Business
awareness

For almost two decades as Consultants and Business Experts co-creating Business Awareness Institute BAI we promote adressing the issue of the impact of low business awareness level among sales, marketing, trade marketing and other department employees by the Management boards of companies.

Increasing demands of the market and trade partners from suppliers present sales department employees with business challenges they often cannot fulfill on their current level of business awareness.

Business awareness ability is still in great deficit, what creates a key growth and competition surpressing obstacle on tougher and tougher market. Business awareness level of different departments’ employees, particularly sales department employees needed to implement positional KPI in the past is currently insufficient given the challenges and hardships of managing a company on the market nowadays.

FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ARE STILL VALID:

  • Are your employees aware of changes occuring on the market?
  • Do they understand in-company interactions which improve or decrease the efficiency of its actions?
  • Are the tools used in your organisation up to date with the needs of your customers?
  • Are your employees using all possibilities given to them by available research, analysis and tools for realisation of their business objectives?

Low business awareness level among sales department employees is still the key limitation of business growth and successful competition on the market.

What is
Business
awareness?

Business awareness is a set of so-called „hard” skills which determine the quality and effects of our actions in the area of broadly defined business decision-making. Thanks to conscious use of all business awareness areas in everyday work we gain the ability to function in organisations with highest effects, what translates into professional development and self-esteem for the sales organisation in which an employee works.

Description of business awareness for the sales department:
„Business awareness is the ability to use effective sales actions and personal influence of the employee on its development. It is the knowledge of trends in own organisation and its market enviroment. This competence also manifests itself in understanding issues related to the state of competition, customer relations, knowledge and ability to use marketing and trade marketing in sales and efficient manoeuvring in trade mathematics.”

The concept of business awareness sub-abilities

Business awareness as a main competency for sales department employees can be divided into three key areas known as business awareness sub-abilities.

  • Sales awareness sub-ability, which deals with understanding market mechanisms, sales organisation enviroment and internal & external conditions.
  • Marketing/trade marketing awareness sub-ability, which deals with understanding customer behaviour, product positioning and mechanisms deciding on customers choice of a particular product
  • Financial awareness sub-ability, which deals with understanding the aspects of trade mathematics, sales regional functioning costs vs revenue generated by its sales activity.

      • Business awareness is characterized by an extremely important feature: it can be developed, approaches like for example: introduction of business awareness culture among sales department employees can have influence on achieving better economic results in a given company in the long run.

      It is worth noting that having employees with highest possible levels of business awareness lies in each companies best interest. High level of business awareness is the best guarantee of effective functioning of an organisation, different departments what results in improved possibilities of achieving pursued business goals in a given company

„Business awareness is the ability to use effective sales actions and personal influence of the employee on its development. It is the knowledge of trends in own organisation and its market enviroment. This competence also manifests itself in understanding issues related to the state of competition, customer relations, knowledge and ability to use marketing and trade marketing in sales and efficient manoeuvring in trade mathematics”

SALES AWARENESS

deals with understanding market mechanisms, functioning of sales departments in organisations and internal and external conditions.

MARKETING AWARENESS

deals with understanding customer behaviour, product placement and mechanisms deciding about the choice of a particular product by consumers.

FINANCIAL AWARENESS

deals with understanding of trade mathematics aspects, costs bound up with the functioning of a sales or customer region vs. income generated by his sales activity.

Methodology

Advisory-development projects carried out by Business Awareness Institute BAI in the areas of: defining, diagnosing and developing business awareness for more than 20 years clearly show that deficits of knowledge and practical skills in three sub-abilities of business awareness touch employees of many departments, particularly including sales department employees.

Methodology of Business Awareness Institute BAI advisory-consulting work in the areas of: definition, diagnosis and development of business awareness level is always based on original three stage consulting model.

We use following tools in definition activities:

  • Defining the undersanding of business awareness as a competency with the Management board of a given company
  • Defining the sub-abilities that make up business awareness
  • Defining the key KPI of each business awareness sub-ability
  • Creation of measurement tools (diagnostic tests) researching current business awareness level in a company which are fully suited to a given market sector and trade of a given company

We use following tools in diagnosis activities:

  • Diagnosis of current level of business awareness (original diagnostic tools)
  • Business awareness focus group meetings
  • Organisational business awareness audit
  • Business awareness assessment centre
  • Business awareness structured interviews
  • Business awareness unanimity workshops

We provide our customers with following reportsand recommendations as part of counsulting activities:

  • Individual statistic report based on conducted business awareness level diagnosis
  • Full individual report with a comparision of personal scores vs. market benchmarks
  • Full presentation for customer, showing current level of business awareness among diagnosed employees, including: positional benchmark, comparision to the market, deficit analysis on the levels od knowledge and skills in the area of three business awareness sub-abilities: sales, finance, marketing
  • Approach change recommendation concerning business awareness level development adequate to the specificity of each company
  • Indication of customer organisation resources on the grounds of which business awareness development process should be built
  • Consulting of the shape of assisting organisations at the stage of business awareness development
  • Development recommendations based on the outcome of conducted business awareness level diagnosis
  • Practical workshops directed at knowledge and practical skills level development in the area of defined deficits in respective business awareness activities
  • Business awareness coaching in dedicated employee workplace
  • Cascade coaching in organisations
  • Implementing the business awareness level development culture in a given company
Our
Projects

In last fourteen years we have realised many projects for leaders of different sectors of the market/trades which were related to defining what business awareness is/should be/, diagnosis and development/ in competency among employees of different departments with a highlight on sales department employees. Each company that decided to conduct a diagnosis and educational process for its employees in the business awareness ability area has noted an improvement of business effectivity, achievement of planned sales goals, implementation of occupational KPI. We present below the companies that have given us consent to and have had business awareness definition, diagnosis or development projects conducted in them in recent years.

What They sayabou us?

Piotr Kokociński
General Manager Prima Poland

„As the popular saying goes, „if you do not know where are you going, you will never get there” It is only a half-truth, because the first and most basic rule of navigation says that first you have to determine your own position! Only when you know exactly where you are at the moment you can set the correct course for a stated goal. For me diagnosis of business awareness acts as a determination of where we stand at the moment. Only when we are aware of our strengths and weaknesses we can prepare the sales department to achieve goals we state properly. It would not be possible without market examination of the level of key skills of our team, thanks to the forementioned diagnosis."

Andrzej Charmuszko
Sales Director Strauss Cafe Poland

„Working with a team of employees with high business awareness levels what „yesterday” was only a dream of managers „today” is a necessity. The highest deficit of todays business professionals is the lack of time. Speed, number and rank of everydays' business decisions causes that internal communication must be limited to the essential minimum. Accurate and quick decisions which will be executed by the market are mostly made by a team, not by the superiors, so developing business awareness should involve groups of employees, not just management”

Mirosław Izdebski
Sales Director Moet Hennessy Polska

„While searching the market for an advisory-development services offer that would suit our needs best we became inspired by numerous references from many fmcg companies operating on polish market about research and development of the level of business awareness among sales department employees conducted by Wojciech Sikora for many years. Business awareness is an essential ability for our company. Nowadays, on a highly competitive market only the companies that have employees with high business awareness levels besides having a proper sales and marketing strategies are able to succeed. Conducted diagnosis and development actions have definitely helped to increase the level of business awareness of our employees.”

Piotr Gutowski
Sales Director Coty Polska

„Every company lives off and develops by selling their products and services. This strategic action decides if given business is profitable or not, therefore companies cannot allow themselves to leave their potential unspent. Companies often, in good faith and using their employees potential, build processes and procedures during their development that may become an obstacle, not an aid for their growth. It is an absolutely natural process, which oftentimes results from lack of objectivity, realisation of departmental interests and lack of looking at what we create from a distance. External audit lead by a team of experienced business experts from outside the organisation is a remedy for such a situation. External audit helps to analyse selling and sale-supporting processes, that are essential for every company, objectively, impersonally, without attachment to specific categories, actions and internal affairs of given departments.Only that kind of review guarantees finding points that slow down the companies growth or ones that may give it a chance to develop. Coty company, inspired by an outside look at forementioned issue, has realised an advisory-development project which main goals were an overview of sales department assistance processes and diagnosis of current business awareness level among employees of all departments. Effects of the work of Advisors and Business Experts have increased our knowledge of unexploited business potential of Coty company, but they also have contributed towards planning and implementing a process of systematic development aimed at increasing the level of business awareness among all employees of our company.”