The fast fitness gym for your business

Welcome to the Selling For Business combination Self-Assessment Questionnaire and Action Point Guide. It will only take a few minutes of your time to complete. You don't have to send your results to us, but we would appreciate it if you do (as we explain below).

Who is it for?

Anybody involved in sales - although the Questionnaire has been designed primarily for key players in small to medium sized organisations who are responsible for selling their company's products, services or solutions and growing the business.

What does it cover?

The Questionnaire isn't exhaustive and doesn't include everything you'll ever need to know about good sales and marketing communication skills; it is designed purely to address the most commonly faced sales and marketing dilemmas.

How does it work?

You probably already know what you're good at and which activities in the sales process pose a bit of a problem to you. So take a couple of moments to go through the Questionnaire and select the response that most accurately reflects your reaction to each statement.

At the end, press Calculate results.

What happens then?

The first thing you'll see, in a new window, is your overall score out of a possible total, followed by the total number of a), b), c) and d)s selected. These are shown purely for your benefit - you're not competing with anyone here.

Next comes an individual assessment based on each of the answers you selected. This is where the troubleshooting element comes in. Where you have identified problem areas you will find one or more possible causes put forward for them. You just need to honestly appraise which cause (or mixture of causes) is likely to be the culprit in your situation.

Print out and keep your assessment to help you decide which areas you want to prioritise and tackle first. Then go to the Pointer(s) and/or Tip(s) on this web site for help in your situation.

You can also share your results with us if you'd like, by simply giving us your name and email address in the spaces provided and pressing Submit results. That way you'd help us build an ever more precise picture of the most pressing sales issues faced by business people today.

If you have a particular sales or sales-related problem that you believe could well apply to others but isn't covered in the Questionnaire, why not email it to us. We'll see if we can point you in the right direction and, if it crops up again, we'll add it to the questionnaire and craft and post additional articles designed to help you even more.

Let us know if you'd like to stay in touch and we promise we won't bombard you with emails!

You can decide all that in a minute but for now just have a go at completing the Questionnaire

QUESTIONNAIRE

I/we've just about exhausted our existing contacts for new business and need ideas on how to expand our prospecting activities

a) Yes, that's me/us

b) We could get to that stage soon

c) We have some prospecting activities under way

d) No, we know exactly who are our best prospects are and are already in contact with them

I/we generate lots of new business meetings but the conversion to sales ratio is extremely low

a) That applies to me/us

b) It varies

c) It's not extremely low but it could be higher

d) No, we have an excellent conversion rate of 1 in 3

I/we spend a lot of time prospecting, seem to get close to getting the business, but too often lose out to the competition

a) Yes, that often happens

b) We win about half of the time

c) That doesn't often happen, we win most of the time

d) No, that never happens

I/we've tried telemarketing and it just doesn't work for us

a) That's true

b) It wasn't particularly cost effective

c) It gets mixed results

d) It works brilliantly for us

I/we've tried cold calling on the 'phone but find it difficult to get past switchboards, secretaries and voice mail

a) That's true

b) Sometimes

c) It varies depending on the size/type of company

d) I/we don't have any difficulties

The day-to-day demands of the business make it really difficult to find the time to prospect for new business

a) Too true

b) Often

c) Only occasionally, it's quite a high priority for us

d) No way, it's essential for us

I hate the idea of telephone selling, and am useless at it, even if it's just to get a new business meeting

a) Absolutely

b) I'm not brilliant, don't like doing it but I guess it has to be done

c) No, I'm quite good at it, actually

d) No way, it's essential for us

I seem to get a lot of objections on my sales calls

a) Definitely

b) Sometimes

c) Only with certain people

d) No, I get very few and can usually handle them

I'm really not very good at closing the sale

a) That's true

b) I'm not bad but not brilliant

c) I'm reasonably good

d) I never miss a chance and usually succeed

Our sales material (website, advertisements, letters, etc.) is non-existent/boring/ineffective/"over the top"

a) That's true

b) It's factual but doesn't really sell

c) It's reasonable

d) It's excellent

I've been to countless new business meetings but still get very nervous each time

a) That's true

b) Sometimes

c) It varies depending on who I'm seeing

d) Not at all, I relish new business meetings

I'm not a natural showman/woman and I hate giving formal presentations

a) Absolutely

b) I get by but I'm not brilliant

c) I quite enjoy it and am reasonably good

d) I'm excellent and love it

Sometimes the first indication we get that a customer is not happy is when they've already decided they're going to a competitor

a) That's true

b) It happens from time to time

c) Very rarely

d) That's never happened to us

I/we always seem to be negotiating on price

a) All the time

b) Not always, but often

c) Occasionally

d) Never

We operate in a very competitive arena and the only thing that differentiates us from other suppliers is our commitment to service/creativity/technical back up and expertise (this could in fact be anything that a company or individual would only experience the benefit of once they have become your customer)

a) That totally describes our situation

b) That's largely true

c) That's partly true

d) That's not at all true

You can calculate and display your results now. If you would also like to send the results to us, Please complete the fields below before pressing Submit results.





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