Be Different or be dead

March 24, 2014

Why success comes from being different than ‘the best’

Source: Pexels

Why success comes from being different than ‘the best’.

‘The best’ describes someone who conforms to expectations more closely than the rest of their herd. Spells more accurately; answers history questions more correctly; obtains the highest mark in the math exam.

The best does a masterful job of performing their task according to the rules of the day; they colour inside the lines perfectly

There are certain professions where conformance to “standard operating procedure” is vital: landing airplanes and performing heart surgery come to mind as functions that require “in the box” thinking and performance (until something goes wrong at least).

In business, conformance is not what drives success. It drives mediocrity and sameness in the herd

Organizations who consistently succeed are brilliant at inventing a new box to play in.

They create new lines to draw in.

They are masters at non-conformity and contrarianism. They focus on breaking away from the herd.

Don’t press yourself or others to be The Best.

Honour weird, odd, quirky, strange, “out there”, ridiculous and unusual.

They will get you to where you need to go.

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

• Posted 3.24.14 at 06:44 am by Roy Osing
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March 17, 2014

How the sale can be lost, and the customer won

Source: Unsplash

How the sale can be lost, and the customer won.

Too much attention is being placed on making the sale.

And it is being reinforced by reward and compensation programs that hail the Salesperson of the year as a hero if they post the most sales.

This is at best a short term view.

Rather than being focused on immediate revenue generation, the emphasis should be placed on keeping the customer and trusting that if you do the right things and deepen the relationship revenue will flow.

Ironically, one of the most effective ways to keep a customer is to lose a sale (if you respond correctly that is)

Sales Recovery = What you do in the 24 hours after the loss to SURPRISE them.

Sure, they will be disappointed you couldn’t satisfy their immediate requirements but they will be more impressed by what you do to atone for your sins.

Here are 4 sales recovery surprise tactics to employ when your customer chooses someone else over you.

▪️Don’t whine and snivel over your loss!

▪️Apologize for failing them.

▪️Help them go somewhere else to get their needs satisfied. Call another supplier on their behalf to get the ball rolling. Be their problem solver. Commit to finding the right solution for them.

▪️Follow up to ensure their needs got met. Show that you care about their satisfaction and that it is more important than making the sale.

This process will earn you the right to get their future business.

And this is all the customer will remember.

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

• Posted 3.17.14 at 03:40 am by Roy Osing
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December 9, 2013

Why the gut is more important than the brain for success

Source: Pexels

Why the gut is more important than the brain for success.

Succeeding in business is not that complicated really, and finding opportunities for advancement is fairly easy if you know the secret.

Here’s the reality:

— there are no more Steve Jobs out there (or at least the possibility of finding him/her is pretty remote);

— there are no silver bullets, one-shot wonders for success;

— the are very few “new ideas” out there that will make you “Wonder Woman”.

The truth is, winning is a function of your stomach not your brain.

Intellectualize all you want but it is meaningless until you act.

Give me GUT over brains any day; “Fire-in-the-Belly.”

Why don’t we teach ‘gut’ at business schools in addition to probability theory?

The truth is, graduates from BS come out believing that pristine solutions will work.

How many great (on paper) ideas have you seen die on the vine because they don’t have a passion player driving them.

Why don’t we promote people with gut as being just as important as smart? How about starting a conversation around someone’s “GQ” (gut quotient) in addition to their IQ?

It will never happen!

Why? Because we STILL covet the brain rather than what the brain needs to actually accomplish something.

Without GUT the brain is useless.

Find more GUT.

Hire GUT.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 12.9.13 at 01:40 am by Roy Osing
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October 21, 2013

Why ‘heading west’ makes a really good business plan

Source: Pexels

Why ‘heading west’ makes a really good business plan.

‘Let’s head west’ might not be seen by many to be a sound business plan.

After all, it is a rather a vague goal; a foggy picture of what it will look like when the destination is reached.

That said, I suggest that it is a meaningful outcome to achieve, because it is impossible to see what the eventual outcome looks like when it is declared.

There are too many unpredictable variables impossible to account for up front will come into play once the journey ‘west’ is undertaken.

Economic fluctuations. New competitive moves. Changing customer demands. New disruptive technologies.

All are impossible to define when a business plan strategy is formulated.

And in fact it is unproductive to spend copious amounts of time trying to account for the random and unpredictable events that will hit you upfront when the strategy is being developed.

The best approach is to develop strategy as best as you can based on what you understand and know for certain today.

Get it just about right and start implementing it.

And be open to refining it as you move forward and learn how the execution of the strategy is going.

The execution component will determine the eventual outcome; the strategic destination.

A strategy-in-motion is the only way to achieve the outcome you are destined to achieve.

Be ok with ‘west’ as your direction and pour your energy into execution and you might eventually discover that Vancouver was the place you were destined for all the while.

You just didn’t know it when your journey began.

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

• Posted 10.21.13 at 05:34 am by Roy Osing
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