The questions you should be asking about your business
(but probably aren't... )
- Strategic Planning for Growth & Profit
- Which products and services should you add to your offerings?
- How are your competitors maneuvering in the marketplace?
- How will you compete?
- Are you leaving margin on the table? Where are you losing it? Where can you gain it?
- Which software platforms will best optimize your business?
- How do you get from A to B in a specified period of time? Then what?
- What are the dangers of growing too quickly? Are you prepared?
- Which resources will you need to sustain growth over time?
- Sales Process, Formalization, & Training
- Do you have a formalized sales approach?
- What is does your sales cycle look like today and how can it be optimized?
- Do your salespeople have a hard time following company processes and procedures?
- How often does your sales team receive 'refresher' training?
- Does your organization have a formalized sales on-boarding process?
- How are your sales people prospecting? Do they know how?
- Are your sales people focused on the right or wrong activities? How do you know?
- Is your sales compensation plan compelling? Is it getting you the results you want?
- Are you attracting and retaining top talent?
- Marketing and Branding Strategy & Implementation
- How many activation channels are you currently deploying?
- Which are providing the best return on your marketing spend?
- How are you designing and measuring marketing campaigns?
- Would you like to do a better job of staying in touch with customers and prospects?
- What are your customer acquisition costs and how can you bring them down?
- Do you STAND OUT in the marketplace?
- How you stack up against the competition?
- Why does anyone care?
- Reputation Management because More Stars = More Sales
- How are you perceived by prospects when they Google your company's name?
- What is your average star rating?
- Do you have a Yelp strategy?
- Are you curating & syndicating reviews?
- Do you have a Reputation Management plan in place?
- When it comes to Reputation Management, are you proactive or reactive?
- What strategies could you deploy to improve your online reputation?
- Do you listen to and implement customer feedback in a consistent manner?
- SEO Optimized Content
- Can your customers find you without pay-per-click advertising?
- Are you consistently educating your customers about new products & services?
- Is your website a resource for clients old and new?
- Are you re-purposing content for a variety of marketing initiatives?
- Do you have a content calendar?
- What search terms are most relevant to your business?
- Social Media Marketing
- How can you attract more followers?
- How can you get your followers to engage with your content?
- How can you use social media to attract more customers?
- Do potential clients engage with your sponsored content?
- How are you designing, implementing, and measuring social media interactions and ROI?
- Sales Operations & Inside Sales
- What happens once a contract is turned in?
- Are your customers and sales staff delighted by your delivery process?
- How are you measuring delivery throughput so you can improve it?
- Which process milestones are most critical to customer success?
- Is your process transparent or an enigma?
- How would your clients describe their overall experience? (see Reputation Management above)
- Is an inefficient sales process cutting into your gross margins and frustrating sales people & clients?
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Is your CRM doing everything it could for your organization?
- Is your staff properly utilizing it?
- Have you deployed the right CRM solution for your company/industry?
- How can you use your CRM to drive the correct sales behaviors and delivery processes?
- How can you use your CRM to reduce errors and delight customers?
- Is your CRM part of your Marketing Strategy?
- Customer Retention and Referral Programs
- How often are you touching your customers?
- Do they know about your latest product offerings?
- Are your customers referring new customers? How often?
- How are you incentivizing customer referrals?
- Do you have a formalized referral program in place today?
- Is it getting the results you desire?
- Business Process Optimization
- Is your process a finely oiled machine or a misfiring engine?
- If you improved your processes would your company be more profitable?
- Would you get better online reviews?
- Would you better attract and retain top talent and clients?
- How much money are you leaving on the table with poorly implemented or antiquated processes?
- Do projects 'fall through the cracks'?
- Customer Service Excellence
- What is your customer's journey from sale to delivery?
- Do you empower your employees to provide world class customer service?
- What tools, procedures, training, and support have you rolled out for this purpose?
- How might an improved customer experience drive word of mouth referrals and online star ratings?
- Do your customer service personnel receive regular training and encouragement?
- How is customer experience measured by your organization?