10 Business Strategy Questions to Build a Strong Business
A strong business starts with a strong strategy. The building blocks starts with having the right answers to some fundamental questions. In this blog, we will walk you through different types of strategies and the 1o business strategy questions that will help you to establish the foundation for your business.
Different Types of Strategies
Developing a strategy is about asking the right questions, and making choices based on research, logic, and trade-offs when necessary. Often, there is confusion about which strategies are required, what they are and when you need to do them.
Here is a quick review of each:
Business Strategy
A business strategy considers many things, including market structure, competitors, market segmentation, market trends, organizational scale, culture, product and service delivery, cash flow, technology, and more.
Brand Strategy
A brand strategy is built around how your brand identity is perceived and your business’s reputation. It outlines a brand’s unique characteristics and values.
Marketing Strategy
The last one to consider is the marketing strategy. In the marketing strategy, you are taking a deeper dive into the business’s products, services and value. This plays a big role in developing effective sales funnels, which we explore further in the blog. The main goal of marketing is actively promoting and selling a product or service at the right price, at the right time for the buyer.
Grab your pen and paper (or your laptop) and get ready to work. We believe that success is based on 20% skill and effort and 80% is in the strategy! Here’s your chance to define each one and dare to be different.
Developing a Strong Business Strategy
Whether you are an entrepreneur or a small business owner, it’s important to build the roadmap before you dive into the tactics. A key responsibility of a business owner is to create a business strategy with a well-defined vision and to have it communicated to the organization, customers, and stakeholders. A well-developed strategy sets the stage for business growth. To begin creating your business strategy, start by answering 10 key questions that will establish the foundation for building your brand and marketing strategies.
“Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.” Michael Porter, Author & Academic
10 Business Strategy Questions
1. What is the vision for your company?
What is your vision? What does your product or service offer your customers, stakeholders, and employees?
2. How will you make the business grow?
What are the organization’s plans for growth and what are the specific growth targets? There are various ways to grow, through acquisition and organically, including expansion into new markets, increased market share, development of new products, etc.
3. What is the core strength of your business?
Describe its greatest strengths. What are the foundational elements of the business? Is the status quo being challenged? What is working, can you do more of it and how you can do it better?
4. What isn’t working?
What items are hurting businesses and consuming resources without creating actual value? These could be anything from an unpromising customer segment you’re pursuing to an internal process that decreases agility. Challenge the status quo. Don’t be afraid to voice the roadblocks in your path.
5. What are the biggest roadblocks?
What are the biggest threats to organizational performance, both external and internal? Can they be listed and prioritized which are most detrimental to the business?
6. What are the disruptions your business could face?
Identify potential disruptions your business faces, whether it’s the competition or the release of a game-changing technology.
7. What can be improved upon?
How can you improve the products or services you bring to the market?
8. What do your customers want now and in the future?
What do your customers want from the business today? Will this change in the next 5 years?
9. How do your employees play into your strategy?
Do you have the right team to help bring your products and services to market?
10. How do shareholders fit into your business strategy?
Are there plans to take the business public at some point? Is there a need for investors?
Once these questions have been answered you will have the framework for the business strategy and the goals the business is seeking to achieve. Building and filling the sales funnel needs to fit into the overall growth targets of the business. Marketing and sales teams as well as everyone else in the organization need to understand and connect with the business strategy for successful execution.
360 Integral Marketing can help you develop a roadmap for your business to excel based on your business’s unique value proposition, the strength of your brand, and the competitive landscape. This will determine the best pathway for acquiring and increasing your sales. Contact us for a 15-minute introductory call to determine the best strategies to grow your business.
