Selling and Being Differentiated

Selling and Being Differentiated

If you’re in Sales, you need to have a good answer to ‘why would I choose yours over my other options?’ The answer is the essence of what differentiates your product.  Thing is, many products are really not that differentiated.  So, what makes your offer stand out?  Is it the product or the sales process???
 

So often, when I ask sales reps or others in business development about what differentiates their offer, they say things like ‘our commitment to our customers’ or ‘great service,’ or worse yet ‘trusting relationships with our clients.’  These answers are so vanilla that they are not helpful at all. Please stop saying this.  Anyone selling should score an ‘A’ on those factors and consider it a basic prerequisite for doing business together.  There must be an answer that aligns with the things that are important to your customers. 

Thinking in terms of a business model and strategy are a good way to help identify what differentiates your product if it is not already obvious - and meaningful. I can help you think about your business model, your prospect’s business model and how to frame what differentiates your offer.  Further, if you don’t know what gives your business a competitive advantage in the market—and how to use this to substantiate what differentiates you, then I can help!  I’ve got some workshops on this coming up.  The key is thinking in terms of business model and strategy—not product and marketing alone.  (PS, it's possible your business model and strategy may need an update, but more on that later.)

I’m pleased to be partnering with Mark Birch, Donna Valente and the Enterprise Sales Institute to offer sessions that will help sales leaders think differently about how they frame their offer.

Join me on Nov 30 or Dec 15- online or in Philadelphia. Learn more about the Enterprise Sales Institute and these upcoming sessions here.   

I welcome your feedback – endorsements or challenges, and some examples of what differentiates your offer!

Human-Centered Strategy

In 2016, when I started Align, I knew strategy would be my core service, but there needed to be more.

At the heart of it, I want to help people reach their full potential and affect positive impact on the greater good.  At the time, I had a growing positive reaction to human-centered design (HCD)— a problem solving and creative development process used in product development and popular with many of the best product and services companies.  

Remarkable Ideas –  Well Executed  

Much of business is about influencing human behavior, which is why business needs to be more human-centered.  This means putting the individual at the center of the process— not technology, processes, or the thing you are selling.  Specifically, it’s a development process that focuses on the customers’ needs, from their point of view.  

This isn’t about using feel-good methods. It’s about creating home-run solutions, which happens when you use deep and unique insights about what's important to the affected audience.  This piece is about converting novel, ‘killer’ ideas into amazing customer experiences. It's the creative piece.

In addition, for me, being human-centered means factoring in human nature, like what motivates people, how teams work, and what holds us back.  This stuff shows up in an organizational culture and an individual’s work habits.  It can stop strategy dead in its tracks, if it’s not taken into consideration. This piece is about execution and accountability.  

A Strategy Process That’s Lean, Systemic and Innovative

At Align I’ve taken the HCD concepts and applied it to strategy.  Strategy starts with the humans it’s intended to affect—including owners, employees, customers and the community. 

I start with Purpose. 

·       Why does this business exist?
·       Who, specifically, are you serving?  Who can benefit from your purpose and expertise?

A business strategy should focus considerable attention on customers. Among other things, it should also factor in the marketplace, social trends, technology, industry changes, and your capabilities and resources.    

Align is a human-centered strategy company that helps businesses grow.  We employ strategy techniques and some lean start-up tools that lead to development of an innovative business model and a competitive strategy.  This applies to young companies, as well as established companies who are continually adapting and growing.  The approach and the outcomes are different and better than what you see in a typical strategic planning process. 

On Your Terms

Let me interject a separate idea. In addition to developing better business model strategies by making them human-centered—my process for working with a business on its strategy is also human-centered.  I’m flexible.  I know you have many constraints on your time, your resources and your mental space.  I make the process of working together enjoyable and productive!  I approach each client differently, depending on where they are, what they’re trying to achieve, and what they’ve got to work with.

In short, Align helps companies develop a ‘killer’ strategy, using an approach that doesn’t ‘kill’ anyone in the process.  This entails:

·       Taking pain out of the process.
·       Being curious about what motivates you and your team.
·       Walking along side you to overcome obstacles and regularly check for progress.
·       Being deeply customer-focused.
·       Discovering stand-out solutions by tapping into the creativity and unique insights of team members.

Together we can create a strategy designed for growth that addresses what customers want, what your people can deliver, and what you consider success.

UPDATE - Sept 20, 2018

I wrote this over a year ago and would change very little about this article, except to add more references to the mounting evidence of the effectiveness of strategic design as the best way to lead business innovation. Here’s just one of thousands of articles you can read to better understand Human-Centered Design and Design Thinking. Forbes’ article on Design Thinking. Cheers!

Laboring over the right things

Are you laboring over the right things?

As we celebrate Labor Day and take a moment of reprieve from the daily tasks of our work, be sure to ask one critical question: “is all this work paying off?”

What matters?  What should your priorities be?  How do you know you’re going in the right direction?

A lot of people consider the Fall as a season of opportunity—even though it’s actually the end of the major ‘growing season’ in the US.  Kids go back to school and we emerge from summer (hopefully) having had at least a small opportunity to rest and relax.  Things get back to ‘normal’ and, hopefully you’re invigorated to close out the year on a high note. Maybe you’ll even use this time to start something new.  Hence my question- “is this work helping you grow?”

As a business leader, here are a few specific questions to consider:

• How specifically do you define the best customers—so they are easier to find and get in front of?
• How deeply do you understand what ‘makes them tick,’ so that you can deliver a solution they buy and love?
• What gives you a competitive advantage and meaningful differentiation?
• What special things are you doing that provide a high perceived value for customers, without incurring a high expense?
• How do you measure progress—prior to sales?

Got you thinking?  Want to be a standout business?

A strong business model can help you improve the answers to these critical questions so your business is more competitive and positioned to grow.  It’s about strategy and execution. It starts with a one-page framework to pull all the ‘moving parts’ together (which you can find on our homepage). 

Most businesses performing below their potential either need to improve an average or outdated business model, or need to do better at implementing the existing strategy.

Models, metrics and accountability don’t sound all that refreshing, but I assure you that the satisfaction you’ll feel from achieving progress is as refreshing as watermelon on Labor Day!   As you ponder whether your hard work is leading to the outcomes you desire, use the Business Model Blueprint, designed by align, to guide your thinking.  Cheers and Enjoy!

PS. One parting thought… if you want to know more about improving your business model and strategy, join me October 19 at The Lancaster Chamber for the 2-hour workshop “Designed for Growth—The Art and Science of Your Business Performance.”

Internships in Innovation and Strategy

Three Fall Internship Opportunities
Human Factors Design    |   Creativity and Innovation  |   Marketing Insights

align is offering three exciting paid internships this fall.  The positions are for a human factors specialist, a creativity and innovation specialist, and a marketing insights specialist.  The opportunity includes working with clients as well as developing programs to unleash the business and social impact of creativity and human-centered design. 

The positions are great for undergrads studying business, humanities or technology.  We are especially looking for creative and critical thinkers interested in innovation and social impact. I'm eager to see what I can learn from them.  I'm equally excited to be part of their growth and witness how they'll use the experience and new perspectives to advance professionally.  

See details below and email a resume to Contact@alignltd.com.  Selections will be made by mid-August for assignments to begin around Sept. 11. 

Creativity & Innovation Specialist
This position will assist in the business services that support our client’s internal strength building for innovation and creativity.

•    Research and organize a collection of innovation and creativity resources including, business case studies, exercises and activities, best practices and policies for a culture of innovation, and assessment tools for measuring creativity and innovation practices. 
•    Help facilitate ideation session for clients
•    Assist in conducting business evaluations that measure the capacity for, and conditions affecting innovation
•    Draft summaries and assist in outreach through social media and our website blogs
•    Help organize and promote the Lancaster Plays initiatives. 

Skills needed:
•    Critical thinking, research and analysis skills, as demonstrated through projects
•    Strong communications skills, particularly listening, writing and conversation
•    Detail and/or process oriented
•    Comfort and curiosity with the creative process and problem solving
•    Familiarity with psychology, anthropology or sociology concepts is beneficial
•    Willingness to try new things and model courage to others

Human Factors Design Specialist
Apply design principles to launching new businesses and new products.  Work with entrepreneurs and established businesses on an innovation process that seeks to design amazing solutions based on a deep understanding of human behavior and user preferences. 
This position will help establish customer insights and design principles using steps in the design thinking process, and the lean startup process.   Participate in field observations, ideation and prototyping sessions to contribute to the business and product development process. 

•    Help coordinate and carry out ethnographic research (field studies of users in a natural setting) to learn about user needs and preferences. 
•    Design customer surveys to identify user preferences
•    Build a collection of resources that identify best practices in human centered design principles
•    Help facilitate ideation sessions with clients
•    Help advise on prototyping projects
•    Research customer profiles
•    Help facilitate workshops and webinars

Skills needed
•    Critical thinking, research and analysis skills, as demonstrated through projects
•    Strong communications skills, particularly listening, writing and conversation
•    Detail and process oriented
•    Knowledge of business and marketing principles is helpful
•    Knowledge of psychology, sociology or anthropology is beneficial
•    Knowledge of collaboration platforms is beneficial but not required

Marketing Insights Specialist
Use your creativity to help our customers get their compelling stories to the world!  We focus on building customer understanding as the best way to help our clients reach their customers with a powerful experience.  This position is a combination of behind-the-scenes and collaborative work with our clients. 

•    Conduct market research to identify audience trends, needs and preferences, and to uncover special events and associations to reach customers
•    Assist in the development and prioritization of marketing strategies for our clients
•    Help identify the positioning and messaging that will enable clients to standout in the market
•    Design and deploy customer surveys
•    Use process tools to conduct analysis and identify elements of a competitive strategy
•    Assist in the development of customer insights and persona development
•    Research relevant business models that apply to the client’s business and competitive strategy
•    Participate in client meeting to conduct discovery and development activities
•    Help facilitate workshops and webinars
    
Skills needed:
•    Critical thinking, research and analysis skills, as demonstrated through projects
•    Strong communications skills, particularly listening, writing and conversation
•    Detail and process oriented
•    Knowledge of business and marketing principles is beneficial
•    Familiarity with social media for business

Prune for Good Growth

This year I took on the responsibility for pruning our azalea bushes.  My husband has been dedicated to this since we bought the house over 15 years ago.  The offer was part of his Father’s Day gift.  Little did I realize how much I’d enjoy it and that I’d turn the task into a blog post.

I know a little about pruning, but there’s a reason this was my first time (unsupervised). I had some guideposts running through my head. Once I noticed the relevance to business growth, more metaphors started flowing.  This is an unrefined list of some of the questions and observations running through my mind while pruning the azaleas and boxwoods.   PS… no guarantees on how things will turn out. We’ll see, in the next few months.  

• This has gotten too big and out of shape!
• Where do I want to promote growth?  Cut here. Make space.
• Stand back to see the big picture.
• It’s easy to cut off the outer stems that are protruding above the surface. But you    
    might not want a smooth surface full of conformity.
• Sometimes you screw up and cut off a good one.
• When it’s a daunting job, take breaks. It’s tedious work and you need fresh eyes and
    energy.
• Is this piece adding value and helping us grow in the right direction?
• Hard to choose which ones get to live and which are cut off—especially when they
    all look like they are doing equal work.  Which one is in the right position to be a
   benefit?
• Go back and forth from underneath at the trunk and outside from a few feet away.
• You don’t want big branches growing at the end of small twigs.
• You’ve got to cut off the suckers.
• Old systems get messy. Lots of legacy branches going this way and that.
• Sometimes you create some ugly exposed spots.
• It’s easy to see all the dead twigs when you lift up the surface branches.

Good luck on your pruning projects!  Let me know if you need some help.

What's in your Business Model?

The best businesses compete on business models, not just products.

What do Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, Amazon and Google have that allow them to dominate their market? -- Finely tuned and innovative business models.  In fact, their business models are so innovative they’ve created new categories by re-imagining the rules of how a business should operate in their industry.  Nespresso, Hilti, Dell, iTunes, Xerox and Dollar Shave Club are other examples of success born from a brilliant business model, not the product or marketing alone.

The business model is a blueprint for how all the moving parts of the business work together efficiently and in sync to produce social and economic value.  It’s the link between the business’s purpose for existing, and its strategies for operations and sales. All strategic planning should flow from the business model.

The book, Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, popularized the business model concept and gave us all their Business Model Canvas as a design template.  I’ve adapted their version to create one that I believe is more complete, yet nowhere near as dense and speculative as a business plan. You can download it from the homepage and use it to evaluate your own business model. It’s a high-level organizing framework to explore the main factors of how the business operates.

ALIGN’s Business Model Blueprint identifies 12 key components, starting with the purpose for the business.  Besides making money, there’s a reason the business came to be.  Hopefully it’s rooted in the founder’s passion, talents and understanding of a market need.  Among the other components, businesses also need clarity around the customer group(s) they aim to serve and the problem, need, or ‘job to be done’ this group experiences. Turning inward then, we seek to understand what your business is exceptionally good at, and what competencies can lead to a competitive advantage and differentiation in the market. The value proposition lives at the intersection of the customer needs and the business expertise. Finally, how your goods and services are monetized is key.  What product or service ‘bundle’ is offered that provides such a high value to the customer that the selling price greatly surpasses the cost of production?  

These are the key elements we look at in phase one of any project, whether it’s a growth initiative, innovation or strategic business development. So… what’s in your business model and what elements need updating?  Download the Business Model Blueprint, fill-in your information and target at least 2 areas where it could be stronger. Let’s talk about how ALIGN could help.

Higher Ed: An Incubator for Strategy

Starting Up the University

It may surprise some folks that my 13-year career in non-profit higher ed contributes a large part to my business and entrepreneurial knowledge. But it was a pivotal time for me, because it was nothing like a traditional career in higher education.  For one, when I arrived, the University wasn’t even accredited, let alone open for business. (That came 16 months later!) I was one of only 8 people (today there are over 100) working to launch this non-profit, STEM university in downtown Harrisburg PA— without the benefit of lots of cash to support our creation.

Try convincing parents that their child should attend a brand-new university that practically no one’s ever heard of, operating on the top floor of a high school!  We had no track record of success, no alumni, no sports, no dining hall or dorms, and a just couple classrooms. Undergraduate education is a crowded market, and so is corporate training.  Yet, with the help of a skilled and spirited team, we launched a modern-day university which has gone on to be widely recognized as an educational innovator and leader.  At the time, only two other new universities were attempting similar launches, but they weren’t bootstrapping like we were. Maybe one day I’ll write a book about it, but for now, take my word for it, it was not for the faint of heart!

The Parallels of Strategy and Curriculum Design

I did a lot of strategy work in those years at Harrisburg University. We were constantly listening to the market and responding with new initiatives, fine tuning our offerings, experimenting with marketing strategies and building strategic partnerships.  Beyond the start-up experience, there’s more about my background starting a new university that has prepared me to be a strategy advisor.

The process for curriculum development, which I facilitated in collaboration with a slew of faculty and subject matter experts, is very similar in some regards, to the process of strategy development.  In both cases, you research and design a program to facilitate a fundamental shift in attitudes, actions and results.

Like designing learning, developing business strategy is a process of deconstructing a high-level objective into its foundational building blocks.  We look at the ‘current state,’ we envision a brighter ‘future state,’ and develop a set of activities to bridge the gap.  Using human-centered techniques, we assess the needs of our intended audience and leverage our expertise and imagination to invent meaningful solutions.  In the case of learning, the solutions are exercises and information to help the student internalize a new set of skills and knowledge so they can solve problems in their life and career.  In strategy development, we create a set of activities and information for employees to use in solving problems for their customers.  In both cases, it’s important to measure progress along the way, determine if change is happening, and calibrate the activities accordingly.  

Surprisingly to some, there are many parallels between inventing new programs for learning and creating new programs for solving customers’ programs and growing businesses.  If you’re curious about more connections between strategy and curriculum design, let’s schedule time to chat! To learn more about my background, check out my LinkedIn profile and read about the history of Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.