Be Different or be dead

December 26, 2021

7 proven ways to make your marketing stunning and unbeatable

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7 proven ways to make your marketing stunning and unbeatable.

Marketing is practiced in the same way by most organizations; typically marketers adopt efficiency tools to perform the detailed tasks of their profession. They are infatuated with the minutiae of their world.

There are, for example, keyword research tools such as Ubersuggest,  site usage tools such as Hotjar, email marketing tools like Active Campaign and many many more.

Today, there are so many tools available that overwhelmed marketers have a difficult time choosing one that best fits their particular circumstances.

But the real problem is that with everyone searching for the toolset that will make them more efficient at performing marketing tasks, the specific strategic actions that will enable them to stand out in the crowd are often overlooked and given a low priority. In some organizations they are ignored.

Efficiency is a laudable goal, but what organizations need from marketing are strategic tools; tools that will make them different from every else and give them a strategic advantage in the marketplace.

Marketing is not a tactical resource, it’s a strategic one.

These are the actions that different marketers take to add strategic value to their organization and make their marketing efforts stunning and unbeatable.

#1. They don’t care about new customers

They treat existing loyal customers as the lifeline of the business. They choose to reward loyalty with special deals and promotions before offering them as an incentive for people to leave their current supplier.

‘Deals for loyalty’ is the mantra that drives the offer development process and additional revenue is generated by creating programs for current customers as opposed to adding new customers.

#2. They bring service in

They introduce service elements into the marketing value proposition mix, realizing that if the right service umbrella doesn’t overshadow the specific product being offered, there is no positive outcome.
If someone can’t easily get their solution with care and attention, they won’t buy or stay.

And they differentiate various levels of service to reflect the value of various customer groups. For example, a dedicated ‘Chairman’s Club’ 1-800 line is provided exclusively for those customers who are top spenders.

#3. They ignore technology

They are agnostic to technology; they focus on the value and benefits the technology delivers rather than on the technology itself.

Current marketing is infatuated with gee-wiz technology and uses it to declare a competitive advantage.
So, for example, a communications company mistakenly assumes it is unique among their competitors if they use 5G technology yet the technology is available (and eventually will be used by) everyone in the business.

Unmatchable marketing, on the other hand, positions their organization as unique in how they employ technology to solve customer problems or enhance their quality of life.

#4. They covet ‘The ONLY’

They ask the question,’Why should I do business with you and not your competitors?’ guide them in developing the competitive strategy of their organization.

They avoid using ‘better’, ‘the best’  and ‘number 1’ to declare their competitive position; rather they use the ONLY statement — ‘We are the ONLY ones that…’ — to express their uniqueness and state why they should be chosen over their competition.

#5. They are ‘always on’

They are constantly learning what customers desire every time they touch the organization, whether it’s a personal contact or a visit to a website.
 


They are not enamored with traditional market research studies as the way to discover what people want and desire; they use a learning streaming approach that gathers relevant information on the customer every time they engage with the organization.

The smallest detail may be the most important in terms of providing the right solution, and unmatchable marketers don’t want to miss the opportunity to get it.

#6. They love ‘secrets’

They are obsessed with discovering the innermost secrets that customers hide: they aren’t really all that interested in the needs they give up freely.

Most organizations try to determine what their customers NEED and use their data to drive the marketing process. Unmatchable marketing, on the other hand, tries to get ‘under the covers’ and discover what their customers crave and lust for as the engine for what is offered to them.

If every marketing team is looking for needs, no one will stand out; they all have the same information. If they have secrets though, they will be unique and will have the opportunity to stand out from all others.

#7. They like trying

Experimentation through market trials is the beacon they use for what will really work; studies and rigorous analysis take a second seat to real market experience.

Old school marketers do exhaustive studies on the potential for a product or service and if the results are positive they go to market.

Unmatchable marketers, on the other hand, do abbreviated studies and conduct extensive trials with real customers and then move to a full market launch based on trial results and customer feedback.

The unbeatable marketers’ scorecard has ‘the number of tries’  as a key performance measure; the more tries, the better the performance. They trust what they learn from the customer experience not from what study and analysis concludes.

Unbeatable marketing is needed for organizations to win in these unpredictable and pandemic times; staying with old school ways unfortunately guarantees mediocrity, herd membership and anonymity.

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

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 12.26.21 at 07:33 am by Roy Osing
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December 13, 2021

How employees can be perfectly aligned with business goals

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How employees can be perfectly aligned with business goals.

A very common business problem is that employees don’t act in accordance with the strategy of the organization. The strategy says one thing, and employees do another. Strategic reviews show that the strategic intent of the organization is not working and dysfunction weaves its way among team members.

Generally there are two reasons for the dysfunction: one, you don’t have the skills need expertise necessary in people to execute your strategy, and two, even if people are skilled, they don’t know what should be doing specifically in their job to implement the strategy.

So, how do you develop employee teams to take the actions that the strategy requires?

It all starts with strategic context.

Without clarity around the strategy of the organization, it’s virtually impossible to define what behaviours are necessary for people to exhibit on a daily basis, as well as the skills and competencies required to consistently execute it.

Your strategic intent must be dissected and exposed so employee skills and competencies can be define and employees know how to behave.

There is no such thing as ‘good’ alignment or ‘close’ alignment.

Alignment either exists or it doesn’t and therefore the due diligence that must be applied to the process must be extremely disciplined and precise — ‘close enuf’ doesn’t work.

The following process worked for me. It produced a succinct People Plan for the business that was directly linked to business objectives, and had people all marching in step.

#1. Create a People Plan

First, the strategic game plan of the organization must contain a detailed ‘people plan’ with people objectives that define what talent is required to successfully execute the game plan.

Most strategies contain some precision on marketing, sales and finance objectives; the same must be done for the human element of the organization.

#2. Engage the CPO

The CPO— Chief People Officer— must be at the executive planning table.

A game plan that is developed without the fingerprints of the chief people leader will not produce the detailed direction required to align the human component of the organization to the desired strategic outcomes.

The primary role of the CPO is to decompose the strategic intent of the organization into what human elements are critical to achieving it.

The CPO is the translator that bridges the gap between the hill to be taken and the warriors needed to make it happen.

#3. Develop the People Plan in excruciating detail

It must be developed with sufficient granularity to answer these types of questions:

▪️What new competencies are required to achieve the new strategic goals defined in the game plan?

▪️What does the training and recruitment plan look like to acquire these new competencies? The timing of these actions must precisely parallel the strategy’s need for the new skills critical to deliver results within a specific timeframe.

▪️What existing competencies are no longer required?

▪️What training is needed to equip these people with the new skills required?

▪️What is the exit plan to move people out of the organization who are either incapable or unwilling to acquire new expertise?

This piece is extremely important. You can’t have people hanging out with yesterday’s competencies and expect that you will be able to meet the new realities of the business. Only two options are available: train the new or exit the old.

▪️How do the elements of the People Plan line up with strategic objectives? To get alignment.  you have to demonstrate precisely how the outcome of each element of the plan serves a corresponding component of the business strategy.

For example which critical objectives of the business are satisfied by which of the new skills targeted to acquire? You need to be able to ‘see’ the link directly, otherwise you can’t claim there is alignment.

#4. Hold the CPO accountable

The CPO must be held accountable to present the People Plan back to the executive team that developed the organization’s game plan, and must PROVE that it is in alignment with the priorities of the strategy.

This must be treated as an inquisition of sorts, as the consequences of mis-alignment are serious — squandered resources and a dysfunctional culture.

Most organizations don’t apply this type of rigor to ensuring alignment, but complain of dysfunction.

You can’t have it both ways.

You will never have talent management in alignment with business objectives if you don’t put in the discipline and hard work necessary to achieve it.

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

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 12.13.21 at 04:08 am by Roy Osing
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December 6, 2021

Why customers should be allowed to make your rules and policies

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Why customers should be allowed to make your rules and policies.

Most organizations have, as part of their business plan. a customer service strategy to create delightful experiences for their customers.

But unfortunately the bold declaration of intent to blow customers away with exemplary service is as far as it goes because organizations quickly move away from their great service aspiration and design a rule system with policies and procedures intended to impose order and control on the customer engagement process.

Credit policies. Accounting procedures. Collections rules. Sales processes. Complaint policies. Order procedures.

Customer Service manuals generally are replete with instructions on how to deal with virtually anything to do with a customer.

In fact most rules in an organization one way or another impact the customer.

And for the most part they are meant to control them. To make them behave a certain way that produces a favorable outcome for the company usually in terms of keeping costs down and imposing a standard way of doing business that applies to everyone.

Rules are meant to control the customer transaction.

What if we took a different perspective and created rules to enable the transaction; to allow the customer to engage with the organization the way they want?

Terms that make their experience with us enjoyable and stress free?

There is a huge contradiction when organizations say they are in the business of creating memorable experiences for customers yet construct rules and policies that do exactly the opposite.

It’s time for leadership to be bold and let the customer provide input to the process of architecting the rules. Let the customer control their own destiny with you.

Enable them; serve them.

How about asking a group of your fans to critique your policies and suggest changes?

What not? Are we afraid what they will say? Afraid they will point out the stupidity of some of them?

Open up.

Allow your fans to control you. They do anyway, so why not make it official?

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

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 12.6.21 at 05:26 am by Roy Osing
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November 29, 2021

Why successful organizations are really good at doing boring things

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Successful organizations are amazing at doing boring things.

Much is written about organizational performance, and what it takes to consistently beat expectations and stand out from the crowd of hungry competitors; I’ve certainly been among those pundits who have offered proven and practical tactics based on my experience leading teams in various market environments.

A sample of these tactics in no particular order include:
— adopt a serving leadership culture.
— focus on execution rather than the efficacy of the plan.
— cast off traditional planning tools and build your strategic game plan by asking three simple questions.
— pay attention to the few critical ‘must do’ things that matter in moving your plan forward. Multitasking is deadly.
— target your efforts at the select group of customers (who have the potential to generate the revenue you need to meet your growth goals, and avoid spraying your solutions to the mass markets.
— get your strategy ‘just about right’ and don’t spend the time to try and get it perfect because you’ll never achieve it (a perfect anything is a myth).

— the key to successful implementation is the number of tries you make. The more tries, the more successful you’ll be.
— develop a ‘recovery strategy’ as part of your customer service vision. What you do when mistakes are made is critical to building customer loyalty.
— recruit people who ‘love’ humans and who enjoy serving and taking care of others. It’s the secret to building long lasting customer and employee relationships.
— kill the playbook in your organization that customers don’t want to abide by. It may serve your internal thirst for control but will only drive your customers who don’t want the hassle away.
— if you’re not different you’re dead (or soon will be). Sustainable performance can only be achieved if your organization creates relevant and compelling value for people in a way that no one else does. You need an ONLY statement to get you there.

All of the above approaches work. I’ve used them in startup businesses (internet), in growth businesses (data communications) and mature businesses (home and long distance telecommunications).
They represent my personal generic toolset to create long term value for an organization; one that I try to get others to use as well.

But there is another tool or tactic that I’ve used that does not automatically command the front page of the book on success.
I think it’s because most people looking for ‘how to’ ideas seem to be interested in learning about and trying complicated and theoretically-laden approaches promulgated by academicians and consultants who have never run a $1 BILLION a year business— I have —rather than simple approaches that may not be sexy but they work.

I’m a very simple person. And I have discovered that other people like simplicity.

Simple concepts are easily understood. Simple instructions are easily carried out. Simple rules are followed. Simple procedures produce few errors.

Simple— ‘boring’ —things create epic success.

Here are 5 boring things that incredibly successful organizations do.

1. They keep their promises

Their word is their bond whether it’s an employee committing to a customer or a colleague.
It’s boring. They do what they say they’ll do. Every time. All the time.
Nothing comes between a promise and delivery. Nothing.

It’s a cultural thing— a value —which drives the recruitment process: they look for people who have a demonstrated past of keeping promises to others.
“When’s the last time you broke a promise?” and “Why?” are top questions that are asked of every potential candidate.

2. They admit their mistakes and fix them fast

Regardless of where the fault lies, they take responsibility for things that go awry. They don’t admit fault when it’s not theirs to admit but they take responsibility to remediate whatever bad stuff has happened to one of their customers.
And it starts with saying sorry: “I’m really sorry this has happened but I’m going to take care of it for you (I promise).”

And it ends with the mishap being remedied FAST and with a little surprise added to delight the victim and bond them to the organization forever.
Mediocre organizations avoid embracing opportunities that mistakes present to them; amazing (boring) ones run toward them.

3. They talk to their customers

They are old school in the sense that they love talking to their customers; it’s in their DNA. Live conversations using the telephone!
And they align every part of their operations to this value. Every customer contact and service delivery function is architected to facilitate real time customer engagement.

Call centers are ‘care centers’, managed on how well they create memorable moments for people as opposed to how well they can maximize call throughput while minimizing cost.
It’s boring to be sure, but it carries a message that says we want to talk to you; to listen to you; to understand what you need and to serve you. Technology may be efficient but it can’t do that.

4. They invite their customers in to ‘shape’ how they operate

It’s not a very complicated concept to want to architect the inside of an organization to reflect the outside. It’s simple: vector the way you operate on the way customers want to be served.
It means designing systems and processes around how the customer wants to be engaged as opposed to forcing them to participate in a way they abhor.

And it also means defining the rule system of the organization around the whole concept of enablement: making it easy for people to do business with you as opposed to controlling their behaviour.
Boring organizations start out with a clean sheet of paper with no preconceived notions of how they should deliver their solutions to the market. Customer input determines what the operations topology looks like.

5. They are polite and respectful

Mindfulness of others is a key value that shapes how people behave both with customers and employees. Basic human skills like empathy, politeness and being respectful are ingrained into every employee. These skills are recruited, reinforced by leadership, recognized and rewarded to ensure they are present and accounted for in every person engagement that occurs every moment of every day.

And these skills are stressed among employees with the conviction that if they aren’t practised internally, they won’t be practised with customers, strategic partners, suppliers, investors and the media.

’Being nice’ is powerful in a world where it’s too easy to not be. It’s noticeable. It’s different. It’s your advantage if you want to be boring.

Being boring is a competitive advantage because everyone else seems to want to do cool and esoteric things the ‘experts’ say they should.

Success is a function of staying close to the ground and that’s a simple boring approach that breeds tremendous performance.

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

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 11.29.21 at 02:06 am by Roy Osing
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