Be Different or be dead

January 11, 2021

What is the purpose of a successful business?

Source: Pexels

The purpose of a business is to create a customer — Peter Drucker, Management Guru

Who In their right mind would even think about commenting on a Drucker quote other than verbally bowing to its pristine elegance?

But we need to have a conversation around the notion that creating a customer is the fundamental goal of a business. In today’s world with crazy competition, empowered customers and fleeting customer loyalty we need to extend our thinking.

We need to get more focused. ‘Go get a customer’ without some clarity and qualification could be problematic.

Not all customers are created equal; there’s no such thing as a bad customer, but some are better than others

This type of thinking should play a critical role in defining the purpose of a successful business.

A business needs to create the RIGHT customer. It needs to gather as many RIGHT customers as it can.

The RIGHT customer is one:

◾️ that has the growth potential to meet the organization’s financial goals. No use targeting a customer that doesn’t have the revenue potential you need to grow successfully;

◾️ who is a fanatic about what you do or what you produce. They care about your products or services;

◾️is a part of an extended group of fans who communicate regularly with one another and with others to spread your reach.

Organizations need to get more proficient at choosing WHO they want to serve.

Its not about the quantity of ‘casual consuming followers’ you get; it about attracting the quality ones who are ‘relentless-re-purchasers’ and who virally spread your word while they benefit from the relevance, quality and value you deliver.

Take the emphasis off the customer and put it on what consumption value is derived by someone.

The purpose of a business is to create unique experiences for the customers they choose to serve. If one-and-ONLY relevant and compelling experiences are created, customers will come.

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

• Posted 1.11.21 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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January 1, 2021

Why does business survival depend on being irresistible and different?

Why does business survival depend on being irresistible and different?

Never has it been more important for your business to be distinctive—to be different—in the marketplace than it is today.

Consumers are spending fewer discretionary dollars. Competition is intense as businesses jockey for the winning formula to attract customers, remain profitable and survive in this challenging environment. Those that don’t face this reality slowly wither and eventually fail. 

In BE DiFFERENT or be dead: Your Business Survival Guide, I show you how businesses can navigate the turbulent waters of the contemporary economy. 

Drawing on what I learned and successfully implemented over my career as an executive leader, and entrepreneur in the telecommunications industry, and as a business consultant, I give you the real deal: performance enhancement and survival ideas based on solid business principals that work in the real world.

I focus on strategies that I personally developed and executed: things you can do today to immunize your organization against performance decline and business failure tomorrow.

Practical and proven.

For business strategy executives, marketing and sales executives, customer service executives and business owners and entrepreneurs alike, BE DiFFERENT or be dead is an invaluable resource for any leader looking to create a competitive edge for their organization and build long term success.

Key concepts

Here are only a few of the groundbreaking and unheard-of topics in my book you won’t find anywhere else:

— Cut the CRAP.
— Never chase Yummy Incoming.
— Plan on the run.
— Execute first, plan second.
— Get your business plan just about right.
— Customer share: the new marketing measure of success.
— Serving customers: the NEW customer service.
— The customer experience roadmap.
— Service Recovery = Fix the mistake + Surprise the customer with what they don’t expect.
— NEW Sales Mantra: LOSE THE SALE!
— Benchmarking sucks.
— Craft The ONLY statement for competitive differentiation.
— Product flogging is disgusting.
— ME! NOW! marketing is replacing mainstream marketing.

What some of my readers say…

“I had trouble putting this book down. In these challenging times this is exactly what business leaders need to weather the storm. BE DiFFERENT or be dead by Roy Osing is bang on for sales people, marketing executives, entrepreneurs and owner operators. Learn from Roy…I did!”
— Dr. Peter Legge, OBC, LL.D (HON), CEO/Chairman/Publisher Canada Wide Media Limited

“BE DiFFERENT or be dead is one of the top business books in the U.S.”
—Soundview Executive Book Summaries, Concordville, USA

For business strategy executives, marketing and sales executives, customer service executives and business owners and entrepreneurs alike, BE DiFFERENT or be dead: Your Business Survival Guide is an invaluable resource for any leader looking to create a competitive edge for their organization and build long term success.

BE DiFFERENT or be dead: Your Business Survival Guide is available here.

Cheers,
Roy
For all of my books, check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 1.1.21 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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January 1, 2021

Great leaders spend their week doing these simple but important things

Great leaders spend their week doing these simple but important things.

Leaders require context for what they do and how they spend their time. A philosophy that guides their behavior and the things they treat as a priority.

Without context, leaders tend not to lead.

They flit.

They spend their time on the crisis of the day and chasing what their boss wants them to do.

The appropriate leadership context for today’s rapidly changing and unpredictable world should be all about serving people ‘on the inside’— employees—and people ‘on the outside’—customers.

You can’t plan your activities for the week without getting your thinking straight on which philosophy YOU believe in as a leader.

Do you want to control and direct people or do you want to serve and take care of them, believing that happy engages employees will deliver amazing results?

For some, subordinating oneself to another person is completely out of their comfort zone.

The issue is: which leadership philosophy better serves an organizational strategy today in a world where long term success and survival depends on the ability to stand out from the competitive herd?

Where execution separates the winners from the losers; where employee engagement determines if your game plan rocks or goes down in flames.

My money’s on serving.

If you decide to serve rather than control people, this unprecedented book is for you.

I will give you some simple, practical things you can do every day of the week to promulgate serving both within your organization where your warriors live, and on the outside where customers live.

Key concepts

Here are only a few of the powerful weekly tasks I share with you in my book:

— Get into a customer’s face constantly.
— Practice Leadership by Serving Around.
— Exercise your role as the organization’s strategy hawk.
— For God sakes, micromanage!
— Be nosy.
— Live with the frontline.

— Have regular bear pit sessions.
— Practise your speech style.
— Copy weird people.
— Treat unexpected events as emergencies.
— How to engage your people.
— DON’T be a great leader.

— Make sure employees understand their role in executing the organization’s business plan.
— Hire people when they give you goosebumps in an interview.
— Tell stories—lots of them—that describe success.
— Focus on DONE, not doing.
— Surprise others; don’t be predictable.
— Eat your own dog food.
— Nudge your strategy to success.

What some of my readers say…

“Leadership isn’t about titles, rules of thumb, processes and control. Rather, leadership is about being available – to listen, to guide, to create memorable experiences at every touch point. Be different – or be dead. Be ourselves – or not be ourselves. If we aren’t different, well, we might as well be gone. Thank you so much for writing this piece – a valuable guide for years to come.”—Elena Iacono, Communications Professional, Toronto Canada

“If you want to enhance your personal leadership style to transform your organization in a way that differentiates you in the marketplace, then I
would highly recommend you check out Roy Osing’s arsenal of leadership tools, and business enablement strategies. In his Weekly Calendar for
Leaders Roy outlines a week’s worth of simple, yet effective steps, and strategies that will help you create your own unique, servant leadership
style, and build a personalized, leadership blueprint for success.”—Gina Campbell, Senior Communications Manager, Soupcan Marketing, Vancouver Canada

A Weekly Calendar for Leaders is available at these retailers.

Cheers,
Roy
For all of my books, check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 1.1.21 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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January 1, 2021

How marketing can improve and survive in an unpredictable world

How marketing can improve and survive in an unpredictable world.

How can your marketing strategy survive the storm in today’s world? Marketing is in serious trouble! Its effectiveness is extremely limited.

If you are practising traditional text book marketing, this book is your wake-up call. You are subjecting your organization to enormous risk.

Why? The playground for organizations today is not what it used to be.

Today’s environment is NOT relatively stable, predictable, and slow changing, where a handful of competitors tussle for business.

It is NOT a marketplace where customers dutifully accept what organizations produce with little recourse if they object and are dissatisfied.

It’s anything but.

The Storm is today’s world: turbulent, chaotic, powerful, violent and life-threatening. Where a plethora of hungry and aggressive competitors fight to live or die; where people are connected, well informed and engaging.

Storm consumers wield their power and punish companies who don’t live up to their expectations; they change their minds in a heartbeat and move to greater value and a better deal.

The Storm denies traditional marketing which is risky in current market dynamics. Doing more of the same-old, same-old marketing practices in destroys value and kills businesses.

Companies need a completely fresh and different approach. One that is completely in synch with new world realities.

One that is a shocking change from where we are in marketing today as opposed to a more lethargic shift in thinking which really doesn’t result in much change at all.

Storm marketing throws out the old and creates the new. It asks “What does marketing have to look like to thrive on and survive The Storm”? not “How can present marketing practices be modified and adapted to changes in our operating environment?”

The Storm demands disruptive and audacious thinking.

In this book, discover a new platform for Storm marketing; the essential marketing competencies organizations must take on and consistently demonstrate if they are to weather the maelstrom.

Key concepts

Here are only a few unbelievable concepts in the book you won’t find elsewhere:

— Serve people; stop flogging products and services at them. Respond to their agenda not yours.
— Learn about individual people; stop studying mass markets because they don’t exist.
— Dig for what people crave; merely satisfying their needs won’t give you a differential competitive advantage.
— Create customer experiences to build customer loyalty.
— Be the ONLY organization that does what you do; better and best don’t describe a long term winner.
— Be a premium priced in the markets you serve. Add extra value to your offerings and charge premium prices. Competing on price is insane marketing.

— Shed the strategy of being a fast follower; you’ll still be a copycat.
— Build barriers to customer exit; don’t fuss with competitive entry.
— Target to earn 100% of each customer’s business. Corollary: measure share of customer more than share of market.
— Shun benchmarking; it is a the tool of sameness. Copying lowers the bar it doesn’t raise it. Corollary: benchmarking has no strategic value.
— Focus on your loyal customers to grow your business; leave new customer acquisition to the second rate players.
— Stop product bundling. It’s price discounting in disguise.

— Build a customer learning competency to be able to shift with customer change.
— Grow revenue fast-and-easy during chaos.
— if you say you’re customer focused, choose your words very carefully.

What some of my readers say…

“Roy nails it again! Marketing in the Storm discusses the unusual disturbance of the once normal conditions of the business atmosphere, manifesting itself by winds of unusual force or direction. Today’s business is often accompanied by a rebellious climate of uncertainty, new rules, procurement, trust and lack of client know how. He’s scary correct with his insights. Read it and maybe survive.”—Frank Palmer, CEO DDB Canada

“Osing shouts out a convincing argument for smart marketers to heed: Take the time to respect your customers’ uniqueness, or get tuned out.”—Lori Leavitt Evans, Serial Entrepreneur and President, Lori Leavitt Evans Consulting

“I just love Roy’s books. Short, crisp, relevant, focussed and hard-hitting. Marketing in the Storm is 45 pages of dynamite to help marketeers understand what is important for today’s customers and what keeps them coming for more. He is right….it is about “experiences”, not “products”.
This book is highly recommended not just for new marketeers but also seasoned ones who still play by yesterday’s rules. The quote from Nelson Jackson, ” I do not think you can do today’s job using yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow” is the essence of Roy’s book. Loved reading it.”—Nerio Vakil, President Total Business Solutions, Mumbai India

Check out Marketing in the Storm at retailers here.

Cheers,
Roy
For all of my books, check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 1.1.21 at 08:00 am by Roy Osing
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