Asking the Negative Questions?
Marc Charbonneau
Working with the amazing team at ViiV Healthcare, I help patients to optimize their care.
If you are a good marketer or salesperson, you have no doubt done a pretty decent analysis of your business situation. You know who your ideal customer is, where the market is going and why people choose your product versus the competition.
Human nature being what it is, we tend to focus on the questions for which information is available and that add new elements to our business plans. I call these “Positive” questions.?
When thinking about our business however, many forget to consider the “Negative” questions like who should not be our customer? What tactics are under performing? What don’t we know about our market, customers or product?
It is a bit counter intuitive, but by looking at the gaps and where things are not working, you can get important insights that help you to better invest your limited time and resources.
Want to better understand your business? One thing that you need to be doing is making sure that you are asking the negative questions as well.
Partner in health, growth, innovation, learning
3 年Yes, and this goes against mainstream pop culture where all you need is positive thoughts, right? Also known as the Weaknesses and Threats in the SWOT. It is awkward to bring them up but they are, ultimately, what drive companies to the ground. Every company is navigating in the same environment of their competition and therefore have the same Opportunities out there, but it is by not addressing your internal Weaknesses where you will cause yourself to lag. It is facing the ugly truth. An external consultant should be brought in frequently to moderate the conversation of unveiling the negative questions.