Great Client Questionaire

A great profile of Harvey Mackay, the well-known author of multiple business best-sellers, on About.com. The story contains a link to the Mackay 66, a tool Mackay uses in his businesses for gathering information about customers. The instructions:

It's critical to have information about your customer. Armed with the right knowledge, we can outsell, outmanage, outmotivate and outnegotiate our competitors. Knowing your customer means knowing what your customer really wants. Maybe it's your product, but maybe there is something else, too: recognition, respect, reliability, service, friendship, help - things all of us care more about as human beings that we care about malls or envelopes. Once you attach your personality to the proposition, people start reacting to the personality, and stop reacting to the proposition.

Use this questionnaire to develop a profile of each customer. Some of your resources for the information might include secretaries, receptionists, suppliers, newspapers, assistants, trade publications, and the customer themselves. Look, listen, and learn all you can about the customer, both personally and professionally. You'll find topics for opening conversations, which can open doors for you and your company.

My favorite is number 66: "Does your competitor have better answers to the above questions than you have?"