Be Different or be dead

June 22, 2020

3 simple things I did as CMO to build a powerful marketing machine

Source: Unsplash

3 simple things I did as CMO to build a powerful marketing machine.

In my experience as a CMO for a number of years, a marketing organization that has a strategy with these three elements is miles ahead of other organizations, and becomes the best practice for the herd to follow.

The strategy they follow involves a unique approach to:
▪️ The process used to understand what people want and desire.
▪️ The information selected on people that makes a difference on whether or not someone chooses you as their provider.
▪️ How to transform the information into something that people will pay for over and over again.

The process to follow…

The old adage that knowledge is power has a specific application in an environment where competition is fierce, economic shifts are dramatic and unpredictable and where customer wants and desires are changing almost every hour on the hour.

Most organizations employ market research as the tool for discovering the mood and needs of customer groups; the studies are typically performed by an external firm and are done periodically.

Market research has limitations.

— First and foremost, as the name suggests, it deals with ‘markets’; aggregations of people who express similar needs. The problem is that no two people are identical in any way, so when you look at market data you are looking at a blend of individuals where no one specifically is like the data gathered.

— Second, the fact that it is done periodically means that the rapid pace of changing needs could put organizations out of touch with what the current priorities are for the customer.
What people desire in this moment are likely different from what they yearned for a moment ago.

— Third, being outsourced to 3rd party contractors puts the management of customer knowledge outside the organization, and the understanding and application of it in the hands of a few employees.
Marketing receives the customer data and decides what it means to their marketing programs.

A new research model is needed; one that leverages the gathering of customer insights on the run to be a core competency of an organization that is unmatched by others.

Source: Unsplash

A core competency that applies the continuous stream of changing customer needs discovered to create opportunities and solutions for the customer that others simply are unable to do.

Customer learning is the answer.

Customer learning is the continuous process of capturing customer needs, wants and desires real time in the moment they touch the organization.

The idea is that every time a customer ‘touches’ the organization, it represents an opportunity to learn something about them.
My approach was to define all touch points in the organization and focus on the ones that represented 80% of the action.

Any customer touch point can yield productive learning if you consider it as a strategic learning opportunity rather than just a customer contact.

The challenge is to engineer the contact to produce the maximum amount of learning. Structure the engagement to allow you to easily gather their information you seek; ask the right questions, be unobtrusive and let the magic begin.

Obviously one of the engineering issues organizations need to get over is the amount of time an employee is allowed to spend with a customer. If they are managed by how long the engagement takes, the amount of quality information on the customer will be reduced.

And, for online applications, the engagement process must be structured to encourage people to provide information on the website. This has limitations, of course, because it’s not a conversation where the dialogue opens up opportunities to obtain more information from a person.

Source: Unsplash

A touch point that paid off handsomely for me was the customer complaint; when a customer called in with a complaint about something.
Dealing with complaining customers may not rank #1 on the rewarding experience scale for employees, but the complaint can, if listened to closely, produce useful information on how you can better serve your customers.

As an aside, I’m not a fan of being pointed to a FAQ web page as the organization’s way of handling my complaint. The questions are rarely relevant — because they’ve been prepared by employees from encounters with other people — and the moment leaves me frustrated and annoyed. On the other hand, I’ve had some terrific experiences with the Chat function; more resources should be deployed here.

What to do with all the information gathered from customer moments? Store them in a repository that is used by marketers to develop meaningful solutions to the problems and opportunities buried in the data.

The scope of customer learning is to look at the customer holistically; what their needs and wants are at the highest and broadest level.
The idea is to look laterally across their persona to discover their integrated needs rather than to look vertically to define a narrow — slice — need.

A holistic need for a consumer could be to travel every 6 months with their family; a slice need could be to have faster internet speed.
For a business a holistic need could be to leverage technology into a competitive advantage; a slice need could be to increase inventory turns by twofold.

To be able to use your marketing machine to standout from your competitors, it starts with institutionalizing a process to continually learn about your customers.

The information to gather…

The challenge in a world where virtually everyone has their basic needs satisfied is determining how an organization can stand out and be noticed. How does it get tagged with being remarkable and indispensable by their customers?

Today people are looking beyond their basic needs to feed their cravings, wants and desires. They are driven to a higher level to seek happiness; basic needs satisfaction may give people a lift for a period of time but the lustre soon fades — a new SUV soon becomes a used car.

As marketers, if we continue to focus on what people need we will miss the opportunities that lead to market leadership and enhanced profitability. The source of this huge untapped potential are the untapped secrets hidden in the deepest nooks and crannies of every individual that define who they are and how they want to express themselves.

A customer secret is what someone craves, aches and hungers for.

A customer secret has little to do with what someone needs. They need food, shelter, water and dependable communications — they expect to get them and pay as little as possible when they do; they might crave to see a Liverpool game played at Anfield in England and are willing to pay more for the opportunity to have their dream come true.
In a business setting, they might need power to run their manufacturing facility, but would be delighted to have a consultant recommend how alternative technologies could be employed to drive costs down and efficiency up.

Source: Unsplash

Exactly how does one gather secrets? People divulge their secrets only to others they trust, have confidence in, and have a strong relationship with.
If you are an outsider, they won’t tell you anything (other than perhaps what they need) and you won’t discover the gold that will enable you to have a profitable long-term relationship with them.

So, focus on relationship building with people you choose to serve. And don’t expect results overnight. It’s a long term investment; you can’t earn someone’s trust in a 60-minute interaction with them.

Secret gathering is a personal affair. Commit to informally meeting face-to-face with customers every week as a personal priority; you can’t discover secrets from your office. And have a casual conversation with the person you’re meeting; it’s not a formal market research interview — and don’t try and sell them on anything.

Avoid prying into personal matters unless it is a natural lead-in based on the conversation you are having. After the ice-breaker question, be guided by what they say.
And take lots of notes if it’s ok with them. It shows you’re interested in what they have to say.

How to use the information you gather…

Marketing with the focus on products and services is the way most companies engage with the market and compete today.

Nothing wrong with this, but it’s hard to find a unique niche where your competitors won’t find you.
Product competition is always challenged with how to provide features others don’t.

Rather than the traditional product-centric approach, unforgettable marketing is moving to offering packages of value that reflect the broad holistic view of the target customer in terms of their needs, wants and desires.

The key question is, of course, how do you move to the package creation mode when you have been stuck in the product-only gear for so long?
Here are the 5 steps to follow to create packages around your products and services.

Define the core product — start with your core product. It will be the anchor for your package and generally represents the key product or service that you want to offer.

Add elements to your core product — Identify additional components that can be ‘wrapped around’, or added to, your core product.
The choice of what value to add is based on what you have learned — through the customer learning process — about your target customers. The more you know about the customer the easier it is to choose what added elements are appropriate.

Your end game is to create a package that addresses a relevant want or desire in the most compelling way possible.

Resist the temptation to add too many value elements; don’t complicate the package.
Try to add just three additional value components that present a consistent and seamless value proposition to the customer and a natural add-on to your core product.
You can always add more elements later if you discover there are unsatisfied wants evident or if your competition does something creative and you need to respond.

Source: Unsplash

Choose synergistic value components to create your package in order to present a cohesive theme to the customer.
If the value components don’t work well together, your target customer group won’t understand the overall benefits your package provides.

If you are in the financial business, for example, with an anchor product of financial advice, you might consider additional value elements such as on-line self management investment tracking tools and quarterly financial management seminars which all play well together.

Or you might consider wrapping these elements around a four seasons resort hotel room:
— spa services
— yoga classes
— resort activities such as zip lining and water rafting
— a bottle of the customer’s favourite wine with a meal
— day care services

Create the value proposition — Define the value proposition for your package — what is the collective benefit the package provides to the customer?
This is not a statement that simply adds together the benefits of each package component rather it’s a declaration of the overall benefits of all package elements working seamlessly together.

In my example above, how might you define the collective benefits of financial advice, on-line tracking tools and regular seminars? You need to express the theme they collectively express. How about something like “investment self-management”?

Brand the package — Brand your package reflecting the value proposition you’ve created.There is no sense creating something new and not taking credit for your innovation. Too many organizations are into the bundling where product elements are simply added together and a discounted price is applied.

That’s not what I advocate.
Packaging is all about creating something new; bundling is merely slapping currents products together with reduced prices being offered with the volume increase.

Your new brand should reflect the collection of benefits provided. In the example that we have been using how about branding the package ‘The self-management Investment Plan?

Price your package — Price your package in terms of the market value provided.

Think premium pricing. Avoid the bundling mentality — and commodity thinking — of discounting the package based on the number of components in it.

If you have hit the mark with relevant, compelling value you should be able to command a premium price and realize healthy margins.
If you learn that you can’t price your package at a premium level, you have not defined it well enough — your package doesn’t contain the right combination of elements that result in a value proposition people are willing to pay more for.

Go back to the drawing board. Start over.

If you love your marketing craft and want to excel in it, do it the right way. Do it in a way no one else does.

Practise the process I’ve given you here and I guarantee success will be waiting.

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

• Posted 6.22.20 at 03:41 am by Roy Osing
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June 20, 2020

How cool information technology solutions can separate you from the crowd

How cool information technology solutions can separate you from the crowd.

Today, if your company doesn’t stand out from others, it will be ignored. Perhaps, you will attract customers and earn some income but it will be hard to win the hearts of the audience, gain popularity, generate profit, and grow a business. To fill a niche on the market and sidestep rivals, you need to not just address user issues but be different.

In our competitive world, it is quite challenging to provide unique value. Fortunately, there are many technological solutions and innovations that will help you accomplish this goal. To begin with, you should answer some important questions.

Top 7 questions to define how your business will differ

Nowadays, it’s not enough to have a website with the description of services. If you want to succeed, you need to do more than some must-have activities such as registration in social networks. Although I should note that if you boost your online presence, for example, on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, you will outrun some competitors.

To see how to make your products or services unique, you should analyze your:

▪️Customers
▪️Competitors
▪️Own company

For this purpose, answer the following questions:

— Who are your customers?

— Why do these customers choose your organization and stay with you?

— What customers do you want to attract and where can you find them?

— Who are your competitors? How did they achieve success? How do they retain clients?

— What strong and weak sides do your rivals have?

— What business processes can you improve and automate?

— Why should people turn to your company when there are various alternatives?

By answering these questions, you will define your competencies and understand how you can add unique value to the target audience. Furthermore, it will help you develop the best strategic plan.

In this article, I describe 5 technological solutions that will allow you to stand out from other companies and win.

Top 5 software solutions to stand out from competitors

1. Robotic process automation

To attract and retain customers, the first and most important task is to deliver extraordinary service. This includes client support 24/7, instant answers on frequently asked questions, personalized recommendations for products, content, or services.

RPA is the usage of software programs that allow automating manual, routine, rule-based, and repetitive activities, for instance, data search, analysis, or entry. Based on the given instructions and scenarios, RPA software bots replace humans in performing certain actions, saving their time, and boosting the overall productivity.

Robotic process automation is used across a variety of industries helping increase data accuracy and staff efficiency. According to McKinsey research ’Automating the bank’s back office’, by streamlining IT-related operations (e.g., software employment for enterprise resource planning) with RPA technology, banks can improve customer service by more than 50%.

In 2015, Vanguard Group, the globally leading provider of investment management services, integrated so-called Personal Advisor Services—“roboadvisors”—to provide millions of clients with the personalized financial advice and investment plans. Thanks to RPA software, the company reduced the time for email processing and enhanced communications with users.

2. CRM systems

Another way to improve customer service and stand out from competitors is to integrate a CRM system. Analysts at Salesforce say that a CRM helps businesses boost sales by 29%, enhance accuracy of sales forecasting by 42%, and raise productivity—by up to 34%.

A CRM solution can provide a range of benefits allowing you to keep contact information up to date, track leads, manage multiple accounts, and segment the audience. CRM software is created to monitor all interactions that your current and potential clients have with your organization. This will allow your company to stay in touch with customers, improve lead management, and launch personalized advertising and email marketing campaigns.

3. Customer loyalty programs

In accordance with the report ’The truth about customer loyalty’ published in 2019 by KPMG, 86% of buyers would recommend a product or service if they are loyal to the company. What’s more, 43% of consumers will remain loyal even after having a bad experience. So, how do you increase customer satisfaction?

One of the best ways is to build a mobile application that will serve as a loyalty program. Imagine how it can work: people can access services via smartphones at any time, browse and order goods, make payments with a few clicks, receive push notifications about new products and special offers. You can employ a point system, so that users can earn and exchange them for some rewards, for example, gifts or discounts.

4. Big data analytics

Using big data analytics, organizations can analyze customer behavior, define their preferences, and understand how to tailor products or services to their needs. You can collect data from various channels, for instance, social media accounts, activities in social networks, results of polls and surveys, watch/search/purchasing history, etc.

By processing this information with, for example, machine learning algorithms, you will see what things you should improve, what your clients really enjoy and what they don’t. This will also help create personalized messages that will delight your audience.

5. Artificial Intelligence-based chatbots

The integration of an AI-based chatbot into your website or application will significantly improve customer service while relieving employees from various activities such as answering FAQ and processing numerous requests.

According to the research by Ideal company, 64% of people think that the biggest advantage of AI bots is 24-hour client service. 55% of customers especially appreciate instant response to their issues. Other 55% of consumers say that the key benefit is receiving quick answers to their questions.

Nitro Café managed to boost sales by 20% thanks to the creation of a Messenger chatbot that enabled simple food ordering, direct payments, and 2-way communication. By adopting a Facebook Messenger Chatbot, Globe Telecom increased customer loyalty by 22% and reduced call volumes by 50%.

Closing thoughts

The use of software solutions is one of the most effective ways to sidestep rivals, provide the best services, and generate profit as a result. Before creating something new, conduct a competitor analysis, determine the audience needs, and define your strong and weak sides.

Ask yourself: “How can I add value to users?”, “How do I make my company and products unique?”, “How can I streamline the existing business processes?”. This will let you see what you should improve and how.

For instance, you can integrate a chatbot to automate email communications, deliver 24/7 client support, and remove human errors. In addition, find out how to recover service and engage your customers.

— Bogdan is a co-founder at YSBM Group, an European custom software development company with offices in Poland and Ukraine. Bogdan is interested in programming, machine learning, robotic process automation, big data, natural language processing, and enterprise software.

• Posted 6.20.20 at 05:57 am by Roy Osing
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June 15, 2020

How to make your business plan better with COVID-19

Source: Pexels

How to make your business plan better with COVID-19.

Take a look at your strategic planning documents. I will wager that the vast majority of them are based on a 5 year period — YIKES! I’ve even seen 10-year plans as well.

The 5-year plan pervades our planning paradigms and quite frankly it’s nonsense in today’s world of chaos, unpredictability and uncertainty.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the destruction it’s had on businesses and other organizations worldwide is the extreme example of the fact that a long planning horizon is a ridiculous notion.
I doubt that many businesses contemplated they would be struggling for survival in just 8 short weeks after the WHO declared the coronavirus a pandemic March 11, 2020.
So much for the value of having a 60-month view of your business.

I wonder how many 5-year plans are sitting on the shelf right now? How many are being consulted to help businesses through this difficult time?
I would say ZERO, which really declares the value they are to any organization being ravished by an unexpected event.

The investment made in having a planning view 3, 4, and 5 years out is delivering a negligible return on investment in the current environment.

The truth is, the fifth year of a 5-year plan never shows up so what is the purpose of planning for it?

Every year the plan is revised to reflect new information that changes the complexion of the plan and in particular the latter years which end up to be an extrapolation of current trends with absolutely no influence on the actions needed to be taken today to raise performance.

If we take this thinking to its logical conclusion, it suggests that the shorter the planning period, the more accurate it is in terms of expressing the real challenges an organization will likely face and the actions they will have to take to face them.

If you can’t survive the short term, the long term never shows up.

COVID-19 reality — perhaps the extreme way to think of it — would suggest a “planning period” of 24 hours because that’s how rapidly things are changing at the moment as I write this post.

I know (and hope) COVID won’t last forever but its short term survival imperative should guide our thinking about how to create a meaningful plan for our organizations.

My conclusion — and it’s a view I’ve had for many years, but certainly emphasized and reinforced by the current pandemic — is that strategic plans must have a short term executional focus if they are to be meaningful and useful at all.

I believe that to survive the forces of an ever changing environment, executional tactics within a notional context of your organization’s long term endgame should define your strategic plan.

The sum of pristinely executing every tactical element of the plan should define your strategy because it recognizes that chaotic change is the new normal that must be successfully met by the leadership team.

The execution plan should replace the strategic plan nomenclature to give us the clarity we need to determine the success every organization covets.

I’ve suggested that the execution planning time horizon should be 24 months, but that was before COVID. I think realistically we need to think about figuring out what we need to do over the next 12 months to try and improve our chances for survival.

The new execution plan process should look like this:
- Declare your 12-month goals
- EXECUTE
- Track the results
- Learn from what you’ve accomplished
- Adjust the plan
- Go back to EXECUTE

The result of this process is that your plan suddenly morphs to a living document rather than the inert 5-year view. It’s an organic action compilation and changes with the environment as one learns what works and what doesn’t through execution.

And the actual plan document — if it exists at all — takes on a dual role of being both a description of strategic intent and a repository of learning.

It’s a messy document. It’s written on. It has coffee stains on the pages of which many are earmarked for specific reference.
And, it may possess the odd blood stain from an unwanted paper cut!

It is used, unlike many planning documents that I have seen which look like their original pristine ironed form (perched ever so elegantly on a bookshelf where one can hand gesture its presence but never violate its binding).

The strategic planning community will take issue with my approach. After all I suppose it is somewhat gratifying to believe that pristine appearance and a long term perspective somehow defines its worth.

But it doesn’t.

At best this view gives the organization the perception that it has a plan that will be good 5 years out; at worst it prevents the organization from building short term defences to prepare for the unexpected forces that will threaten its survival.

COVID presents n opportunity to make your business plan better. Seize it…

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

• Posted 6.15.20 at 05:02 am by Roy Osing
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June 10, 2020

Why being sorry is the secret to great customer service

Source: Unsplash

It’s counterintuitive perhaps, but if ‘I’m sorry’ isn’t in your customer service playbook you’re missing the opportunity to create amazing experiences for your customers.

And be rewarded for it.

No apology = no service recovery = no customer

The service recovery chain goes like this:

— You screw-up;

— You acknowledge that you screwed up;

— You apologize;

— You atone for your sins;

— You fix the problem to the customer’s expectations;

— You blow the customer away by doing something they DON’T expect.

A failure to apologize breaks the chain and a de-dazzling event (with a loss of customer loyalty) ensues.

So, lose your ego.

Take responsibility for your actions.

Its not about culpability, its about empathizing with the customer and feeling bad that you screwed them around.

Being human, not an impersonal organization.

Some claim an apology will actually reduce settlement claims for major screw-ups.
That said, the short term economics of “I’m Sorry” are overshadowed by the long term loyalty you achieve by not breaking the chain and having a mind-blowing Service Recovery.

Be at ease with apologizing; it’s a strategic act.

Make no mistake about it.

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

• Posted 6.10.20 at 12:59 pm by Roy Osing
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