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Great Year End Questions to Address

Answering these questions can help you prepare for a better future company sale

As we close out the year, here are some great questions to discuss with your team. The best leaders ask the best questions, so begin the new year on a more strategic footing by thinking about:

  • What changes occurred in our market this past year and will they continue in the new year?
  • Will any of the changes in our market (that have or will happen) impact our value proposition (the value customers get from using our product or service)?
  • Where are we unique versus our competition and does our marketing and sales messaging communicate this effectively? Does each member of our sales team effectively deliver the right messaging about our competitive uniqueness?
  • Looking at our revenues for the year just ending, which of our products or services increased over prior year, which were flat and which might have declined? Do we know the reasons behind each that could impact the year ahead?
  • Looking at our gross margins for the year now just ending (by individual products or services), did our margins increase, decrease or were they flat? Do we know the reasons behind each that could impact the year ahead?
  • Looking at our revenue by customers, which tier of customers grew, declined or were flat? (example: Tier 1 our top 50 customers, Tier 2 our 51st thru 250 customers, Tier 3 our 251st thru 500 customers). For the year ahead, how will we deploy our resources to each tier and what is our growth protection for each tier?
  • Should we make any price changes to our products or services in the new year?
  • Looking at our market, which subsectors do we see growing, decreasing or being flat? As a result, should we shift any of our sales or marketing resources?
  • What changes should we make in the new year that will help us drive up the overall value, or net worth of the business? (Beyond just driving up revenue and profit – i.e.: reducing customer or supplier concentration issues, improving systems, increasing customer stickiness, building sales pipeline, etc).

We could certainly continue with great questions to discuss with your team but here are some to begin the discussion. Leverage your internal data to help answer these questions and see what new thinking comes out of your dialog. You can be sure that you will come up with value creating ideas that will help build a stronger company which will then enable your preparation for a future euphoric exit event.

More in this category: « Employee Incentives And Acquirer Expectations Conduct A Due Diligence Dress Rehearsal »
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