There are approximately seven weeks until the end of the year. Subtract three for holiday weeks that give you, at best, about 50 percent productivity with all the distractions, time off and seasonal merriment.

Which means you only have four solid weeks to get ready for 2012. If you’re perfectly content with your sales, lead generation results, customer retention and the amount of word of mouth you’re generating, then your work is done.

However, if you’d like things to be a little better, a little more consistent, a little more reliable and a little more profitable, then you have four weeks to put things in order.

Let’s start by asking some questions to set the tone for 2012:

What do you really sell? Do you understand what your customers are really buying? Odds are, it’s much more than the thing you sell. Look beyond the tangible or what you list on an invoice.

Do you really sell peace of mind? Or a competitive edge? Are your customers buying the reassurance of your years of experience or your ability to nudge them out of their comfort zone?

Before you can effectively help someone buy, you need to understand what you’re selling.

Who is your ideal customer? One of the biggest mistakes most businesses make is that they cast too wide a net when it comes to prospecting. Your intentional marketing efforts should be laser focused on those people and companies who are ideally suited to benefit the most from your offerings AND bring the best benefits (profits, repeat business, referrals, longevity, etc.) back to you.

Are you running around like Chicken Little, trying to make sure that everyone and anyone knows about your business? Do you spend marketing dollars on long shots and Hail Mary passes?

Unless you have an unlimited marketing budget and time on your hands, you can’t afford to waste one minute or one dollar on anyone who isn’t ideal.

What’s a customer worth? I’m always surprised when people don’t know the answer to this question. If I said to you “for every $100 you give me, I will give you a customer” – is that a good deal for you? How about for every $1,000? Five dollars?

The truth is, most business owners have no idea what a customer is worth to their business. If that’s the case, how do you know how much you can afford to spend to get one?

What kinds of decisions do you think you’d make in terms of acquiring new customers if I told you that over the lifetime of your relationship, every customer is worth $500 in profit? How would your choices change if I said each one is worth $10,000?

What story do you want customers to tell about you? Everyone loves referrals. Once someone loves what you do enough to endorse it with his or her good name, you’re halfway home.

So if referrals are so powerful, what are you doing to encourage them? When you do get customers to talk about you, do you know what they’re saying? The story they tell is as important as your website copy, your brochure or your sales pitch.

Spend a little time on these questions, and next week we’ll weave your answers into the outline of a marketing plan for 2012.

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and blogs at www.drewsmarketingminute.com. He can be reached by email at Drew@MclellanMarketing.com.© 2011 Drew McLellan