Be Different or be dead

November 18, 2010

Why an aspiration can actually kill your ability to compete

Source: Unsplash

Why an aspiration can kill your ability to compete. Aspirations keep your head in the clouds even though results are achieved on the ground.

An essential component of building a business plan for your organization is declaring how you intend to compete and win against the competition.

This is all about deciding what you will do to convince targeted customers to do business with you and only you.

Unfortunately, most organizations come up with competitive advantage claims that describe what they aspire to do, rather than laying out detailed, specific and concrete reasons for people to buy from them as opposed to others

Meaningless claims like these pervade the marketplace:

▪️‘we provide the utmost in service and selection’

▪️‘we offer the best quality anywhere’

▪️‘we provide top notch service’

▪️‘we have been in business for over 50 years’

▪️‘we provide a wide range of services’

▪️‘we provide the best network in Canada’

▪️‘we are the most technologically advanced company in our business’

▪️‘we have people who care’

These types of statements might pass the helium-filled vision test, but they do little to stake out a claim that will communicate precisely what the organization intends to do to differentiate itself from their competition.

They do little to set customer expectations in terms of the behavior they should expect to see and the experience they should expect to enjoy. What exactly do they mean?

Every customer is likely to view the clams differently. Each employee would likely have a different definition of what each means; a big problem when it comes to delivering on the claim.

Consistency is required, not everyone doing what THEY think the claim means.

They are simply too general and at too high a level to be meaningful.

So, examine your competitive claims. Declare your position in compelling precise terms using the ONLY statement.

Leave aspirations out of the strategy room.

Get specific. Create a competitive claim that clearly articulates how you are different from the herd.

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

• Posted 11.18.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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November 4, 2010

How my quiz can help leaders know if they are special

How my quiz can help leaders know if they are special

Source: Unsplash

One of the most critical roles of a leader is to create a business plan and strategy for their organization that enables it to standout from their competitors in markets of changing customer needs and intense competition.

How does a leader approach the challenge? How do they know if their business plan is on the right path to being different from the herd of competitors they face in the market?

It is often the simple tools that provide the greatest insight into such a question, and over my 40+ year leadership career I’ve developed specific practical and proven practices that work together to build an organization that is unmatched by others.

If you want to see how your organization rates on the BE DiFFERENT or be dead scale, check out my 25 question quiz .

Rate your leadership in each of the critical categories of strategy, marketing, customer service, serving customers and sales to see how effectively you are applying my practices to separate your organization from the competitive blur in the marketplace.

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

• Posted 11.4.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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October 14, 2010

Why a customer beating is something to be cherished

Source: Unsplash

Why a customer beating is something to be cherished.

The ability to take a punch is one of the most critical strategic issues facing organizations these days and yet few view it as an opportunity to thrill their loyal customers.

It’s not particularly pleasant when you are on the receiving end of your customer’s wrath. It can be terrifying, intimidating and painful.
Someone else is in control and your first impulse is to try and deal with the situation and escape FAST.

Get it over with and escape the pain seems to be the favoured response by companies these days.

The ‘get it over with’ phrase usually involves quoting company policy as the explanation for the customer’s annoyance that they should accept.
This NEVER works as it was probably a company policy that made the customer go postal in the first place.

It’s not the frontline employee’s fault that customer complaint moments go very wrong.

Organizations generally don’t understand the latent power they have if they respond the right way, and even if they did they rarely go as far as defining the specific way the situation should be dealt with i.e. the behaviours required to successfully handle the situation.

Enlightened organizations strive to serve their customers in a remarkable way and make themselves indispensable get it.

They are able to turn the other cheek and realize the benefit of being bullied, harassed and beaten up by their most precious assets.

‘Take-a-punch’ opportunities

◾️ Realize its nothing personal. Your fan is pissed at your organization and the way it’s have treated them. If you can’t get to an objective plane you simply won’t be able to take care of the situation.

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and look at the circumstances from their point of view. Wouldn’t you be upset if you were treated the same way?

◾️ Treat this experience as a source of learning. You are getting the real deal. The customer is telling you how they really feel. You are getting their secrets in no uncertain terms.

Listen and Learn how to change policy and procedures so they serve what the customer wants instead of infuriating them.

◾️ Look at this as a gift of service recovery that will actually build customer loyalty.
Create a dazzling moment for them by not only solving their problem but also adding the surprise factor - something thoughtful they did not expect.

◾️ As long as they are screaming at you they haven’t left. If your organization wasn’t serving them in any meaningful way, they wouldn’t be chastising you.
They would be gone. And they would be telling everyone they connect with how rotten you are.

Bottom line… develop your own take-a-punch strategy for serving customers if you want to enjoy the financial fruits of loyal and caring fans.

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

• Posted 10.14.10 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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June 14, 2010

1 easy way to describe your unique competitive position

Source: Unsplash

1 easy way to describe your unique competitive position.

It is critical that organizations declare their competitive position in the market in simple, clear and compelling terms.

The fact is, most don’t do it very well. They use vague words and phrases like ‘best’, ‘number one’ and ‘leader’ to describe the differential advantage they believe they have in the market. Words like these do little to give a prospective buyer reasons to do business from them as opposed to others.

Seth Godin says “If you can’t describe your position in 8 words or less, you don’t have a position.”

I agree that a positioning statement is critical, but I think we need to be a little clearer in terms of the competitive element. I would amend Seth’s statement to read “If you can’t define your unique position in 8 words or less, you don’t have a position.”

An 8-word positioning statement that doesn’t deal with how you are unique among your competitors won’t have any impact at all

Winning and survival demands that organizations create unique value differences between themselves and their competitors.

Failure to do so gives customers no compelling reason to do business with them as opposed to others with a predictable end result.

The ONLY Statement is a way to crystallize your uniqueness; it captures the essence of your business plan in terms of how you intend to differentiate your organization from your competitors.

This claim is the ultimate manifestation of differentiation, a rallying cry for the organization and the guiding light for all marketing communications activity.

Complete the sentence: “We are the ONLY ones that…” and you have a positioning statement that works.

Example of an ONLY statement..

MUG Solutions of Vancouver, Canada:

“We provide the only permanent solution that prevents biohazard contaminants (such as used syringes) and all other debris from entering manholes.”

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

• Posted 6.14.10 at 01:00 pm by Roy Osing
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