Be Different or be dead

December 7, 2015

4 simple ways to stand out and easily beat your competitors

Source: Unsplash

4 simple ways to stand out and easily beat your competitors.

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

The economy is unpredictable.

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

New technology disrupts organizations relentlessly.

Markets are cluttered with sameness; products and services are undifferentiated 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.

Those that have no distinctive identity simply don’t make it.

They die.

How can organizations stand-out from the herd and easily beat their competition?

Business plan — It starts with reinventing how strategy is developed. The emphasis is shifted from strategic direction to execution. Many plans look good on paper but can’t be executed. They are theoretically pristine but worthless as they fall short of delivering results.

The strategic business game plan is designed for execution and is created by answering 3 questions:

1. HOW BIG do you want to be? - growth goals;
2. WHO do you want to SERVE - target customers to achieve growth;
3. HOW do you intend to compete and WIN - the value proposition that gives the WHO reasons to buy ONLY from you. Being the best of the best is ignored; being the ONLY ones that do what you do is coveted.

Marketing — Marketing is focused on creating experiences rather than flogging products. Investing in current loyal fans is given priority over providing special promotions and deals to acquire new customers.

Mass markets are ignored in favour of concentrating on the individual and discovering their secrets that will unlock economic value.

Marketing to ’ME’ gains momentum.

Customers are looked at holistically; experiential packages are designed for each of them to satisfy their broad life desires. Creating happiness is the marketer’s end game.

Customer Service — Customer service the way it has been traditionally practiced is out; SERVING customers is in with the end game to dazzle the customer and take their breath away. Internal rules and policies are re-vectored to make customer engagement a friendly process.

The customer is brought in to the organization to get their fingerprints on how they want to be treated.

Leadership —  Leadership is practised by serving around is the new culture. “How can I help you?” are the words leaving leaders’ lips not “Do this.”

To Stand-out from the Herd you need to provide VALUE that people CARE about and that is UNIQUE. Failure to deliver and you’ll be IgNORED, InVISIBLE, CoMMON and DeAD (sooner or later).

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

• Posted 12.7.15 at 04:02 am by Roy Osing
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November 23, 2015

Sales can push or build, what’s absolutely the best way?

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Sales can push or build, what’s absolutely the best way?

Sales people have a choice in terms of the modus operandi they choose to employ to deliver results: they can either push or flog products at customers or they can build intimate relationships with them and trust that sales will follow.

Here’s the profile of each.

The pusher:

- is focused on short term success; it’s all about making the numbers;
- flogs technology, emphasizing the cool things it can do;
- loves to make speeches on how wonderful their products are; not too much listening here;
- will try and force-fit their product to the customer’s problem even though the product is not be the perfect fit for the customer. They are more motivated to sell their product and not to do whatever it takes to solve the customer’s problem;
- is a one-way communications artist. They are constantly in the transmit mode; they listen very little;
- wants to get the sale and get out; the quicker the transaction the better;

- is frustrated by the need for after sales service and devotes minimal time to it;
- is driven by their annual compensation plan and dedicates little effort to medium and longer term issues;
- spends copious amounts of time doing cold calls;
- relies on low prices to express their value proposition; blames high prices when they lose a sale;
- avoids personal accountability when a client is screwed over through a service mishap made by the company;
- is super driven to win an annual sales award and get a trip to somewhere exotic.

Source: Unsplash

The builder:

- is a server with the innate desire and ability to take care of people;
- is a highly engaging individual; believes that deep conversations with the client will expose opportunities;
- wants to get paid by their compensation plan, but is willing to balance longer term needs with the short term;
- drives the majority of their sales through repeat business from long term loyal clients;
- creates intimate relationships with clients trusting that the relationship will yield sales over the longer term;
- sells value at the highest price possible. Avoids commodity transactions where the sale goes to the lowest price supplier;
- focuses on obtaining client referrals to grow sales; doesn’t have to cold call;

- spends time trying to discover client hidden wants and desires - secrets - and employs this knowledge as a critical component in their sales proposition;
- is a recovery addict; doing whatever it takes to recover from a service mistake the organization made that caused client pain;
- takes the role of client champion inside their organization fighting for them regardless of the issue;
- has incredible listening skills which represent a heavy dimension of their personal brand;
- uses a customer report card regularly to gather customer feedback on their performance; follows up to ensure improvements are recognized;
- will lose a potential sale by recommending someone else’s product when they have a better solution to a client’s problem;
- is very involved with marketing in the new product development process; ensures that their client’s unmet needs are addressed;
- are viewed by their clients as partners; part of the client team.

Which approach do you think will build customer loyalty and distinguish you from your peers?

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

• Posted 11.23.15 at 05:56 am by Roy Osing
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November 2, 2015

Why a great education isn’t enough to make you successful

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Why a great education isn’t enough to make you successful.

Success is more than what you know; what you learn at school.

So many people when asked what they want to do after they graduate say something like “I would like a job in marketing where I can apply what I learned in school.”

It is natural to want to make use of the knowledge gained in your area of expertise. You spend many years learning many subjects that cover your chosen academic path and want to try them out in the real world.

I’ve said it before and it bears repeating:

What you learn at school is merely the table stakes for a successful career; it guarantees nothing.

That said, without some type of formal learning background and you are unlikely to be able to enter the race.

There are many highly educated people out there who can’t get a job in the profession or company they desire (I ran into a woman serving in the Marriott Copenhagen lounge who had both a Law and Masters of International Affairs degree; not uncommon.)

To be successful you can’t rely on your academic pedigree; you have to do more than simply ‘apply your knowledge’.

You have to leverage what you know to position yourself for career opportunities.

So If you have an MBA you will want to position yourself not as an academic MBA’er but as someone who is able to help take the organization where it needs to go.
Your academic credentials allow you to have insights on business problems. You are a business problem solver first; MBA degree-holder second.

Lead with what unique stuff you can deliver to an organization; not with what you’ve achieved at school - your pedigree.

Learn what your organization needs to meet its strategic goals; work on objectives and tactics that line up with the desired future and give 110% of yourself to execution every day you show up.

In answer to the question on what someone wants to do after they graduate, I would like to hear:

“After I graduate I intend to be the only marketing manager in the company I choose to work for that is viewed by others as a senior employee within 24 months.”

Declare your end game.

Pledge to be unique.

Trust that what you know will help get you there but won’t guarantee it.

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

• Posted 11.2.15 at 04:56 am by Roy Osing
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October 26, 2015

The 2 simple questions that guarantee you will be innovative

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The 2 simple questions that guarantee you will be innovative.

There are significant challenges facing innovation in any organization.

People are taught to be cautious and to make “informed” decisions based on thorough and rigorous analysis. As a result the process tends to be long and arduous and faces numerous levels of scrutiny before a decision is finally reached.

Paralysis by analysis often sets in and current business momentum is maintained. Nothing changes.

People are taught to avoid making mistakes. They witness how punishment is handed out to their colleagues and decide that risky actions have too much personal downside; they prefer the status quo. Nothing changes.

These powerful forces act against creativity in most organizations; here is my formula for letting the innovative juices flow:

Creativity = “How do we get there?”

If you know how to get from A to B the Creative Incentive Quotient – CIQ – is zero. On the other hand, if you have absolutely no idea how to reach your destination the CIQ is high.

Creativity is not spawned by applying analytical tools that draw upon historic performance to predict future results. Trend line thinking stultifies breakthrough action as it merely extends past performance with the expectation that the future will somehow mirror it.

Creativity is driven by declaring a goal without knowing exactly how it will be achieved and doing the hard entrepreneurial work to figure it out. It’s about having the intestinal fortitude to enter uncharted waters, pointing your ship in the general direction you want to go, and navigating – creating – as you go.

Creativity is killed by not wanting to go forward without knowing how the end goal will be achieved. I see people shut down when confronted with the objective of doubling revenue in 24 months because they don’t know how to do it. They stop, say the objective is “unrealistic” and adopt an uninspiring target that they think they can achieve. CIQ = 0. Creative juices don’t flow.

Creative juices flow more when the way to achieve the goal is unclear when you begin.

Creativity = “What do we have to do differently?”

Listen to the conversation that pervades most organizations today: “What is best in class doing?” is the driver of most activity. Benchmarking the leader of the pack and copying them absorbs everyone’s time and energy; yet even if you are successful you remain in the pack like everyone else.

Benchmarking is the tool of sameness.

It does not get the creative juices, and you won’t separate yourself from the pack. CIQ = low (some juice might flow as improvements are made based on others’ experience). And if you don’t stand-out from the pack, what does your long term future look like?

Sameness = mediocrity = invisibility = irrelevance = dying = dead (sooner or later).

To be successful in the long run, your CIQ must be high; creativity must force you out of the pack and make you relevant and unique.

Creativity is launched by asking these questions:

▪️“How can we be different from our competitors?“;
▪️“How can we be contrarian and seek uncommon ground to cover?”;
▪️“How can we go in the opposite direction to the leader of the pack?”.

The unknown and uniqueness are the drivers of creativity; what’s your CIQ?

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

• Posted 10.26.15 at 04:28 am by Roy Osing
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