For Diagnosis
A tool to help assess how the organization is doing with respect to providing a conducive environment in which company sales people can flourish.
SALES ENVIRONMENT INVENTORY
The Sales Environment Inventory™ (SEI) is a tool designed to help organizations gather input from their sales force related to factors or issues in the external or internal sales environment that help or hinder performance. The report derived from this input is organized by issue and includes specific comments from sales people and managers. These comments are selected to reflect the general trends of the commentary obtained from participants in the sample. For each negative issue, suggested actions and will be presented for company consideration.
Things that Help
ISSUE: Company Image
Typical Comment: Our company has a great image among customers. They consider us as a dedicated company with valuable products and services. Sales people from other companies have a great interest and respect for us. (Comment from sales person)
ISSUE: Company Products
Typical Comment: Our products are very good. They are the best in our industry. We are the leaders for our quality. (Comment from manager)
ISSUE: Training/Development
Typical Comment: The training our company provides permits the sales force to be differentiated from our competitors. (Comment from a manager)
ISSUE: Support from Management
Typical Comment: We get the support from management necessary to achieve our objectives with success. (Comment from sales person)
ISSUE: Promotional Materials
Typical Comment: Customers expect excellent service. We cannot provide it without more promotional materials. If we can't provide good service, 20 reps from other companies will. (Comment from sales person)
Suggestion: Examine the current needs for promotional materials. Are new or additional materials required to achieve the company’s overall objectives?
Typical Comment: We get our promotional materials late and sometimes we don't get all of the materials we are expecting. (Comment from sales person)
Suggestion: Determine if the problem of delayed materials delivery is isolated or widespread. Try to make adjustments to facilitate the delivery process.
ISSUE: Training/Development
Typical comment: We do not have a developmental program to help identify and prepare people who have the potential to occupy other positions in the company. Maybe some kind of rotation system would help to identify and develop people. (Comment from sales person)
Suggestion: Examine the current career development program in the company. Does it provide opportunities for talented employees to move up in the organization? Are the criteria for advancement clearly specified? Do employees know about the current program?
Typical comment: There needs to be some kind of follow-up for the programs administered to managers. (Comment from manager)
Suggestion: Establish a training follow-up system for managers and sales people that is implemented routinely after training occurs. Get Second Line Managers involved in the follow up for First Line Manager training.
All respondent data is gathered and processed by our company. Respondent confidentiality is maintained throughout the process as well as in the final report.
Data can be gathered from a sample of sales people and managers or from the entire sales force, depending on size and timing considerations.
An open-ended interview methodology can be employed or a
survey form can be developed. Survey forms can be web-enabled or
distributed and collected via regular mail or email. Surveys can be
customized to include client-specific information.
PANTHEON PARTNERS INTERNATIONAL
