Author Archive
How to Make Your Products and Services Stand Out – Part 1.
Posted by: | CommentsThe company with the deepest understanding, the deepest awareness of the very real motivations, fears, passions, and aspirations of their customers, will develop the innovative and profitable products and services.
There is almost always a gap, often a tremendous gap, between what we believe to be the reasons our customers buy from us and the real reasons they buy from us. And studies show that we are very likely to believe that our business is different and the last sentence doesn’t apply to us. (Wiggle out of that one. 
Far too many companies are afraid – yes downright scared – to ask the customers what they really, honestly think and feel. They are afraid of what the customers may say. They choose short term comfort and long term mediocrity over short term pain and long term excellence. So they do market research.
You don’t need to do market research. You do need to acquire market understanding. Deep understanding. And much of what passes for market research will not help you understand because…
Market research is an activity, an input. Market understanding it an output, a result.
Most market research fails to give market understanding because the objectives of the research are poorly articulated and there’s too much focus on the methodology, the activity.
Always begin by asking “What do we most want to understand? Why?” and “How will we use the information once we collect it? Why?”
Most quantitative surveys are poorly structured; even downright reckless. They generate answers that should not be used for decision making. Did you read about my experience taking a survey about cottage cheese?
The best market understanding is achieved when (1) you really, really care about the customer and (2) you are not afraid of what they may tell you because you’re willing to suffer some pain today so you can be excellent – and really stand out – tomorrow.
Look out Next Week for Part 2
In Part 1 we talked about the importance of articulating what you do as results, not as a job title or task.
Now that you can articulate the results you can bring to the fortunate company who will hire you, it’s time to make a list of companies who can likely benefit from such results.
The idea here is to come up with a list of companies, whether you know someone there or not. Whether they’ve advertised an opening or not.
1. Make a list of companies where you believe you can make an important difference.
2. Next: Identify the person or people in that company who need the results you can create and have the authority to hire, or at least, some kind of budget.
How can you find these people? Talk to friends. Use tools like Facebook and LinkedIn. Help wanted ads. Attend events they may attend and so on. It may take some digging and persistence but when you are looking for a job, looking is your full time job. Treat it that way with focus, discipline and by being systematic.
It may take a few links to get to the end of the chain. Ask about the outcomes: “Who in your company really cares that the user interface will be the software equivalent of good poetry?”
“Why, that would be Jane Smith,” you are told.
3. Learn more about Jane, her responsibilities and interests. The better you understand someone, the easier it is to present yourself as just the person they need.
People will and should guard company information and privacy. Even so, if you ask open questions that don’t back your contact into a corner, you’ll get some useful information much of the time.
Once you know who you are looking for, the challenge is to move things along to the next step – a phone call with Jane and then a meeting. (Notice I didn’t say “interview.” More about that in Part 3.)
SOME POINTERS:
- Your list of companies could be long – and probably should be. But work on a handful at a time so that you can do a proper job.
- You can never know where success will eventually come from. While you put one foot in front of another, keep your eyes and ears open for unexpected opportunities.
- Remember to focus your conversations on results, as we discussed in Part 1.
There’s a tremendous difference between saying “I help companies implement controls and manage risks” and saying “I’m the one who ensures you won’t wake up one morning up six months from now, open a newspaper and discover that you are personally liable for someone else’s irresponsibility or outright theft.” Who would you hire?
In Part 3 we’ll share some pointers for making contact and beginning a relationship with your potential new boss.
PS – If you’d like a very simple Excel spreadsheet to track your job hunting efforts, please send me an email and I’ll get it over to you. dovgordon at gmail dot com
Host: Dov Gordon
Type: Education – Lecture
Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Time: 4:00pm – 5:00pm
Location: Your phone. Times are Israel local. Beginning at 10am eastern.
Phone: 97229920396
Email: dovgordon@gmail.com
As the best-selling author of one of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, an accomplished senior-level leadership consultant, and a frequent guest on news-talk shows around the country, Steve Farber has gained a reputation as a “leadership guru” in his own right.
Steve has worked with a wide variety of public and private organizations in virtually every arena, from the tech sector to financial services, manufacturing, health care, hospitality, entertainment, retail, government agencies and more, And whatever the audience, Steve’s speeches are always deeply thought-provoking and eminently practical, as well as inspiring and entertaining—a combination of qualities that are a must for any successful conference or meeting.
On Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 4pm Israel time, (10:00am eastern) Dov Gordon will host Steve Farber on a special tele-seminar for company owners and senior executives based on Steve’s just released book “Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership.”
After decades of time and millions of dollars spent on leadership development and mentoring programs, why is there still a crisis of leadership at many levels of the business world?
By now, most business leaders have learned that their job is to expand and develop their own capacity, while simultaneously preparing the next generation of leaders to take the reins. Develop talent, they’ve been taught. Be a coach. A mentor.
But it doesn’t happen all that often. At least, not in any significant way. Maybe we’ve just been expecting too much. Steve Farber believes that we’ve actually been expecting too little. It’s time, he says, to set a new gold standard for what it means to be a leader of substance and influence: The true measure of your greatness as a leader is to develop leaders who are greater than you.
In this tele-seminar —based on his new book, Greater Than Yourself — Steve Farber shows that dedicating yourself to bringing others along so that they can achieve more than you is the ultimate way to boost talent, ramp productivity and create truly significant current and future leaders.
With this powerful, three-step approach, Steve reveals how your organization or team can achieve explosive results by encouraging every leader and employee to take on a Greater Than Yourself relationship for unprecedented personal growth and productivity:
* Expand Yourself – you’ll discover tools to deepen and expand your personal capabilities — the raw material for true leadership.
* Give Yourself – you’ll learn the art of ‘philanthropizing’ your leadership approach — the raw material for developing capacity in others.
* Replicate Yourself – you’ll experience the power of expanding beyond your personal, one-to-one influence — the raw material for changing your organization for the better.
As a speaker, Steve ignites audiences with the power of his ideas, and Greater Than Yourself will show you and your organization how to attain the new gold standard of leadership and re-enlist in greatness — beginning with one employee and one relationship at a time.
Quotes from Steve Farber:
“True leadership is not about calling yourself ‘leader’; rather, it’s about
taking up the cause to change things for the better. It is an extreme act
rooted in love and motivated by a desire to create a better world—whether it’s the world of your company, team, neighborhood or family.”
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To receive the call-in phone number, you MUST register at http://www.gordongroupec.com/tc/sf/steve-farber-sign-up.html
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Thank you to our sponsors:
Sun Microsystems Inc. and their Startup Essentials program: http://il.sun.com/startupessentials
The Gordon Group’s Small Company Coaching Club
http://www.gordongroupec.com/sccc/small-company-coaching-club.html
>>Thank you to our partners:
The Israel-America Chamber of Commerce http://www.amcham.co.il
The Tel Aviv Entrepreneur’s MeetUp Group http://www.meetup.com/ta-entrepreneur
ISEMI: Entrepreneurship Israel
http://www.isemi.org
iYazam http://www.iyazam.com
ATID-EDI http://www.atid-edi.com
Elsewhere I’ve offered advice for executives and business owners who want to attract top talent on how to write a help-wanted ad that attracts talent and drives everyone else away.
In the next series of posts, I’ll share the converse: How to be the last man (or woman) standing so they point and say “You. Can you really do that for us if we hire you?”
“Why yes, of course. But you better act fast…”
There are three aspects to landing a job in tough times when jobs are scarce:
1. Articulate what you do as results, not as activities.
2. Find a company where they need someone who can create the results you can create.
3. Locate, meet and listen to the boss whose life you can brighten.
Step 1: Articulate what you do as results, not as activities.
This exercise should be your very first step in your hunt for a job. Be able to articulate clearly and with confidence the results you can produce for the right, deserving company.
This sounds easy, but people get stuck here all the time. They talk about their qualifications rather than about the results they can achieve.
If you are a programmer, don’t talk about your credentials and years of experience. Talk about how you can write code that the end user perceives as nothing short of software poetry.
If you are a receptionist, your value might be your ability to make every caller, on the phone or in person, feel welcome and valued.
If you are a marketer, your value might be your ability to get prospects talking so they share information they normally keep to themselves. Any company lucky enough to hire you will have information and understanding of details the competition just guesses about. Of course this provides measurable advantages when it comes to decisions about product design and marketing.
If you are looking for a management position, reflect on your ability to reduce time and energy wasted by your subordinates. Reflect on how you infect others with your passion and average people find themselves producing extraordinary results.
If you are a chef, looking for a job at a restaurant, it isn’t just about cooking good food. It’s about running an efficient kitchen. What is important to the restaurant owner or hotel manager about how a chef runs the kitchen?
In short: be able to able to articulate what will be objectively and observably different once you are in the picture.
Exercise:
- What results have I created in previous positions? What results can I create in my next position?
- List everything that comes to mind. What you do is multi-faceted so be sure to identify your value from several directions.
- Check you answers: Have you written about results, OUTCOMES, or activities?
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In Part 2, we’ll look at ways to find companies who can use and will appreciate your value and how to make your initial approach.
Finally, in Part 3, you’ll get fresh ideas for making people want you on their payroll.
