9 business development questions, part 2

Here are some business development questions that you, as a business owner, need to ask over and over as your market evolves and your strategic plan changes. Very often, the answers will change in response to evolving conditions. It is important that you change as well, when it is necessary.

4. What does your customer consider value? What does your customer want to enjoy or receive from your product or service more than anything else? What must your customer be convinced of in order to buy your product or service rather than that of someone else? The answer to this question is at the core of your strategic plan for business development. It is at the core of all of your marketing, advertising and selling activities.

5. What do you do especially well? In what areas do you excel? What is your competitive advantage? What makes your product or service superior to that of any competing product? As former GE chairman Jack Welch said, “If you don’t have competitive advantage, don’t compete.” As a business owner, your first responsibility when you start your business and throughout your business life is to develop and maintain a competitive advantage—an area of excellence in comparison to your competitors that your ideal customers want, need and will pay for. What is yours?