Be Different or be dead

February 9, 2012

How a winning career can be made in 5 simple steps

Source: Pexels

How a winning career can be made in 5 simple steps.

If you’re not happy with the progression you are making in your career, follow these 5 steps that will power you forward.

1. Define the position you want in 24 months. Sales Director? VP Marketing? Call Center Manager? Having a target will focus your efforts in developing the action plan you intend to follow.
If you don’t have a specific target, your efforts will be diffused and your progress will be slow.

2. Find a mentor. Everyone needs advice and help; pick one who is skilled in your target position.

3. Identify the foxes — the key decision-makers in your organization that will likely factor in to your next career move. Treat them as your target market. Get to know each one of them and what makes them great. Make sure they know YOU.

4. Make a list of 3 things you need to do over the next 90 days to make you more qualified for your target position. And do them. Avoid having a grocery list of things to do; you don’t have the time or energy to get them done.

5. Create your personal ONLY Statement and work it every minute of every day. ONLY is how to define your uniqueness among the crowd of people competing for scarce jobs. “I am the ONLY one that…” will serve you well in an environment where generics run.
If you can’t create your ONLY, you won’t get noticed and your career goals will likely elude you.

Try these today.

I guarantee they wIll make a difference.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 2.9.12 at 10:00 am by Roy Osing
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February 6, 2012

3 simple ways to make your ONLY statement better

Source: Pexels

3 simple ways to make your ONLY statement better.

The ONLY Statement is the ultimate manifestation of your distinctiveness; of your uniqueness that will separate your organization from your competition.

If you can’t claim that “We are the ONLY ones that…” you’re part of the competitive herd awash with sameness and commodity suppliers

Jerry Garcia, of The Grateful Dead said it this way: You don’t want merely to be the best of the best. You want to be the only one’s who do what you do

If you’re not spending copious amounts of time creating your ONLY, you’re not using your time wisely.

And you’re falling deeper and deeper into the commodity herd.

You won’t be noticed. You will be ignored. You will be dead. It’s just a matter of time.

Follow these 3 steps to create your ONLY Statement.

Speak to what what people crave — Talk to the critical wants of the customers you have chosen to serve — your target market.
Remember it’s not about what you supply to the market; it’s about what your customers desire and want. Do you know the top three things they covet?

People today generally have what they “need”. The battle is over how to address what they “want” in a manner that ONLY you do.

Talk about value — What benefits, solutions, memories, joy, experiences and happiness are you creating? Pushing products and services has no role in The ONLY Statement. We are seeking to claim uniqueness in the way we impact the lives of those we are trying to serve.

And remember, price has no place in the ONLY Statement either. Price claims can never be distinctive. Easy to copy. Commodity behaviour.

Make it specific — At the end of the day, your ONLY has to be delivered by people. They need to clearly understand what it means in granular terms.

They need to be able to determine the appropriate behaviors necessary to “live” The ONLY. Leave helium-filled statements, vision-type claims and aspirations at the door.

“We provide the best customer service” is way off target. Means different things to different people. Probably is untrue. Can’t be measured.

If your ONLY can’t be translated into a detailed picture of what it looks like in the field. Trash it.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 2.6.12 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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February 2, 2012

3 amazing ways to delight your customers

Source: Pexels

3 amazing ways to delight your customers.

Creating maniacal, loyal customers is not about price. And it’s not about products and services that actually work to specifications.

People expect things to work and they expect to pay a reasonable price for it. That’s the price of admittance. That’s what any organization must do to play the game. If you can’t provide stuff that works all the time at a price people are willing to pay, you don’t have a business. Period.

If your quest is to attract a band of loyal followers that will do business with you forever, you must create a dazzling experience for them whenever they touch you. You must focus your attention on how they FEEL when they engage with you as opposed to what they GET from you.

How can you create an environment that is capable of creating dazzling service experiences?

1. Recruitment

Recruit people that have an innate desire to serve their fellow human beings.
Customers can’t be delighted if a frontline person really doesn’t want to serve. and you can’t train people to like people.

They either do or they don’t. You can train them to ’grin’— with a smile in their voice — but you can’t teach people to actually and honestly like others.

Dazzling service experiences are delivered by individuals who actually want to make the customer feel important.
To make them feel that they are listened to. To honor them. To do whatever it takes to see their eyes light up. 80% of your recruitment budget should be dedicated to this task.

2. Rules and policies

Design your rules, policies and procedures to serve the customer.
Every organization has dumb rules, rules that make no sense to customers. Rules that annoy and infuriate them and drive them to leave kicking and screaming to others.

Rules have a legitimate management control purpose but if they drive business away because customers are unwilling to abide by them what ‘s the benefit?
The issue is the customer element in rule design is missing. Management control drives the process. Give the customer an equal say in rule design. Engage them to help. They will be impressed that you are open enough to involve them and you will be on your way to dazzle.

3. Empowerment

Be flexible. Empower people to bend the rules on the customer’s behalf. Even if you have designed a rule system that optimizes on the customer experience, you will still have control-driven ones that remain. Empower your frontline to bend them when it makes sense to serve a customer.
Trust them to do the right thing to preserve the dazzle objective.

The end game is to deliver a mind-blowing service experience not to enforce the rules that get in the way.

Dazzle = Serving People + Rules that Serve + Caring Empowerment.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 2.2.12 at 10:59 am by Roy Osing
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