Be Different or be dead

June 23, 2023

“Welcome to the Roy Osing Story” Podcast

Standing Out, Defining the Fox, & Being “The Only One”

EPISODE OVERVIEW:

“Have you heard the one about that guy who built a billion dollar company? You know, the one that talks about becoming “the only one”.

Watch or listen now to learn how you can differentiate yourself in business personally, and as an organization. And according to this man, that’s how you experience billion dollar success.

He’s going to walk us through his life story, explain the key elements of success that you and I can learn from and apply, and then he’s going to share with us the practical steps of how to take the next step in our own journey.

Today’s guest is a gentleman, an entrepreneur, and an expert at growing organizations. He helps people recognize their worth, and is a catalyst for growth in their lives.

He’s written seven books, led multiple organizations, and even though we don’t mention this in the show, he’s balanced it all and been married now for over 56 years!

Ladies & Gentlemen, welcome to the Roy Osing story!”

— David Pasqualone, Host, The Remarkable People Podcast

• Posted 6.23.23 at 06:54 am by Roy Osing
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June 19, 2023

5 really amazing secrets that smell success in your small business

5 really amazing secrets that smell success in your small business.

In my experience working with small business leaders, one thing shouts out loud and clear: you spend most of their time working IN your business not ON your business.

Time is precious to you..

Resources are scarce.

But your goal, nevertheless is to build a thriving business with superlative performance.

How do you do it?

The secret for small business leaders is to FOCUS on the critical FEW things that will make a huge difference to their success.

These 5 things are vital to small business success.

#1. Plan….. simply.
Every small business needs a plan or strategy to follow. No plan = No idea of whether or not you’re making progress.

But the plan doesn’t have to be arduous, complicated or expensive.

My Strategic Game Plan (SGP) process was designed to get the end game ‘just about right’—there’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ plan in an imperfect world—and execute pristinely—results come from execution and nothing else.

Once the SGP is in place it serves as the small business roadmap without which success is almost impossible.

#2. Be the ONLY one.

Give people a reason to do business with YOU and not your competition.

Promise them something that no other business does.

Create The ONLY Statement—“We are the ONLY ones who…”—that sets you apart and watch what happens!

#3. Hire human lovers.

Your employees are the reason people do business with you. Sure, technology helps but without your employees, you don’t have a business.

Recruit people who genuinely like others; who care for them and satisfy them.

You can train people to grin at people , but you can’t train them to ‘love’ them.

#4. Create a unique customer experience.

Your products and services are important to be sure, but people expect them to live up to the benefits you ascribe to them.

But strong loyalty and high performance come from how people FEEL when they do business with you, and that’s all about the experience they have when engaging with you.

With employees who ‘love’ people you are armed with all you need to make your customers feel special. And when they feel this way, they tell their friends, who then tell their friends.

And magic happens.

#5. Create don’t copy

Be innovative in your business; don’t follow what works for others. All it does is put you in the common herd and moves you away from being the ONLY one who does what you do.

Look for new ways of doing business and SURPRISE your customers.

Let someone else be the copycat.

You be the leader.

Cheers,
Roy
My 50+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 6.19.23 at 05:38 am by Roy Osing
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June 12, 2023

It makes absolutely no sense to seek ‘inclusion’; here’s why

Source: Unsplash

It makes absolutely no sense to seek ‘inclusion’; here’s why…

Why would you want to fight to be included in the herd with everyone else?

The current raging narratives on the topic of ‘inclusion’ are baffling to me.

To me, inclusion is just another way of saying you want to be a recognized member of the common herd.

You want the same rights as other herd members.

You want the same protection the herd offers to others.

You want to be accepted by others in the herd.

You feel ‘marginalized’ by a crowd so you want to be a part of it.

Be included in the herd and you will be lost.

This incessant drive by some to ‘break into the crowd’ has more potential negative consequences than it does opportunities for the inclusion members.

Being absorbed by copycats, sameness, common thinking, average performance, ‘acceptable’ norms, standard behaviors, and bland personas doesn’t provide the inclusionist any comfort at all.

Rather it creates an environment ripe with personal risk.

My reader won’t be surprised when I say that successful people strive to separate themselves from the crowd NOT be a part of it.

They look to be different from others in a way people CARE about.

So I find it rather ironic that even though the widespread yearning to be included actually has a huge downside for its advocates, there is screaming demand for it.

Rejoice if you’re already outside the box of sameness.

Look for ways to leverage your unique faction position into an opportunity to further distance yourself from the herd and morph yourself into something even more special than you already are.

Longing to be part of the masses may seem to be a desirable endgame.

But be careful what you wish for.

Cheers,
Roy
My 50+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 6.12.23 at 04:51 am by Roy Osing
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June 5, 2023

One simple way to get salespeople to stop flogging products

Flogging products is disgusting pretty well sums up how I feel about salespeople who try to push the wares of their organization down my throat when I’m looking to get my needs satisfied.

The flogging process is a one-way street where the sales person’s sole objective is to sell the product or service inventory they’ve got.
It’s a supply-dominated process that has little room for customer input; the engagement profile lacks a conversational element with sales listening skills not required.

The customer in the flogging process is a victim of sales abuse.

As I’ve said many times before, in order for an organization to get more value from their sales teams, sales must move from the flogging mode and be charged with and held accountable for a strategic role.

And the singular focus for sales in a strategic role is to build deep strong relationships with customers, not flog products at them.

Relationship-building is not a WHAM! BAM! affair, it’s a long term process because trust with another person isn’t achieved overnight.
It takes deliberate actions on the part of the salesperson to develop a rapport and establish credibility with the customer so that they earn the right to transact with them at some point down the road.

Effective mutually beneficial relationship-building results in sales transactions but patience and commitment is required of the salesperson to make it happen.

Why don’t we see much relationship-building from sales today?

It’s simple, really. The compensation plan for sales is short term—annual—and it’s based on the number of products sold (or revenue from products or services).
And as we know, sales are driven by how they get paid. If their bonus is based on achieving annual product sales they will do whatever it takes to get their bonus and will ignore other aspects of their role.

They won’t devote time to relationship-building and they won’t make it a priority to develop the skills necessary to get better at it.

They will continue to flog products because that’s what they get paid to do.

So, how do we get sales to change and take on the relationship-building role?

It’s simple, really.

Change the sales compensation plan and you’ll change sales behaviour.

The issue becomes how do you change sales compensation from a short term product focus to a long term relationship one?

Here are some practical steps I took in my role of president of a startup I took to A BILLION IN SALES:

#1. Communicate the change

It’s extremely important that the shift from product selling to relationship building be communicated to salespeople in terms of why the change is being made.
The critical strategic role of sales should be emphasized along with the new behaviours expected to replace the traditional approach.

Sales leadership must be front and center in the communications process; everyone in sales needs to hear from the leader what action is being taken and why it’s critically important.

Communications elements to stress:

— flogging products is no longer the accepted way.
— long term value to the organization is created through deep customer relationships.
— competitive advantage is achieved by having more loyal customers than the competition.
— the only way to make the shift is to change the way salespeople are compensated.
— the compensation plan will be changed in a number of steps.
— the plan will (as described below) be launched as a trial.

#2. Design the initial plan

The pivot from a product-centric compensation plan to a relationship plan shouldn’t be attempted in one step, to be successful it should be implemented in a series of steps.

The end game of the change should be to have at least 50% of the sales bonus attributable to relationship building, so design the plan in a number of steps to get you there.

I suggest designing the new plan in 3 steps over a 3-year period:

Step 1 - product sales (80%); relationship-building (20%).
Step 2 - product sales (70%); relationship-building (30%).
Step 3 - product sales (50%); relationship-building (50%).

The 3-year migration period is important in order to learn how the new plan is working as well as allowing for revisions along the way.

#3. Develop customer questionnaire

How well a salesperson builds customer relationships should be judged by the customer, therefore a vehicle to get customer input is required.

In my experience, a simple questionnaire is the way to go. It needs to be brief, covering the elements of relationship-building the organization deems appropriate.

As a sales leader, these were the traits I expected every salesperson to demonstrate; they were included in the monthly questionnaire—Sales Report Card—we had customer’s complete on their sales rep:

#1. Responsiveness: how quickly do they respond to a customer request?
#2. Follow-up: do they take action to ensure the customer’s need was satisfied?
#3. Communication: is the sales rep in regular communication with the customer?
#4. Solutions Orientation: is the sales rep focused on understanding the customer’s problems and finding solutions to them?
#5. Proactiveness: does the sales rep proactively offer solutions to the customer without being asked?

Obviously, the exact Report Card elements should be crafted to meet your organization’s specific requirements but these 5 I found to be very effective.
In addition, I reviewed them every year to determine if they needed to be tweaked based on customer and sales rep feedback.

#4. Trial the plan

Launch Step 1 of the plan as a trial so people understand that it’s not being ‘shoved down their throats’ and that learning on the run is the way the plan will be managed.

The objectives of the trial should be clearly communicated and there should be regular reports on how well the trial is achieving its intended outcomes.
Sales reps should be featured in the communications roll-out, providing a running commentary on how well the trial is going.

#5. Launch the final plan

Finally, after the 1-year trial period is over, launch the plan in its final version incorporating all the learning obtained from the trial design.

My experience was that if the trial period was robust in terms of communications and revisions based on customer and sales rep feedback, the launch of the final version of the plan won’t be a big deal.

After 12 months of living with the concept and seeing it tweaked along the way, the surprise factor associated with the permanent version is normally zero with minimum roadblocks to implementation.

But make sure people understand that the plan will be reviewed annually with modifications based on their feedback.

Final word

You don’t affect a change from a product flogging sales culture to building strong customer relationships by declaring the intent to do so; a disciplined process must be put in place to make it happen.

If the sales performance scorecard I’ve given you here is put in place, I guarantee you will not only strengthen sales’ strategic role, you will also solidify the currency you have with your customers who will love you for the pivot you’ve made.

Cheers,
Roy
My 50+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 6.5.23 at 06:20 am by Roy Osing
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