Strategy Assessment Series #2 - Assessing and Enhancing Your Products and Services

Welcome to the second instalment of the Strategy Assessment Series! In the previous newsletter, I covered assessing your online subscriptions and purchases.? If you missed that newsletter, you could go here to read it.

In this edition, I will take you through some steps to assess your product and service offerings, whether active or not, regardless of where they reside (on your website, elsewhere, or even in your archives). The goal is to ensure that your offerings are aligned with your strategic objectives and deliver value to your customers.

I also select a Kaizen tool so that you get the dual benefit.? Learn a new tool and do the assessment - that's a great double whammy.

The tool I am using during this demonstration is the 5 Whys. ?Here is the template, continue reading and you will see it in action.

Depending on how long you’ve been in business and how many twists and turns you’ve taken, will depend on the number of products and/ or services sitting in your list. Working for both corporate and SME, I can assure you that the more the company expands, the more products you have that should be re-evaluated.

Your Products and Services List/Portfolio.

The question is – do you have one?? Start with understanding all the products and services you have. You can create a spreadsheet and document them The spreadsheet should have:

1.????? Name of product/ service

2.????? Date launched.

3.????? Active/ Inactive

4.????? Last sale made.

5.????? Last updated

6.????? Website address

7.????? Membership/one-off sale

8.????? Type of clients

9.????? Goal of this product/ service

10. Does it still align with the business goals?

?The Clean Up

Work out a strategy to remove all the inactive services.? This may be bigger than just removing it or hiding it on a website.? This can take a little time so make sure you work the plan into your daily or weekly tasks. You will want to check if there is an email list it is linked to and remove or stop this as well.? Take the clients linked to this email list and send them a note to say the program is no longer available and if they would like to be added to your main list.? This could be an opportunity for more sales. (depending on the outcome of the assessment)

You may also want to save information that could be used later.

Assessing the active products and services.

Asking these questions will help you decide whether these should be closed off or improved or are working as they should be.

1.????? When was the last sale made on this product or service?? Just because it was a long time ago, doesn't mean you need to close it – first, see how it stacks up with the rest of the questions.

2.????? Does the product or service still align with your Business strategy?

3.????? Does it align with your business values? This is a big one.

4.????? Do the customers who purchased the product or services align with your current ideal customer?

5.????? Have you regularly updated this product or service?

6.????? Does this product or service bring you joy? An unusual question to ask but an important one.? Whatever you are doing should spark joy and if it doesn’t, then it could become more of a stress in your business.

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Let’s get into the Kaizen Tool

?Introducing the "5 Whys" Technique:

Now that we know where our products and services are and if it’s worth keeping them, we want to know if our products and services are performing and if not, why not.

To guide us through this assessment, we introduce the "5 Whys" technique, a powerful tool that originated from Kaizen principles. This method involves asking "why" five times to uncover the root causes of issues or challenges.

Using the "5 Whys" for Product and Service Assessment:

Let's apply the "5 Whys" technique to your product and service from a sales perspective.?

There can be multiple reasons why a product or service is underperforming ranging from personal health issues to poor campaigns to lack of interest.

Using the 5 whys can help you really connect the root cause. If you know the root cause, you can make better-informed decisions.

Scenario: You have a product in your portfolio that's not meeting sales expectations.

• First "Why": Why is this product underperforming? Answer: Because the marketing campaign for this product didn't generate the expected interest.
• Second "Why": Why didn't the marketing campaign work as expected? Answer: Because the messaging didn't resonate with the target audience.
• Third "Why": Why didn't the messaging resonate with the target audience? Answer: Because we didn't fully understand the audience's needs and preferences.
• Fourth "Why": Why didn't we understand the audience's needs and preferences? Answer: Because we haven't conducted thorough market research recently.
• Fifth "Why": Why haven't we conducted thorough market research recently? Answer: Because we've been allocating our resources and time to other priorities.

By reaching the fifth "Why," you've uncovered a root issue: the allocation of resources and time away from market research. Now, you can address this fundamental problem to enhance your product and service portfolio effectively.

Taking Action and Enhancement: Now that you've identified the root cause, it's time to take action:

• Allocate more resources and time to conduct comprehensive market research.
• Update the marketing strategy for the underperforming product to align with audience preferences.
• Continuously monitor and assess the impact of these changes.

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5 Whys is an incredibly versatile tool that can be applied to various aspects of your business. In the example I've shared here, we used it to dig deep into the reasons behind a product's sales performance. However, you can employ the 5 Whys for every facet of your assessment.

Example: ?if you have a product or service that has been inactive for some time, ask yourself, 'Why?' and continue the questioning process with the 5 Whys. This approach can illuminate a clear pathway for making informed decisions.

Now that you have another continuous improvement tool to work through strategic assessment and anything else in your business, let me know how you are tracking and if you use it, what the results are.

Stay committed to your strategic assessment and continuous improvement and I know you will see results. Stay tuned for the next edition and start working on clearing anything not serving you right now.

You can book an exploratory session with me here