The Golden Questions: Answer These Questions. Rule Your Market.

Too often in marketing, we as solopreneurs and small-business owners ask the obvious questions and we take the answers at face value. The truth is that most of the time, we don’t really know why we do the things we do.

So imagine what would happen if we tuned in to the deeper issues and dared to find answers to the difficult questions. Think about what would happen if we took a customer orientation and developed an approach that is based on the psychology of persuasion and decision-making, rather than on our creative hunches.

In my marketing and consulting work with solopreneur and small-business clients, I have developed a piece of intellectual property, brashly titled “The Golden Questions: Answer These Questions. Rule Your Market.” If you answer even a few of these questions, you are going to own your target market. (This assumes that you act properly on the question’s answers.) It’s also true that there are many times when all of us don’t ask these questions because we don’t want to know the answers. Why? We’re too emotionally invested in our businesses; the truth could devastate.

The questions generally fall under the category of market research. I pose them to consulting/coaching clients, I answer them for marketing clients, and I use them in marketing mastermind groups.

Difficult Marketing Questions

Be aware that many of these questions cannot be answered in 15 minutes. Some take months to answer. The Golden Questions had been scattered in a Moleskine notebook, but last year I turned the questions into a workbook, thinking that I might offer it as a product. Here’s a sampling of “The Golden Questions.”

• Why have people switched to the use of my product or service?

• Why did my customers/clients not choose the competition, or other available options?

• Why did they almost reject my product/service in favor of a competitor, or another option?

• What are the weaknesses in my solopreneur marketing that almost caused them not to buy from me?

• What excuses do people use to defend not purchasing my product or service?

• What are the turn-offs that are hidden in my logo, business card, brochures, blog, Web site, exhibits, and customer service?

• What would get people to pay 20 to 40 percent or even 100 percent more for my products and services?

What To Do?

Since last summer I’ve been debating what to do with The Golden Questions. I wrote a post about it and asked for your advice. Should I sell the questions as a product? Should I keep them to myself (after all, they’re the “trade secrets” of my consulting business)? Should I give them away to people who become members of The Solopreneur Life community? You gave me great suggestions on what to do, but months passed, and I still couldn’t make up my mind.

Well, this week I concluded that I should give the questions away. I’m not exactly sure why I reached that decision! (People don’t truly know why they do things, remember.) But the one-year anniversary of TheSolopreneurLife.com is Friday, and that was the clincher; it’s a fun way to mark the anniversary and to thank you for being in the The Solopreneur Life community.

So, I’m making “The Golden Questions” available for the next 30 days. If you’d like a free copy of “The Golden Questions” in PDF format, send me an email and I will be happy to get it out to you.