About This Inventory

The following pages provide you with information about how you and your manager view your sales strategies and behaviors. This information is intended to provide personal feedback and recommendations regarding skill areas and improvement opportunities related to your sales effectiveness. This inventory can be used periodically to get an updated skill profile and reconfirm your current strengths and opportunities for further development.

This inventory is the product of more than a decade of research on the factors that influence sales success. Our research reveals that highly successful sales representatives can be differentiated from those who are less successful based on what they do and how they use their product knowledge and customer information. In other words, sales success is largely a function of sales behavior. Of course, this does not mean that sales results are never influenced by factors beyond a salesperson's control. But, in thousands of sales interactions, we have found the best predictor of success to be the type of actions taken by the salesperson.

The feedback in this report will highlight your strengths and opportunities to improve in the following key categories of sales responsibility. Each of these categories, which include a collection of specific skills, has been proven effective in developing and maintaining consistently strong sales performance.

Ø Customer-focused communications including the specific ways you deal with customers during sales interactions.

Ø Product and industry knowledge encompassing what you know and how you use that knowledge in promotional efforts.

Ø Securing and managing customer relationships including your approach to prioritizing, planning, and tracking customer contacts and other key information.

In addition to an overall score, you will be given a breakdown of your use of specific skills in each category. This will provide you with detailed feedback that can be used as a basis for maintaining or improving your skills in each area. For each category, this inventory will provide you with the following information:

1. An Explanation - including a definition of the category, a discussion of why it is important, and a list of specific skills or guidelines that enhance effectiveness in that area.

2. A Category Breakdown - consisting of numerical scores on a 100-point scale indicating your use of the various skills making up the overall category. Higher scores on each scale indicate better performance. For each skill category and sub-category, you will see scores based on your view, your manager's view, and your customers' views (where applicable).

3. A Commentary - specific to each skill area including, where appropriate, a recommendation for self-improvement.

Inventory Summary - Explanation

This Inventory Summary section provides overall measures of your skill utilization in each of the three main sales development categories. Your overall score in each category is a composite index of your use of the various specific skills making up that category. Overall scores, like specific skill area scores, are based on a 100-point scale. However, because each skill area within a category is not necessarily of equal importance to sales development, the overall score is a weighted average of skill area scores. On the following page, commentaries specific to each sales development category are provided in the shaded sections directly below the overall category score.

Our research indicates that the skills making up the three sales development categories covered by this report contribute greatly to long-term sales performance and success. By focusing on the development and utilization of these skills, you can adopt a high-performance sales profile that has been proven effective time after time. The result will be measurable and lasting improvements in your ability to discover and satisfy customer needs. In turn, this will enhance your status as a trusted advisor and will enable you to provide distinctive levels of customer service. The following chart and the information provided in the remaining sections of this report will assist you in discovering your strengths and opportunities to improve performance toward these goals.

The average overall sales-development score in your industry is 59.

Your Inventory Chart

Inventory Summary - Scores and Commentaries

Overall Inventory Scores

Your View: 52 Manager's View: 61 Gap Alert: No

Your Overall Sales Development Inventory self-scores indicate you have some opportunities to improve in the important areas covered by this report. Your manager's observations suggest you have developed some strengths in the important areas covered by this report. Customer feedback is not available for this area.

Customer-focused Communication Skills

Your View: 54 Manager's View: 58 Gap Alert: No

Your Customer-focused Communication self-scores indicate you have some opportunities to improve in this area. Your manager's observations indicate you have some opportunities to improve your communication skills. Customer feedback is not available for this area.

Product and Industry Knowledge

Your View: 60 Manager's View: 63 Gap Alert: No

Your Product and Industry Knowledge self-scores indicate you employ many of the skills needed to be effective in this area. Your manager's observations suggest you have developed some strengths in the area of Product and Industry Knowledge.

Securing and Managing Customer Relationships

Your View: 45 Manager's View: 62 Gap Alert: Yes

our Securing and Managing Customer Relationships self-scores indicate you have some opportunities to improve in this area. Your manager's observations suggest you have developed some strengths in the area of securing and managing customer relationships..

On subsequent pages, specific skill breakdowns are provided for each of these three sales development categories. Please consult these pages to identify specific strengths as well as opportunities for further growth and development in each category. Also, take note of any large differences (greater than 15 points) between your scores and those of your manager. These differences are marked for each category with the sign "Gap Alert." Use any gaps as an opportunity to talk with your manager about developing a meaningful interpretation of the differences along with an appropriate plan of action.