under pressure. We combine an in-depth interview, role-plays, a competency analysis and the KOAN test.
Can you assess a team that works in several languages?
Yes. Each person is assessed in English, French or Dutch, and across several countries if needed.
How much does a sales team assessment cost?
Each person is assessed in a 1, 2 or 3-hour format, priced between €1,500 and €3,000. The total depends on the size of the team, the formats chosen and the languages, and is set after the briefing.
What happens after the Gap Assessment?
The debrief leads to recommendations: a targeted training programme, hires, repositioning. You can entrust them to Archetype or carry them out yourself.
Preparing a commercial transformation?
Let’s start with a briefing on your target and your team.
Contact us +32 475 24 71 61