Ask the best possible questions. That’s good advice until the end of time.
These are the 31 strategic planning questions we ask of every client. Many of them are referenced and even given more depth in other parts of the blog, but this is the big list. It’s been refined over the years, and obviously context plays a big part of where our diagnostic sessions with new clients take us.
But, for today, know simply that – if you’re willing to put in the time and do the work – these are the questions that will help you build a marketing campaign to grow your company.
THE WHAT QUESTIONS
What must not be changed? What’s working well for us now?
What is it we’re trying to make happen?
What’s in our way?
What are two things I need to hear about our company?
What’s the time horizon? What are our deadlines?
What are our primary benefits to customers?
What are our company’s values?
What are our company’s strengths?
What are our company’s weaknesses?
What should we do first? What should we do second?
What are the total dollars spent in our market in a year?
What is our percentage of that total spend?
What is the value of a regular customer over the course of her lifetime?
THE WHO QUESTIONS
Who are we?
Whose favorite company are we?
Who is our ideal customer?
Who is our anti-customer?
Who is our ideal employee?
Who will we help besides ourselves?
THE HOW QUESTIONS
How can we make it easier for customers to do business with us?
How can we improve our customer experience?
How can we improve our employee experience?
How do we measure success?
How do we reward success?
How do our values manifest themselves? How do we embody them in everyday life?
How do we nullify limiting factors?
How are we making an actual meaningful difference in people’s lives?
THE WHY QUESTIONS
Why do we get out of bed to do what we do?
Why should someone do business with us instead of instead [competitor 1], [competitor 2], or [competitor 3]?
Why would our competitor’s best employee want to work for us?
Why are consumers frustrated with our industry?
By compiling this information, you now have goals, a plan, and some of the tactics to recalibrate your organization.
Wait… isn’t this a lot of work??
Absolutely.
Thanks for this Tim. An excellent strategic discovery outline. In addition to your excellent questions I sometimes add a few others:
What problem do we solve?
Whose problem do we solve?
What is our current customer experience level and how do we know?
What do we currently know about our customers?
What else would we like to know?
Thanks for igniting my strategic question fire.
–Dennis
Great additions, Dennis. Thanks so very much for making me smarter today!