Asking the right questions takes as much skill as giving the right answers.
—ROBERT HALF
Whenever you go in for a complete medical exam, the doctors and nurses follow a set procedure. They begin by checking your vital functions to determine your overall level of health. They check your pulse rate, your temperature, your blood pressure, and your respiratory rate. They then take samples and test your blood, urine, and feces. In a more extensive medical exam, they check your heart, your lungs, your colon, and a variety of other areas to get a clear picture of the health of your body. By the time they have completed their examination, they have an accurate picture of your overall health and physical well-being.
In the same way, there are basic business examination questions that you need to ask and answer continuously throughout the life of your organization. The greater the rate of turbulence in the world around you, the more important it is that you ask and answer these questions accurately.
The starting point of business analysis is for you to ask: “What business am I in?” What business am I really in? What business am I really, really in?”
Many companies become so caught up in their day-to-day operations that they lose sight of their real reasons for existence. They lose sight of the fact that they are in business to perform a particular service, or to achieve a particular goal, for a specific type of customer.
For example, many years ago the railroads concluded that they were in the railroad business. In reality, they were in the transportation business. By losing sight of the business they were really in, the railroads completely missed the shipping industry, the trucking industry, and the airline industry. It wasn’t long before their markets were taken away from them by these industries, and many of them went bankrupt.
When I first began speaking, I defined myself as being in the “training” business. I soon realized I was in the “goal achievement business.” My business was helping people to achieve their personal and business goals faster by providing them with practical ideas that they could use immediately to get better results.
This insight led me from talks and seminars into audio and video recording, books, training programs, and Internet-based e-learning on a variety of subjects, including the development and presentation of the Turbostrategy Process.
The next question you must ask and answer accurately is “Who is my customer?” Who is the person who buys from you today? Describe your customer in detail. What is the age, income, education, position, attitude, location, and interest of your ideal customer? Many companies are not exactly sure of the answer to this question. They have at best an unclear picture of the psychological and demographic characteristics of their customers.
Who will your customer be tomorrow if current trends continue? Who should your customer be if you want to be successful in the markets of tomorrow? Who could your customer be if you were to change, improve, or upgrade your product or service offerings?
Your next question is “Why does my customer buy?” What value, benefit, result, or difference does your customer seek or expect to enjoy as a result of doing business with you? Of all the various benefits that your products or services offer your customers, what do your customers consider to be more important than anything else? Do you know? Your ability to define and promote this unique benefit is the real key to competitive advantage and market success.
You next question is “What do we do especially well?” What do you do better than any of your competitors? Where are you superior? Customers only buy from a particular company because they feel that, in some way, that company offers something that is superior to any other offering. What is your area of excellence?
Jack Welch of General Electric was famous for saying, “If you don’t have competitive advantage, don’t compete.” His philosophy was that General Electric would be number one or number two in every market segment in which it competed, or the company would get out of that market. Are you number one or number two in your market? Can you be? What is your plan to achieve this market position?
The next question, which we will deal with extensively in Chapter 10, is: “Who is my competition?”
Once you have identified your competition, you must ask why your potential customer buys from your competition rather than from you. What value or benefit does she believe she receives from someone else that she does not believe she receives from you? How could you offset this perception?
In performing an examination of your business, you must ask, “What are my goals?” What are you trying to accomplish? If you are clear about your goals, what is holding you back from achieving them? You need clear, written, measurable, time-bounded goals for every part of your business and personal life. You need short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. Each goal must be in writing, with plans for its accomplishment. You can’t hit a target that you can’t see.
Analyze everything you do in the course of a day or a week. What are the 20 percent of your activities that could account for 80 percent or more of your results? Sometimes, just 10 percent of your activities—if you were to pursue them aggressively—could account for 90 percent of your results. What might they be?
What actions should you take immediately in response to the answers to these questions? What is the very first thing you should do right now to increase your sales and improve your market position?
Another good question you should ask yourself is “Why am I in business at all?” Why do you exist? What social purpose does your company serve? What loss would occur to society if you ceased to do business altogether?
Imagine that you had to go in front of a government tribunal each year to justify your continued existence. What would you say to the tribunal in terms of how you serve, help, or make a difference in the lives or work of your customers to justify staying in business?
These are key questions that you need to ask and answer for your business on a regular basis. You should ask and answer these questions for yourself, as well. If you are unclear or inaccurate in your answers to any of them, the health of your enterprise could be in jeopardy.