Sales and Marketing Problem Brief Generator

This tool will generate two MS Word documents that neatly summarize a current marketing or sales issue you are facing and a synthesis of the overall strategy for your brand. The documents that are generated will be emailed to you; you should find it formatted in a suitable manner for sharing with your peers and managers to build support for a solution. Please note that on submitting data input into this tool, you will identify yourself to the Guiding Star Communications and Consulting team for follow-up.

We respect your privacy. Your name and contact information will not be sold or shared with any other organization.

Let's jump right to the heart of things.

Section 1

Please enter your name:

Which Organization is this for?

Email Address:

Tell us, in general terms, about a current marketing or sales challenge:

Please provide insight into how you would categorize this challenge (check all that apply):

Generating new business leads

Qualifying business leads

Nurturing existing leads

Closing sales

Cross-marketing or cross-selling

Up-marketing or up-selling

Nurturing or creating loyalty

Generating referrals

Training

How long have you been facing this challenge?

How is this challenge impacting performance to your objectives?

Often, marketing and sales challenges can be better understood by looking at market or brand barriers that interfere with success.

What market (external) barriers are contributing to this challenge?

What brand (internal) barriers are contributing to this challenge?

Sometimes, marketing and sales challenges are aggravated by inadequate attention paid to market drivers (ie., prevailing circumstances that, if amplified, drive business success)

What drivers might be suboptimally supported in this challenge?

Beliefs usually precede behaviour. In this next section of the Problem Brief Generator, we will explore up to 3 behaviours that you believe your clients should embrace for your brand to be successful. For each behaviour, you will be asked to try to identify what beliefs your clients must have to actually move them to the desired behaviour. Then, you will be asked to explore, from your perspective, where there is a gap – is the behaviour not realized because the belief(s) is(are) missing, or is there some other explanation?

Objective 1

What do you want your clients to do (i.e., behaviour) relating to your brand?

What do you need your clients to believe in order to realize the behaviour?

What about the current circumstances is contributing to a gap in the behaviour/belief framework, keeping you from resolving your identified challenge?

Objective 2

What do you want your clients to do (i.e., behaviour) relating to your brand?

What do you need your clients to believe in order to realize the behaviour?

What about the current circumstances is contributing to a gap in the behaviour/belief framework, keeping you from resolving your identified challenge?

Objective 3

What do you want your clients to do (i.e., behaviour) relating to your brand?

What do you need your clients to believe in order to realize the behaviour?

What about the current circumstances is contributing to a gap in the behaviour/belief framework, keeping you from resolving your identified challenge?

What key messages, if embraced by your target audience or this segment, would overcome barriers, support drivers, and overcome the business challenge?

What part of your target audience (or which segment) is a party to the identified challenge?

Identify all relevant tactical elements currently being used to address the challenge with the target audience(s) or segment(s).

If you have not yet tried a tactical element, identify the reasons keeping you from using this. Finally, indicate your interest in (re)exploring the tactic to address your challenge in the right-most column of this table.

Used	Not Used	Tactic	Interested?
		Advocacy development (e.g., enduring advisory panels/boards, train the trainer programs) Reasoning why tactic was not utilized: Poor match with audience Anticipated poor ROI Reasoning: (entry)
		Sales force tactics (e.g., cold calling, relationship activities, sales rep calls, sales force development programs sales incentive/bonus programs, sales meetings) Reasoning why tactic was not utilized: Poor match with audience Anticipated poor ROI Reasoning: (entry)
		Telemarketing (e.g., outbound calling, inbound call handling) Reasoning why tactic was not utilized: Poor match with audience Anticipated poor ROI Reasoning: (entry)
		Market research (e.g., qualitative research, quantitative research,key informant interviews, focus groups, expert Delphi process, behaviour tracking, online opinion collection) Reasoning why tactic was not utilized: Poor match with audience Anticipated poor ROI Reasoning: (entry)
		Internet marketing (e.g., online advertising, email campaigns, organic search optimization (websites),paid search, webinars, viral campaigns/offers, email newsletters, landin gpages, rapid e-learning programs) Reasoning why tactic was not utilized: Poor match with audience Anticipated poor ROI Reasoning: (entry)
		Event marketing (e.g., tradeshows,live seminars or events, event sponsorship) Reasoning why tactic was not utilized: Poor match with audience Anticipated poor ROI Reasoning: (entry)
		Publicity (e.g., product/solution related stories, media releases, speaking engagements, blogging) Reasoning why tactic was not utilized: Poor match with audience Anticipated poor ROI Reasoning: (entry)
		Direct mail (e.g., post cards, letters) Reasoning why tactic was not utilized: Poor match with audience Anticipated poor ROI Reasoning: (entry)
		Traditional Media Advertising (e.g., print ads, yellow pages, radio, outdoor, TV) Reasoning why tactic was not utilized: Poor match with audience Anticipated poor ROI Reasoning: (entry)
		Marketing communcations collateral(e.g., sales aids, brochures, branded giveaways Reasoning why tactic was not utilized: Poor match with audience Anticipated poor ROI Reasoning: (entry)
		Loyalty programs (e.g., points programs,discount programs, buy X get one free, channel enablement programs/systems,dealer/broker incentive programs, partner programs, launch screen events,rebate systems,customer appreciationevents Reasoning why tactic was not utilized: Poor match with audience Anticipated poor ROI Reasoning: (entry)