Needs assessment methods and applications

¶ … Rossett and Sheldon (2001), business needs are linked to results or impact, while job performance needs are linked to behavior. So, when understanding the client's needs in relationship to the management problem that has been previously presented, this is a good place to start. The client's expectations when approaching the company for marketing services are that the company is strongly committed to creating and implementing marketing solutions that will help the client drive his own business objectives.

However, as previously presented, the company has human resource management problems that do not allow it to function properly. The job performance of the company is affected because of these management issues. The company will not be able to properly relate to the client, understand his needs, design a marketing plan and implement it.

The issues here are on two levels, external to the company (particularly in relationship to the client) and internal. So, externally, the company lacks communication and cooperation skills because the human resource issues. The client's needs imply continuous communication and discussion about what solutions to best apply in his marketing strategy. The company is not able to provide these. The company cannot lead a process in a proper manner and cannot drive results.

Internally, the issue is that, even if a marketing strategy is discussed and decided in a conversation with the client, the company lacks the internal capacity to implement these decisions and transform them into a coherent marketing action plan. The company lacks internal leadership: as previously shown, some of the problems have resulted from the fact that the former marketing manager has left for another company. As a consequence, the marketing team is unable to take clear instructions and create a coherent marketing plan.

Going back to Rouda and Kusy's (1995) definition of a needs assessment, this is a "systematic exploration of the way things are and the way they should be." So, the client and the company need to have a first meeting during which they will decide what the accomplishments will be, what the client expects from the company and what the company can actually offer. Before this step, however, as previously shown, the company needs to solve its internal issues. When it sits down with the client for this discussion, it needs to have assembled a marketing team that will represent the team that will be working with the client on this project.