I had a wonderful opportunity to be with one of my mentors in three different client settings. I am sure people in project, account, product, and sales setting have gone through the stakeholder management aspects. Whether it was a formal status meeting, casual hallway conversation, informal dinner meeting, or an internal project evaluation meeting, I found it very inspiring to see how my mentor was skillfully weaving these questions to eliminate ambiguity and establish a solid business relationship.
While I added a few of my own color from account and project management, I felt such a strong reinforcement of these questions that I felt compelled to package these questions for the community at large. So, here goes the list. Feel free to add - focus however on strategic account & project management and not bury with technical aspects of platform and feasibility here!
- What are your goals and objectives? Are you interested in market expansion, market penetration, or both? What's your timeline?
- What are your challenges to meeting these goals and objectives? How would addressing these challenges benefit you and your organization financially?
- What are the profiles of stakeholders that you are looking at to satisfy with your campaign?
- What types of population are you planning to target? Why are these targets important to you?
- What types of channels are you planning to use? What data points do you have to support these channels to effectively reach your population?
- How much of your budget are you willing to spend on these channels? What's your exit strategy?
- How would meeting these goals and overcoming challenges enhance the competitiveness of the product?
- If you were to meet your goal, what would this mean to you?
- If these challenges are not met or goals accomplished, what does this mean to you?
- What's an example of a successful campaign or meeting? What data points are you looking at to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign or efficiency of the meeting?
- What's your communication style?
- What's your risk profile? Are you adventurous and creative to try new things?
