BE DiFFERENT or be dead Blog by Roy Osing

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May 10, 2010

Strategy vs. Tactics: Which Drives Your Organization?

You don’t have unlimited time or resources to do a hundred things. If your organization is ‘raining down’ with tactics you could be chasing stuff as opposed to being guided by the strategic direction you have set.

Here are characteristics of both types of organizations. If the ‘Tactics Drive’ scenario sounds familiar, take a step back, get your Strategy defined and THEN decide on the critical few projects necessary to achieve it.

Tactics Drive:
- numerous projects going on; people complain that there is too much to do.
- aspirations drive the activity, like “we intend to be best in customer service”.
- many project teams throughout the organization. Almost everyone is on one.
- projects are measured individually in terms of deliverables.
- activities lack a strong common thread among them.
- divergent actions persist. Projects are in conflict and are often heading in opposite directions.
- projects are often lead by individual Departments and carry with them intrinsic bias as a result.
- people are frustrated with too much activity and lack of synergy.
- people complain that there is no approves course that all of the activities follow.
- leadership is criticized for not providing the overall direction to justify all of the projects going on.
- consultants are brought in to assist and they are forced to subordinate organizational issues to those of the individual projects.

Strategy Drives:
- a handful of projects key to influencing 80% of the results are active.
- a Strategic Game Plan (SGP) drives all the activity. Everyone has direct line of sight to it for guidance.
- a few focused project teams exist.
- projects are measures in terms of SGP expectations.
- the common thread among all activities is contribution to the SGP.
- synergy acts among all activities; they are monitored to ensure they are acting in unison.
- projects are primed at the organization level. Project leaders are appointed corporately based on skills and competencies to deliver expected results.
- people are energized as efforts are focused and are balanced to achieve the most meaningful results.
- people recognize that the SGP is the driving force behind all that goes on.
- leaders are acknowledged as effectively moving the organization forward.
- consultant activity is limited to areas where new expertise is required. They are all managed relative to SGP results.

Avoid the tactics until you are satisfied you have a clear enough SGP to be a beacon of all activity in your organization…

Cheers,
Roy

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Posted 5.10.10 at 08:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 7, 2010

Marketing: Holistic Value Offers are NOT Bundles

One of the essential planks of the BE DiFFERENT Marketing platform is the notion of Customerization. Customeriztion replaces the traditional marketing approach of developing products and services for the masses in favor of creating value-based Holistic Offers for the chosen few customers WHO you have selected to SERVE.

Many people relate the Offer concept to bundling, and they could not be further from the truth.

A Bundle:
- the whole = the sum of its parts. It is a collection of products and services kluged together from their a la carte origin.
- is driven by a price theme.
- the bundle total price represents a discount over what you would pay for all of the components individually. Bundles are governed by “the more you buy the less you pay for the component parts” principle.
- is branded usually as a “____ Bundle” like the “Home Office Bundle”, “Financial Services Bundle” “Home Telecom Bundle” and so on.
- forces the potential customer to define the value they would likely receive. Rarely is the value proposition offered anything else but cheaper prices.
- is easy to copy by competitors within an industry since it is really a lower price in disguise.
- consumes relatively few marketing resources. The price message over a collage of existing products and services doesn’t require a significant investment to go-to-market.

A Holistic Value Offer:
- the whole > the sum of its parts. Offer components are leveraged together to generate more value that they would by pasting them together.
- is driven by a Value theme and the truly BE DiFFERENT ones are built around the idea of creating new “experiences” for people.
- the Offer price is a premium to the sum of the individual product and service components. Value Offers are priced on the basis of the overall value created and not on the price points of the components.
- is branded as something NEW, and reflects the set of benefits created for the customer.
- makes the value explicit for the customer. The value proposition is expressed in terms of value received from the collection of components operating synergistically.
- is tough to copy by the competition since the Offer is the result of a value integration process.
- consumes more marketing resources associated with integrating value components, branding, strategic partnerships (for Offer components that must be ‘imported’ from another supplier).

Bundles are prolific in the market; Value Offers are more scarce. My book has examples. Also connect on my blog for examples as I come acoss them.

Cheers,
Roy

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Posted 5.7.10 at 08:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 4, 2010

Relationship-Building Performance Plan for Sales

BE DiFFERENT Sales takes a right angled turn away from the traditional product flogging practice to building deep intimate relationships with customers with the belief that long terms benefits favor the latter philosophy.

The challenge becomes one of jarring sales loose from years of product love into a world where relationship rule.

Here’s some leadership hints to get you going:
- First, declare to the sales organization that you intend to move to a Relationship-Building (RB) Performance Management structure in 36 months. Discuss why the product-only method won’t work over the long terms and that sustainable competitive advantage requires the change.
- Set out Year 1 changes: immediately sales Performance Management and bonus compensation will be based 80% on product revenue; 20% on measured RB competency.
- Then advise them that Year 2 will look like: 50% product revenue; 50% RB competency.
- Then tell them that Year 3 will move to 30% product; 70% RB.
- Of course you can decide on the distribution that fits your own circumstances, but I suggest that the shift away from the product approach be bold. If not, your aspirations to change won’t be believable and sales will continue to exhibit past behaviors.

How will you measure RB competency for each salesperson? This is where the Customer Report Card comes in.

This is the step-by-step measurement process I successfully used:
1. Define 6 RB behaviors you expect each salesperson to demonstrate. Could be: listening, empathizing, follow up, consultation etc. The behaviors chosen must line up with the Strategic Game Plan and Values for your organization.
2. Weight each behavior as some may be more important than others.
3. Decide on a rating system for each behavior. I used ‘poor’, ‘fair’, ‘average’, ‘good, and ’ as the rating categories. It worked well.
4. Set year-end objectives for each RB behavior. A typical would get a target of 80% ‘good/excellent’ ratings.
5. Get the executive to sign off on the targets to ensure consistency with the Strategic Game Plan of the organization.
6. Engage customers to rate their sales person on each RB behavior. Do it monthly. Encourage written comments. The more customer commentary to explain the numerical ratings the more useful the overall process will be in terms of understanding the behavioral changes necessary.
7. Issue performance results monthly.
8. Require each salesperson to create an Action Plan to improve the RB behaviors below target. A meeting with their manager will present the opportunity for coaching.
9. Celebrate the “most improved” salesperson in relationship-building. Make it matter to everyone. Eventually have it dominate the Sales Recognition and Reward Program.

Cheers,
Roy

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Posted 5.4.10 at 07:00 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

Strategy vs. Tactics: Which Drives Your Organization?

Marketing: Holistic Value Offers are NOT Bundles

Relationship-Building Performance Plan for Sales

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