Kit of 4 Dignostic Questions to ask when sale / share is down

Diagnostic Question 1

Symptoms : Unclear accountability

• Marketing : is responsible for finding out and analyzing how many customers exist, their needs, their readiness, their behavior, their habits, the prices they are willing to pay, the competitors and their activities, collaborators and their activities.
• Marketing : is responsible for choosing the target customers. 
• Top Management : is responsible for approving the steps taken by marketing as above because all long term decisions like locations, machinery, plant, organization and capital structure will depend on these decisions.
• Marketing :  is responsible for defining the products and services - through the process of positioning - such that they represent good Value Propositions for the chosen markets. You can work out product specifications and pricing only after this is done.
•  Marketing : The right go-to-market strategy - you must be at the right places with the right offer with the right messages and facilities when the customers come searching for you. Alternately, when you are in search of customers, you need to prospect, contact, communicate, convince, close and transact and set up mechanisms for doing so.

Diagnostic Question 2

Symptoms : Poor choice of "Target Customers"

1. Market too small for you to focus your resources and attention
2. Market too big for your resources to tackle
3. Market growth too little to meet your ambitions
4. Market growth too high and you may not be able to scale up so rapidly
5. You cannot make much difference to what the customer expects
6. You cannot differentiate your offer much from your competitors
7. Chosen market pulls you in a different direction than where you want to go
8. Participating in the market does not enhance your competence / eco system
9. Participation in the market reduces your average realization / profitability

Diagnostic Question 3

Symptoms : Poor choice of "Value Proposition" (Offer) 

1. Your customers are not clear why should they choose you
2. Your customers are not clear where they can apply your product
3. You sales force cannot get better price than your competition
4. The money you spend on promotions does not work efficiently
5. Your sales force does not know which competitor you are targeting
6. Your sales force convert less number of calls into sales
7. Your sales force cannot convince your customers
8. Your competitors spend less but sells more

Diagnostic Question 4

Symptoms : Poor choice of "go to market" activity 

1. You do not know which customers are more likely to buy than others
2. You do not know how many and where are your high priority customers
3. You have planned without knowing how customers come-to-market
4. You do not know who is searching for you and how
5. You do not know whether you should search for the customer or the other way
6. You do not have a cost efficient and effective system of 
• prospecting ( cannot separate cold customers from hot )
• reaching ( cannot meet the right customers )
• contacting and engaging ( cannot generate interest )
  
• messaging( cannot give message to move the sale forward )
• overcoming objections and negotiating ( getting stuck in finalization )
• closing the sale ( getting commitment of the customer )
• transacting ( invoicing, delivery and collection )
• giving pre/during/post service ( customer relationship )