Business Worksheet

Business Worksheet (Allow 90-120 minutes to complete with business owner. Ive gone 5 hours. Read the Questions, listen and take copious notes. The business owner will sell himself on your services.)

Business Name __________________________________________________________

How many years in business? _______________________________________________

Was this business founded by you? ___________________________________________

Is this a Family run business? _______________________________________________

Who make the final decisions? ______________________________________________

Owners Name ____________________________________________________________

Address ________________________________________________________________

City _________________________________ State ______ Zip ____________________

Phone ________________________________ Fax ______________________________

Other locations ___________________________________________________________

Email __________________________________________________________________

Website Address _________________________________________________________

Date of Meeting ________________________ Time _____________________________

Place of Meeting _________________________________________________________

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Build Trust, Show Confidence, and set the Prospect at ease. Tell the prospect this is Consulting time, there will be NO selling.

Tell the prospect your 30 second elevator pitch. What you can do for his business.

So, what I would like to do with you today is take a look at your business and see where you are, where youre going and how youre getting there and see if there might be some ways we could help your business grow and prosper.

Does that make sense? (Wait for response)

Note: If prospect asks how you get paid, say

Once we have put together a business plan based upon your existing resources we will then give you a price based upon an initial set-up and monthly management fee to maintain your sales process.

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Why did you get into this business? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What cities, towns, or areas do service? _______________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Most businesses I work with fall into one of three different situations

(Say these out loud)

1) Theyre OK but want to do better.

2) Theyre stagnant, flat-lined, and no growth in sight.

3) Theyre declining.

Where you are today? ________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If sales are down, why? (Dig deep; this is where the sale is made. If they had a PROCESS in place they wouldnt be talking to you in the first place) ________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Would you like more growth? _______________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How much more? _______% $_______________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do they have a USP? (Unique Selling Proposition)

(Look for under promoted U.S.P. including owner or staff expertise, competitive advantages price leadership, differentiation, focus, competitive disadvantages, unique products, guarantees, unique benefits, services, etc)

What is the message you want to get out to the public? ___________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why should people do business with you? _____________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do all of your customers, prospects, vendors, and staff know that? ________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why? __________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why not? _______________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Is your U.S.P. well integrated into all marketing efforts including your staff? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Leverage Current Marketing Process:

(Look for low closing ratio, sub-par sales people, no follow-up, up-selling opportunities, packaging opportunities, current sales aides, staff allocation of time, reallocation of marketing dollars or redirection of marketing efforts to more profitable areas)

Tell me about your current prospect to sales process: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is your average closing ratio: ____________%?

What happens to the other ____________% who doesnt buy? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Has your sales team been trained professionally? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When was the last time they were trained? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How often do you train your staff? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Do you have a consistent method to follow-up on your prospects and leads? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Past, Present, and Prospective Customers:

(Look for a customer base that is not being worked, inactive customers, lack of a data base, cross selling opportunities in the business, back end opportunities, re-activation opportunities etc.)

How much does each customer spend now?

_______________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

On the initial transaction? $_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Per year? $ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is your average Profit per transaction? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have you calculated the Lifetime Value of a new customer? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What about Up-sells, Cross sells, Down-sells, Service or Maintenance agreements?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Could that be improved? How? ______________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you maintain a data base of prospects and customers? _________________________

________________________________________________________________________

How often is your Database updated? _________________________________________

How many names on it now? ________________________________________________

How many are active? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How do you capture customer and prospect information? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What info is being collected? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What are you doing now to consistently invite your customers back? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Don't you think it would be important to consistently ask them to do business with you? (Remember, past and current customers are your best selling opportunities)

Joint Ventures or Alliance Opportunities

(Look for relationships with other businesses, particularly in their in own data base, look for businesses who target the same type of customer or has them in their data base now, look for complementary businesses that are located nearby.)

Who are your customers? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Age Sex Income __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Where do they live? _______________________________________________________

Are they individuals? ______________________________________________________

Families? _______________________________________________________________

Other Businesses? ________________________________________________________

What is their lifestyle? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What other products or services do these people buy? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What other businesses appeal to them? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What other businesses do you know who may have the same type of customers? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Is it possible for you to establish a marketing alliance with them? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Media

(Look for the different media they use, do they have an objective, do they use the media for their strengths, do they budget enough to be effective, do they spray & pray, do they reach the right market, with enough frequency, is the message compelling, is donation confused with advertising.)

Do you do media advertising? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is your Monthly or Annual budget for Advertising/Marketing?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have any Seasonal budgeting? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How do you determine where to spend your marketing dollars? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What Media do you feel works the best? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Can you tell me about your most successful campaign? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What do you feel doesn't work? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What was your Worst campaign? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What do you generally say in your ads? What is the message you want to get out? ________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What current Media do you use for advertising?Yellow Pages __________________ % of Budget ______________

Direct Mail __________________ % of Budget ______________

Internet __________________ % of Budget ______________

Search Engine Marketing ________ % of Budget ______________

PPC (Pay Per Click) ____________ % of Budget ______________

Newspaper __________________ % of Budget ______________

Television _________________ % of Budget ______________

Radio _________________ % of Budget ______________

Billboards __________________ % of Budget ______________

Email Marketing _______________ % of Budget ______________

Newsletters __________________ % of Budget ______________

Mobile Marketing ______________ % of Budget ______________

Other ________________________ % of Budget ______________

Door Hangers, Flyers, Business Cards, etc

How are you tracking your current marketing efforts? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have you calculated the R.O.I. (Return on Investment) from each media?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What percentage % of your annual budget is spent on New Customer Acquisition vs Current and Past Customers?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Is your Website making you Money? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________How do you drive traffic to your website? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Are you currently working with any type of Advertising/Marketing or Internet Company?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What about in the past? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Why did you terminate the relationship? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Local or Neighborhood Marketing

(Look for ways to boost their image in the community if there is unique owner expertise. Ideas for seminars or workshops, maybe you could you write a press release? Are there community relationships that could be established, are there sponsorships or donations that would be appropriate?)

What do you do now for boosting your image in the community? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have vehicles that are seen by the public? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you do any donations or group sponsorships? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Could they be leveraged for greater impact? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Is there anything occurring in your business that would be newsworthy? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Direct Marketing

(Look for ways in which the business and its products and services could be marketed directly to the consumer through a letter, classified ad, infomercial, etc. See if this could expand the business beyond the local area.)

What products do you have that could be marketed directly to consumers by mail or other means? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Are you doing it now? _____________________________________________________

(If yes), tell me about the process: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(If no), why not? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have an Exit or Succession Strategy? _________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What are your expectations if you should decide to work with us?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Is there anything else you would like to discuss?

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