409 Posts Found

• Have you established a program that will recruit the people you want rather than carbon copies of the people you have?
• Do you have experienced reps on the frontline and change agents at the top?
• Is your sales compensation system congruent with your enterprise´s economics?
• Do you review sales force size regularly, particularly with regard to whether the force is flexible enough to handle channel shifts, market changes,

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Subject: Sales Questions

1. What is your TSR aspiration? Is that aspiration appropriate given the expectations embedded in your stock price and the ability of your plans to deliver improved performance?
2. How much growth do you need in order to deliver on that aspiration? What target revenue-growth rate is required in order to meet your goal given the momentum contribution of other TSR drivers?
3. Will optimizing growth and margins

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Authors: Daniel Stelter, Eric E. Olsen, Frank Plaschke | Source: Spotlight on Growth: The Role of Growth in Achieving Superior Value Creation | Subjects: CEO / Executive Questions, Finance Questions

1. Market Share. Are you gaining, holding or losing market share in each of the segments that constitute your business? Why? Against which competitors?
2. Customer Leverage. What percentage of your product is sold to customers who have significant leverage over you? Which customers are they, and why do they have leverage? Please provide a list of your top 25 customers and approximate sales volume to each.

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Authors: Steve Schaubert, William Hayes | Source: Rules For Rookie CEOs | Subject: CEO / Executive Questions

1. What fundamental value will your current plans generate? Is that performance really defensible given the competitive dynamics of your industry? Is it enough to meet your TSR aspirations?
2. What are the market expectations embedded in your stock price? Is there a gap between what you can deliver and what investors expect? If so, do you have a plan for closing it?
3. What drives valuation multiples in

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Subject: CEO / Executive Questions

• Before you engaged our services, what was your impression of our company?
• How were those initial impressions satisfied during the course of our work?
• Why did you choose our company over the competition?
• If someone called you for a quick reference about us, what is the first thing that would come to mind?

Author: Carl Hedberg | Source: How to Get Your Message Across, Soft and Clear | Subject: Customer Questions

Most companies incorporate five basic building blocks into their financial reporting: the two sides (active and passive) of the balance sheet including the asset register, a profit-and-loss statement, an investment plan or budget, and some form of competitive benchmarking. Recently, shareholder-value-management indicators have been added to the list. These six measures answer some basic questions:

• How much capital do we have, what kind is it,

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Authors: Felix Barber, Ralf Dreischmeier, Ulrich Villis | Source: Valuing the Assets of the New Economy | Subject: Finance Questions

1. Mind-engaging work
   When was the last time you got so caught up in interesting work that you lost track of time? What were you doing? What was it — about the work itself, how you were going about it, its connection to a greater good — that made this such a wonderfully consuming activity?
2. Seeing the fruits of your labor
   When you want to see the results of

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Subject: Organization Questions

• Do you know what would happen to your bottom line if you raised (or lowered) prices by 1 percent?
• Do you know which of your customers are – or are not – price sensitive and why?
• Where are the pricing leakages occurring in your company?
• What functions or departments control the final pricing decisions?
• How could you change your pricing mechanisms to build your advantages?

Source: Pricing … [ Read more ]

Subject: Marketing Questions

• What’s the nature of a customer’s need for my service or product? Under what circumstances will customers require my service or product? How often will they need me?
• How many ways is it possible for my customers to perceive risk? Is this risk confined to the service or product? Does it apply to the transaction process?
• What do potential customers already know about my service or product?

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Subject: Sales Questions

• Once this is over, what are you going to miss?
• What problems came up that you worked through and how did you do it?
• If you were to update your resume now, how would you describe the accomplishment of this team?
• What new behaviors or skills will you take to your next project?
• What did you learn about what it takes to become a high impact team?
• What would you

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Subject: Teams/Teamwork Questions

• Who owns the process?
• Who has the power to change it?
• What are its objectives?
• What are the success metrics?
• Who are the customers of this process?
• Who gets to participate?
• What are the data or information inputs for this process?
• What analytical tools are used?
• What events and milestones drive this process?
• What kind of decisions does this process generate?
• What are the decision-making criteria?
• How are decisions communicated, and to whom?
• How does this process

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Subject: Process Questions

1. Is the structure right?
2. Is the business model sustainable?
3. Do you want to be in the business you are in?
4. Is executive success (and succession) in place?
5. Do you know your customers?
6. Are the costs right?
7. Is the product right?
8. Do you know your competition?
9. Is the balance sheet right?
10. Where are you on technology?

Author: John McCallum | Source: As the Economy Turns: 10 Questions for Executives | Subject: CEO / Executive Questions

Exit interviews provide insights you can use to keep others from leaving. Here’s what every manager should ask:

• If the CEO left unexpectedly today and you were put in charge, what are the first things you would change?
• What could have changed six months ago that would have prevented you from looking for a new job?
• If you weren’t looking, what factors tipped the scale when an

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Author: Scott Westcott | Source: Goodbye and Good Luck | Subject: Human Resources Questions

• 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 a

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Subject: Sales Questions

These seven questions, taken together, indicate respondents’ perceptions of their workplaces’ diversity focus (WDF), which correlates highly with important workplace attitudes. Employees whose companies have lower WDF scores are less likely to feel satisfied with or loyal to their company—and they’re also less likely to stay with their employer—than employees whose companies have higher WDF scores.

• Am I aware of my company’s efforts to create

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Author: David C. Wilson | Source: When Equal Opportunity Knocks | Subject: Human Resources Questions

• Can you describe your company´s identity in a few words?
• Does your company´s identity match the key success factors for your business?
• Do you use your company´s identity as the basis for strategic decisions?
• Is your company´s identity integrated into its key processes?

Source: Return on Identity / Ulrich Pidun, Daniel Stelter / Boston Consulting Group (BCG), March 30, 2006

Subject: Management Questions

Traditional Measurement Needs
Financial

• Are we focusing on the right financial measures to judge the success of our company/divisions/units?
• How much of our value is reflected in our balance sheet? Do we have the right balance between financial and non-financial measures to address key intangible assets beyond the balance sheet?

Operational

• Do we have the right short-term operational measures in place to respond quickly when an activity central to

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Subject: Metrics Questions

Below is a sampling of the kinds of questions you should ask before you make a final decision to fire an employee.

1. Does the firing violate discrimination laws or other federal, state or local statutes?
2. Is the reason for firing in line with company policies and procedures?
3. Have any assurances, written or oral, been given to the employee about length of employment or job security?
4. Has the reason

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Author: Carol Orsag Madigan | Source: A Kinder | Subject: Human Resources Questions

For each “bad” action, ask the team:

• What choices could we have made to avoid the bad action?
• What choices did we make that should have been avoided?
• What misinterpretations of events, motivations, and actions did we make that led to the bad action?
• What were the correct interpretations?
• What do all these imply about what we should and shouldn´t do going forward?

For each “good” … [ Read more ]

Subject: Project Management Questions

Even the most seasoned sales veterans sometimes struggle to get more than a few questions into the process of general discovery before quickly trying to push products. To improve your success in this area, break those discovery questions down into four subcategories:

• Marketing questions: How do you go to market? How do you distinguish yourself from your competitors? What are your biggest competitive challenges?
• Operational questions:

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Sales Questions