One of the key points in any long-term business relationship is know and understand your customer. You must understand their business very well to be able to offer them something of value. You must listen to what he tells you, process that information, and give him tools and solutions unique to him.
The key points that I usually ask in these first contacts, before presenting the application are the following:
1. Objectives: What do you hope to achieve with this project? What are the objectives that we should prioritize? The answer to this question is very important, as it will be used to implement the entire strategy.
2. Evaluate the objectives: Once we are clear about the objectives, we must know how we will value them. For example, if an objective is to “Increase sales”, what percentage are we talking about? (10%, 20%)? In how much time (monthly, quarterly)? During what time interval (for six months, one year, two years)?
3. Call to action: Good. We already have clear objectives and their evaluation criteria. Now we must establish the so-called “Call to action”. What we want users to do to measure the achievement of objectives. If, for example, we want many contact forms, we must agree to greatly enhance this point on the web, either by giving special importance to the contact button, or by placing forms in all the sidebars. (as I do on my website).
4. Client profile: To be able to make a good call to action, we must understand . For that we must have a very clear profile (sex, age, social group, interests, etc.). Sometimes it is not a single group, several sounded, and we must act accordingly, with different strategies for each one of them.
5. User needs: The customer’s customer also has needs. It is as important to know those as your client’s. What are the needs of your client’s customers? This point should be very clear. Are they sensory needs (a car that I like)functional (a car to take me) or symbolic (a Ferrari to show off)? Let’s start at the base!
6. Interests of shareholders (or investors): On some occasions, especially in the case of a large company, the interests of the shareholders must also be taken into account, which in some cases differ from those of the end customers or the company itself. In case they have to be taken into account (because they put the pasta)should also be considered in the decision-making process.
7. Competitor analysis: It is essential to have a list of the main competitors to be able to analyze them. In order to make decisions in the strategy, we must first know those of our competition. To play chess you must know where the opponent has each figure. Makes sense right?
8. Statistics: Do we have historical data? If the project is not new, we have a good chance of already having an Analytics account with a lot of very valuable basic data that we can use to save time and money. Sometimes they didn’t even know they had it. Let’s take advantage of that information.
These very basic and at the same time important questions are essential to start writing any strategy for a project. Not being clear about these points can lead to poorly planned strategies that in the long term will require a complete review or even abandonment. Let’s not start, then, the house from the roof, offering answers without listening to the questions 🙂
See you!