Needs assessment is important in identifying the best strategies for further company development. The process of needs assessment is conducted when there is a need to improve the organization’s current condition by learning about the market, finding out the weaknesses in the company’s operating system, and proposing possible solutions to these problems. The crucial part of the needs assessment process is evaluating the company’s current situation and identifying the desired outcomes. Needs assessment is usually conducted in the following way:
- Identifying the current condition and problems of the company through discussion with the staff and administration, reviewing the company’s products and the sales
- Identifying the desired outcomes and performance via communication with the clients
- Finding out the discrepancies between the current performance of the company and the results expected by the clients
- Proposing a set of actions to fill the existing gap
In the case of the automobile dealership company, the needs assessment is necessary to identify the possible gaps in the work of the sales force and, based on the results of the needs assessment, develop training programs for the company’s salespeople. As the automobile dealership is mainly concerned with the retail sales of new or used vehicles and operates within the open competitive market, the steps in the needs assessment in the business field are scoping, planning, data gathering, gap analysis, report preparation, and presentation of findings.
First of all, there is a need to identify the scope of the automobile dealership market by exploring the supply and demand, competitors, and clients. The tools that can be useful in this stage are online surveys, questionnaires, sales statistics, and usage of databases (Mitra 98). One of the effective methods used in the needs assessment is a special software program that can help to see the external environment in which the company operates. In addition, the methods such as a PEST (political, economic, social, technological) analysis as well as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis help in the stage of data gathering and analysis (Stefaniak 134). A PEST analysis allows seeing how the company functions on the macro-level, considering the political, economic, social, and technological circumstances. By conducting the PEST analysis, it is possible to identify the external obstacles to the improvement of the organization.
The next step is a SWOT analysis that will illustrate mainly internal factors that restrain the company’s further development. Recognizing the current positive trends and strengths within the company system and keeping them in this condition helps the company to operate within the market while pointing out the shortcoming and weaknesses and eliminating them will make the company more competitive and effective (Stefaniak 140). Moreover, identifying the opportunities and threats available within the market prevents the company from risky situations and indicates the correct direction.
After gathering all the necessary information, the data should be analyzed and systematized to identify the main gaps in the company’s work and the areas that should be covered during the training program. Secondly, creating a focus group to check how well the system works with the help of the proposed solutions can also be useful (Mitra 120). The focus group can demonstrate the possible drawbacks in practice. The final part of the needs assessment is an introduction of the final product by explaining the possible outcomes of the work in the report. It will include a detailed, step-by-step analysis of the strengths that should be maintained, the weaknesses the company should eliminate, and further recommendations.
However, there can be several impediments to the abovementioned approach, such as the financial aspect of the analytical stage and the validity of the obtained data. The fact that the PEST and SWOT analysis implies the expenditure of large sums of money for their conduction can be challenging for some companies to implement. Moreover, the usage of special software tools can even increase the cost of the data-gathering process. An additional hurdle is that even the data gathered through the PEST analysis can be oversimplified as its aspects are quite broad. The data obtained from the whole market, whose scope is formidable, can lead to oversimplifying the results or to what is known as ‘paralysis by analysis. There is a risk that capturing too much data can make its analysis problematic and sometimes insufficient. The same shortcomings can be applied to the SWOT analysis as well.
Nevertheless, the needs assessment is a critical process in improving the company’s current state, especially in designing the training program for the staff. Identifying the gaps in the company’s work and teaching how to deal with them effectively will multiply the company’s profit and prepare the salesmen to be ready to solve the possible issues during their work. Moreover, knowing how the market operates, its drawbacks and advantages, opportunities and threats, as well as the customers’ demand, will result in the high productivity of the work of the overall company.
Works Cited
Mitra, Ananda. Needs Assessment: A Systematic Approach to Data Collection. Sagamore-Venture Publishing, 2018.
Stefaniak, Jill E. Needs Assessment for Learning and Performance: Theory, Process, and Practice. 1st ed., Routledge, 2020.