Although in the West an audit of the sales department is almost a mandatory event for any company, many Russian entrepreneurs still underestimate its importance. And in vain. After all, if we turn to statistics, we can see that literally in ten years the level of competition has grown significantly, while the rate of profit, on the contrary, has decreased (from ~ 70-80% to 10-15%).
A competent audit of the sales department makes it possible to find out at the initial stages where the Achilles' heel of the company is located and what problems hinder the effective marketing of products. Simply put, it is a test that determines how efficiently a given structural subdivision and how it can be improved.
When to spend
This largely depends on the size of the company, as well as on the specifics of the market in which it operates. However, experts advise auditing marketing and sales at least once a year. Verification is necessary in such situations:
- sales growth at the enterprise is below planned indicators;
- the manager wants to increase profits by increasing sales;
- regular customers leave the company (or have reduced the volume of purchases);
- a competitor occupies a higher position and conquers markets that are not yet available to you;
- There is a staff turnover in the department.
If the audit is carried out correctly, the company will be able to achieve a significant increase in the level of sales and increase the efficiency of the employees of the department.
Key tasks
The first condition for organizing an audit is a clear goal setting. It is necessary to determine at what stage deals most often break down, what are the strengths and weak sides personnel, which clients are easiest/hardest to work with. Additionally, technologies that are used by employees when communicating with potential buyers are being studied. What is it for:
- identify errors, miscalculations of the sales system;
- understand what changes can be made to the existing system;
- identify the main directions for increasing sales;
- make the sales process transparent and understandable - both for employees and for management;
- analyze the ratio of costs and revenues.
The audit should be carried out by independent and disinterested employees. AT large companies there are special departments for this.
Important:
Any inspections at enterprises in the Russian Federation are carried out in accordance with federal law"On audit activity" dated December 30, 2008 No. 307.
What to evaluate
No, not only the number of purchases, as you might think. And not even the conversion rate. Take a look at how the process of creating and auditing a sales department is seen by Business Molodost, Russia's largest community of entrepreneurs.
As you can see, the performance of this unit is evaluated according to 25 criteria. At first glance, some seem insignificant, but practice shows that only an integrated approach can achieve maximum efficiency sales department.
There are two main stages of verification - external and internal audit. At the same time, both the work of the employees themselves and factors beyond their control are analyzed.
External audit
The first step is to study the market, its size and configuration, as well as the competitive environment in which the enterprise operates. It doesn't matter how professional salespeople work for you, if the consumer has the opportunity to buy something much better and cheaper. Do you agree? Then let's talk about what you need to pay attention to.
Market
When evaluating both existing and potential markets, it is necessary to determine their capacity and structure, answer the following questions:
- What is the product distribution model? Where and how do potential customers look for information, make purchases?
- What are the main consumer segments? What are their features? What segments are key (whom do you target)?
- What are the prospects for this market? Development trends? Is it growing or shrinking?
It is necessary to calculate the market share occupied by the company in this region or country. The share of voice indicator is also used for analysis - the percentage of marketing expenses in a certain territory in overall structure costs.
Key clients
Almost every company has them. Moreover, not always key customers are those that bring the greatest income. These can be buyers who open access to a new market segment, help create a certain reputation, etc.
When conducting an audit of the sales department, it is important to understand how effectively the company attracts and cooperates with this particular category of consumers.
For this it is necessary to divide target audience into several groups:
- Key clients. Those with whom it is most profitable to cooperate - they should be at the center of the enterprise's activity.
- Promising. Interested in working with you, and therefore are considered as the main object of commercial activity.
- Background. This category includes customers whose orders you can easily and cost-effectively, but they contact you irregularly, and the size of the deliveries is small.
- Other. These are the customers who will never become your key customers because their need for products does not meet the needs of your business.
During the audit, it is necessary to find out what criteria are used for segmentation, which of the current or potential buyers corresponds to the “portrait of an ideal client”. You should also calculate the level of profit from each category and understand what part of the needs of key customers on this moment satisfies the enterprise.
Competitors
Looking at any example of a sales department audit from leading consulting companies, you can see that they assign a significant role to competitive analysis. The reason is simple - it is the activities of other enterprises in the market, their number and activity that often determine the company's strategy.
What you need to know at this stage:
- main competing companies and market leaders;
- what they offer (goods, services, assortment);
- nature of competition (intense, weak, etc.);
- used marketing strategies and distribution channels for products.
All your competitors can be divided into 4 categories.
The first type is direct competitors who do the same and offer the same set of products and services.
The second type is more interesting - they are called "competitors for the budget." What does it mean? Let's say your potential client thinks what to eat for dinner within 700 rubles. And here he has options: order a pizza, go to a sushi bar, or take groceries from your store and cook something at home. In this case, several companies "compete" for the right to fully and best satisfy the same need.
The director asked, how are the sales this month?
Whole modern business is built on sales, in fact it is, we all buy something and at the same time sell something while working in companies as employees. It is the sales department that is the source of income for each individual company. As they say, no sales, no normal salary. That is why we conduct an expert audit of the sales department and each individual employee in particular.
It would be better if the director asked, how are the employees in the sales department?
Sales, as you know, depend on sales managers. Let's open a few secrets, the first is the internal ecology of the team itself. The coherence of the team and the relationship in it are of little or no interest to the head of the department. He comes in in the morning, does his job, gives instructions, holds meetings, five minutes, makes summary schedules for management, gushing with ideas and this is at best. All this is called important words - Sales Management.
The general director is a very busy person, everything is simple for him, sales have fallen, something needs to be done, for example, call the ROP or someone else on the "organization staff" to the carpet and sincerely discuss the situation with him. Very often, in the end, the sales department managers are to blame, the training manager comes up with new training formats, new regulations are introduced and the nuts are tightened.
- In order for profits to continue to grow, you need the right balance of sustainability, inside the sales department
..How is it?!
Expert audit of sales, or assessment with a fresh look
There is such a beginner effect, if you show your business to a person not from your field of activity, then he will be able to see hidden prospects in it. If you really want to increase sales and take the path of development, then we are ready to help you with all our might. No, we will not point fingers at the presentation, make a smart face and tell you how to strategize and plan budgets. We will take on where we are professionals, namely, the area where the lead is dear to the wallet (request), turns into margin.
In a nutshell, our steps are:
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It is important for us to evaluate professional competencies (sales technique) of your employees and understand how the sales team is organized as a whole. We use our proven methodology. |
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We will measure the effectiveness of working algorithms and regulations, scripts and other important settings, evaluate the work of the training department and the effectiveness of interaction between departments. We will find places where profits are lost, points of growth and many other factors of profitability. We will give recommendations on business diversification. Check out HR. |
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We measure the loyalty of each employee and departments as a whole. Simply put, we separate random people in the company from loyal friends. A strong team gives growth, even with bad business weather. |
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Based on the analysis obtained, a decision will be made for further action. This may be the restructuring of the unit, revision of the format of work, training and development of personnel. The next step is to measure the effectiveness of innovations. In any case, an individual approach is applied to the client. |
The sales department brings sales, managers work, the head leads. But there is a question that worries every owner: “Is the sales department working with maximum efficiency? Is he squeezing everything he can out of the market? Such a question does not arise only where the business has hit a gold mine and revenues significantly exceed expectations. In all other cases, we can confidently say that the sales department is losing your money.
Why can this be said with such certainty? Because according to the results of 500 audits we conducted, there were only 2 companies with well-built sales and it was not possible to increase turnover by 20% within one or two months without special financial costs. That is, in 99.6% of companies, following the results of the audit, sales can be increased by more than 20%. And in 30% it is possible to increase sales even in one week due to the simplest transformations.
So, if you are not the owner of a gold mine, then you should definitely be interested in auditing the sales department:
1. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the sales business process
At one car wash chemicals company, managers were skeptical of the idea of reviewing their performance, arguing that it was impossible to sell more. According to the results of the analysis, it turned out that the company's offer is indeed the best on the market, and low sales were associated with only two factors. Having to come to the office to get tested for alcohol (they had company cars and this requirement was just a tradition from the old days) and fill out applications only on office computers. By canceling the morning office visit and allowing the manager to make requests remotely, sales were increased by 30% in one week. This is the most striking example. But in general, there are many holes in the sales process where time and efficiency flow. By simply reducing a few time sinks, a similar result can be achieved.
2. Evaluation of sales technique
You can ask managers 100 questions about their knowledge of sales techniques and it is quite likely that they will even answer them, but this does not mean that knowledge will be used when working with clients. You can evaluate the effectiveness of the use of technology by observing their work or listening to the recordings of conversations.
Sometimes one phrase can increase sales TWICE:
In the company that developed posture correctors (expensive, but very effective), customers called and most often asked the question: “How much does it cost?”. Managers answered and most often the conversation ended - the client left to think and we did not have the opportunity to influence him. By changing the answer about the cost to the phrase “The price depends on the size, who do you charge for?” we got the opportunity to understand the client's problem in more detail and convey the value of our product.
3. Evaluation of sales tools
It is impossible to replace a sales manager with a tool, but it is necessary to help him with sales tools. We are talking about a list of questions to identify needs, speech modules for the presentation of a product or service, electronic presentation product or video that is sent before the meeting. By sending our clients a video of our experts' presentations and the process of working on a project, we were able to convey our expertise and reduce meeting rescheduling by 47%, as clients already wanted to get to know the experts they saw in person.
4. Assess Sales Automation
CRM is now in many companies, but based on our experience, they are extremely poorly maintained. Instructions are rare, and clear and easy-to-follow instructions are non-existent. And even if the instructions contain a description of the stages of the sales funnel, this does not always mean that managers really understand everything unambiguously. We conducted an experiment in a company in which CRM has been underway for 3 years. We asked 10 managers a question, what does the stage “Set CP” mean. Do not believe it, but we received 5 different answers, and none of them coincided with the opinion of the leader. This is of course a glaring case, but a clear understanding of the possibilities modern means allows you to bring to the result 30% more transactions in a few weeks.
5. Evaluation of the management and control system for managers
In a trading company, managers reported on how many cold calls they make per day, the figures were at the level of 50 calls per day per manager. When we automatically checked the number of real calls with conversations, it turned out to be an average of 14 per day. Firstly, the report took time and the managers considered it as they wanted. Secondly, the manager rarely used it, since he did not have an algorithm for analyzing the report and actions based on the results of the analysis. By introducing an automatic reporting system and regular work of the manager with analytics, we managed to increase the number of calls to 60 per day per manager and increase the number of clients by 8.5 times in three months.
6. Evaluation of the motivation system
In one company, the motivation system was the good old percentage of turnover. Managers rarely fulfilled the plan and sold mainly from incoming calls. By dividing motivation by channels and fixing daily actions in motivation, we managed to increase the marginality of the business by 2.3 times in 2 months. The salary fund for managers increased by 1.5 times. At the same time, those who did not want to achieve super results were eliminated. The motivation of the rest increased significantly.
7. Evaluation of the sales strategy
When a company has been on the market for a long time, the view is blurred and the company is aiming for a vector that is not entirely profitable for it, but which is required by several persistent customers. Determining the portrait of the target client, determining the company's Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and the effectiveness of sales channels allows you to choose the most effective way. This is most often done slowly, but in one of the companies, having carried out customer segmentation and refusing to work with one of the types of customers, the company's capacity was freed up by 25%.
Order a free audit of sales channels and find out where you are currently losing customers.
In such situations, it makes sense to conduct a qualitative audit:
- Slowed sales of goods for unknown reasons.
- Competing companies have gained strength and won over profitable markets.
- You want to make sales faster.
- Outflow of the client base.
An audit determines exactly when deals fail and what contributes to this. It also reveals whether employees are fulfilling their direct duties. As a result of the audit, it is possible:
- Identify weaknesses in the marketing system and eliminate them.
- Learn how to restore system performance.
- See the inside of the sales process.
- Check expenses.
- Check income.
The profitability of the department is measured in this way in terms of money.
Stages
There are the following stages of the audit of the sales department:
- The position of the audit is determined. It can be one or more, depending on what goals the leader sets. If it is approximately known where the white spots are, then the audit affects precisely this position. A general audit is also required.
- Data collection. At this stage, information is collected, documents and papers are reviewed, and they are carefully analyzed.
- Communication with company employees. Usually scheduled interviews with sales managers.
- Competitor data is collected.
- The last stage is the final analysis and identification of problem areas of the sales department.
As you can see, the company, its employees and competing companies are being checked. Determine whether the overall organizational structure the tasks assigned to her by the management. Competent also plays an important role in increasing profits. Therefore, the manager must know that there are methods to encourage employees: material and non-material. The former are based on financial incentives for the employee, i.e. These are bonuses and cash bonuses. And the intangible ones include oral thanks, certificates of honor, various cups and more. Intangible incentives will cost the company less, but they are no less effective if they are used correctly.
Competent staff motivation also plays an important role in increasing profits.
What is the use
Statistics clearly tell us that more than 95 percent of new companies close in the first years after opening. And the reason for this is the wrong and ill-conceived organization of the sales department. In any company engaged in trade, this department should be the key one. For the manager, control of the sales department should be the first thing on which the success of the entire organization and its future depends. Poor sales of goods is always a failure of the company, which leads to closure. This cannot be allowed.
The audit helps in this, which opens the eyes of the management to all the gaps. As a result, the need for closure disappears, the manager only needs to eliminate all the defects that interfere with the full development of his offspring. The audit method is best suited for an objective assessment of the actual situation. After it, it will become clear how to manage the sales department.
The purpose of checking the sale of products (works, services) is to determine the reliability of the reflection in accounting of the process of selling products (works, services).
Sources for verification are primary documents (invoices, waybills and others), accounting registers, financial statements(profit and loss statement, appendix to the balance sheet).
During the audit of the sale of products (works, services), it must be confirmed that:
· sales transactions are properly authorized;
on accounts accounting reflects all actually completed sales transactions;
· the sale is reflected in the relevant accounts in a timely manner, the amounts of the sale are correctly classified;
the valuation of sales transactions is correctly determined;
· the amounts of accounts receivable for the supply of products (works, services) are correctly reflected in the relevant accounts.
The correctness of the reflection of sales transactions is established during a random check of these transactions by reconciling the data reflected in the accounting registers of the enterprise with primary documents and vice versa. Such verification can be carried out at the preliminary stage of the audit. At the same time, its volume will be determined by the results of checking the effectiveness of the internal control system.
Sales transactions are properly authorized. It is necessary to check compliance with the company's policy regarding the provision of credit to customers, delivery procedures and pricing in daily operations. The audit is carried out by comparing the actual prices for various types products, terms of payment of transport costs or delivery specified in the invoices, with the data of the relevant documents approved by the management. Actual prices and delivery terms can be found on invoices or waybills. These indicators can be compared with the approved price lists, price lists, other documents that determine the procedure and conditions for implementation.
If sales prices or conditions for the sale of products are determined individually for each customer, then it is necessary to make sure that they have been properly authorized by an authorized employee of the enterprise (for example, the head of the sales department). In the event that sales are based on the performance of several large contracts, the amount and description of the goods actually delivered or services rendered must be related to the terms of these agreements.
Availability check required permits on sales transactions, as audit practice shows, is carried out regardless of the level of efficiency of the internal control system, however, the sample size for verification can be reduced if confirmation of the effectiveness of the internal control system was obtained.
Accounting accounts reflect all actually completed sales transactions. When conducting this test, you need to pay attention to the possibility of two types of errors:
data on actually completed transactions are not reflected in the accounting;
Fictitious transactions are reflected on the accounts.
Such errors can lead to underestimation or overestimation of the value of assets and sales amounts, respectively. Verification of the completeness and reliability of the reflection of sales amounts in the accounting accounts is part of the verification of the effectiveness of the internal control system.
When checking the reliability of the reflection of amounts from the sale of products, goods, one should selectively compare a number of entries in the sales registers with the data of primary documents (bills of lading, waybills, and so on), as well as with documents indicating the acceptance of shipped products (work performed, rendered services), to confirm that the goods were actually delivered, the work was performed, the services were rendered and the ownership of them was transferred from the contractor to the customer (buyer). In addition to this, it is also necessary to check the terms of delivery in order to accurately determine the moment of transfer of ownership.
If the fact of transfer of ownership cannot be confirmed directly from the available documentation, it is necessary to analyze the subsequent payments received from this customer (buyer) in repayment of receivables, and on the basis of this, make a conclusion about the reality of the transaction reflected on account 90 “Sales ".
Verification of the completeness of sales accounting can be effectively carried out by selectively reconciling the data of waybills (or documents replacing them) of the sales department with invoices and accounting data. When conducting this audit, the auditor must be sure that all waybills are collected and properly stored in the sales department. This can be done by analyzing the serial numbering of these documents.
The starting point for data validation is the sales ledger. Based on the data from this register, a selection of account numbers is made, which are then reconciled with waybills and purchase orders received from customers (buyers).
When checking the completeness of accounting, on the contrary, the starting point is the waybills. A selection of bills of lading is made, the data of which is verified with the data of invoices and the sales register.
Timeliness of the sale. Sales invoices must be issued and sales data recorded in a timely manner, that is, as the transaction (shipment) is completed, with reference to the relevant periods. This prevents the risk of accidental data gaps in accounting.
When checking the timeliness of sales accounting, as a rule, the dates indicated in the waybills are compared with the dates of the corresponding invoices, the dates of entries in the accounts of sales and receivables. Significant discrepancies in dates indicate potential problems in the timeliness of accounting for implementation.
Proper valuation of sales operations. An accurate calculation of the amount of sales affects the correct issuance of invoices for shipped goods, work performed, services rendered and the subsequent reflection of these data in accounting registers.
Checking the correctness of the sales estimate includes recalculating accounting data to identify possible mathematical errors. As a rule, the final amounts of invoices are calculated or verification of control documents prepared independently is carried out.
If the sales amount is in a foreign currency, you must also check the application of exchange rates. To do this, the auditor must verify the rate used by the economic entity with the rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which was officially in force at the time of the transaction, and also ensure that the data on the currency amount of the sale and its ruble equivalent are properly reflected in the accounting registers.
The sales amounts are correctly classified. In addition to complete and reliable accounting of data on sold products (work performed, services rendered), it is also important that these data are correctly classified in the Profit and Loss Statement.
In the course of checking the classification of operations, it is necessary, on the basis of primary documents, to determine the correctness of the correspondence of the accounts in the sales register and the correctness of the posting in the General Ledger.
The amounts of receivables for settlements for the supply of products (performance of work, provision of services) are correctly reflected. The completeness of the reflection of sales data in the register of settlements with buyers and customers is important, since it affects the ability of an economic entity to control the payment of outstanding receivables.
This task is typically performed as part of the validation of the classification of sales transactions, as described above. When checking the correctness of the reflection of the sales register data in the General Ledger accounts, it is also necessary to make sure that these data have been properly reflected in the receivables accounts.
In many cases, the posting of data in receivables accounts in the General Ledger is not based on sales ledger data, but on receivables ledger data, which includes not only information about invoices issued for the period, but also information about payments received. In this case, it is necessary to check that the amount of invoices indicated in the journal-orders for accounting for receivables corresponds to the amount of sales in the sales accounting register. In addition, you need to make sure that the data of the journal-orders for the accounts of accounting for settlements with buyers and customers is properly posted to the appropriate General Ledger accounts.
Analytical verification procedures involve comparing monthly sales data with:
data of other months and the entire sales cycle;
· monthly forecasts of sales volumes;
data for the corresponding period of previous years.
If the analysis is carried out at the preliminary stage of the audit, then an estimate of the total sales for the year can be prepared. At the end of the year, the estimated value of the sales volume will be compared with the actual amount.
At the stage of checking the reflection of the results from the sale of products (works, services), the auditor determines the correctness of the reflection of the profit from the sale on account 99 “Profits and losses”. To do this, the entries on the credit of account 99 "Profit and Loss" are compared with the debit of account 90 "Sales" and the correspondence of this indicator to the data of the Profit and Loss Statement.
Using the procedure of arithmetic calculations, the auditor on the General Ledger (synthetic accounting register) on account 90 checks the correctness of determining the indicators:
1. Proceeds from the sale of products (works, services) and the cost of sold products (works, services).
2. Selling costs.
3. Management expenses.
Here is an algorithm for checking the formation of profit from the sale of products, works, services.
Proceeds from the sale of products (works, services) \u003d The amount of turnover on the credit account 90 "Sales" - The amount of turnover on the debit of account 90 "Sales" for the reporting period in correspondence with the credit of account 68 "Calculations for taxes and fees" - The amount of turnover on the debit of account 99 "Profit and Loss" in correspondence with the credit of account 90 "Sales"
The cost of goods sold = The amount of turnover on the debit of account 90 "Sales" - The amount of turnover on the debit of account 90 "Sales" for the reporting period in correspondence with the credit of account 68 "Calculations for taxes and fees" - The amount of turnover on the debit of account 90 "Sales" in correspondence with account 44 “Sales expenses” - The amount of turnover on the debit of account 90 “Sales” in correspondence with account 26 “General business expenses”
Selling expenses \u003d The amount of turnover for the reporting period on the debit of account 90 in correspondence with account 44 “Sale expenses”
· Management expenses = The amount of turnover for the reporting period on the debit of account 90 in correspondence with account 26 “General business expenses” (used for those enterprises where account 26, according to the accounting policy, is written off to financial results).
