January 23, 2012

11 great questions to know if you are hiring the right person

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11 great questions to know if you are hiring the right person.

You are about to interview a candidate for a job with your organization; doesn’t matter what job.

Here are 11 questions you should ask to determine if they have what it takes to help you build a unique and distinctive organization.

1. Tell me about a project you led where your execution was brilliant. What did you do to make it so? The words passion, clear vision, shared purpose, recognition and relentless focus on the goal should be sprinkled through their answer.

2. Define marketing. Make sure their answer contains the following principles: providing value, focusing on loyal fans, providing personalized solutions, market segments of 1, customer wants and desires. Give them the heave-ho if they constantly reference marketing 101 stuff like the 4 p’s and satisfying customer needs.

3. What does leadership mean to you? Listen for the concept of serving people. If you don’t hear it, wave to them as they leave your office.

4. How much experience do you have in eliminating stuff that is no longer relevant — CRAP —  in your past experience? If they don’t understand the question, you could be looking at a good candidate for someone else.

5. Do you like human beings? Watch for a confused look on their face. They know it’s a trick question but don’t know where you are leading them.

6. As a follow up, tell me a story that would prove that you love humans. They will either leave you cold with their answer or they will give you goosebumps. If you get goosebumps you have a winner.

7. How would you go about developing a strategy for service for an organization? What would it say? Listen for words like experiences, memories, WOW! and dazzle. Then ask them how they implemented it.

8. Define sales. If they talk about selling products and nothing about building deep relationships, throw them out.

9. Have you ever worked for a company that had “dumb rules”? - Rules or policies that made no sense to customers? What did you do to help eliminate them? If they don’t say how they were instrumental in changing them stop the interview. It’s over.

10. What would you do to help you make your organization remarkable, unique, distinctive and gaspworthy? Look for stuff done to serve customers. Ignore technology answers.

11. How are you different? What makes you special? If they can’t define how THEY stand out from the herd, what makes you think they will be able to help your organization stand out?

Anyone who gives thoughtful answers to these questions is a keeper. Send the others packing.

There are no questions on education — formal learning credentials are a given.

If the person across the table answers these 11 questions reasonable well, perhaps they deserve a shot at the job. If not, send them packing.

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

• Posted 1.23.12 at 10:00 am by Roy Osing
• Permalink

January 16, 2012

3 practical ways to ‘bloody-up’ your business plan

Source: Pexels

3 practical ways to ‘bloody-up’ your business plan.

Your strategic plan document should not look pretty.

Pristine. Like the pages have been bleached and ironed. Like you haven’t looked at it since it was created. Probably a year ago.

Rather, the document should look like it has been used. Used a lot. To record what you have learned while trying to execute your strategy. In addition to a statement of direction, your business plan document should be viewed as a repository of learning.

Here are three ways to do it:

1. Record results constantly — As you implement your strategy, what worked? What didn’t? Why? Write it down: in RED if the outcome was NOT on plan; in BLACK if things worked out as planned.

Clarify the implications of falling short of your objectives so you can take corrective action. Evaluate what worked well with reasons so it can be repeated.

2. Work in the document daily — Refer to your plan everyday. Make a point of commenting on some aspect of it. Study your notes. Call a meeting with colleagues to problem solve an important matter.

3. Shout out the negatives — Executing any plan is neither nice nor tidy. It’s a messy business. Progress is extremely Inelegant. People get hurt. They get frustrated. They sometimes get stressed out.

That’s the way it is. And it needs to be told that way. People won’t believe that the plan is going along well and that there are no bumps being encountered.
Keep it real and honor those Heroes who been relentless in squeaking out progress in the face of painful odds.

And, if after religiously following these 3 tasks you have not messed up your plan document - blood stains from paper cuts, coffee stains, dog-eared pages and barely legible notes on every page then it’s clearly of no value to you and you are getting nowhere implementing it.

Bloody it up!

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

• Posted 1.16.12 at 10:00 am by Roy Osing
• Permalink

January 5, 2012

Successful startups find ways to avoid these 6 deadly mistakes

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Successful startups find ways to avoid these 6 deadly mistakes.

Got an idea you think can make you lots of money? Good. Chalk one up to you for coming up an innovative thought.

But the real challenge you have is to figure out how to monetize it. If you can’t get people to buy it, your idea is wasted.

Here are 6 mistakes entrepreneurs absolutely must avoid:

1. Not determining how your idea is different from your competition

Ultimate success will be determined by staking a unique claim in the market. If your idea is the same as, or similar to something already out there, it will be invisible. It won’t attract attention and no one will buy it.
If you can’t come up with an idea that is different than someone else’s, STOP.

2. Not clearly identifying who the potential customers are for your new idea

Winning is all about targeting your idea to very specific groups of people and giving them a reason to buy from you. It’s not about flogging your idea to the masses and hoping it will stick to some of them.
If you can’t define your potential customers, STOP.

3. Not recruiting people who have a strong marketing and customer service background

Ultimately, the success of your idea will depend on go-to-market effectiveness. Better have people on board who have experience in serving customers and providing value-based solutions to people. Technology and finance expertise are needed as well, but in a supportive role. People responsible for customers must be your anchor.
If you can’t put together a team of people with customer experience, STOP until you find them.

4. Not testing your idea with potential customers

It’s not about how excited you and your friends are about your idea, it’s about what your potential customers think. Get them in a room and present your idea. Ask them to evaluate it. Do they think it satisfies a real need they have? Do they think it’s different than other stuff out there? Would they buy it?

How much would they be prepared to pay for it? Would they likely tell their friends about it? Does your idea excite them?
If you haven’t spent the time obtaining real customer feedback on your idea, STOP until you do.

5. Not defining the unique value you are creating with your idea