The Simplest Strategy Question

I’m always a fan of keep­ing things sim­ple. And when it comes to cre­at­ing a strat­e­gy to win over and retain cus­tomers, in a very prof­itable busi­ness mod­el, here’s the sim­plest, most-over­looked question:

What is the prob­lem you solve for your clients?

With­in this seem­ing­ly inno­cent ques­tion are two more:

1. Who real­ly is your core client?
2. Why are they thrilled to do busi­ness with you?

Doing this work means you’ve tak­en the time to think about all the dif­fer­ent cus­tomers and seg­ments of your work and there­fore get to your core focus – and you under­stand your customer’s ever-evolv­ing prob­lems and know your solu­tions are relevant.

And if your cus­tomers are will­ing to pay you hand­some­ly, it means you are either pro­vid­ing a unique solu­tion or you’re pro­vid­ing a solu­tion in a unique way.

Try it right now:

• • My core client is ______________________________________.
  • The main prob­lem we solve is ______________________________________.
  • They are thrilled to do busi­ness with us because_______________________________.

Being clear is a spec­tac­u­lar start for many com­pa­nies. And we can eas­i­ly get lost, along the way, as we take on more and more oppor­tu­ni­ties that show up.

The real mag­ic starts when you do an analy­sis of prof­itabil­i­ty, and oth­er mea­sures of effec­tive­ness, of the dif­fer­ent solu­tions that you pro­vide for the dif­fer­ent types of customers.

As you scrape through the data, you’ll test and val­i­date your opin­ion of the prob­lem you think you effec­tive­ly solve for which cus­tomers are will­ing to pay you hand­some­ly – and where the truth and oppor­tu­ni­ties lie.

The Chal­lenge

• Can you and your team answer these three questions?
• Is your sales team aligned around the answers?
• Can your data team pro­vide the infor­ma­tion to back up the fact that you do get paid hand­some­ly, in terms of prof­it, by these customers.

Addi­tion­al podcasts

• Hid­den Rea­sons Why Employ­ees Leave Their Jobs
• Four Ques­tions Lead­er­ship Needs to Ask Customers
• Five Things That Lead to a Bad Strate­gic Plan

Addi­tion­al blogs

• Sev­en Com­mon Strat­e­gy Mistakes
• How Sim­ple is Your Strategy?
• Mas­ter­ing & Pow­er­ing Up Your Company’s Flywheel

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achiev­ing lead­ers to have it all – a great busi­ness and a reward­ing life. Con­tact us for sim­ple and impact­ful advice. No BS. No fluff.