Roy's Blog: Marketing
July 31, 2023
What is The Storm and why is it deadly for marketers?
Source: Unsplash
What is The Storm and why is it deadly for marketers?
The Sea: rogue waves - heaving tumultuous water - howling winds - black menacing clouds - deafening thunder - crackling lightning - violent and frightening.
Competition: burgeoning - hungry - desperate.
The environment: random - unpredictable - uncertain - anxious - chaotic - hysterical – angry.
Customers: fickle – demanding - intelligent – powerful - vocal, who speak their truth about how organizations serve them - socially connected - environmentally concerned - socially responsible - technology-savvy - opinionated - price conscious - value-driven.
Welcome to The Storm; the landscape facing entrepreneurs and business people today.
What’s the path to succeed and survive The Storm?
There is no simple answer, but there are some navigation buoys to observe in the maelstrom:
✔️ Stay close to your customers. Open yourself to them. “Attach” yourself to them as they experience a fast moving and uncertain world.
Move with them. Respond to how they deal with their reality. It’s like riding a bucking bronco. Hang on. Go with the forces that drive you.
✔️ Pick a course of action based on the best information you have available to you at the time. ‘Head West’.
✔️ Move from that course FAST, when things change.
Stay focused. Be nimble.
The Storm dictates that customer-obsessed MARKETING is vital to the success and survival of any business these days.
If you can’t market in The Storm you’re either dead or soon will be.
The Storm dictates that traditional marketing practices, on their way to irrelevance, must change.
It’s over. The old marketing pedagogy that guided marketers is done.
The Tipping Point signaling its demise is in the rear view mirror.
Not enough marketers are waking up to The Storm.
And the business schools aren’t doing students any favors in terms of preparing them for it.
They are not actively facilitating the move away from the old marketing ways to the marketing tools that will give organizations a shot at weathering The Storm.
Business students don’t learn Storm Marketing competencies so how can they contribute to business survival when they get out in the real world?
Much marketing these days is BORING in my view.
It’s lazy. It’s forgettable. It’s unimaginative. It’s unremarkable. It’s deadly in The Storm.
Today it seems to be all about pushing products and services with a features and benefits bent.
It’s all about price.
It’s “communications to the masses” approach invades one’s privacy; it’s obtrusive.
It’s about copying what others are doing; infatuation with Best in Class and Best of Breed.
And there is confusion.
▪️Some talk about marketing but what they really mean is sales.
▪️Some talk about marketing but what they really mean is advertising and communications.
▪️Some talk about marketing but what they really mean is brand management.
Hell, even same-old marketing is misunderstood.
What a challenge to start a conversation about morphing to Storm Marketing.
Cheers,
Roy
My 50+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series
‘Audacious’ is my latest…
- Posted 7.31.23 at 05:28 am by Roy Osing
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July 3, 2023
5 proven ways to achieve unbelievable growth in your business
5 proven ways to achieve unbelievable growth in your business.
What are the key things I did as the president of a fledgling internet company to grow it to A BILLION IN ANNUAL SALES?
I’ve often said that my BILLION dollar journey didn’t have a single silver bullet to explain our success, rather it was the combined impact of many small innovations that ‘lit fires’ in people and propelled them to achieve great results.
That said, however, there are 5 things we did that stand out in my mind as having a disproportionate effect on the superlative performance we delivered in a fast growing business with hungry competitors nipping at our heels.
#1. Differentiate. — Be the ONLY ones who do what you do.
Competition has never been more formidable.
Customers have never had so much power.
Technology has never changed so rapidly.
Yet competitive claims declared by organizations have never been so weak.
Using words like ‘better’, ‘best’, ‘number 1’ and ‘market leader’ to describe a business’s competitive advantage mean nothing to people. They’re organizational narcissism; expressions of who THEY think they are and nothing more.
And helium-filled statements like ‘We’re in business to save our planet.’ provide little reason as to why someone should do business with THAT organization and no one else.
Don’t be better, be the ONLY one.
#2. Simplify. — Make it easy for your customers to do business with you.
No one likes to transact with an organization that has complicated rules, policies and procedures. It’s just way too painful.
So, make ‘cleansing the inside’ of your organization a key priority.
Identify the policies and rules that make your organization say NO! when engaging with your customers, and either change them, make them customer friendly or eliminate them.
And evaluate the systems, processes and procedures in place to govern the customer transaction process. Determine if there are any that impair how the customer does business with you and reinvent them to enable customer engagement not control it.
If the ‘customer control police’ in your organization say a policy is effective in mitigating risk, treat it as a prime candidate for change.
#3. Execute first; plan second. — Spend 80% of your time executing and 20% planning.
There’s no return in trying to get a ‘perfect’ plan. It doesn’t exist.
And all the while you’re seeking perfection, you’re not DOING anything!
Get your plan ‘just about right’ and get on with executing it.
Learn as you go. Revise your plan based on results achieved.
Let execution be the measure of how effective your plan is, rather than some theoretical perspective of what ‘should’ work.
#4. Serve the frontline. — Be THE advocate for your frontline troops.
If execution is the prime strategic imperative for an organization, then serving those who are in execution channels is the prime directive.
If the frontline is enabled to serve customers, they will buy and your performance will skyrocket.
But if the frontline is restricted in any way, performance declines and growth becomes a paper gain only.
#5. Light fires. — Release the passion in your people.
What is audacious leadership?
It’s releasing the emotion in people.
Capturing their energy to execute the organization’s strategy flawlessly.
Convincing them that the journey is ‘right’.
Lighting their fire to have the energy to follow it.
And then watching the magic!
Cheers,
Roy
My 50+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series
‘Audacious’ is my latest…
- Posted 7.3.23 at 05:56 am by Roy Osing
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April 17, 2023
Why offering special deals only to new customers is a bad marketing tactic
Why offering special deals only to new customers is a bad marketing tactic.
I am absolutely against offering special deals and promotions to attract new customers while not making them available to existing customers.
Yet many, if not most, organizations do it.
▪️“Come to us and we’ll give you a free iPad.”
▪️“Come join our team and we’ll give you 2 months service FREE!”
(small print: this offer is available for new customers only…)
These are the main reasons I have no time for this kind of marketing tactic.
#1. The economics of this type of marketing program are flawed to say the least.
Advocates say that each new customer acquired by “giving goodies” and additional benefits away to them generates new revenue for the company, and hence value to the bottom line.
NFW!
First, ‘New Deal Customers’ are fickle (because generally they left someone else to come to you) so expected revenues from them will likely fall short of expectations because they will leave you when they sniff out a better deal.
Second, the costs of acquiring these new customers are HUGE, and will likely never be recovered due to the short life cycle of New Deal Customers. They leave or spend far less than the marketing business case assumed.
So you may get a short term upward blip in revenues but margins—due to acquisition costs—suffer.
#2. It disregards the existing loyal customer. Focusing on New Deal Customers refuses to benefit those who have supported the organization and got it to where it’s at.
It’s insulting.
I find it interesting that organizations are starving to be inclusive, to support local communities and be advocates for the environment, for example, yet can turn their backs on their ‘loyalists’.
Hypocritical? I think so.
#3. There are conflicting internal cultural issues created when this approach is used.
On the one hand, most organizations espouse the importance of the customer, and to serve them in a way that engenders their sustainable loyalty. Many talk about creating memorable experiences for their customers as the vehicle to get there.
And yet in practice they push them aside to binge on attracting New Deal Customers.
No wonder employees are confused about what’s important. Leaders say one thing and do another.
#4. It’s a misallocation of investment. Costs of acquisition are HUGE in comparison to the costs of keeping a loyal customer which argues that investments should be targeted to the existing customer base FIRST.
#5. It’s an illusion to think that the new customer will be loyal. These are false benefits. Short term at best.
If the New Deal Customer came to you for the Deal, what makes you think they won’t leave YOU for a better deal elsewhere?
#6. It amounts to competing on price in a different form. Giving value away for free essentially drives down the price of the product or service being purchased.
#7. A focus on New Deal Customers damages your brand.
It signals to new customers that you want to appeal to them based on price, not building relationships.
It shows you’re willing to get new customers AT ANY COST.
It shows you’re an uncaring organization with no consideration for the customers who helped build your success.
If you must use freebies as bait to lure new customers to you, at least do the right thing by offering the deal to your existing customers FIRST.
Cheers,
Roy
My 50+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series
‘Audacious’ is my latest…
- Posted 4.17.23 at 05:06 am by Roy Osing
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March 20, 2023
What’s the audacious (but simple) formula to take a startup to a BILLION in sales?
Is there a formula to take a startup to a BILLION in sales?
Yup. But it’s not just about sales. This is not a treatise on sales techniques; FAR FROM IT! In fact sales plays a minor role in what it takes to get a BILLION.
In my seventh book, “Audacious ’Unheard-of Ways’ I Took a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES”, (https://www.bedifferentorbedead.com/blog/item/1328) I share with you the formula I discovered over my four-decade career as an entrepreneur, CMO and president.
I hope you check out my book for the details, but here are 8 snippets I hope will tweak your interest:
1. Business plan — You won’t make a dent in the BILLION if you spend all your time trying to perfect your plan to get your strategic intent ‘perfect’. I will show you how to develop my BILLION business plan that gets your end game ‘just about right’ and focuses on execution as the source to learn and tweak it on the run.
2. Tailor-made solutions — BILLION dollars in sales doesn’t come from a mass market solution marketing machine, rather a healthy mix of mass customized and individual tailor-made solutions with ME-NOW as the primary focus.
I will give you a step-by-step method of doing it based on what worked for me as CMO.
3. Premium pricing — Pricing on the journey to a BILLION is about being a premium price business where the value provided to its customers commands higher prices than the competition. Discount pricing is for commodity players with mediocre sales and margins.
I will share my pricing secrets with you and show you how to play the high-price, high-sales game.
4. Elegant delivery — A key component of the BILLION sales stream is how solutions are delivered to customers. Delivery systems must be flawless.
This is basic stuff. Customers expect to get what they’ve bought in a straightforward way and when delivery systems don’t work their dissatisfaction is often expressed by complaining to their friends or moving to another supplier.
I will show you in simple terms how to flawlessly execute your plan and ensure your customers get what they want when they want it.
5. Caring service — A business that is capable of a BILLION in sales cares about its customers.
They actually have a culture that has moved beyond the normal strategy of providing excellent customer service to one where employees treat their colleagues and customers with the respect and empathy they deserve.
I will explain in detail how I created a service strategy for the organizations I led and the success that I had.
6. Serving leadership — A BILLION in sales comes from frontline functions supported by serving leaders.
They understand that superlative performance and unmatched results come from well trained employees working with the right tools and ‘100 % uptime’ systems and processes and minimal barriers and roadblocks to doing their jobs the way they need to be done.
Leadership plays a vital role in the effectiveness of delivering results by spending time with the frontline and other key delivery systems personnel asking the simple question: “How can I help?” and serving them in any way they can.
My success as a leader came from a blueprint I developed for myself and I’m going to take you through it so you can reap the same rewards as I did.
7. A win-your-business-everyday attitude — A BILLION in sales requires an attitude and culture that takes nothing for granted in terms of customer loyalty. These businesses know that, with so much competition and alternatives for their customers, they must earn the right to serve their customers everyday.
And that if they do much as lose focus on that purpose, they could lose business in a heartbeat.
Employees are coached to assume that their customer’s business is always up in the air and that they must fight for it with every customer engagement.
My approach to building strong teams is unique, and in my book you will learn to not only have a strong turned-on team, but also to do it in an unheard-of way.
8. Reaction DNA — You don’t earn a BILLION by having a strategy that successfully plays out the way it was originally intended; there are always unexpected ‘body blows’ that strike, which requires a business to react ‘in the moment’ to take it in a new direction.
These businesses have reaction as a basic element of their DNA. They absorb body blows effectively, re-vector their strategy and retain their sales momentum.
There’s a formula to create the organizational ability to respond to unforeseen events that shock you, and I will unveil it for you in specific detail.
These snippets only scratch the surface in terms of what I did to successfully take a startup business to a BILLION in sales.
For the full reveal, check out my new book,
Cheers,
Roy
My complete 7-book BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series
My 50+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.
Order ‘Audacious’ here:
Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Google Books
Barnes and Noble
Indigo.chapters.ca
- Posted 3.20.23 at 07:27 am by Roy Osing
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