How To Become Remarkable
Back to: Sparking Word-of-Mouth from Customers To Boost Your Bottom Line
Okay, you get it. You’ve got to be remarkable to be remarked about and create word-of-mouth awareness. So, how is it done?
We achieve remarkability along two fronts:
- What you do on the inside of your company, and
- Who you are on the outside of your company. What you are to your customers.
First, we’ll talk about the INSIDE of your company. Inside you need: Change, Champions, and Action.
Remarkable On The Inside: Change
Be Willing To Change
You’ve got to be willing to take risks and change. While new and different seems risky, it is actually your safe bet. Think about it, your customers, your competitors, and your industry are changing, shifting and moving forward. If you’re NOT changing while everyone else is moving, you risk being left behind.
There are two ways to bring about change through Process and People.
Process: Ask “Why Not?”
Be willing to change by asking: “Why not?”
Why not, Why not, Why not?
So many reasons we “just don’t do things” at our companies are due to lore and legend. You hear “that’s not how we do it” even though there the reason you did it that way no longer exists.
People: Don’t Try To Change People
It is a myth that people don’t like change. People are okay with change. What they don’t like is BEING changed.
Instead of telling people how they are going to behave in their jobs after the fact. Ask employees how they could help execute remarkable ideas at the beginning of the process. Fear and defensiveness will be replaced with energy and a movement to action.
Remarkable On The Inside: Champions
You need Leaders, Ambassadors, Cheerleaders….
Champions.
Every big idea needs someone to own it. Someone to navigate it through the company. New ideas are like saplings – despite the size and might of the full-grown tree – at this beginning stage they’re very delicate. Slight trampling will kill it. It needs a champion to show this little green thing isn’t a weed – but something bigger.
Remarkable On The Inside: Take Action
Take Action. Just Do It!
Lack of innovation within a company isn’t due to lack of creative ideas, but rather the lack of moxie to act on the ideas. It isn’t always about changing the ‘biggest machine in your factory.’ It can simply be the way you answer the phone, launch a new brand or price your software revision. Fix what is broken.
Remarkable On The Outside: What Sets You Apart
So that’s what you need to do to be ready on the inside. What follows are the ways you need to be perceived from the outside – from where your potential customers view things.
Figure out (or create) what sets you apart from your competition
Set yourself apart in a way that’s believable and relevant to your customers by being the first, best, or only at something.
- Be the FIRST: Be different. Be perceived as the first. Be a pioneer. Or…
- Be the BEST: Go beyond the competition. Promise and deliver to your audience something no one else can do as well. Or…
- Be the ONLY: Specialize, discover or create your niche. Serve the unserved and dominate.
Okay, but how do you find or create what sets you apart?
By Going Narrow and Deep
Think of the smallest conceivable market and create a product that overwhelms potential customers with remarkability. Launch a product that competes with your own products for a niche market.
An excellent exercise to generate ideas for this is to think up at least ten ways to change your product (not the hype about it) to make it appeal to a sliver of your audience.
By Creating A Next Practice
At LSMGuide, we don’t believe in implementing best practices. This is just finding what other’s are doing and doing more of the same. Go steps beyond and create NEXT practices. Find things that “just aren’t done” – at your company, in your category, in your industry – and do them.
By being -EST not -ER
Being better, smarter, taller, faster – moves you toward the front… But best, smartest, tallest, fastest IS the front. Explore the limits… cheapest, slowest, fastest – if there is a limit, you should test it. Do more.
Identify a competitor who is considered at the edge. Whatever they’re known for, do it even more. Even better, safer, faster. Or… do the exact opposite of them… Be the sloppiest, the most dangerous, the slowest.
Be Believable, Relevant, and Genuine
And you need to be remarkable in a way that is Believable, Relevant, and Genuine.
Believable
Are you making a claim people feel you can deliver on? Is there a logical reason? Are you credible?
Relevant
Are you offering something that really matters to your customers? Will they actually care? It has to be what THEY perceive as important… Not what you WANT them to think is important.
Genuine
You can’t fake it. It has to be earnest. Being genuine makes it sustainable – not just a stunt. It has to be real.
