Be Different or be dead

January 29, 2018

3 tested ways a leader can give an amazing speech

3 tested ways a leader can give an amazing speech.

Why do some presentations bore you to death and leave you in agonizing pain while others take your breath away and amaze you?

It starts by approaching the task as a marketing challenge. What do your customers expect, and how can you deliver in a way that no one else does?

As a minimum, your audience wants to learn something new and they want to enjoy the learning experience. But if that’s all you do, you satisfy them and no more.

If you want to ‘take their breath away’ you must give ’em what they DON’T expect; that you surprise them and make their experience unforgettable in a way that only you do

There are 3 essential elements of a speech platform that will leave audiences breathless.

1. The content – what you say

— Know your audience and give them compelling and relevant material that they CARE about. Personalize and make it intimate for THEM; if you are merely flogging your boilerplate stuff, you will put them to sleep.

— Lace your flow with surprises along the way; something they don’t expect to hear like your own concepts with language that is edgy and will be remembered.

I use cut the CRAP as a call to eliminate the stuff that was no longer relevant in an organization as opposed to “eliminate non-strategic” activities, and kill dumb rules as a way to reduce the internal rules, policies and procedures in an organization that make no sense to customers.

— Make your material practical; give your audience ideas they can use when they leave your presentation. Avoid devoting all of your time to discussing high level helium-filled concepts that are anchored in theory and impossible to implement easily.

2. The delivery – how you say it

— Be passionate and emotional about what you are sharing with them and keep it extremely informal. This is a performance so lose the platform and podium barricades that separate you from your customers. Design the area so you can get out and walk among the folks; get close to them as you engage with them.

— Tell stories to breathe life into your material, and make it personal to show that you are human, believable and that you can be trusted. Use visual aids; people can’t relate easily to words and numbers. Have fun; they will too. Avoid techno-speak; the experience can’t be memorable if they don’t understand you.

— When in doubt be simple; you may be impressed with your ability to speak in complex terms, but it will turn your audience off. Make a point at your own expense; they will love you for it.

3. The distinction – how you are different

— Study other speakers; have a detailed understanding of how they perform in terms of their approach to content and style. Analyze what they do well and what they fall short on.
But remember, you are not evaluating their approaches with the objective of copying what works for them; your end game is to determine how you can separate yourself from them in some meaningful way.

— Create your ONLY Statement: “I am the only speaker that…” as the way to define how you are different from others who are also trying to command the attention of audiences.

Your only statement will define your speaker brand that you live by. It is critical that you not be mesmerized by the experts on public speaking who all espouse a more academic approach to getting your message across. Following their route merely means that you and the thousands of other speakers will all look alike with little individuality.

Awe-inspiring performers who are memorable to their audiences are different than anyone else in some way and they constantly constantly hone their art

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

• Posted 1.29.18 at 02:47 am by Roy Osing
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January 22, 2018

Why successful leaders change their minds on decisions they make

Source: Pexels

Why successful leaders change their minds on decisions they make.

Some leaders show two faces (and some show many more) when it comes to dealing with a challenging and contentious issue.

They strongly declare and advocate their position to various audiences, but after “selling time” takes its toll with a barrage of dissenting views, they change their mind.

They decide that expending the emotional energy to convince others of their position isn’t worth the effort.

Politicians do it all the time; they switch positions on the run when they learn that their original stance is either unpopular or was ill thought through in the first place.

The many faces of leadership displays acquiescence in its finest form; the end game is not necessarily based on principles the leader is passionately and emotionally invested in, rather the objective is to try and appease as many people possible with the hope that dissent among the masses is minimized and a short term advantage for the leader is gained.

It may be the case that few feathers are ruffled, but the leader achieves little progress as they spend all their time selling, defending and switching their position.

The fallout is that the leader is branded indecisive, weak and one who flits about without landing on anything.

They live in the moment; they have no tomorrow in sight.

Leaders need to be able to flex given the varying circumstances they face during the process of trying to gain support for their idea.

New information that affects the decision taken comes to light

Facts that were unknown when the position was formulated present themselves and cannot be ignored. This could be characterized as insufficient analysis or incomplete study of all the relevant information that should be considered in taking a position.
That said, the intent should not be to lay blame but rather take the new information and integrate it into the decision making process and not dismiss it because “it is too late to incorporate it into the mix”.

Employee feedback is loud and compelling

In terms of implementation challenges as well as uncontemplated impacts on individuals and their lives.
If, for example, frontline employees give the decision a thumbs down in terms of their ability to implement it, pay attention and take a second look. A bold decision which may be theoretically sound but which cannot be executed in the real world must be reconsidered. Always listen to the “warriors” who are in the field who know what is possible and what is not.

‘The unexpected’ rears its ugly head

A random and unpredictable event suddenly occurs, forcing a reconsideration of the direction on the table.  In the uncertain and unpredictable markets organizations face today, there will always be unanticipated factors that make themselves visible and which challenge the wisdom of the original decision. These forces need to be taken seriously and should always create a pause to reassess any declared position.

A decision to tweak the leader’s original position is always the better path to take as opposed to steadfastly sticking to a decision which is at risk given new events that have emerged.

Under circumstances like these, a switch in position may be required.

Strategically schizophrenic leaders change their minds with purpose.

They ‘flex with purpose’ and weave their morphed proposal through the organization with the singular purpose of achieving their intended outcome as best they can given the changes they made to it.

There are many potential routes to a destination despite the forces that prevent it from being achieved the original way it was intended; the standout leader is willing to strategically change HOW they arrive at the prescribed destination.

Mindlessly adhering to a position even though in light of feedback it’s success is highly in doubt, is irresponsible.

On the other hand, progress is not served by a constant stream of reactive tweaks or adjustments that shatter the picture of the journey’s end.

As a leader, pick a destination you believe in and be strategically schizophrenic in seeking the outcome that best suits the conditions of the time.

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

• Posted 1.22.18 at 05:41 am by Roy Osing
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January 8, 2018

The best competitive advantage is being ‘the only one’

Source: Pexels

Never has it been more important to carve out a distinctive and unique place for your organization in the market than it is today.

▪️The economy is unpredictable;

▪️Insane forces like COVID descend upon us;

▪️Competition is intense as new competitors are entering the market at a blistering rate;

▪️New technology ‘rains down’ on organizations relentlessly;

▪️Markets are cluttered with sameness; products and services are undifferentiated, relying on price to be the difference. And competitive claims are lost in the crowd;

▪️Customers are more empowered than ever before, establishing relationships with suppliers that deliver distinctive solutions and ignoring those that don’t.

Which organizations are successful and survive this challenging business environment, and what separates them from the others that struggle, hang on and eventually fail?

Those that are able to win this battle are different from their competitors.

They survive the scrutiny of the discriminating customer by providing relevant, compelling and unmatched value.

They die.

Survival

How do you create a competitive advantage that will survive the dynamics of a chaotic world?

Let’s face it, organizations have difficulty explaining to a prospective customer why they should do business with their organization and not the many others in the market that basically look the same.

If you can’t give specific reasons why your company should be chosen over every other, then you won’t be chosen. The choice will be owned by the organization that is able to cut through the clutter and provide the reason with clarity and simplicity.

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

An effective competitive claim isn’t about being “the best”, #1, “the top”, “the leader” or using any other qualitative descriptor that ranks your team against your competitors.

Any descriptor such as these is argumentative and unclear.

Claims like “We offer the best customer service” or “We are #1 in the market” don’t provide the clarity required to be convincing to anyone who is considering a purchase decision.

It’s like throwing your claim out there and hoping it will resonate with someone and that they will believe it.

Uniqueness

The ONLY Statement is the way to express your uniqueness - “We are the ONLY ones that…”
It’s binary; it claims that your organization does something (that people desire and care about) that no one else does. It’s simple and clear without the need for lofty language that lacks substance.

Building the ONLY statement is a disciplined process. It requires that you have a strategic game plan with an intimate understanding of what your target customers ‘crave and lust for’.

And it will separate your organization from the crowd.

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

• Posted 1.8.18 at 04:58 am by Roy Osing
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January 1, 2018

Why amazing marketing involves the special person not the boring masses

Source: Pexels

Why amazing marketing involves the special person not the boring masses.

Organizations produce or distribute products and services; marketers are given the challenge of creating demand for what is pumped out of the manufacturing process or handed to them from suppliers.

How do they do it?

They are victims to the method most people follow; they look for the easy way.

A way to perform their responsibilities by deploying a minimum amount of effort and hoping to achieve maximum payback.

Most marketers (my observation over 30 years) resort to applying the “one size fits all” principle; that any product can satisfy the needs of the mass market.

It’s a simple process.

Flog the product to as many potential customers as you can stressing the features and benefits believed to satisfy the “average” consumer.

And hope for a high hit rate.

This approach is a waste of time and effort.

Why?

Because there is no such thing as an average customer or a mass market! No two customers are alike in terms of their needs, wants and desires, thus this “lowest common denominator” strategy of marketing to a diluted level of demand is flawed from the outset.

Yes, it will result in some sales (where a person exhibits the demand characteristics of the masses targeted), but this hit-and-miss approach will fall short of achieving a healthy return on investment because of the many targeted individuals who don’t “look like” the mass persona and don’t respond to the offer.

It’s time for organizations to shift from the supply world to the demand world.

Where the wants of specific consumers are given precedence over what the organization produces; what the customer “covets” trumps what the product or service does.

One-size-fits-one

This requires re-vectoring the focus for marketing from a one size fits all to a one-size-fits-one philosophy where:

— products and services are targeted to a small number of potential customers whose requirements are special and unique to THEM;

— products are integrated to produce solutions having greater value than the sum of its product elements;

— “common” or “average” is purged from the marketing lexicon;

— success is measured by the number of personalized solutions created;

— the ultimate goal of segmentation is to discover as many segments of ONE as possible to understand demand at the micro personal level;

— the role of “Customer Manager” is introduced in the marketing organization to create personalized offers for discrete groups of customers; the emphasis on traditional product management is reduced;

— marketing’s primary performance metric changes from product market share to share of customer - the percentage of a customer’s total spend an organization holds.

Lazy marketing persists with one size fits all; relevant marketing in today’s world has moved to one size fits ONE.

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

• Posted 1.1.18 at 04:13 am by Roy Osing
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