How to do more business in your market’s strategic sweet spot, where your unique capabilities resonate the most with your customer and where price is less a denominating factor? The key is in proactivity. The more proactive you are as a (service) provider, the less your market puts you in the comparison with the competition. And in doing so, more importantly, you are in a position to customize and gain the respect and trust in your solutions and capabilities before the customer gives the actual order or start a comparison.

However, what holds in general, is not necessarily the case in your situation. Look for yourself where you find untapped potential:

• How do we attract the right customers?
• How proactive are we in generating business?
• How do we get more control of our revenue and margin?
• How well do we know our client’s (latent) needs?
• What are the main themes and drivers of our clients at a business level?
• How do we contribute to the business model of our client, and possibly the end-customer?
• Who are our client’s clients?
• How well is our salesforce aligned with our strategy?
• How well is our salesforce fit for purpose?
• How do we get proper information of our clients?
• How can we make better use of online marketing and social selling?
• How much impact do we have with our outside and inside sales effort?