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The Chester Summerhill (CS) Methodology

Straight as an Arrow The process for every Chester Summerhill client assignment is the same. It’s tried and true and eliminates any potential misdirection. The time it takes is short, and the time it saves the client is immeasurable.

About CS, and More About YouOnce we connect, we'll arrange for a mutually non-obligatory and convenient time to meet. Once we get together, I would be pleased to briefly take you through some past assignments (over and above the initial learning obtained through your online visit to my website and mine to yours) that were similar in nature so that you can see how certain aspects of any assignment evolve. Naturally, a great deal of the meeting will be focused on you and your firm. And another welcomed by-product of such a meeting is the chance to get to know each other and feel that there will be a pleasant experience ahead of us; for nothing can ever replace trust and confidence.

Buttoned DownFollowing the meeting will be a detailed cost estimate complete with anticipated timing and an overview of the specific assignment. Upon your approval of the estimate and assignment overview, we will move to the next step: the interview session.

Important Enough To Be RecordedA taped "round table" interview session will be conducted with you and (or) other representatives of your firm you feel would be appropriate. The interview session will be approximately 45 minutes in length and will consist of the following and more:

Objectives
Your marketplace and its current climate/status
Competition
Issues and challenges
Character/personality of your firm
Target audiences
Internal perceptions
External perceptions
Followed by (on Chester Summerhill’s time after the session) an examination of any research you may have undertaken in the past; a review of all existing marketing, communications, and sales materials you have thus far used to reach your audiences; and any media articles written on you and (or) your firm.

Insights for AllThe session itself simply by its own merits is an extraordinarily worthwhile undertaking, as most clients find the information discovered and examined tremendously useful in the operation of their business moving forward. It's a healthy thing to reach inside and pull out the essence of the organization – not something you usually have the chance or the time to do. And all it consumes is 45 minutes or so.

Forever On the MarkFollowing the interview session, Chester Summerhill will prepare and forward to you a brief document outlining the “learning” from the session along with the direction and key themes extracted from the meeting. Reviewing the document gives you, the client, a chance to look over the material on paper; exchange any comments among yourselves; agree with its findings and recommendations; and (or) make any changes or raise any issues. Having done that, the chances of Chester Summerhill being off strategy for the actual assignment will be next to nil. We find ourselves all on the same page looking forward to the moment when the assignment presentation is made…and confirmed.

Commentary from a Small Business

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