Sales Department Internal Audit

Hello folks!

This is my first thread in here. I would like to get more information with regards to internal auditing of various departments in my organisation, SALES to begin with.

Ours is a Manufacturing and Construction based organisation. I need to perform a simple but good internal audit to get a thorough knowledge. Need feedback with regards to the questions to be put forth and points to take note of.

The internal audits are scheduled to start in a weeks time. Need your advise and help.

Please shoot...

Rgds,
Shibs

Re: Sales Dept Internal Audit

Shibs,

1. What is the objective of the selling process?
2. How do you know that your selling is fulfilling this objective?
3. How do you improve the selling process (what was your last improvement?)?
4. How do you determine what your customers need?
5. How do you avoid selling what the customer does not need?
6. What do you do with customer feedback?
7. How do avoid making promises your company cannot keep?
8. How do you keep up to date with your new products and services?
9. What would you improve about your company's products and services?

I would focus on the process and how well the management system supports the process. I would not audit the department.

John

Re: Sales Dept Internal Audit

John supplied an excellent list of questions and I would add:
1) Step me through the process you follow
2) What resources do you need and who do you work with directly?
3) What happens when you are out and/or unavailable?

You could also ask for examples of the sales person's work. This is more audit-like but can bring up issues that might be missed during the Q&A part...

Re: Sales Dept Internal Audit

The Sales Department is not an isolated silo - as much as they may sometimes think they are. Another aspect to consider reviewing is how Sales communicates with other departments...

How do they (Sales) know that Production can meet Sales' "promises"? Too often I've witness Sales' "promises" messing up the regular production schedule and impacting the financial forecast.

What if Production has a problem or delay...how is that communicated to Sales and what does Sales do with that information?

What if the there is a change in the Customer's desired delivery date? How is that communicated to Sales and is it communicated to Production?

While it's all well and good to look at Sales' internal processes and their inputs (i.e., how Customers communicate with them), it is just as vital to look at how Sales works with the other processes.

Re: Sales Dept Internal Audit

Thanks John, qpled for the prompt guidance!

However could you please help me as to how the below listed questions are related to QMS or to which clause:
- How do you avoid selling what the customer does not need?
- How do avoid making promises your company cannot keep?
- Who do you work with directly?
- What happens when you are out and/or unavailable?

From the question ?How do you keep up to date with your new products and services??, are you wanting to know of Training / Continual Improvement?

And needed more clarity from the question ?What would you improve about your company's products and services??

Rgds,
Shibs

Re: Sales Dept Internal Audit

Shibs said:

Thanks John, qpled for the prompt guidance!

Click to expand...

However could you please help me as to how the below listed questions are related to QMS or to which clause:

- Who do you work with directly? - Both Management Commitment (5.1 - availability of necessary resources) and Provision of Resources (6.1.1)
- What happens when you are out and/or unavailable? - Preventive Action, ISO 9001.2008 8.5.3

Re: Sales Dept Internal Audit

hi,
I'd also check with the head of the department if the current orgchart shows the real state of the department and if everyone who's on it has their induction training completed and signed off.
Also check how they set their targets (maybe in the form of appraisals or departmental objectives), how they're hitting them and what they're doing to improve.

We've got Sales in our company, it's quite a tricky one.
good luck
Lil

Re: Sales Dept Internal Audit

Shibs said:

Thanks John, qpled for the prompt guidance!

However could you please help me as to how the below listed questions are related to QMS or to which clause:
- How do you avoid selling what the customer does not need?
- How do avoid making promises your company cannot keep?
- Who do you work with directly?
- What happens when you are out and/or unavailable?

From the question ?How do you keep up to date with your new products and services??, are you wanting to know of Training / Continual Improvement?

And needed more clarity from the question ?What would you improve about your company's products and services??

Rgds,
Shibs

Click to expand...

Shibs,

You are reminding me of the FBI. Not asking a question unless you already know the answer!

Selling something the customer does not need is lack of customer focus (see 5.2) not to mention the time wasted on returns.

Making promises the company cannot keep is contrary to contract review (see 7.2.2) and will lead to dissatisfied customers - see 5.2.

Who do you work with directly determines knowledge of process (see 4.1f and 4.2.1d).

What happens when you are away determines adequacy of resources (6.1), process (4.1), record keeping (4.2.4) and communications (5.5.3).

Training is not the only way a sales team would keep up with what their company offers (also see 4.2.3 and 5.5.3).

"What would you improve" information from Sales people is important because they have an intimate knowledge of customer needs (see 4.1 - marketing, 5.2 - customer focus, 8.2.1 - customer satisfaction))

No matter what common sense question you ask, you can always find a clause or two to support you from ISO 9001.

John

Re: Sales Dept Internal Audit

John Broomfield said:

Shibs,

1. What is the objective of the selling process?
2. How do you know that your selling is fulfilling this objective?
3. How do you improve the selling process (what was your last improvement?)?
4. How do you determine what your customers need?
5. How do you avoid selling what the customer does not need?
6. What do you do with customer feedback?
7. How do avoid making promises your company cannot keep?
8. How do you keep up to date with your new products and services?
9. What would you improve about your company's products and services?

I would focus on the process and how well the management system supports the process. I would not audit the department.

John

Click to expand...

But John, this reads like an external auditor, not an internal auditor! Who is the OP going ask these questions of? Where's the planning of questions based on the actual process? Being in sales myself, if you asked me these things I'd wonder what you were asking, frankly! This is a classic example of where it's important to have someone who actually knows the process and why having someone from another department isn't going to be much help...

Re: Sales Dept Internal Audit

AndyN said:

But John, this reads like an external auditor, not an internal auditor! Who is the OP going ask these questions of? Where's the planning of questions based on the actual process? Being in sales myself, if you asked me these things I'd wonder what you were asking, frankly! This is a classic example of where it's important to have someone who actually knows the process and why having someone from another department isn't going to be much help...

Click to expand...

Andy,

As internal auditor I've asked (and explained) questions like these of people responsible for inside sales (and external sales if they are available).

Any one of these questions merely starts the conversation to find out how well the selling process is working. Once in the conversation, the other questions act as milestones to collect the evidence needed to fulfill the audit objective.

John