Performance review phrases

Commercial awareness/business acumen is the ability to identify customer needs, determine the company’s problems, and create ways to increase profits. Employees who possess it easily understand the inner workings of the industry in general and the organization in particular.

Exceptional/Superior:

1. Jeremy fully understands our company’s values and sees the big picture.
2. Edward comes up with amazing ideas for improving the company’s profits.
3. Jennifer develops projects according to the most popular industry trends.
4. Abigail never misses business and financial news that might affect our company.
5. Marta perfectly understands the needs and wants of our target customers.
6. Ronald easily finds a common ground with the key stakeholders of the company.
7. The customer satisfaction rate has grown up since John joined the team.
8. Christopher has managed to predict a number of market trends way in advance.
9. Arthur has been making creative decisions that lead to consistent profit gains.
10. Portia is doing her best to eliminate the major weaknesses of the company.

Exceeds Requirements/More than Satisfactory:

1. Tabitha keeps an eye on our major competitors to prevent problems in advance.
2. Susan has good analytical skills that allow her to accurately predict future business opportunities for growth.
3. Harry finds clever ways to minimize business expenses without sacrificing quality.
4. Rachel never fails to convert unhappy customers into repeat buyers.
5. Bruce has generated many great product ideas that increased our profits.
6. Trevor conducts a thorough market analysis on a regular basis.
7. Jane conducts customer surveys and polls to find out what they want the most.
8. Valerie makes sure to meet every need of her regular customers.
9. David demonstrates impeccable knowledge of the current economic conditions in the industry.
10. Rebecca has developed friendly relationships with the primary stakeholders.

Meets Expectations/Satisfactory:

1. Arthur manages to keep the monthly production costs on the same level for months.
2. Sandra’s professional goals correspond to the organization’s values.
3. George is effectively managing his time to meet the monthly production goals.
4. Aaron seems to be genuinely interested in improving the efficiency of his team.
5. Valerie is a new employee who is striving to learn as much as she can about our company.
6. Donald has a good understanding of the environment he is working in.
7. Xavier keeps himself informed about the most important industry developments.
8. Linda utilizes professional software to speed up data analysis when researching markets.
9. Sometimes Peter makes good suggestions during team meetings.
10. Most of the time Monica is entirely focused on the current company’s goals.

Provisional/Needs Improvement:

1. Frank barely keeps up with the current industry trends.
2. Trevor rarely manages to make unsatisfied customers happy.
3. Cindy has very poor numeracy skills, which makes her an inefficient financial analyst.
4. Peter does not set clear objectives, which damages his productivity.
5. Michael lacks creativity. He cannot solve problems that require creative thinking.
6. Jennifer utilizes outdated work methods that a far less efficient than the modern ones.
7. Sophie is not motivated to outperform our competitors. She does not have the competitive spirit.
8. Oliver does not fully understand the commercial priorities of the company.
9. Sometimes Ingrid makes decisions that do not align with the strategic goals of the organization.
10. Yvette does not know very much about the needs of our customers.

Unsatisfactory:

1. Yvonne does not seem interested in contributing to the company’s success.
2. Harold does not keep an eye on the markets, which leads to a decrease in gross profits.
3. Monica is one of the least efficient analytic of the entire company. She makes terrible predictions.
4. Nigel has very poor knowledge of the company’s internal processes.
5. Sometimes Arthur just cannot focus on his work. He lacks engagement and concentration.
6. Janet does not possess negotiation skills. She cannot find common ground with stakeholders.
7. David has sold significantly fewer products than everyone else did within the last months.
8. Ever since Angelina joined our company, our monthly sales have been declining.
9. Wendy has made a bunch of poor decisions that were based on emotions rather than pure logic.
10. Arnold does a bad job at financial forecasting. His predictions turn out to be wrong most of the time.

Self Evaluation Questions:

1. What do you like the most about our company?
2. Are you aware of the company’s history?
3. What do you think is the most important problem our industry is facing right now?
4. How do you respond to negative customer reviews?
5. What would you invest in if you were in charge of the company?
6. Are you developing your commercial awareness skills?
7. What research tools do you use to keep up with industry trends?
8. Do you understand the strategic goals of the organization?
9. Are you looking for ways to improve your team’s efficiency?
10. How quickly do you recognize solutions to overcome obstacles that damage the company?

The samples of performance review phrases for business acumen is a great/helpful tool for periodical/annual job performance appraisal. Note that, business acumen review phrases can be positive or negative and your performance review can be effective or bad/poor activity for your staffs.

If no matching phrase is found, you can also see a general list of performance review phrases and choose a more appropriate skill.