Be Different or be dead

August 9, 2010

An easy 6-step checklist to be different from your competitors

Source: Unsplash

An easy 6-step checklist to be different from your competitors.

Every business plan deals with how an organization intends to differentiate itself from their competition.

The ONLY statement should be the way to express your distinctive competitive position in the market. If you can declare yourself as “We are the ONLY ones that…..” the blur of non-unique competitve claims will fade away and your organization will stand clearly in focus to thrive and survive!

Your checklist to being the one and ONLY.

Your ONLY statement must:

✅ Address the high priority needs, interests, desires, secrets of your target customers. Being the ONLY one on something that doesn’t matter to your fans will achieve nothing. If it doesn’t matter to them you will talk about it at your own peril.

✅ Be true. Claiming you are the ONLY one at something that your customers don’t believe is deadly. Make sure you test your ONLY with your customers. In addition to getting feedback on it’s believability you are likely to get input to make your statement even better.

✅ Express value creation. Product flogging has a limited life. Unique value creation has longevity that is difficult to copy by others in the herd. Focus on the solution that is being provided and you are getting closer to the element of value.

✅ Be brief. If it takes you 2 pages to explain your ONLY position you’ve missed it. ONLY is a ‘nano-statement’ that shouldn’t require you to take a second breath.

✅ Be compelling. It has to have some WOW! emotional appeal to capture the hearts of your customers. Avoid being pedantic and terribly intellectual.

✅ Get employee juices flowing. ONLY is a war-rallying-cry of sorts. It defines the hill you are claiming and dares the herd to climb it.
Your employees have to FEEL what it says. What it requires of each and every one of them to win the battle.

The ONLY journey.

You need to be on it.

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

• Posted 8.9.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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August 7, 2010

Why no one notices you if you’re trying to be perfect

Source: Unsplash

Why no one notices you if you’re trying to be perfect.

Linchpin by Seth Godin has this nugget on perfection.

He declares that “... asymptotes are sort of boring” and asserts that successive improvements made in an organization get less and less noticed as they approach the state of perfection.

Makes sense.

The first 50% is noticeable and maybe even the next 25%. But as the improvement process continues over months (and probably years) you will eventually get to the stage where 1% improvements are made and are not noticed.

Who notices 1%? Very few if any. Certainly not enough people to warrant the investment to achieve the 1%.

Seth’s observations have these very specific implications:

▪️ If you’re not noticeable you will be ignored. Being ignored in a hungry herd of competitors is a deadly place to be. How do you get NOTICED? Make big changes in your organization that capture the imagination of your fans.

▪️ Beware of benchmarking. By its very nature, benchmarking encourages incremental change over time. Noticeability Factor = low; BE DiFFERENT Factor = low.

▪️ Focus on creating remarkable and ‘gaspworthy’ change that distinguishes your organization from the competitive blur. The quest for zero defects is laudable but who notices things that actually work the way they are suppose to?

▪️ Get more comfortable with making the odd mistake. Seth argues that creating anything remarkable is an art form, and ‘Art is never defect-free’.

The reality is that organizations will never eradicate mistakes and defects; people and technology aren’t capable of it. So why covet error-free if it is the impossible dream? And no one notices your progress along the way!

▪️ Put our energy into getting Distinctive, Unique, Remarkable, Unbelievable and Take-their-breath-away stuff that is almost right.

Appeal to the emotions of your customers with services and solutions that blow them away. If you do, do you think they will be ok with the odd mistake or error?

Remember, you don’t have to be better, best or perfect but you have to be remarkable and different. 

Spend your time seeking noteworthy change rather than increments of improvement.

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

• Posted 8.7.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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July 28, 2010

16 surprising actions to take that you won’t know are strategic

Source: Pexels

16 surprising actions to take that you won’t know are strategic.

Normally, ‘strategic acts’ in any business plan are thought of to be complicated and theoretically driven; that they are authored by people with impressive academic credentials and a rift of letters behind their name.

Not true. in my experience strategic acts are driven by simple behaviours because they deliver results rather than looking awesome on paper.

In no particular order…

1. Recruit people who genuinely ‘love’ human beings. Yes, liking other people is strategic!

2. Take notes. It’s an expression of the fact that someone cares enough about what you are saying to record it for further deliberation and ACTION.

3. Do stuff. Action gets results, thinking takes the number two position.

4. Apologize when things are screwed up. Recovery depends on assuming responsibility for what has happened. ’ am truly sorry’ starts off the loyalty building process the right way regardless of whether it was your fault or not.

5. Cut the CRAP in the organization that is no longer relevant AND that clogs the wheels of progress (Tom Peters’ call it the GRUNGE - awesome word!).

6. Over-react when a customer is screwed over. over reaction to a service mistake is a strategic act.
Again, successful recovery demands speed to get things right.

7. Problem solve. Things never go right the first time. SH*T Happen. Solutions are needed.

8. Form cross-functional teams. Results are produced across the organization demanding people working together harmoniously.

9. Tell stories. It’s a vital element of strategy. The best way of explaining to someone what the strategy means is to tell a story about it in action.

10. Use internal report cards to measure service quality on the inside of the organization. If internal customers aren’t dazzled it is highly unlikely (no, impossible) that external ones are.

11. Recognize service heroes constantly.

12. Encourage employees to successfully fail. A successful failure results in learning which advances the organization. An unacceptable failure has no learning element and simply destroys value.

13. Practice leadership by serving around is rampant across the organization.

14. Gather customer secrets. They are the fuel that powers your marketing and service machine.

15. Change your business language to be more customer-centric.

Wash your mouth out with customers

16. Get feedback on your performance from your boss, peers and direct reports 360 feedback.

Are you practising these?

If not, start the journey…

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

• Posted 7.28.10 at 01:00 pm by Roy Osing
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July 26, 2010

Why an executive leader is necessary to support customers

Source: Unsplash

Why an executive leader is necessary to support customers.

The “Chief” designation is well used in organizations these days: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Marketing Officer are but a few positions that carry this prestigious tag.

The serving side of a business (some call it the service side) gets short shrift however.

Very few companies have established a Chief of this side of the business.

The CSO — Chief Serving Officer — must in my view be established in any organization who has a strategy to acquire and retain loyal customers

This is a huge mistake! If serving is a critical component of your strategy you need single finger accountability to a senior executive for the flawless delivery of both coire service and dazzling customer experiences.

Diluting the responsibility across the organization will simply not work. It won’t get the attention required. Nor the focus. It requires a champion who can sit in executive team meetings and hammer the table when actions in the organization are preventing raving customer fans from being secured.

Here’s the CSO position description:

▪️ Create and execute the service strategy of the organization.&

▪️ Re-engineer customer serving processes from the customer’s point of view.

▪️ Develop the ABSOLUTELY-MUST-HAVE-WILL-TAKE-NOTHING-LESS competencies of frontline positions.

▪️ Define the recruitment process to be used in bringing on Customer Servers.

▪️ Get the value of the frontline leader position re-valued in the organization to be THE MOST STRATEGIC POSITION EVER.

▪️ Be the ultimate guardian of customer moments of truth. Watch them. Evaluate them. Improve them. Coach. Coach. Coach.

▪️ Kill dumb rules - the internal rules and policies that infuriate customers.

▪️ Set up dumb rules committees throughout the organization to seek out and cleanse the internal environment of stuff that makes no sense to customers.

▪️ Be THE advocate for the frontline. Protect them. Nurture them. Celebrate with them. Help them. Be the do-whatever-it-takes person to make sure they can delight customers.

▪️ Set up customer feedback panels to hear the truth about how you serve them. Get the CEO involved as well. The entire executive team. Leaders need to hear how your serving is perceived.

▪️ Assume the role of Chief Storytelling Officer. Get out in front of people with stories that breathe life in the service strategy.

▪️ Pay homage to service heroes. Know who they are and the names of their kids.

These are strategic acts that must be performed to stand-out in the way you serve your customers.

Put a CSO in place to make it happen.

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

• Posted 7.26.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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