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Strategic Corporate Messaging Assessment
1. A POWERFUL TOOL For Evaluating Your Company’s
Ability to Deliver a Clear, Compelling
and Consistent Customer Experience.
May 2013
QUESTIONSEVERY EXECUTIVE MUST ASK ABOUT
THEIR CORPORATE MESSAGING
EVERY EXECUTIVE MUST ASK ABOUT
THEIR CORPORATE MESSAGING
11
QUESTIONS
11
2. This tool enables marketing and business executives to evaluate corporate
messaging effectiveness. By answering these strategic questions you’ll have
a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities your company
faces with respect to delivering compelling and differentiated messaging in
every customer conversation.
3. 11 QUESTIONS EVERY EXECUTIVE MUST ASk ABOUT THEIR CORPORATE MESSAGING 3
Q1: How well do you believe the messaging used in sales/marketing materials and customer
conversations map to your strategic business drivers and product/service offerings?
q Not at all
q Very little
q For the most part
q Completely
Based on your answer, what can you do to ensure your messaging more accurately reflects the strategic vision and
direction of your business?
Q2: When was the last time you audited/assessed the accuracy and consistency of your corporate
messaging across your core sales and marketing materials?
q Within the last 6 months
q Within the last 9 months
q Within the last year
q Never been done
Based on your answer, what corrective action will you take to align your messaging with the current state of your
business and ensure it still resonates/connects with your customer’s needs?
A STRATEGIC CORPORATE MESSAGING ASSESSMENT
4. 11 QUESTIONS EVERY EXECUTIVE MUST ASk ABOUT THEIR CORPORATE MESSAGING 4
Q3: How often are you frustrated when you overhear conversations with customers/prospects or
see sales/marketing materials that don’t convey the story you know you should be telling?
q Never
q Rarely
q Too often
q All the time
Based on your answer to this question, what specific actions can you put into play that will ensure this doesn’t
happen in the future?
Q4: When was the last time your employees and sales professionals were formally trained on your
messaging and how to deliver your company’s story in customer and sales situations?
q Within the last 6 months
q Within the last year
q Within the last 18 months
q Never
Based on your answer, what can your HR, marketing and business executives do to ensure employees understand
and absorb the messages you want to convey in the market?
A STRATEGIC CORPORATE MESSAGING ASSESSMENT
5. 11 QUESTIONS EVERY EXECUTIVE MUST ASk ABOUT THEIR CORPORATE MESSAGING 5
Q5: How would you rate your messaging in the following key areas?
CLEAR: quickly resonates with prospects/customers and clearly describes who you are and what you do.
q Strong
q Adequate
q Needs significant improvement
COMPELLING: presents a compelling reason why your prospects/customers need your product/service and clearly
describes the value you deliver.
q Strong
q Adequate
q Needs significant improvement
CONSISTENT: key messages are consistently used in prospect/customer situations and communication vehicles.
q Strong
q Adequate
q Needs significant improvement
UNIQUE: clearly explains your point of difference and why prospects/customers should choose you over the
competition.
q Strong
q Adequate
q Needs significant improvement
Based on your answers, what action should marketing and business executives take to improve your messaging in
each of these areas?
A STRATEGIC CORPORATE MESSAGING ASSESSMENT
6. 11 QUESTIONS EVERY EXECUTIVE MUST ASk ABOUT THEIR CORPORATE MESSAGING 6
Q6: Do you have someone in your organization or a partner that “wakes up every day” with the
mission of developing and managing how your message is utilized across all communication
channels?
q Yes
q No
List the reasons why you do or do not feel you should have an executive or strategic partner that is responsible for
this critical aspect of your business?
Q7: How would you rate your company’s ability to deliver a clear, compelling and consistent
message across the entire prospect/customer experience? (initial contact, demand generation, the
sales process and post-sale communication)
q Extremely effective
q Needs improvement
q Extremely ineffective
Based on your answer, what specific action or investments must you make to create a more compelling customer
experience?
A STRATEGIC CORPORATE MESSAGING ASSESSMENT
7. 11 QUESTIONS EVERY EXECUTIVE MUST ASk ABOUT THEIR CORPORATE MESSAGING 7
Q8: Does your company follow a formal, repeatable process for auditing, assessing and aligning
messaging with customer needs and market trends?
q Yes
q No
If you answered no to this question, and you feel this is critical to business growth, what action will you take to
ensure a formal process is put in place?
Q9: Which best describes how your current messaging helps you attract new customers and close
more business?
q Puts us in the best possible position to win
q Adequately positions what we do but is not delivered consistently enough
q Doesn’t seem to connect or resonate quickly enough with customers/prospects
Based on your answer, what action can you take to ensure your messaging creates more compelling and effective
customer/prospect conversations?
A STRATEGIC CORPORATE MESSAGING ASSESSMENT
8. 11 QUESTIONS EVERY EXECUTIVE MUST ASk ABOUT THEIR CORPORATE MESSAGING 8
Q10: Do you have the resources and expertise to develop messaging that resonates with your target
audience and clearly differentiates you from the competition?
q Yes
q No
Based on your answer, how can you secure the resources/expertise required to ensure your company develops and
consistently utilizes messaging that puts you in the best possible position to increase market share (for instance:
hire a dedicated resource, engage a strategic partner, etc.)?
Q11: Based on your answers to all of these questions, how important is it that you invest more time,
resources and dollars to improve your company’s messaging?
q Need to make it an executive level priority and budget item this year
q Need to focus more of my attention on messaging development and delivery
q At the very least I need to audit and assess our messaging to see if it is helping or hindering business growth
LIST ANY OTHER ACTION ITEMS, THOUGHTS AND CONCERNS THAT CAME TO MIND AS YOU COMPLETED
THIS ASSESSMENT:
THANK YOU.
By completing this assessment, we hope you have a better understanding of how well your company is positioned to
leverage messaging as a strategic weapon in the marketplace. If you have additional questions and you would like to
speak with one of our messaging experts please email info@itsonmessage.com.
A STRATEGIC CORPORATE MESSAGING ASSESSMENT
