July 18, 2010

BE DiFFERENT YOU! Covet the Fox

The Fox in any organization is the key manager or executive that has the greatest amount of influence on a particular decision to be made. In the Sales application, it would be the key individual in the customer’s organization that will make the buy decision on the solution they are seeking; if your solution is to be successful, you need to figure out a way to make it stand out above your competitor’s in the eyes of the Fox.
Your Be Different YOU challenge is exactly the same as in the sales example. You represent a solution to a hiring manager’s problem and you must clearly differentiate YOU from your competition so that he or she concludes that YOU are the only person who should be afforded the opportunity. Here are some Practices to consider:

> Identify the leaders in the organization who are making the key business and people decisions today and are likely to be doing so over the next year or so. In Chapter Ten of BE DiFFERENT or be dead, I suggested that a critical component of building a strategic game plan for an organization is to answer the ‘WHO do you want to SERVE?’ question. This is the customer group - the worthy - that represents the best economic opportunity for the organization and as a result is given the highest priority in resources allocated to it. Treat Foxes in the same way. The Foxes in an organization need to be carefully identified and targeted just as you would any other customer group that held the potential for your success. You will be allocating a significant amount of your time and energy on them and you need to be sure that they have the potential to deliver significant benefits to you. If you choose incorrectly you will not receive the expected return on your personal investment.

> Discover their expectations and secrets. In Chapter Twenty-Five of BE DiFFERENT or be dead I discussed the need for organizations to discover customer secrets as a critical component of customerizing their marketing function through customer learning. If you have a deep intimate understanding of your customer, you are in a position to delight them in a way none other can hope to do. The same goes for marketing YOU to a Fox. The value proposition you present for yourself is much more powerful if it is based on what you understand to be the intimate profile of the person you are targeting. Google them and get as much information as you can on them. Also leverage your social media networks to get the information you are looking for.

Here are a few secret gathering questions to answer on the Fox:
— What history do they have in hiring people? What do they typically look for?
— What do they typically look for in a candidate to fill a particular position?
— What questions do they ask? What has their career path been? What positions have they held?
— What are they famous for? What strengths do they possess that have made them successful?
— What do they do outside of their job?
— Are they married? Do they have a family? Do you know their names?

> Don’t flog YOU as a product with a narrow set of competencies. Success comes by marketing yourself with as broad a range of skills and expertise that the organization values in progressing to its desired future. This is a key point. In Section Three of BE DiFFERENT or be dead, I discussed the practice of creating value-based Holistic Offers for the customers you choose to serve rather than flogging products with a narrow range of benefits to mass markets. This discipline works for YOU just as well as it does for an organization looking to take its marketing efforts to a new level. Think about yourself as a Holistic Offer with a broad range of value attributes. The challenge is to select and focus on the value elements - or develop them if you don’t have them - that address the key issues facing the organization. Value elements could include: MBA in Marketing and Finance, demonstrated achievement in building business strategy, changing a marketing culture from a product focus to be more customer focussed, building market share in competitive markets, improving customer service 25% over a 12 month period, external speaking engagements on competitive strategy and marketing, building strong teams and consultative selling skills.

> Be proactive in discovering the opportunities that will be coming up in the organization. If you have a good relationship with the foxes this will aid the process. In addition, stay tuned into the informal communications network in your organization as it is often very effective in knowing when change is in the wind. With an informed outlook of the possibilities, you can take whatever action you feel appropriate to take advantage of them should they arise.

Stay tuned for more YOU Articles…

Cheers, Roy
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Other YOU Articles
The Context for BE DiFFERENT YOU
Covet the Fox

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Posted 7.18.10 at 07:00 am by Roy Osing | Read Comments (0) | Leave a Comment