January 30, 2012

3 Alerts For Benchmarking

I know that Benchmarking is viewed as a necessary process for most organizations. But I have a major issue with it.
Beware of these 3 things:

1. It’s copying. It doesn’t make you special. It may help you improve your position in The Herd, but it does nothing to help you Stand-out from The Herd. Copying is the enemy of BE DiFFERENT. if The Herd goes East, go West. If The Herd says Black, say White.

2. It keeps you in The Herd. Best of Breed is still in The Herd. An imprint of the #1 Herd Member still keeps you with your ‘Sameness brethren’. The Herd is not your friend. You need to break away from it, not find consolation in it’s attributes.

3. It robs you of your individuality. Benchmarking forces you to conform. Forces you to BE SaME. Forces you to capitulate to the leader of The Herd. What’s your problem? Can’t think for yourself?

YOU owe it to yourself to express your uniqueness. The Herd is common. Invisible. Ignored.

Express yourself. Distance yourself. BE YOU!

It’s ok to observe what The Herd is doing and adopting from the Best what might improve your performance. It’s quite another thing to assume that copying them will help you win the competitive battle.

Winning is about Standing-out not Fitting-in.

Look at The Herd.
Go a DiFFERENT way.

Cheers,
Roy
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Posted 1.30.12 at 05:20 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 26, 2012

11 Steps to Build a Killer Loyalty Program

Everyone is trying to build a better Loyalty Program that will hold customers forever.

Here are some thoughts to consider (in no particular order)...

1. A Loyalty Program should be RELEVANT (something your Fans Care about) and UNIQUE (something they can ONLY get from you).

2. Identify your Fans and go get from them the Top 3 things they care about.

3. Design the Plan around these 3 things.

4. Observe what the competition is doing, but act on what your Fans are telling you. Many organizations design something on the basis of what their competition is doing. WRONG!

5. Consider building an ONLY Statement for the Loyalty Plan. “Roy’s Fan Club the ONLY one that….” Is how you could actually build it.

6. Avoid Benchmarking other Plans unless you want to exercise the Contrarian Marketing tool (go the opposite way). Copying Best of Breed might allow your status in The Herd to improve, but it won’t allow you to stand-out from The Herd. To BE DiFFERENT.

7. Consider greater benefits to those who have been with you the longest. Someone who has been with you for 10 years is worth more than someone who has been loyal for 2 years. Treat the 10 year old accordingly by delivering more benefits to them.

8. Design a communications strategy to support Roy’s Fan Club to be constantly engaging with your members. Keep the Club alive and constantly tweak it based on Fan Feedback.

9. TEST the Plan design with your Fans. Make sure it addresses their High priority wants and desires - the RELEVANCY Test.

10. Personalize the Fan Club. Have a variety of versions based on the unique desires of your various Fans. The One Size Fits All Approach is what The Herd does, and it produces Invisibility and Mediocrity.

11. Give Fan Club members a special “Fan Club Service Line” to call when they need to talk to you. Differentiated levels of service is an appropriate way to recognize the relative value of customer groups.

Cheers,
Roy
Join me on Twitter
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Other Articles You Might Like
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Posted 1.26.12 at 08:04 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 29, 2011

The Herd’s Brain Has 5 Parts

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Five things The Herd believes in and does that you need to avoid if you want to be Unique, Distinctive and Remarkable in today’s fast paced competitive world.

1. Copy. The Herd is into Benchmarking. Trying to match Best of Breed. You can’t BE DiFFERENT if you fit in. You must stand-out.

2. Feature Creep. The Herd adds product features, believing this will give them an advantage. Doubt it. Easy to copy and not sustainable.

3. Price. The Herd specializes in discount promotions. Advertising low prices. Price is the LAST place you want to go and compete. Expect margins to BE squeezed and customers to go elsewhere when your prices are no longer the lowest. A “race-to-the-bottom” strategy is doomed.

4. Mass Advertising. The Herd believes that if you push your message out to millions of people you will capture buyers. Whereas this approach will definitely result in sales, it won’t create a loyal stable of advocates for you and what you stand for. Want to earn loyalty? Focus on long term relationship-building. One-on-one conversations. Engage. Target your communication and make it personal. Listen. Don’t flog.

5. Products. The Herd pushes products and services. They see themselves in the supply game. They have something they think is good for you and they flog it. They stress features and a narrow set of benefits. Product-centric marketing is passé. Its myopic. Get into the VALUE CREATION mode if you want to leave your customers breathless. Think about their wants and desires and create a Package of VALUE to satisfy them. Treat them holistically. Look for opportunities to make their lives easier. Happier. More enjoyable.

Use the Herd to plot your journey to BE DiFFERENT. Understand how they think. Make Stand-Out choices.

Cheers,
Roy


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Posted 12.29.11 at 05:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 15, 2011

Business Sales: 4 Clues to Intimacy

If I’m Cross, Everyone’s Cross
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You know that building deep trusted relationships with your business clients is critical to the long term success of your organization and you, personally. You have been working hard on it every day. It’s been a top priority.

The question is “How do you know if you are making any progress?”
Here are 4 clues to tell you:

1. You are always invited to your customers’s strategic planning meetings. They value your opinions. They know that you know their business. They trust your intentions. They honor your strategic skills and experience.
They view you as a friendly “Expert from afar”. You are a valuable member of their direction-setting team.

2. You have an “office” on their premises. A physical presence among them.They want you accessible. Close at hand. To bounce ideas off. Test some ideas. The ultimate expression of Trust and Value is real estate owned by the customer; given to you.

3. Your customer NEVER goes to an RFP. Why bother? They have so much trust and faith in you that going out to get others to submit a bid on what they want is seen as a waste of time. When your customer needs something, you are already on it. There is no need to involve other “suppliers”. You take action. You deal with it seamlessly.

4. Language. You are NEVER referred to as a salesperson from Acme (or whatever). Your currency in their organization places you among their Leadership Team. Labels are meaningless. You are their trusted colleague. Their partner. Their friend.

So, how did you do? Out of the 4 Clues, how many apply to you? 4/4 suggests you are in Sales Nirvana. 1/4 says you have some work to do.

The important thing is knowing where you are so you can take action to move on from there.

Cheers,
Roy


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Posted 12.15.11 at 05:06 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)