Ask new questions, learn new things…potentially helping your future company sale
Ask yourself these questions – is it possible that the dialog my team is having with our customers has become stale? Is our familiarity with them now serving as a weakness because we assume we know all there is to know? Could we have entered a comfort zone and we’re not learning new things that we should be?
Periodically it’s a great step to refresh the dialog that your team is having with external parties, such as customers and even suppliers. Asking new questions will help facilitate new strategic thinking and strategic dialog within your team, leading to potential new innovations in products and services.
Here are a few good questions to ensure your team is asking and reporting back to ownership/leadership:
About our industry:
- What changes do you see currently impacting our industry and any changes you think might be coming our way?
- Are you seeing new players enter our space – either new competitors for you or us?
- Are you seeing investment dollars flow in or out of our industry and what do you think is driving this?
- Where do you see technology potentially changing how you do things or changing what you may need from us?
About our partnership:
- Of everyone you issue purchase orders to for anything, not just our products/services, are we your best supplier? If yes, what specifically are we doing that you appreciate? If not, where do you see others performing stronger?
- Are there products/services that you believe you should be able to get from us, but we don’t currently offer them?
- Is there a headache or opportunity you are dealing with or see coming that you’d like our help managing through?
- Where would you like to see us investing in ourselves so that we can help you even more?
These are just a few examples of new questions to ask your customers to freshen the dialog. And some could even provide valuable insights from suppliers. In strategic thinking, it’s called having good situational awareness about what’s happening outside your four walls. Don’t assume you know, regularly check by refreshing the questions being asked. Ask new questions, learn new things, facilitate healthy strategic dialog and build your company worth – zero downside and only upside for you.
