How To Evaluate Your Business

Page 1

Does a salesman know how to evaluste your business? Many of us have been at the receiving end of a salesman's questioning, however, there are normally far more questions that need to be asked that most inexperienced salespeople forget or are not aware of. Over the next few pages are questions you must ask yourself to manoeuvre your business in to a position of power.

Primary Questions

What exactly does your company do?
How competitive are you in your market & where do you want to be in say 12 months?
What are your needs right now as a business; what is your biggest problem?
Do you have any other offices or home workers?
What specifically will help you to reach your objectives?

Marketing

What is your target market? Have you got a clear profile of your prospective customers?
Why do you think this market audience is best?
Does your company do a lot of business in that area?
Why do you think that is? Marketing, Advertising, Sales Penetration?
What trends do you see in your business?
Where do see this moving towards in X amount of time?
How would you measure productivity?
Could you give an example of more productivity?
How are your summer sales, say in August?
What does your product/service really do for your customer?
What could annoy your customer about your product/service?
How does your product/service affect your customers?
Is quality control a major concern?
How many people are involved in the sales process?
How long does it take to train these people?
What type of training are they given?
How many staff do you have in the company?
What kind of employee turnover do you have?
Are you planning to add staff or lay them off?
Do you think that employee turnover is high for this department(s)?
What does it cost to train them then lose them?
What role do you think employee satisfaction plays in overall productivity?
Do you have many returns?
Is this quality control, customer error or staff error?
How do you handle and quantify personnel issues?
What are your customers’ key concerns after they have purchased from you?
How can the customer get into trouble after they have purchased from you?{/reg}

Page 2

Your Company’s Position

Do you feel that customer satisfaction increases profits?
What’s your company’s position in the market right now?
Have you defined your niche in the market? Or % of the total market?
Who are your main competitors?
What is your competition doing?
How competitive does your company want to be?
Have you ever watched a company fail? Do you think it was because of poor management?
Are you trying to grow your business?

Your Company’s Objective

What are your needs right now? What is your biggest problem?
What do you really want to accomplish?
What can be done to specifically to help you reach your objective?
What one thing would you like not to have to bother with again?
If the world were perfect, what would you want technology to do for you?
What changes would you want to see?
What do you hope will happen this time?
What’s the next thing you'd do if you could?
What is the worst thing you think may happen?
What problems do you absolutely want to avoid?
So improving, that is your main concern right now?
What do you think will happen next?
Why is that important to you?
Can you explain in more detail about the above?
Is this a decision that you are going to make now or later? If so, when? What would you suggest?
What do you think is a better way?

Page 3

Your Finances

What is more important right now, gross revenue or net profitability?
Is it important to save money on annual maintenance?
What is your company turnover?
You say your budget is limited, how limited do you mean?
Who has the money; is the project funded i.e. has a budget been allocated for this financial year?
When is the money going to be made available?
When will you need this information?

Your Suppliers

Are you satisfied with your present service from your supplier?
What criteria will you use to decide on a new supplier?
What would motivate you to change suppliers?
What kind of service do you expect?

Page 4

Your Phone System

What is the make of telephone system and how long has it been installed?
How many lines/extensions do you have? How do you know if that is adequate?
Will you use this equipment at this office or do you intend for it to be used elsewhere?
Do you have other offices in the UK or globally?How do you connect to those offices?
Do you have a special application or is it for general use?
What are your plans for using this new system?
What would represent success to you in terms of implementation of systems, equipment?
Is downtime a problem for you (telephone system or network); how would you handle it?
What do you like the least about your current telephone system; and the most?
What do you feel is the biggest problem with the current system?
What do you intend to accomplish with the new system?
What results do you expect by installing a new system?
What do you think this is going to do for your company?
What is your time frame for setting up and completing the implementation?
What do you think you need to get the job done to your satisfaction?
When you went through this process last time, how did it affect your business?
Was it difficult to get the process moving last time; this time?
What role will "higher ups" have in deciding how many are involved in the decision?
Who will make the final decision?
Who else are you speaking to regarding new systems?

Action

These questions are designed to help you and your staff identify your present status and how technology can be implemented to start improving your return on investment.If there is anything you feel we haven't covered that you would like to discuss more fully please contact us on 0800 970 9751 or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry