As best you can, answer the following twenty-five questions. There's no scoring. But you’ll know whether you should be satisfied with your answers, or not. If you aren’t, perhaps you have some work to do.
1. What are the benefits you offer?
2. What do you think motivates your clients to buy? Are they driven by Fear of Loss, Desire for Gain, Self Preservation, Safety, Health, Security, Recognition, Power, Net Profits, Increased Sales, Lower Costs, Knowledge, Self Actualisation, Social Status, Riches, Popularity, Self Expression, Acceptance, Prestige, Success, Pleasure, or a combination of a few of these?
3. Why do you think your best/favourite clients purchased your service/product? (What benefit(s) attracted them?)
4. Have you asked your clients why they purchased from you.
5. How does your service improve the life or work conditions of your clients?
6. Have you written a profile of your best clients?
7. Have you identified where to find the greatest concentration of your best prospects?
8. Have you identified a list of prospects similar to your best customers?
9. Considering all the potential prospects you’ve identified, with which ones could your service/product make the biggest difference?
10. How do your clients normally purchase your service/product? (Your distribution system.)
11. Who is your competition?
12. What other "competition" do you have? (i.e., other kinds of products/services, lack of awareness on the part of your prospects, etc.)
13. Why do your prospects buy from your competition? (What benefit do they offer?)
14. Why would or should your prospects switch from your competition to you?
15. Can you list 5 to 10 reasons why someone should purchase your product/service?
16. What makes your service/product unique or better than others? (This is your unique selling proposition, or USP)
17. Have you reduced your USP into a fifteen-word-or-less "commercial"?
18. Have you identified a market niche in which you do/can specialise?
19. Have you told your prospects about your speciality? (Or is your speciality buried in your marketing materials among all the other things you can also do?)
20. How are you raising awareness of your service among your prospects?
21. Do you have a marketing "mix", or do you depend upon one marketing tool to build your business?
22. Does the image you present to your target market live up to the image your target market feels they deserve?
23. What would happen to your business if your top two clients left you in the same six month period?
24. Are you spending 20 to 30% of your time on marketing activities? (If you are a start-up, are you spending 80 to 90% of your time marketing?)
25. Do you have measurable goals for your business?
26. What one major obstacle stands between you and your goals?
If you struggled with a few of these, you have some work to do. If these questions puzzled you, you have much to do.
A Questionnaire for Businesses - To learn more about this author, visit Keith Thirgood's Website.
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