Time for an Evaluation?

by
Jay Leisner
President, Sylvina Consulting

To the faint of heart, the words bring dread … “Evaluation” and “Physical Exam.”

• When you’re an employee, your supervisor or manager evaluates your behavior, tells you what you’re doing right and wrong, and recommends a pay raise (or not!).

• Whether we’re healthy or sick, doctors recommend that we come in every so often for a physical, a thorough examination replete with tests. We’re asked questions about our health and we have the opportunity to share our aches and pains with a healthcare professional.

Have you considered an Evaluation for your business? If you haven’t, perhaps you should consider one now.

When you obtain the outside council of experts to review your business, from a Business Evaluation you receive you will come to view your business in a new light. In response, you may fine tune your business model or change the business in strategic ways to achieve specific objectives.

Every business is launched from a position of knowledge. Businesses are a byproduct of the knowledge and experience of management teams and owners.

As they grow, however, businesses change in response to environmental factors.

For example, your policies and procedures may change due to experiences you’ve had that you don’t want to repeat. Your compensation plan may need to be changed to address a need to compensate sales representatives in a new way.

Your software or software vendor may be slowing you down or getting in your way as you travel on the road to success. Software may need to be changed or replaced.

Businesses Need The Data To Improve, Grow.

Just as employees need feedback to improve their productivity and quality of work, for maximum growth, businesses need performance evaluation data as well.

For direct selling companies to be healthy, the individual businesses of their independent sales representatives must be in good health as well. A properly conducted performance evaluation for your business will provide you with concrete suggestions to improve the health of both businesses.

A Business Evaluation should begin with a request for key statistical information and a review of your distributor/consultant kit, marketing materials, compensation plan, hostess program (if applicable), and policies and procedures. It is often recommended that the evaluation continue with a multi-day visit to your offices where your entire business can be reviewed firsthand, questions can be asked, and answers can be obtained from the appropriate personnel.

All consulting engagements should include a written report with recommendations so that you can study the results of the Business Evaluation immediately and refer to them later on as you may choose to implement only some of the suggestions today.

Are you doing all that can be done to grow your business?

If not, consider enlisting the services of a professional consulting firm to evaluate your business and to share with you the perspectives it has gained by working with many other direct selling companies.

Just as employees need to hear comments from their supervisors and patients should learn from their doctor’s suggestions, businesses can use the help, too.

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Jay Leisner is the president of Sylvina Consulting (www.sylvina.com). Sylvina provides business development and technology consulting services to all direct selling companies, from startups at the concept stage to large multinational firms. As of December 2006, Sylvina Consulting has assisted more than 170 companies.

For a complimentary 30-minute consultation or to request information on launching and growing a direct selling company, visit www.sylvina.com or contact Sylvina Consulting directly at 503.244.8787.