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A Questionnaire for Businesses

Written by: Keith Thirgood

Article Overview: Twenty-five questions to help you determine how well you know your own marketing condition.

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A Questionnaire for Businesses

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.

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Home > Marketing > Keith Thirgood > A Questionnaire for Businesses
Article Tags: Gain Self Preservation Safety Health Security Recognition Power, product service, service product

About the Author: Keith Thirgood
RSS for Keith's articles - Visit Keith's website

Keith Thirgood is Creative Director of Capstone Communications, a marketing and design firm. He is immediate past-president of the Association of Independent Consultants . He can be reached, 9 am - 5 pm EST, at (905) 472-2330 or through his website, .

Click here to visit Keith's website
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Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - [quote="Ringo So":2696kbgu]Trent - It's actually a sub-forum within the "Making Money in 2010" category. Please let me know if there are any troubles finding it.[/quote:2696kbgu] Nope, still don't see it. I see the Online Businesses forum but that has been there for a long time. Is that what you mean? I don't see any Internet Marketing section.
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