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.

Keith Thirgood, Creative Director

Capstone Communications Group

Helping businesses get more business through innovative marketing

http://www.capstonecomm.com/

Markham, Ontario, Canada 905-472-2330

Subscribe to Thrive-on-line http://list.capstonecomm.com/ma il.cgi?f=list&l=thrive_on_line

---

5 Steps To Help Fail-Proof Your Growing Service Business

Business startup and failure rates are scary...In The USA...- Every... Read More

Direct Mail Personalization

A colleague who does work for a nonprofit organization contacted... Read More

Budget Your Branding

It is very important to regularly monitor your advertising activities... Read More

Marketing Manual Sample Outline

The key to success in any business relies a large... Read More

Are You Sabotaging Your Marketing Success?

What?!? Sabotage your own success? Who would do that? Well,... Read More

2 Little Words That Work Marketing Magic

In his classic best-seller, "How To Win Friends And Influence... Read More

SWOT Analysis -- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

When conducting strategic planning for any company -- online and/or... Read More

Why Insight and Flexibility is More Important than Perseverance in Marketing

Marketing successfully requires not only insight into how a product... Read More

Determining Marketing Effectiveness Even If You Didnt Track

What if you've done a variety of marketing activities over... Read More

Use a Guarantee In Your Headline To Increase Trust

Sometimes you can use a guarantee effectively in your headline.... Read More

The Marketing Recipe: Money, Marketing and Me ? 3 Keys For Success

You have a great product or service? Now, how should... Read More

Marketing - The One Marketeer

I'm regularly asked to speak to people, that have either... Read More

Five Joint Venture Marketing Skills A Small Business Owner Must Have

Joint venture marketing is a lucrative way of leveraging the... Read More

Pamphlets and the Money They?ll Put in Your Pocket

People are making a fortune on pamphlets. If you go... Read More

The Day I Learned to Start Saying No

It was the fall of 1998 when I had just... Read More

Your Ideal Client

A lot of small businesses make the mistake of thinking... Read More

The YOU Factor

I don't mean you, I mean the YOU that is... Read More

Doing it with Class!

Doctors do it, hair dressers do it, and salespeople can... Read More

Fundraising Renewal Letters: Four Goals to Strive For With Each One You Write

In the fundraising profession, appeal letters that you mail to... Read More

How To Sell To Howard Stern... Oprah Winfrey... And Paul McCartney!

Do you know what Howard Stern... Oprah Winfrey... and Paul... Read More

What The Heck Is An Eponym, And What Does It Mean For Your Brand?

Today I've decided to share with you a new word... Read More

Why Target the Matures

The "Matures" are the generations that came along between 1909... Read More

Marketing Strategy - Whats Your System?

Where Do Most of Your Clients Come From?Is it from... Read More

The Power of a Survey

How many times have you been asked to participate in... Read More

Wealth Knowledge & Power ? Lost Secrets From Ancient Masters

Behold! He with the light cometh!He shall light thy darkest... Read More