How to Outsmart, Outmarket, Outsell and Outdistance the Competition »
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The top company executives and their advisors spent the day closeted in a hotel room. There were no breaks, not even for lunch. The telephone was off-limits. Because the intent was so serious, the leadership of this highly sales-directed firm chose to isolate itself completely from any distractions. One participant even complained about traffic noise.
Everyone had been asked to read a book, a current business bestseller by two management consultants, and then evaluate the company against the three standards set by the book's authors and determine which format best fit their operation.
As the hours went by, something seemed amiss. Slowly, the problem took shape. The authors of a book were actually determining the destiny of a company they had never seen by dictating the management decisions of executives they had never met. No one questioned the authors' concepts. No one suggested looking at other models. No one asked, "Is this what we need?" Even more to the point, no one stepped forward with a model that met the unique requirements of the company. Even worse, the brief time given to writing a mission statement was spent trying to locate the page in the book from which to copy the words.
Leaving that hotel room late in the afternoon was like leaving a group of youngsters who believe that the goal of homework is coming up with the right answer. The answer is all that counts. How to arrive at the solution is unimportant, just wasted time. These talented executives settled for a quick, slick, off-the-shelf solution so they could "fix" the business.
Trying to emulate Cable and Wireless, Airborne Express or Dell Computer, however, is to miss the point. The way to outsmart, out-market, out-sell, and out-distance the competition can't be found in a book, particularly a momentary bestseller. A plan for successfully outmaneuvering the competition will have nine key strategies.
1. Start learning and never stop.
There's far too much mimicking and not enough learning taking place in every business. Jack Welch, GE's CEO and chairman, says, "When the rate of change outside exceeds the rate of change inside, the end is in sight." In most businesses, the situation may be even worse since there is an attempt to solve today's problems with solutions that were effective five to 25 years ago. Unless a business is constantly challenged and stimulated by new concepts, solid data and penetrating ideas, it is facilitating its own demise. Knowing why customers behave the way they do is far more important than looking for a gimmick for grabbing momentary edge on the competition.
2. Trust your own thinking.
Because businesses are inherently sales-oriented, they inevitably suffer from feelings of doubt and uncertainty. The consulting business thrives off of corporate inferiority feelings. Executives have an insatiable desire for confirmation: "If it's wrong, change it; it's right, certify it." Mouthing the most current business buzzwords is important for creating the illusion of being politically correct. All of which points to the unavoidable conclusion that it is necessary to appropriate someone else's ideas because businesspeople don't trust their own. On the other hand, leadership and direction emerge from confidence in one's own thinking.
3. Eliminate short-term tactics.
As daring as it may seem, it is accurate to suggest that the more a business talks about "customer satisfaction," the less it cares about is customers. This contention is based on the unavoidable fact that most businesses are driven by short-term goals dictated by shareholder desire, sales quotas, survival or, more than likely, all three. The customer is part of the equation only to the extent that the customer is necessary to reach the objective.
4. Stop looking at the competition.
There is often a schizophrenic quality to the way companies view their competition, ranging from envy to anger and love to hate. A competitor-driven business is inherently weak and ineffective because it makes the fatal mistake of acting as if the competitor is the customer. By devoting time and energy to following the competition, the competitors become the customers. Instead of asking what the real customers what and how to serve them better, it takes direction from what the competitor is doing.
5. Decide on your own identity.
A company's identity cannot be found on the business bestseller list; it emerges from the conviction that internal capabilities can deliver for the customer. It's not good enough to say, "We give great customer service" simply because this seems to be what happens to be popular at the moment. Saying something doesn't make it true, except perhaps in your own mind. Rather, a worthy identity is discovered or emerges from what makes a business unique. "No matter what others may do, this is who we are." Businesses with clear identities seem to thrive, such as Circuit City, Cincinnati Insurance Company and Bank of America.
6. Develop a plan and stay with it.
This doesn't mean that plans can't change--that they are cast in stone only to become a millstone around the company's neck. Mitsubishi has a 250-year business plan, but updates it every 90 days. This is both having a plan and sticking with it. More often than not, annual business plans bear little resemblance to end-of-the-year results.
The purpose of a plan is to set direction, provide guideposts for action and benchmarks for measuring progress. No business can outsmart, out-market, out-sell, or out-distance the competition without a carefully crafted plan of action, because it will always be tripping over itself and dissipating its resources.
7. Market the company, not just what you sell.
A regional distributor of nutritional products in the northeast found itself losing sales momentum until it changed its marketing strategy. In place of emphasizing its product lines, it began focusing on letting its physician-customers know about its nutritional expertise, as well as its ability to assist customers in selling the product in their practices. Along with the new strategy came dramatic increases in sales.
When the primary demand is to do business with the company, the product or service sales follow. Over the long-term, the company becomes the customer's valued resource so that there is less dependence on particular products or services and the customer has more interest in obtaining the most appropriate solution available.
8. Come up with new ideas.
While trying to find a way to differentiate themselves from the competition, companies tend to ignore the most effective approach. The answer isn't just rolling out new products either. New ways of doing business and providing innovative services are what hit the target. A large regional insurance agency stopped writing policies on so-called Main St. businesses because these small accounts were unprofitable. A couple of years later, however, they took another look at this same business. They had developed a combination of markets and systems for making this book of business a success. They even gave it a name so that it had its own identity. New ideas send a message to customers that a company is out in front, creative and a leader.
9. Never get comfortable.
There has never been a chapter written about it in a business school textbook, but the model is to be found in the minds of most business owners and managers. The goal was to get a business up and running smoothly so that it would then "run itself." This is still the most popular operating model. Yet, it is deeply defective because it suggests that it is possible to establish a pattern or system that is adequate to meet both current and future challenges. This was possible in the past, but not today. In effect, there is no room for comfort. Everything is constantly in flux: goals, customers, personnel, procedures, products and, or course, the marketplace.
The business context has forever changed. There is no longer a predictable economic environment that permits static thinking. The organization that knows how to identify information--and then to process it appropriately--is the only one capable of outsmarting, outmarketing, outselling and outdistancing the competition.
_____________
This resource is (c) John R Graham, President of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm.
by John R Graham
The top company executives and their advisors spent the day closeted in a hotel room. There were no breaks, not even for lunch. The telephone was off-limits. Because the intent was so serious, the leadership of this highly sales-directed firm chose to isolate itself completely from any distractions. One participant even complained about traffic noise.
Everyone had been asked to read a book, a current business bestseller by two management consultants, and then evaluate the company against the three standards set by the book's authors and determine which format best fit their operation.
As the hours went by, something seemed amiss. Slowly, the problem took shape. The authors of a book were actually determining the destiny of a company they had never seen by dictating the management decisions of executives they had never met. No one questioned the authors' concepts. No one suggested looking at other models. No one asked, "Is this what we need?" Even more to the point, no one stepped forward with a model that met the unique requirements of the company. Even worse, the brief time given to writing a mission statement was spent trying to locate the page in the book from which to copy the words.
Leaving that hotel room late in the afternoon was like leaving a group of youngsters who believe that the goal of homework is coming up with the right answer. The answer is all that counts. How to arrive at the solution is unimportant, just wasted time. These talented executives settled for a quick, slick, off-the-shelf solution so they could "fix" the business.
Trying to emulate Cable and Wireless, Airborne Express or Dell Computer, however, is to miss the point. The way to outsmart, out-market, out-sell, and out-distance the competition can't be found in a book, particularly a momentary bestseller. A plan for successfully outmaneuvering the competition will have nine key strategies.
1. Start learning and never stop.
There's far too much mimicking and not enough learning taking place in every business. Jack Welch, GE's CEO and chairman, says, "When the rate of change outside exceeds the rate of change inside, the end is in sight." In most businesses, the situation may be even worse since there is an attempt to solve today's problems with solutions that were effective five to 25 years ago. Unless a business is constantly challenged and stimulated by new concepts, solid data and penetrating ideas, it is facilitating its own demise. Knowing why customers behave the way they do is far more important than looking for a gimmick for grabbing momentary edge on the competition.
2. Trust your own thinking.
Because businesses are inherently sales-oriented, they inevitably suffer from feelings of doubt and uncertainty. The consulting business thrives off of corporate inferiority feelings. Executives have an insatiable desire for confirmation: "If it's wrong, change it; it's right, certify it." Mouthing the most current business buzzwords is important for creating the illusion of being politically correct. All of which points to the unavoidable conclusion that it is necessary to appropriate someone else's ideas because businesspeople don't trust their own. On the other hand, leadership and direction emerge from confidence in one's own thinking.
3. Eliminate short-term tactics.
As daring as it may seem, it is accurate to suggest that the more a business talks about "customer satisfaction," the less it cares about is customers. This contention is based on the unavoidable fact that most businesses are driven by short-term goals dictated by shareholder desire, sales quotas, survival or, more than likely, all three. The customer is part of the equation only to the extent that the customer is necessary to reach the objective.
4. Stop looking at the competition.
There is often a schizophrenic quality to the way companies view their competition, ranging from envy to anger and love to hate. A competitor-driven business is inherently weak and ineffective because it makes the fatal mistake of acting as if the competitor is the customer. By devoting time and energy to following the competition, the competitors become the customers. Instead of asking what the real customers what and how to serve them better, it takes direction from what the competitor is doing.
5. Decide on your own identity.
A company's identity cannot be found on the business bestseller list; it emerges from the conviction that internal capabilities can deliver for the customer. It's not good enough to say, "We give great customer service" simply because this seems to be what happens to be popular at the moment. Saying something doesn't make it true, except perhaps in your own mind. Rather, a worthy identity is discovered or emerges from what makes a business unique. "No matter what others may do, this is who we are." Businesses with clear identities seem to thrive, such as Circuit City, Cincinnati Insurance Company and Bank of America.
6. Develop a plan and stay with it.
This doesn't mean that plans can't change--that they are cast in stone only to become a millstone around the company's neck. Mitsubishi has a 250-year business plan, but updates it every 90 days. This is both having a plan and sticking with it. More often than not, annual business plans bear little resemblance to end-of-the-year results.
The purpose of a plan is to set direction, provide guideposts for action and benchmarks for measuring progress. No business can outsmart, out-market, out-sell, or out-distance the competition without a carefully crafted plan of action, because it will always be tripping over itself and dissipating its resources.
7. Market the company, not just what you sell.
A regional distributor of nutritional products in the northeast found itself losing sales momentum until it changed its marketing strategy. In place of emphasizing its product lines, it began focusing on letting its physician-customers know about its nutritional expertise, as well as its ability to assist customers in selling the product in their practices. Along with the new strategy came dramatic increases in sales.
When the primary demand is to do business with the company, the product or service sales follow. Over the long-term, the company becomes the customer's valued resource so that there is less dependence on particular products or services and the customer has more interest in obtaining the most appropriate solution available.
8. Come up with new ideas.
While trying to find a way to differentiate themselves from the competition, companies tend to ignore the most effective approach. The answer isn't just rolling out new products either. New ways of doing business and providing innovative services are what hit the target. A large regional insurance agency stopped writing policies on so-called Main St. businesses because these small accounts were unprofitable. A couple of years later, however, they took another look at this same business. They had developed a combination of markets and systems for making this book of business a success. They even gave it a name so that it had its own identity. New ideas send a message to customers that a company is out in front, creative and a leader.
9. Never get comfortable.
There has never been a chapter written about it in a business school textbook, but the model is to be found in the minds of most business owners and managers. The goal was to get a business up and running smoothly so that it would then "run itself." This is still the most popular operating model. Yet, it is deeply defective because it suggests that it is possible to establish a pattern or system that is adequate to meet both current and future challenges. This was possible in the past, but not today. In effect, there is no room for comfort. Everything is constantly in flux: goals, customers, personnel, procedures, products and, or course, the marketplace.
The business context has forever changed. There is no longer a predictable economic environment that permits static thinking. The organization that knows how to identify information--and then to process it appropriately--is the only one capable of outsmarting, outmarketing, outselling and outdistancing the competition.
_____________
This resource is (c) John R Graham, President of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm.