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Say "YES" If Your Business Is
Positioned for Success

By Christine Corelli

Forget tough. Today, competition is fierce. As never before, your company faces sophisticated new competitors—many from non-traditional sources And these competitors are using some very aggressive market strategies to shake up the status quo. It's a difficult time to be in business and it's tougher than ever to position your company to succeed.

To survive in this environment, your company needs to have smarter strategies than the competition. Your leadership team as well as everyone who works for your company must be aligned with those strategies and be committed to working hard to support your company's efforts. Here, market research, customer input, and employee involvement are key.

Take this simple 'yes' or 'no' test to help you determine whether your company is positioned for future success:

1. Have you conducted research to identify consumer or industry trends and do you have a formal program to obtain information from your customers regarding their needs?
___yes ___no

2. Have you consulted with groups of end-users to help you reach decisions in your strategic initiatives?
___yes ___no

3. Did you learn what direction your competitors are taking and analyze what you can do to differentiate your product or service?
___yes ___no

4. Have you analyzed what new markets your company can tap into?
___yes ___no

5. Are you doing business internationally, or preparing to do so?
___yes ___no

6. Did you involve your customers and your sales force in creating your strategic plan?
___yes ___no

7. Are your sales goals and incentives aligned with your company's marketing strategy?
___yes ___no

8. Did your marketing team involve your entire sales team when creating your marketing plan?
___yes ___no

9. Did your marketing team share the consumer or end user data they obtained to create the plan with your sales team?
___yes ___no

10. Did your company meet with your sales team to discuss strategic areas they may disagree with and come to a mutual understanding?
___yes ___no

11. Do your product manager, chief engineer, director of operations, warehouse manager, etc. add their input when your sales people discuss customer needs with upper level management?
___yes ___no

12. Is your sales team committed to "agreeing to disagree," with your plans if necessary, and fully support the company effort?
___yes ___no

13. Does your company, recognize that where there are conflicting opinions, creativity is stimulated, and positive results can occur?
___yes ___no

14. Did management communicate the strategic plan, marketing plan, and sales strategy to the entire company and obtain staff input?
___yes ___no

15. Does everyone in your company—from sales to customer service, from marketing to R&D and from the warehouse to the front desk—fully support those plans and recognize that everyone must be on the same page if you are to succeed?
___yes ___no

16. Does your company have a diversified team, or several teams, working continuously to determine ways to make those plans work?
___yes ___no

17. Does your company realize that such teams can take fragments of ideas and structure a wide variety of options and solutions to problems?
___yes ___no

18. Does upper level management solicit, listen, and respond to all ideas, selecting the best ones to implement?
___yes ___no

19. Do your sales people enlist the help and expertise of your techs, product manager, CSR's, etc. to help their customers and do they recognize that they, too, are "in sales?"
___yes ___no

20. Do your sales people recognize that, regardless of their individual sales prowess, it requires a strong sales team for ultimate company success?
___yes ___no

21. Does your company strive to outdistance your current and future competitors with innovation?
___yes ___no

22. Is your company willing to take calculated risks to diversify what they offer and introduce new products to the market place that customers are demanding?
___yes ___no

23. Does your company strive to leverage vendor expertise and partner for success through strategic alliances?
___yes ___no

24. Does your company invest in training and learn faster than your competitors?
___yes ___no

25. Is there a sense of urgency to solve any service problems, quality problems, or problems with employee morale?
___yes ___no

There are many more questions we can add to this list. For now, your goal is to answer "yes" TO AS MANY AS possible. If you can, your company is in a better position to compete in today's world.

Need a great speaker on this topic?
Contact Christine cc@christinespeaks.com

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Christine is best known as the author of the popular books,Wake Up and Smell the Competition and The ART of Influencing Customers to BUY From YOU. As a keynote speaker, conference speaker, and sales trainer she is superlative in her field. Her impressive client list includes Fortune 100 corporations, prominent national associations and literally hundreds of mid-sized and small businesses.

To learn more about Christine's books, keynotes, seminars or consulting, please contact:
Gene Leigh, Director of Marketing: gene@christinespeaks.com or call (847) 581-9968

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