409 Posts Found

• What types of mistakes do customers tend to make while making this kind of decision? Make sure the decision process avoids these mistakes.
• What do customers most frequently overlook or not consider? Make sure the decision process brings these elements into consideration.
• What are the most difficult things for a customer to understand? Determine ways to communicate these elements precisely.
• What must a customer understand to reach

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Subject: Sales Questions

Here are six of the most important criteria you can use to evaluate your sales effectiveness.
Does my sales team

1. Consistently meet or exceed revenue and margin goals?
2. Focus on selling the company’s existing products and services and minimize one-offs?
3. Enter accurate and timely sales data into the company’s SFA/CRM systems?
4. Know the competition in-depth and how to differentiate our company and its products and/or services from

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Subject: Sales Questions

Defining the Opportunity

1. How do you determine acquisition cost objectives for your sales and marketing activities?
• We have a clear understanding of the lifetime value of our customers derived from historical data. Based on the LTV, we use financial models to create an acquisition cost target that will generate acceptable profit.
• We have an intuitive idea of the acceptable acquisition cost range.
• We do not

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Subject: Sales Questions

• Who am I selling to today?
• Why are they buying anything?
• What do I have to sell them?
• Why should they buy from me?

Source:
A New Marketing Bill of Materials
by Tim Riesterer
MarketingProfs.com, September 9, 2003

Subject: Sales Questions

1. Are the complexity of the extended enterprise and major earnings drivers across it transparent?
2. Are interdependencies understood and interdependence risks identified?
3. What programs are in place to ensure the viability of earnings drivers?
4. Are these programs fully aligned with corporate strategy and objectives, and do we understand the trade-offs within these programs?
5. Do we know what we spend on resilience?
6. How good is our situational awareness — that is, do

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Subject: Risk Management Questions

• How good is my company at understanding risk? i.e., what risks do we face and how does that risk impact on my organization?
• What control procedures does my company have in place to mitigate these risks?
• How does my company achieve recognition for the effort we have put into implementing control measures and managing risk?

Source:
An explicit item for the main … [ Read more ]

Subject: Risk Management Questions

• Which market segment are we targeting specifically with that particular product?
• What is the role and mission of that specific product in our overall product line?
• What is a winning product, from the customer’s viewpoint, in that segment?
• How have we chosen to beat our competitors, generally and in that segment?
• If it’s impossible to meet all customer demands, which ones should we meet?
• How many variants of the

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Subject: Products & Services Questions

Managers who want to launch a Value Sourcing initiative should consider these questions:

• Is sourcing seen as driving revenue growth as well as cost reduction?
• Are we maximizing the value of our supplier relationships?
• Have we segmented our spending and identified strategic categories and suppliers?
• Do we understand and are we positively affecting supplier economics?
• How collaboratively do procurement, users, and key suppliers work on new product development?
• Are

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Subject: Procurement / Purchasing / Sourcing Questions

• Have your key cross functional business process been identified?
• Are goals for key processes linked to customer requirements?
• Are goals for key processes linked to supplier capabilities and requirements?
• Are process goals linked to the organization requirements and objectives?
• Is this the most effective process for achieving the process goals?
• Have appropriate sub process goals been set?
• Are sufficient resources allocated to each key

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Subject: Process Performance Questions

Companies adopting BCR can structure their own compliance approach for the entire enterprise that covers all legal entities across multiple national jurisdictions (including national laws in Asia-Pacific). Before considering BCR, companies need to ask questions in the following categories:

• Evaluation – Has the organization performed a detailed analysis to determine if BCR is the appropriate path to take? Does the organization want to organize

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Subject: Privacy Policy Questions

• Do you have a jointly developed strategic framework in place with your partner(s)?
• Have you documented your needs based on your business’s strengths and weaknesses and shared them with your partner(s)?
• Do you have a measurement system in place to document and track your partnership’s mutual benefits?
• Are relational expectations documented between you and your partner(s)?
• Do you have a jointly developed partnership agreement in addition

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Subject: Partnerships / Alliances Questions

• Is there a right-size function or process to move offshore? Are 10 employees too few to move? Are 100 employees too many?
• How are functions delineated? Are they portrayed by technology, business process or organization chart?
• How will complexity and risk affect offshore decisions?
• What are the issues to consider in terms of systems interconnectivity?
• What is the lifecycle of the function that is moving

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Subject: Outsourcing / Offshoring Questions

The following are general questions that can be a starting point for an assessment of a potential vendor.

• Does the vendor have a published privacy policy and does it limit data sharing?
• How adequate are the vendor’s physical and electronic controls over data? Proof of controls would include self-certification such as a SAS 70 review or other independent checking.
• Does the vendor have

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Subject: Outsourcing / Offshoring Questions

1. How Deep Should the Relationship Be?
• What is the strategic importance of this process now and in the future?
• How complex is this process?
• How much change do you anticipate in this process over the life of the contract?
• How interdependent is this process with other processes in the firm?
2. How Broad Should the Relationship Be?
• Is the value in this process created through specialized expertise or through technology and repeatable

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Subject: Outsourcing / Offshoring Questions

• Do we pay attention to each stakeholder as an individual?
• Do we respect each person’s views and interests?
• Are we honest?
• Do we keep promises?
• Do we seek to “do good while doing well?”
• Do we create innovative solutions to important, unmet human needs?
• Do we look for validation of ideas in customer and end-user acceptance?
• Do we put the interests of all stakeholders on a par with each other?
• Do we

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Subject: Organization Questions

1. How do your customers view your organization?
2. How do your suppliers view your organization?
3. How do your employees view your organization?
4. Has your organization’s strategy been articulated and communicated?
5. Does this strategy make sense given the current and anticipated external threats and opportunities?
6. Where are the gaps in terms of internal strengths and capabilities?
7. Have the desired outputs of the firm and the level of

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Subject: Organization Questions

• Will it motivate you to join this organization and continue to motivate you once you are there?
• Does it provide a beacon for guiding the kinds of adaptation and change required for continual growth?
• Does it describe a future that is more attractive than the present?
• Will it challenge you?
• Can it serve as the basis to formulate strategy that can be acted on?

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Subject: Mission / Vision / Values

When strategic options and difficult problems arise, leaders ask questions such as:

• Does this align with our mission?
• Is this action in line with our vision?
• Are we adhering to our values?

Source:
The Foundation: Mission, Vision and Values
by Paul B. Thornton
CEO Refresher

Subject: Mission / Vision / Values

• What is the role of our organizations in responding to the need for meaning?
• What, if any, is the social contract between an employer and employee?
• Have we defined the mission of our organizations to include bringing purpose and meaning to those who are fulfilling the mission?
• How do we measure the effectiveness of our organizations?
• Can (should) our organizations become moral communities to help shape

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Subject: Mission / Vision / Values

• To what extent is the organization thinking about its future and about the larger implications of its behavior?
• What are people rewarded, recognized, fired and/or promoted for?

Source:
The decisiondriven organization
by Paul Rogers
Bain & Company

Subject: Organization Questions