Be Different or be dead

March 30, 2015

How your business plan can be better and more awesome

Source: Pexels

How your business plan can be better and more awesome.

Many leaders, particularly of small to medium sized businesses, are challenged to take their organization to another level.

They are tired of stagnant growth. They see potential that is not being realized. They see opportunities wasted. They feel abused by their competitors.

Here are three proven actions you can take to realize extraordinary gains fast:

1. Determine your source of uniqueness — The herd is replete with organizations that look the same. Similar products. Similar service levels. Copycats in every way. To break away, you need to determine your ONLY Statement.

It’s not about being the best or #1. It’s about carving out something you do that no one else does.

“You don’t want merely to be the best of the best. You want to be the only ones that do what you do.” — Jerry Garcia, The Grateful Dead

Many say they aren’t unique. If this is true, the future will be excruciatingly painful and most likely short.

2. Focus your efforts — Bear down on the few critical things that have acceleration power —  Ignore the many possibilities you could chase. You have neither the time nor the resources to try and boil the ocean. Concentrate on 3 critical things and do them well.

3. Be really clear on the customers you intend to go after — Pinpoint the customer groups that have growth potential; ignore the rest. Find the target segments that like who you are and what value you offer.

This is a ME world, not one where you can successfully flog your wares to the masses. If you build it, they are not likely to come.

Get traction on a small scale.

Create your next level by overachieving at your current one.

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

• Posted 3.30.15 at 07:08 am by Roy Osing
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March 14, 2015

6 easy ways to get more revenue from your existing customers

Source: Pexels

On a recent radio interview I was asked:

“Do you think businesses spend too much money on trying to get new customers and not enough on keeping the customers they currently have?”

My answer: ABSOLUTELY!

Most marketing efforts that I observe are dedicated to growth prospects which typically translate into acquiring new customers. Nothing wrong with this, but it leaves a huge vulnerability in your current customer base which may very well be viewed by your competitors as their growth opportunity.

Organizations ignore their current customer base at their own peril.

It’s perverse logic really. It requires substantial more investment to get a new customer than keep an existing one and the economic returns are higher as well.

Here are 6 ways growth can come from investing in your loyal customers.

1. Market more solutions to your existing customers. Show them additional value they can get from you and make it easy for them to get it.

2. Sell your line of value based solutions to customers where your customer share position relative to you competition is low. Grow your wallet share at the expense of your competition.

3. Perhaps some of your products and services are priced below the value they provide and where you have indications that price-demand is relatively inelastic. In these cases consider increasing prices.

4. Create new offers for you current customers. Discover new problems they have that can be solved bu you in a way no other competitor can.

5. For every new customer gained, repeat the above steps.

6. For your most influential customers, step up the service levels you provide them. Get them talking about you to others. Force viral marketing to happen so additional demand starts knocking at your door.

At the end of the day, you want to leverage your existing customer base to grow your business.

Not only does it work by using the trust relationships you have already invested heavily to maintain, it will point to new customer possibilities that have already been qualified.

Give it a try. You have nothing to lose, and growth to gain.

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

• Posted 3.14.15 at 01:35 pm by Roy Osing
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March 9, 2015

Why the receptionist behind the counter gets absolutely no respect

Source: Pexels

Why the receptionist behind the counter gets absolutely no respect.

The receptionist is the most undervalued position in any organization, and leaders need to deal with the matter and make it right.

I take no issue with marketing analysts, sales people, finance specialists and business development managers getting attention.

But the lonely receptionist gets very little attention, and it’s just not right.

Consider the facts.

The receptionist position is generally reserved for a new employee.

They are generally hired with minimum compensation and few traditional job skills and credentials are required. They generally possess satisfactory communications and computer skills and have a pleasant disposition about them.

They enter an organization and soon discover that they are undervalued in terms of the impact they have on the organization. Yet they have literally no internal currency.

The it’s only a receptionist attitude pervades. The position occupies the low rung on the hierarchical ladder.

The receptionist is a position with relatively low perceived strategic value. And that’s shameful.

Really?

Who is the face of the organization when someone walks into your offices?

Who is the first voice they hear when they call in? Your lowly receptionist, that’s who.

They control the impression that someone has about who you are and what values you stand for. They control the experience someone has when they engage with your organization particularly when there’s a problem that they have to chase to resolution.

They literally personify the organization’s humanity that is projected to customers and business colleagues. If the receptionist cares, the customer concludes your organization does as well.

Source: Pexels

The receptionist deserves to be viewed in higher esteem and have a voice in how your organization is run.

Ever ask them how your business could be improved?

These are the questions they could answer that will give leaders clues on how performance could move to a higher level:

— What do people generally think of you?
— What rules and policies should be changed to make it easier for people to deal with you?
— How do people feel about the customer service you provide?
— How do you compare with the competition?
— How do people feel about the attitude of employees?
— Do they like the company’s products and services?
— How well do you think employees cooperate in solving a problem a customer has?
— Who in the organization is really helpful in dealing with customer issues?

The answers to these and other questions can be provided by the lowly receptionist if leaders would only include them in strategic and operations matters.

You would be surprised with their answers and the insights they give you to improve your business.

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

• Posted 3.9.15 at 04:54 am by Roy Osing
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March 2, 2015

7 really simple things that make a great salesperson

Source: Unsplash

What defines a great salesperson?

The number of products sold and revenue generated?

No.

Products and revenue are the result of the sales effort; the more effective the sales effort the higher the economic return to the organization and the higher bonus for the salesperson.

Here are the 7 things that define outstanding sales effort:

1. Taking a long term view of what the customer needs, not exploiting the moment and driving to make an immediate sale;

2. Creating an enjoyable experience for the customer, not using the engagement process as a platform to feed the salesperson’s ego;

3. Enhancing the relationship with the customer not pushing products at them because of the sales quota in place;

4. Asking questions as the engagement priority as opposed to telling the customer what they need;

5. Respecting silence in the conversation rather than filling the air with the sales pitch;

6. Honouring integrity and honesty rather than bending the truth and doing whatever it takes to make the sale;

7. Achieving the outcome that is best for the customer which may not completely fulfill the personal agenda of the salesperson.

How do you know if a salesperson puts in an effective effort?

Ask their customers.

Here’s what they say about the standout ones:

— “I refuse to buy from anyone else.”

— “She is the only one I trust.”

— “I often go out of my way to create the sales opportunity for her.”

— “I feel guilty talking to anyone else about what I need.”

— “I don’t feel confident dealing with anyone else.”

— “I am ok to wait until she is available.”

— “I am quite willing to be inconvenienced in order to buy from her.”

— “I am thankful to have her looking out for my long term interests.”

— “I think of her as a close friend.”

— “I honestly believe she cares about me and what my problems are.”

— “She’s in it for the long term with me.”

— “She is always there to talk to me when I need to.”

— “She never pushes products at me.”

— “She is the best listener I have ever known.”

How many salespeople can claim their customers make even one or two of these statements?

In my experience, very few.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 3.2.15 at 06:54 am by Roy Osing
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