The Ultimate Needs Analysis for Digital Sales
(This version has been updated using suggestions from working digital executives. Other advice from the field: There is no way to "overtrain" on this, "lead with business questions" to understand the clients business, then follow with digital marketing questions; these may be "spread over two or three conversations." Included at the end of this document is a short form that can be used for smaller clients and shorter meetings).
Advertisers are interested reaching people via the internet and are looking for expertise. That means sales representatives need to ask different and detailed quesiotns - even with clients they may have had for years.
A great needs analysis, however, is not really just a list of questions but a conversation and an investigation: Look for the company's best audience and a message that will motivate them to take an action.
Finally, the most important part of the discussion is often missed: Obtaining agreement from the advertiser on what "campaign success" will be.
For a two call close, use this as a quide and don't be afraid to call the client later and ask more questions. If the meetings are shorter, these can be asked over two or three casual conversations, follow-up calls or emails.
Precall research
This questionnaire assumes that sales reps have already done some preliminary research:
• Looked at the web site to find what products and services are offered and how leads are being captured
• Looked up the company's presence on Facebook and Twitter
• Searched the company's name and top key words on Google
• Noted the top search competitors
All of the above should be printed and included in a folder that goes with them on the first interview. That said, here is a long form needs analysis for a first interview. Please share your feedback on how it can be improved:
Digital Sales Analysis Questionnaire
Name of customer__________________________Business____________________
Business description
What are the divisions/major product categories that you sell?
Which are the most popular?
Most profitable/has the highest margin?
What is the ammount of a typical sale per customer with the first sale/ annually?
What are your top business objectives this year?
1.
2.
3.
How are you progressing at this point?
What are your biggest challenges?
1.
2.
3.
How well known is your company in the area?
Audience
Who is your typical “best” customer age/gender for (each of major products)?
Do you know which geographical areas are they coming from?
Do you know when they typically buy (during the day or seasonally)?
Why do they buy from you, as opposed to the business down the street?
Competition
Review competitors found on the internet.
Who do you see as your top competitors?
What are their strengths?
What is your company uniquely better at?
Marketing
What is your top source of new business? What else?
What does your marketing mix consist of (digital, print, tv/radio yellow pages)?
What has been most successful?
What portion of new business comes from search?
How much of your budget is allocated to online?
What is your web site primarily used for?
Search
What do you see as the key search terms
_______________2.______________________3.________________
Are you using pay-per-click ads? If so:
CPC_________CTR____________________Costperlead_______________
Have you used any offers that people have responded to?
Email:
How do you use email marketing (for retention or acquisition?)
What offers if any do you use in the emails?
What kind of return do you get?
How do you acquire new names for the email database?
Online advertising (banner ads):
What publisher sites are you on?
What positions?
Did they link to the web site?
What percentage converts? What do you count as conversions (clicks, emails, calls, sales)?
Social media
Are you using Twitter, Facebook or YouTube?
How are you developing fans?
Mobile marketing
Text campaigns or mobile banner ads? Converions?
Define campaign objectives
What is your primary marketing obective right now ? _____________________________________.
A secondary objective is_________________________________________________________.
What would a great return on investment from your campaign would look like?________________________________.
What is the most important conversion tool (emails, calls, coupons, clicks)
If we could generate or bring in _______________________________ for a reasonable price would that meet your objective?
If we could obtain this objective for an investment of_______________a month be a sustainable model?
SHORT FORM
• What are your three top goals this year? Biggest challenge?
• Who is your typical customer (age/gender/zip)? Average sale?
• What does your marketing mix consist of?
• What medium has been most successful?
• How is marketing budget allocated between offline/digital? Are you considering changing this? • What do you use your web site for mostly? What is your current online marketing strategy? • How are you using Search Marketing a.) Pay-Per-Clicks (keywords) • What kind of Email Marketing so you do? • How are you using Facebook? Twitter? Youtube? • Any kind of Mobile Marketing? • What sites do you run display (banner) ads on? What positions? • What has your conversion rate been per online marketing campaign? Which have been most successful • If you invested $500 in marketing, What would you consider a great return (in emails collected, phone calls, coupon redemption, clicks, etc)? Thanks to Zach Payer, of Evening Post;Jane Bogue, media consultant; John Christensen, Tatiana Burdiak, Gena Hamilton and Barbara C. Fignar of JRC Interactive for contributing to this document and the conversation.
• Do you have any type of web analytics set up on your website for site metrics and campaign tracking?
b.) Search Engine Optimization (organic search)
a.) Use for customer retention? Or acquisition?
b.) How did/di you acquire your customer database?
Keywords
needs analysis, sales, questionnaire
