6
Questions every business should ask itself
# 1 # 4
How are you different / better
Problem Definition
Why does it matter to us to have a well-defined brand? What’ s its purpose once it has been articulated? Who cares? And why? You might be shocked at how this question has the capacity to raise corporate blood pressure.
# 2
Who’ s our primary audience now and, possibly more importantly, in the future
Put another way, who is your( continued) best source of revenue? This will elicit more angst.
# 3
What are their motivations? than your competitors?
This is best done as a side-by-side war game, where team members are invited to make a pre-researched 10-bullet point presentation extolling the virtues of their appointed competitor. In their temporary role as sales director or CEO of the competitor they should‘ pitch’ to the group. The group in turn will respond when the pitch is over, defending your own competitive competencies.
Once this exercise has been conducted for four or so competitors, it will become clear which arguments you keep reaching for to defend yourselves with. The skill is to pick the one you believe is the most own-able and the most true to you.
What’ s the deeper human need they have when buying in your sector? This is about getting under the skin of what’ s really driving your customers. It might not be what you think it is. Or what they tell you …
IBM realised they were selling main-frame computers to middle-management buyers who in turn needed to report back to their boards to persuade them to buy expensive, complicated and unwieldy computers. They realised these managers needed reassurance in how to sell to their bosses, just as much as they needed the facts and figures about how the computers actually worked. And so‘ Nobody got fired for buying IBM’ was born, thereby addressing real customer motivations. What could yours be?
# 5
What is your Personality?
This is likely to be understood instinctively in a smaller business but will need to be codified and institutionalised as it grows bigger. The challenge is to reduce the list to a maximum of four words that, in combination, define the personality that captures you – at least on a good day.
This is the personality that you’ d like to project to the world, but it’ ll have an important internal dimension too; your personality should be reflected in the people you hire. They are, after all, the living embodiment of all that you value.( Aren’ t they?)
26 SME 2017 www. smeweb. com