1. Explain the difference between Strategy and Tactics
1.1. Strategy is a direction to a clearly defined goal
1.2. A tactic is an action you'll undertake to support the strategy
2. Session 1 - Client's Business
2.1. Purpose
2.1.1. How do you describe the business you're in?
2.1.2. Why do you do what you do?
2.1.2.1. Beyond making a profit, why does this exist?
2.1.3. How did this business come to be? Why did it NEED to happen?
2.1.4. What's unique about your business?
2.1.5. What's your 30sec elevator pitch
2.1.6. What’s the nicest/worst thing anyone has said about your business?
2.1.7. What do your clients say or ask that gets you excited (lightbulb moment) about doing business with them?
2.2. Products
2.2.1. Do you provide products, services, or a combination of both?
2.2.2. What's the promise your product/service makes?
2.2.2.1. What problem does it solve?
2.2.2.2. What question does it answer?
2.2.2.3. What pain does it kill?
2.2.3. What's your yearly sales cycle like? Busy, slow times etc?
2.2.3.1. Busy
2.2.3.2. Slow
2.2.4. Describe a customer journey through your sales funnel
2.2.4.1. Funnel 1
2.2.4.2. Funnel 2
2.2.5. What are the products that are most profitable?
2.2.6. If you could increase sales of one product category, what would be the first priority?
2.2.7. What are your profit margins on your products/services?
2.2.8. What are some products/services in your field that you WILL NOT do?
2.3. Goals
2.3.1. How do you measure success within your business?
2.3.1.1. What reporting tools do you use?
2.3.1.2. What metrics do you look at daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly?
2.3.1.3. Who else evaluates success within your business?
2.3.1.4. On a scale of 1-5 confident are you in the numbers you're getting?
2.3.2. When's the last time you tracked a 90 day goal? What was it?
2.3.3. What's your number one priority for this business this year?
2.3.4. Are you currently trying to GROW, MAINTAIN, or DOWNSIZE?
2.3.5. What's your number #1 goal for marketing?
2.4. Revenue
2.4.1. What are your current Revenue Targets?
2.4.2. Revenue from past three years?
2.4.3. What percentage of your revenue comes from online sales?
2.4.4. What products/services lead to OTHER sales?
2.4.5. What is the breakdown of their current sales and from what channels (web, ads, referrals, etc.)
2.5. Structure
2.5.1. Stakeholders/Titles/Responsibilities within the business
2.5.2. Key stakeholders involved in making the decision to for a marketing/sales project?
2.5.2.1. Who will make the decision to buy?
2.5.2.2. Who will be the point person for the project?
3. Session 2 - Client's Customers
3.1. Customer Segments
3.1.1. Do different customers buy different products?
3.1.2. Are different customers in different funnels/workflows with the business?
3.1.3. Possible the client is trying to get more customers, but could also be looking to hire valuable EMPLOYEES (keep in mind)
3.2. Customer Personas
3.2.1. For each customer segment...
3.2.2. When first meeting a potential client, what is the first question they ask you?
3.2.3. What pains/problems do they have?
3.2.4. What is the solution that you provide?
3.2.5. What market do you consider this customer in?
3.2.6. What is their annual income/revenue?
3.2.7. How old are they?
3.2.8. What other products and services do they use?
3.2.9. What are their spending habits?
3.2.10. Are there any personality traits that uniquely identify them?
3.2.11. [FOR INTERNAL STAFF INTERVIEWS] - Tell me about the best day you've had on the job
3.2.12. Read this post: Why Personas Are Important in Marketing (How To)
3.3. Customer Value
3.3.1. What is a new customer worth to your business?
3.3.1.1. Customer Type 1
3.3.1.2. Customer Type 2
3.3.1.3. Customer Type 3
3.3.2. What's the amount of an average purchase?
3.3.3. How often to they repeat a purchase?
3.3.4. How long to your customers stay with you?
3.3.5. Do you know the cost to aquire/maintain a customer?
3.3.6. Have you ever looked at your average customer lifetime value?
4. Session 3 - Client's competition and market
4.1. Market
4.1.1. Approximate market size
4.1.2. What's the range that you're CURRENTLY targeting?
4.1.2.1. Local
4.1.2.2. Regional
4.1.2.3. National
4.1.2.4. International
4.1.3. What are some Industry Associations or Groups that have credibility?
4.1.3.1. Industry Publications
4.1.3.2. Group publications
4.1.4. What would you consider the biggest opportunity is in the market?
4.1.5. What are some new offerings gaining attention / adoption in your market? Are you offering this?
4.1.6. What's the market's level of awareness of the problem you're solving? How much education is needed?
4.2. Competition
4.2.1. What do your competitors do better than you?
4.2.2. What do you better than them?
4.2.3. Do you have any type of relationship with them?
4.2.3.1. ie. Friendly, competitive, arch-nemesis...
4.2.4. What do you think your biggest opportunity is to beat your competition?
4.2.5. Authority
4.2.5.1. What awards/recognition can we point to for your business?
4.2.5.2. What partnerships, relationships, or potential partnerships do you have that we could use to further your cause?
4.2.5.3. Do customers review you? If so, where?
4.2.6. What are some things that drive you CRAZY about other company practices in your industry?
4.2.7. Please list who you see as your top 3 competitors?
4.2.8. What can no other competitor claim?
5. Session 4 - Client's strategies and tactics
5.1. Reporting/Measurement
5.1.1. What are you measuring related to these efforts?
5.1.2. How confident are you in the reporting you're getting?
5.1.3. Are you measuring the ROI of these efforts? Walk me through how you're doing that.
5.1.4. How frequently are you looking at these reports?
5.1.5. What date ranges are you reviewing? 1 month? Quarterly? Yearly? Comparing year over year?
5.1.6. What are you comparing your current numbers do?
5.1.7. When you look at a report, do you know the next steps to take?
5.2. History
5.2.1. Who have you worked with in the past?
5.2.2. How was the experience?
5.2.3. Was there a strategy associated with tactics?
5.2.4. How did you measure the performance of efforts?
5.2.5. What kind of investment (time and money) did you make?
5.3. Current State
5.3.1. What elements of online infrastructure do you currently have in place?
5.3.1.1. Website
5.3.1.2. Social
5.3.1.3. Directory listings
5.3.2. How are you currently selling to EXISTING customers?
5.3.3. What ONLINE channels are you using to find new customers?
5.3.3.1. Organic search
5.3.3.2. Social
5.3.3.3. Directory listings
5.3.3.4. Paid traffic
5.3.3.5. Email marketing
5.3.3.6. Content Marketing
5.3.3.7. Webinars
5.3.4. What OFFLINE channels are you using to find new customers?
5.3.4.1. Events
5.3.4.2. Conferences
5.3.4.3. Partnerships
5.3.4.4. Associations
5.3.4.5. Walk in traffic
5.3.4.6. Print
5.3.4.7. Billboards/Radio
5.3.5. How long were your 3 most recent marketing campaigns and how much did you invest in them?
5.3.6. Have you ever run a marketing campaign for 90days or more?
5.3.7. What are you NOT doing currently, that you hope/want to be doing? What's the barrier that's keeping you from doing that?
6. Session 5 - Solution Roadmap
6.1. This is what we heard you say
6.2. This are some strengths we've identified
6.3. These are the problems we identified
6.4. Here are our solutions for those problems
6.5. Did we understand you correctly?
6.5.1. Yes
6.5.1.1. Attach price and timelines to solution and present proposal
6.5.2. No
6.5.2.1. Adjust scope doc and send for approval, then move to proposal