It is debatable whether anyone can call a strategy “great” until you see the results of the efforts the strategy creates. But there are two essential questions at the heart of setting a good strategy:
- Who is your customer?
- What do they value?
Begin with the customer. No customer, no business.
Simple, foundational, but often missed because people become enamored with a new technology, tool, or idea.
These may be great, but if the customer isn’t looking at them or needing them…it doesn’t matter.
Which leads to the second question: what does the customer value?
Sales happens because a customer sees a solution that they think will create more value for them than the cost. People are almost never buying a tool, a project, or anything except for a solution. That solution comes in the shape of the value that the customer receives.
If you know the answers to these two questions, you can begin to build a business that has a chance to allow you to capture some of the value you’ve created in the form of sales and profits.