Your business strategy is a primary differentiator that is easily visible to your marketplace. Although a client may not readily be able to identify a point of difference between you and your competitor as a business strategy, it is one of the few mechanisms by which buying assessments are made. Given that, it’s important to get your strategy right.
Once you’ve artfully crafted your strategy, how can you tell it’s the one?
This Is A Test!
It’s easy to get attached to our ingenuity — to become enamored with our own brilliance. For your strategy to be successful, however, it’s important to “pass muster,” as they say in the military.
So, put on the hat of your greatest critic and subject your strategy to the deepest criticism with the following analysis.
- In what way does your strategy serve your primary client?
- How does your business strategy align with your business mission, capabilities, and objectives?
- What sustainable competitive advantage does it create?
- How does it boost growth in profitability and long-term gain?
- How does your business strategy help you capitalize on opportunities within the market?
- What critical problems does it solve for your business?
- How does it make your competitors uncomfortable? (This is my personal favorite.)
- What business assumptions are being ignored in your evaluation?
As with any worthwhile business endeavor, it’s never easy. In fact, some of the most vital aspects of growing our business are also our most challenging. But, in the long run, you’ll be glad you took the time to test your business strategy for effectiveness.
