BE DiFFERENT or be dead Blog by Roy Osing

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January 22, 2010

Employee Empowerment is not Unlimited License

First of all let me be clear: when I speak of Empowerment I am referring to it as it applies to customers, and how to use it to serve a strategic purpose.

Many organizations fear the ‘E’ word.

The common myth is that if you allow people to do what they believe is necessary they will ‘give away the farm’; they will break the rules; they will disrupt the rhythm of the organization and create needless stress and strain.

Nonsense. These beliefs come from a misunderstanding of what empowerment really is. The BE DiFFERENT definition…

Empowerment is the provision of specific degrees of freedom to employees consistent with Strategic Game Plan of the organization.

What it is; what it is not:

- it is bending the rules of the organization in specific circumstances for specific customers; it is not allowing rule bending for all circumstances and for any customer. Rule bending is a critical component of the Service Strategy of an organization and results in dazzled customers with deep loyalty to the firm. It must be allowed but only under controlled circumstances;

- it is a planned course of action with its own set of rules in terms of the process an employee is to follow and the options available to them; it is not doing whatever an employee thinks is right at the time;

- it is being a few things to seleced customers; it is not being anything to all customers;

- the actions allowed are defined directly from the strategy of the organization; they are not invented on the run;

- the effectiveness of empowerment is measured against the desired outcomes; it is not ‘winging it’ and let the chips fall where they may;

- it is a proactive set of activities; it is not an unplanned reactive event;

- empowerment is contained within a ‘box’ with rigidly defined parameters and behaviors expected of an employee; it is not unfettered activity with no boundaries.

Critically examine your Strategic Game Plan and define the critical operations areas where empowering employees would be helpful to achieving the results expected.

Create an Empowerment Plan: which customers are to be included; what operations activities are ‘empowerable’ (like service recovery, service sign-up etc.); what measurable outcomes are expected and what behaviors must an employee exhibit - i.e. what is the empowerment process to be followed.

Honor your Empowerment champions. Tell stories of what they did to pain a picture of what success looks like.

Cheers, Roy

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Posted 1.22.10 at 10:48 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 19, 2010

BE DiFFERENT Strategy Creation Process

The 8 Step BE DiFFERENT Strategy Creation Process

BD #1 - HOW BIG do you want to be? Set your growth & financial goals FIRST. They drive your strategy.

BD #2 - WHO do you want to SERVE? Choose your target customers that will satisfy your HOW BIG goals.

BD #3 - HOW will you compete and WIN? Construct the ‘only’ statement to separate yourself from the pack.

BD #4 - Create your Strategic Game Plan with the previous 3 questions. This will serve you well as your strategy elevator speech.

BD #5 - Set the critical few objectives that will achieve 80% of your Strategic Game Plan.

BD #6 - Assign accountability for each Objective. Who does what by when. If no one is accountable nothing gets done.

BD #7 - Be insane about Execution. Assign a Strategy Hawk to drive implementation of your strategy.

BD #8 - Monitor, review, learn and adjust from the execution of your plan.Evolve your plan into succeeding. Plan on the run.

Cheers, Roy

Remember to follow me on Twitter
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Posted 1.19.10 at 11:24 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 16, 2010

Sales Listeners Wanted

Some sales people use a potential customer as an audience to try and impress with their product knowledge and what they believe to be their scintillating interpersonal skills. They talk, and talk, and talk about their product pausing every now and then to appreciate the wisdom of what they have just uttered.

This 1-way deluge of information on an individual is painful reminder that sales people have healthy egos and they love to be in the transmit mode a great deal of time.

As I have said in other blogs, BE DiFFERENT Sales is a relationship-building event which is impossible to conduct in the face of a sales monologue.

Salespeople need to be terrific Listeners; asking the right questions to expose the needs and more importantly the secrets of their prospective buyer. It really doesn’t matter what the sales agenda is; the objective is to ask questions, Listen and learn in order to come up with the best solution possible.

Here’s how to create a BE DiFFERENT Sales Listening Team:
- recruit people with a background of listening achievement. You can always train them on product knowledge; look for those who Listen innately.
- train them with Listening skills. You can’t hold them accountable for Listening if you don’t teach them how you want it done.
- build Listening into their performance management plan. If Listening is not part of how you want the job done, it won’t happen.
- pay for Listening in their compensation plan. Make Listening a healthy part of their bonus pay. Start at 40% and increase it every year.
- measure Listening performance and engage the customer in the process. Create a Listening Report Card with 6 key behaviors you want sales to consistently demonstrate with customers. Have the customer complete the Report Card to rate their salesperson’s performance.
- measure Sales Listening Performance monthly. Review results with each salesperson. Develop an action plan to address shortfalls.
- honor the Brilliant Listeners. Shout out those who do it well and who receive accolades from their customers. This tells the organization that Listening matters and gives others a picture of how it is done.
- establish an annual Sales Listening Award to honor those who Listening consistently.

There you have it. BE DiFFERENT Sales Listening 101. Have a go at it and reap the rewards.

Cheers,
Roy Osing

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Posted 1.16.10 at 07:07 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 10, 2010

Don’t Reduce Price, Increase VALUE

So, here’s the situation: your price is $26.25 and our competitor’s price for the same product is $23.00. What options do you have to compete?

Your first choice is to reduce your price; this is the most common reaction. The problem is that unless you can reduce your costs of supplying the product all you do is reduce your margins. And, you have to prepare for another potential round of price reductions if your competitor decides to further reduce their prices.

I am not a fan of competing on price. It can be easily copied by your competition and it generally eats into your profits. It is NOT a BE DiFFERENT approach.

Your second choice is to add value to more than fill the $3.25 price gap. This is the BE DiFFERENT Practice that will not only set you apart from your competitors but will also give you the opportunity to enhance your margins. In addition, it makes it more difficult for your competition to copy your move. VALUE differences are tough to copy; price is easy.

Here’s a personal example of how this works. Lets say you are an author and your on-line book price is $3.25 higher than your competition. Matching the competition is really not an option as your cost structure is too high. You don’t have scale and scope advantages like the big on-line book sellers. To compete, the only choice you have is to add value to your on-line offering that they can’t match.

So you might decide to add two value components to differentiate your Offer:
- sign every copy of the book sold
- offer a 30 minute conversation with anyone who buys your book on any topic that interests the purchaser

Hard to copy. Adding real value. DiFFERENT.

Force yourself to look at adding value whenever you are confronted with a price difference. Resist the temptation to take the easy way out and drop your drawers on price. It generally doesn’t work and gives the illusion of an effective response.

Ask ‘What real value can I add to fill the price gap?’

Cheers, Roy Osing
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Take the BE DiFFERENT Quiz

Posted 1.10.10 at 07:02 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Be Different or Be Dead

by Roy Osing

BE DiFFERENT or be dead Blog by Roy Osing

Employee Empowerment is not Unlimited License

BE DiFFERENT Strategy Creation Process

Sales Listeners Wanted

Don’t Reduce Price, Increase VALUE

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