Tweet

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.

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.

Related Articles
  Everyone SHOULD BE a Salesman
  How I Build My Business
  100 Ways to Succeed #84
  Follow-Up or Fall on Your Face
  Can You Afford To Treat PQQs Lightly?

Article Tags: Gain Self Preservation Safety Health Security Recognition Power, product service, service product



Related Forum Posts
Re: New forum - online businesses! - That's great news Evan! Congratulations Jeff on becoming moderator of Online Businesses, I'm sure you'll do a brilliant job! Take care, Carol
Startup Challenges - Kevin - it's a great read - you should pick it up! John - what kind of services are you offering? Your signature says "Providing Big Business Resources to Small Businesses" I have always found big companies to be hard to work with and slow to make decisions but smaller companies are more risk-tolerant and understand the online world.
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.
Re: Most and Least Profitable Businesses to Start - I can say something about the "Least Profitable Businesses to Start" when someone thinks about creating a product before knowing what the market really wants. This happens more often than people realize. People often get trapped into coming up with something it might work but if the market doesn't want that kind of stuff, no matter how innovative the idea may be, it'll turn bad. Like I might be able to come up a way to "... store all of my spam emails into one junk box and keep it stored on the web forever!" -- hey, who wants that kind of stuff.
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Angel Investors Where Are You?

The Neglected Art of Receiving

A Guide to Franchise Financing

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.