The following are 30 questions that will immediately pinpoint where your business is doing well - and where you can take action that will produce rapid results.
These are the questions that I ask my clients - and my experience has been that if you are willing to spend a few minutes giving them serious thought - the results can be quite profound.
You should be aware that each question you answer ‘no' to probably means that you are losing out on untapped profits. But the purpose of this process is not to have you feel bad - it's to motivate you to make marketing a top priority. Have fun!
1 Can you and your team name three things that set you apart from the competition?
2 Do you communicate the benefits of your product or service in all of your promotional literature, websites, letters etc?
3 Have you tested Telemarketing to attract new customers? Did you accurately measure the results?
4 Have you tested Direct Mail to attract new customers? Did you accurately measure the results?
5 Have you tested PR to attract new customers? Did you accurately measure the results?
6 Are your ads powerful direct response ads that compel the reader to contact you - or are they mundane like all the competition?
7 Do you advertise in certain publications just because your competitors do?
8 When you speak to a potential new customer, do you use words that set you apart from the rest and immediately capture the customer's attention?
9 Have you tested pay per click search engine advertising?
10 Have you tested Internet Advertising?
11 Do you send regular email communications to your customers and prospective customers?
12 How much time each year do your key team members spend learning leading edge sales skills?
13 Do you have an excellent lead generation process in place?
14 Do you set up an ongoing communication with qualified leads consisting of phone calls, letters and emails?
15 Do you obtain and use testimonials from your best customers?
16 Do you have an excellent referrals systems in place?
17 Did you know there are more than 90 ways of obtaining referrals?
18 Do you offer something of value to your website visitors in exchange for their contact details?
19 Do you know how to write a press release to instantly grab the attention of the person reading it?
20 Do you personalise your email newsletters?
21 Do you know the most important piece of marketing information there is - your clients' birthdays!
22 Do your team understand that the best way to sell is to ask questions?
23 Do you rent or purchase mailing lists of your target customers?
24 Do you take amazing care of your current customers?
25 Do you know why it's important to include a ‘PS' in all of your sales letters?
26 Do you communicate by mail, email and telephone on a frequent basis to your current customers to ensure they know what you have to offer?
27 Do you use just one or two ways of marketing to promote your business? Do you know why you should be using between six and ten?
28 If you used ten ways to market your business have you any idea how wealthy you would be?
29 Did you know that if you follow up a mailshot with a phone call you can increase response rates by 100 - 1000%
30 Do you realise that your competitors probably answered ‘no' to even more questions than you did!
Now here's a Free Tip. Pick just three of the above that are important to you and take some action today to improve those areas. Print out this email and come back to the checklist in the weeks and months ahead. You can use it as a very good way of measuring your progress as you implement the marketing strategies that are going to make a difference.
Chris Cardell
