Harvest Your Strengths – 14 "Must Ask" Questions
by Lisa Nirell, EnergizeGrowth
Planning and visioning helps you harvest the most value
from your business. It also helps with an essential quality
of an entrepreneurial professional services leader: Knowing
what to STOP doing.
Often we cannot identify what they are best in the world
at doing, because we are too caught up in day-to-day firefighting.
When we can't answer "what are our strengths?",
our natural tendency is to go back to doing what we have
always done (even if it's not what we do best!)
This happens with people who join our EnergizeMarketing
Action Groups. They often have a dozen great marketing ideas:
Build new seminar material. Network at 3 different associations
this week. Write a BLOG. Build a brochure (Please don't!)
Invest in SEO. It can be downright overwhelming!
When this happens, I always invite my client to review their
vision and values. How will those "good ideas"
get them there? Which ones are simply intellectual distractions?
If they don't know, I know they have landed into the trap
of the "good idea machine."
Here is one surefire way to fall out of the "doing"
trap and identify clues to what your company really does
best...and where to focus your business development efforts.
1. Whenever possible,
hire an independent, objective interviewer or consultant
to help you collect external feedback on what you do best.
Remember—you're only human, and it's highly likely
you'll fall prey to "false consensus" syndrome
if you do it yourself. You may put pressure on others to
agree with you (forcing groupthink to set in). Alternatively,
you may experience selective recall—only remembering
the facts that reinforce the assumptions you prefer. Or,
you may exhibit confirmation bias—and seek out only
opinions that match yours.
2. Identify 5-10 valued business partners and clients (see
page 3). They will fall into one of three categories: clients
with whom you have a long track record, clients you recently
lost, and some who are almost ready to do business with
you. Feel free to include strategic allies and partners.
Be sure all three categories are included and interviewed.
3. Ask your Founder or CEO (if that isn't you) to personally
call these contacts and request their candid input. Typically,
30 minutes over the phone will suffice. Give them the name
of the interviewer, and ask them to schedule a call with
the interviewer. Do not conduct online or fax surveys—you
will NOT get the quality of information you need.
4. Tell them it is very important feedback as you discover
what you do really well. You value their input on how THEY
think you can expand on that. Thank them profusely for their
time.
5. Remind them this information is 100% confidential, and
will not be attributed back to the source.
6. Send them a personal handwritten note to thank them for
their time.
Here are some questions your interviewer
can use:
1. Tell us who you are
and what you do. How did you first meet us?
2. Best experience: Looking at your entire experience with
(your company name). Remember a time when things went especially
well. A time when it seemed that someone went the extra
mile to make something happen. Tell me about that experience.
• Who else was
involved? What were they doing?
• What were you
doing?
• What made it
a success?
3. How does this compare
to most of your experiences with (your company)?
4. What was this situation/problem costing you before you
hired (your company)?
5. Business Results: What do you value the most that this
company helps you do more effectively? (Listen for their
values, goals, and dreams). What was the hard-dollar ROI
or business results? What was the soft-dollar ROI? Value
of the relationship to you personally?
6. What can you do now that you could not do before? –
Examples?
7. What seemed different about (your company/service) from
others?
8. Core Value: What do you think are the top 2-3 core values
of (your company)? In other words, if it did not exist,
it would make the company look completely different than
it currently is. Listen for core beliefs, ways of doing
business that are pervasive and non-negotiable.
9. There are lots of companies out there selling the hottest,
newest (service). Did you ever think the (XYZ service) could
be another one of those solutions, or that solving your
problem just required "more hard work?"
10. How is (your firm) different from other consultants?
11. What would make you recommend other companies hire this
company? (Whatever they say ask, "Why is that important?"
so we can really did to their belief systems and values).
12. What advice would you give a firm that is considering
this type of service?
13. Looking towards the future: As a professional in the
(industry) business, what do you think is the future of
the industry? What changes are we likely to see in the next
3-5 years? How can a company like (your company) be positioned
to meet those changes and challenges?
14. If you had 3 wishes for your relationship with (your
company name), what would they be?
These powerful questions will give you
solid clues to your strengths, values and highest return
opportunities. Be open to what you hear -- and what's next
for your company.
|
