Be Different or be dead

August 11, 2014

Why success is doing lots of imperfect stuff fast

Source: Unsplash

Why success is doing lots of imperfect stuff fast.

How do you consistently move the yardsticks forward in an organization? What actions are predictors of success?

Here’s my experience. Success has a really simple formula.

Success = (Doing) (lots of) (imperfect) (stuff) (fast)

Let’s break it down.

(Doing):

Acting not pontificating;
Not too much analysis;
Risk taking;
Gut and heart motivated;
Passion fuelled;
Making tries.

(lots of):

Don’t look for the silver bullets;
Be ok with making a ‘nano-inch’ of progress;
Failure is at the heart of successful ideas, so fail a lot;
Innovation doesn’t come in big chunks, it comes in bits and pieces;
Engage everyone in the organization because they all have ideas;
Shoot more than the other guy.

(imperfect):

Accept the fact that there’s no such thing as perfection;
Perfection seeking = no action; nothing is accomplished;
An imperfect idea successfully implemented beats an intellectually pristine notion that never gets off the ground;
Perfection cultivates innovation rigour mortise.

(stuff):

Make weird choices;
Look for DiFFERENT solutions;
Take contrarian positions on issues;
Unique;
Unleash the ’special’ in you and your organization;
Avoid copying at all cost.

(fast):

Know that speed is a competitive advantage;
Accelerate past the failures and try something else;
Avoid dragging, it robs you of your nimbleness;
Beware of your competition because they’re watching you.

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

• Posted 8.11.14 at 03:11 am by Roy Osing
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May 5, 2014

For the best customer experience, who should set the rules?

Source: Unsplash

Some organizations talk about providing customer service but what they really mean is enforcing their rules that define how customers are “allowed” to do business with them.

How they buy a product. How they get information on products. How they pay. How they register a complaint.

Customer service isn’t about controlling people. Nor forcing them to do things they don’t want to do.

It’s about serving them.

Who typically influences the rules that control customer engagement? Internal Auditors. Systems Analysts. Process Engineers. Efficiency Experts. All focused on “the inside”.

Something’s missing.

It’s about time the real “C-Suite” be invited to help design the customer engagement process and the rules that should govern it.

Do you regularly review your rules, policies and procedures with your customers?

Do you allow them to help determine what they should look like?

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

• Posted 5.5.14 at 03:58 am by Roy Osing
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April 14, 2014

This is why you shouldn’t worry about your competition

Source: Pexels

This is why you shouldn’t worry about your competition.

Traditional marketing strategy spends a copious amount of time focusing on how to erect barriers to competitive entry.
Unfortunately in my experience this doctrine doesn’t go far enough and it certainly doesn’t create a sustainable competitive position for an organization.

Worrying about the competition is not where energies should be spent.

Worrying about the competition is misplaced — Here are 7 reasons why this traditional business approach doesn’t work:

It’s not a particularly unique approach to the market — Most organizations seem to follow this approach to minimize competition in their business; if everyone pursues the same strategy, how can it result in a differential advantage for any one of them? The truth is, it’s a business school course and every student takes it and typically tries to apply IT when there are other strategies that work much better.

The notion is rooted in a more theoretical perspective and falls short of the practical need to show business people how to do it. It’s all very well to salute a strategy that is rooted in strong theory, but if it can’t be practically implemented in the real world, it’s of little value.

It’s a distraction — While an organization is consumed with trying to find ways to keep the competition out, it’s not spending enough time to ensure their existing base of loyal customers are taken care of.

And it spawns an unhealthy culture that is preoccupied with preventing market activity rather than doing whatever is required to beat the competition in the trenches where the customers are. Earning their business everyday should be the priority rather than erecting barriers to others coming in to compete with you.

It diverts marketing attention — Away from investing in value based offers for the existing customer base. Rather, marketing resources are employed on other activities — regulations, patents and government restrictions — designed to keep competition away.

It creates an illusion — That competition can be restricted. It’s futile in the long run because a hungry competitor will always find a way to gain access to your markets and your customers. You will never keep them out or restrict their natural market activities.

It tends to focus on artificial non-market tactics — To prevent more competition such as regulation and law rather than beating them by providing amazing customer service and unmatched value.

It’s an ineffective use of valuable resources — With an outcome that is inevitable. Back in the day, the incumbent telecom carriers spent an enormous amount of money trying to prevent competitive entry into traditional monopoly markets through a time-consuming and expensive regulatory process.

The competitive tsunami wasn’t deterred, however, and they should have been paying more attention to creating better customer service and a marketing engine that provided compelling and unique value.

I am not suggesting that you shouldn’t pay attention to the competition, existing and potential.

But don’t get obsessed about preventing them from doing what is reasonable given free market conditions.
If they have an opportunity with your customers, expect them to make a play and respond by shielding your loyal customers from the onslaught of their competitive value proposition.

If you feel that a certain non-market response is necessary, go ahead and do it. But don’t let it be all-consuming. Don’t let it gobble up all of your resources. And don’t let it drain the effort in executing a customer response to the threat.

Observe your competitors but ACT for your customers.

Make it so difficult for your competition to attract your customers away from you - by providing them with constant unmatched value - they will be frustrated and will have to endure so much pain, they will decide it’s not worth it. And they will retreat.

How can you hold them? — What are some of the actions you can take to keep your customers close to you and prevent them from leaving?

Music is a great teacher.

The Grateful Dead informed us on how to create a unique competitive claim.

You don’t want merely to be the best of the best. You want to be the ONLY ones who do what you do — Jerry Garcia, The Grateful Dead

And The Eagles’ Hotel California declares the impossibility of patrons leaving.

You can checkout anytime but you can never leave — The Eagles

The message is cool. It’s mysterious. It’s haunting. It’s foreboding. It’s dramatic. It’s scary. It’s suggestive of a clandestine move.

Here are 8 actions you can take to prevent customers from ‘leaving your hotel’:

▪️Don’t be concerned about what the competition is doing; focus on the action that YOU need to take to enrich the stickiness of your products or services;

▪️Action to prevent leaving must be taken quickly. The time it takes to get to check-out and leave the building is short; rapid innovation of offerings your customers love is mandatory;

▪️Abandon the conventional; take risks with out there solutions;

▪️Give ‘em something more. Move ‘em to ‘another room’ with added value. Transform them into another world where a new reality intrigues them to stay;

▪️Intercept them as they make their way to check-out. Don’t follow up after they have left. Have your spider senses ready to know they intend to leave and disrupt their intentions;

▪️Give them a new experience that makes them want to stay. Give them something so dramatic that it will take their emotions to a new level;

▪️Make it personal Speak to them specifically. What works for Mr. Smith won’t work for Mr. Jones;

▪️SURPRISE! SHOCK! JOLT! AMAZE! FRIGHTEN! them to stay. Do whatever it takes.

Too much attention is given to the threat of others taking guests from our hotel.

If you want to worry about something, worry about the door closing behind them.

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

• Posted 4.14.14 at 01:39 am by Roy Osing
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April 6, 2014

How your customers can become addicted to you in 5 simple ways

Source: Unsplash

How your customers can become addicted to you in 5 simple ways.

Addiction isn’t a casual interest or a take-it-or-leave it attitude.

When customers are addicted to a particular organization they are “all in”. They have a habit of dealing with the organization through thick and thin. It is that tough to kick. It’s like looking both ways before crossing the street. They just do it without consciously thinking about doing business with someone else.

Every organization covets the customer who will habitually buy from them.

The issue is, they aren’t just out there to be taken. There isn’t a tribe of addicts for the taking.

They have to be created.

And the problem today is that most organizations are so driven to make the sale, they don’t focus on doing what is necessary to turn the casual buyer into the raving fan with the habit.

Here are 5 things you can do to help your customers develop the habit for you:

1. Don’t focus on the sale.

If you do things right you will not only make the immediate transaction, you will earn a revenue stream for a long time to come.
This is all about changing the culture of the organization away from short term gratification to building the capability to earn in the long term. As long as quarterly earnings drive behaviour, the need to create addicts will take the back seat.

2. Recruit relationship-building sales people.

Look for demonstrated accomplishments of this competency. If you don’t have frontline folks leaning the right way, habits will not be formed.

3. Look at your front end systems.

Is it easy for a customer to enter your realm and get what they want? Is your web site easy to navigate? Can they reach a human being if they need to?
Do you force people through an IVR with a dozen questions to answer? Simplify your processes. Make them human friendly. People don’t give a damn about your internal issues!

4. Have a strategy when you screw a customer over (and you will).

Recovering from a service OOPS! has amazing implications when it comes to creating addictive behaviour from your customers. Fix it + SURPRISE ‘em is the formula that will turn a postal customer into an addict.
If you do it right they will forget that you screwed them over in the first place.

5. Declare a policy: we don’t care about our competitors! We care about our customers and believe that if we do a great job at serving them, we won’t have to worry about the hordes at our door.

The fact is, when you are worrying about what “the bad guys” are up to, you are nor concentrating on the experiences you have to create for your customers to turn them into addicts.

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

• Posted 4.6.14 at 03:10 am by Roy Osing
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