April 28, 2010

Product Floggers Inflict Pain on Customers

Sales Product Floggers torture customers in many ways:
- Little interest is shown in what is going on with the customer. They only care about driving the product down the customer’s throat.
- Way too much fast talk. It’s a monologue about the features and benefits not a conversation. If the sales person takes a breath it’s a miracle.
- No knowledge of the customer is evident. The product rules!
- Scarce listening. Lots of transmitting.
- Product monologue. No solutions dialogue.
- Product features prevail. Little VALUE communication.
- Lots of “techno-speak”. Sales person very impressed with their knowledge.
- No defenses evident for the customer. The Flogger is relentless.
- The short term focus overwhelms any long term flavor.
- Price benefits trumps any VALUE considerations (perhaps there are none?).
- Technology coolness. It’s about what the product does more than the VALUE it creates for the individual.
- Pressure to buy is immense. Customer wants to get it over with and escape the sales pain.
- Implied criticism on the customer if they don’t buy. “Don’t you realize the amazing deal you would get? (Are you dull?).

It’s not the sales person’s fault. This type of behavior happens because of leadership. Sales is compensated by how much product they sell. Relationships? It’s fuzzy stuff that really is tough to quantify in terms of benefits and therefore doesn’t matter.

Absolute rubbish! If you want to know how to make Sales relationship-building behaviors matter and build them into your leadership strategy just give me a call. It’s not rocket science. The real issue is do you have the intestinal fortitude to focus on customer relationships as key to growing revenue or do you intend to go forward actually believing that that slamming products at people will get you the gold medal?

Your call. I hope, your employees hope, your owners hope and your customers hope you make the right one.

Cheers,
Roy Osing

Remember to follow me on Twitter

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Posted 4.28.10 at 08:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 25, 2010

BE DiFFERENT = Evolve AND Distinguish

The Darwinian dimension of BE DiFFERENT - EVOLVE
- Keep pace with the external environment. If the inside of an organization is changing SLOWER than the outside, the end is near.
- The world is becoming insanely competitive with less regulation to protect companies from competitors entering their markets. Don’t fight it like the Telecom Companies tried to do many years ago. Do the right thing and devote resources to developing the competencies necessary to succeed when the wolves are eventually at the doors (and they will be).
- Don’t fight the environmentalists. If General Motors had of applied energy to developing fuel efficient vehicles instead of lobbying against tighter emission standards, who knows where they would be now. The point is, environmental concerns are real and will not go away. Recognize them. Respond. Create opportunities rather than try and deflect them as irrelevant.
- Factor any external regulation or policy into your Strategic Game Plan as soon as the winds tell you that it will impact your organization. If you wait until forced to act others will be ahead of you.
- Customers are more empowered now than ever before. They research their options more diligently. They compare value and benefits into a personal purchase business case. They punish those organizations that don’t deliver what they promise. That’s the customer reality today. Are you ready? Better be prepared to let the customer drive your business unconditionally.
- Evolution: successfully adapting to what the environment throws at you is essential for survival. It is the table stakes for winning in the competitive arena. You can’t win if you don’t adapt. AND you can’t win if you adapt but can’t distinguish yourself from your competitors.

The Competitive Dimension of BE DiFFERENT - DISTINGUISH
- Just like you won’t survive if you don’t adapt, you won’t survive if that is all you do. You have to BE DiFFERENT than your competitors in creating the most relevant compelling VALUE out there. Unmatched VALUE will ensure that your adaptability pays off in a duel of competitive value propositions.
- BE DiFFERENT Strategy creation: BE relevant, compelling, unique and driven. Get your plan just about right and execute it flawlessly with tenacity, passion and support of your team.
- BE DiFFERENT Marketing: Create Holistic value-based Offers for your target customers. Create experiences that will take their breath away.
- BE DiFFERENT Sales: Develop deep intimate relationships with your chosen few. Make it essential that they buy from you because of your trusted bond. NEVER sell anything!
- BE DiFFERENT Serving Customers: Deliver your Core Service consistently 24X7 so your customers are satisfied. Then dazzle them with the service experience they get from you. You get A’s from dazzle and they stay with you.

Bottom Line: Success and survival = BE in the evolution game and adapt to changes pushed by your environment AND then create VALUE to distinguish yourself in a sea of piranhas.

Cheers, Roy Osing

Remember to follow me on Twitter
BE DiFFERENT Quiz

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Posted 4.25.10 at 08:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 22, 2010

Reader Dumbfounded by a Dumb Rule

A friend and colleague of mine is a fan of BE DiFFERENT or be dead. He and his organization Great Canadian Van Lines have been very supportive helping to spread the word of BE DiFFERENT.

He recently sent me an e-mail on a Dumb Rule he encountered in a retail business in Vancouver. Here is his story:

“I was in Le Chateau with my wife last week looking at a suit. Found a great suit that I liked; they had my pant size, but not my jacket. I noticed before I left that the mannequin in the window had the suit I liked on and so I went up to the display and guess what - the mannequin had my jacket size on. So I asked the Sales Rep if I could purchase the jacket on the mannequin.

She said no, that they we are not permitted to touch the clothing on the mannequins.

Thus the dumb mannequin rule cost them the sale.”— Mark Valliant, General Manager, Great Canadian Van Lines ,Vancouver BC

Classic. I would bet that this particular sales person wanted to do the right thing for Mark but had been punished in the past. Too bad. A de-dazzling service experience; a lost sale and the object of a ‘Here’s what NOT to do’ story. Le Chateau (and other retailers that I am sure have a similar Dumb Rule), can you really afford to lose a sale in these challenging times? I think not.

Share the dumbness. Send your favorite Dumb Rule story to me at Reader Connect. I will publish as many as I can.

Cheers, Roy

Remember to follow me on Twitter

Related Blog Articles

The Four Steps to Dazzle Customers
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Posted 4.22.10 at 08:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 19, 2010

BE DiFFERENT or be dead: Moving on Up

This past year has been both a whirlwind and an incredibly gratifying time for me.

BE DiFFERENT or be dead: Your Business Survival Guide was published in April 2009 and I have been very busy doing the seminar and speaking circuit ever since. This has been an amazing experience as I witnessed people getting excited by BE DiFFERENT ideas and passionately declaring that they intend to implement them back in their organizations.

The media has also been interested in and supportive of my efforts and I have had numerous opportunities to get the BE DiFFERENT message out.

And I have been humbled by the Critical Praise that my work has received from pundits across all types and sizes of organizations.

However that was then and this is now. My goal for the next 12 months is to pump up the volume and spread the BE DiFFERENT word more broadly to make a difference to organizations throughout the world. My work is practical and proven; if organizations decide to go on my journey they will not only grow and prosper, they will immunize themselves from decline and failure.

It is therefore essential that I increase the awareness and understanding of BE DiFFERENT. To do this I need help. I need advocates willing to identify speaking and seminar opportunities, and I will rise to the occasion. I need referrals to media sources to tell my story. And I need the power of viral at work from those of you who have been more than kind to read my work and tell others of its value.

Will you join me and help? I promise you that BE DiFFERENT is neither a fad nor a hollow promise. Many organizations are drifting in a challenging world. They need help. My work is proven. It will help them.

What’s in it for you? I am willing to offer special book pricing, complementary webinar attendance and personal coaching time to anyone who advances the cause. My gift is knowledge; I am willing to openly share it with you.

Please CONTACT ME via e-mail on any chance you spot that you think is worthwhile for me to consider or post a comment on TWITTER.

Cheers, Roy

Please remember to follow me on Twitter

P.S. You may be interested to know that certain people have graciously agreed to partner with me and mention my Spring BE DiFFERENT or be dead Growth and Survival Webinar Series to their colleagues and receive financial benefit. If this approach interests you please let me know as I intend to launch a Fall 2010 Webinar Series as well.

Posted 4.19.10 at 08:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)