Robert (Bob) Bloom is the authority on customer centric growth. He is the author of The Inside Advantage and The New Experts. Bob was the US Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide. He got his start as an entrepreneur, took his company national and then sold it. Bob has developed strategies for companies like BMW, L’Oreal, Nestlé, and even helped to launch Southwest Airlines, T-Mobile, Juicy Juice, and many others. In today’s episode, Bob and I talk about strategy and finding your own inside advantage.
There is a secret that so many business leaders are missing. Most people start with a strategy, but it is one that is in their minds and may not be contemporary at the moment. Secondly, the most important thing that a strategy has to have is consensus internally; with all of your staff, whether you have three people or hundreds. If everybody doesn’t agree that you are going in the right direction, it doesn’t matter because you will never get there.
The other thing that is absolutely critical is differentiation. In this day and time, if you don’t differentiate your brand, your company, or your services, you will not make it. The competition out there is mushy; everybody is doing the same thing.
There are 4 steps in the Growth Discovery Process
Who is your core customer?
You must start with the first element. Customers are human beings; you can't talk to a statistic. You must talk to this human being and understand his/her company or personal needs from that standpoint. When you do that, you understand your ‘Who’. Get inside that person’s head and heart. Look at your customer as if that person was right in the room with you.
What does your core customer want, need and desire?
You want to look inside your business. What does your core customer want, need, and desire? You have a WHO and WHAT. What do you do inside your business? What is the uncommon offering that your business will own and leverage?
How is the persuasive strategy that will convince your core customer to buy your uncommon offering versus all competitive offerings?
You need to persuade or convince your customer that you are really going to do what you say you are going to do. You need to develop an approach to convince your customer to buy from you and not your competitor.
Own it! Is the series of imaginative acts that will celebrate your uncommon offering and make it well known to your core customer.
You want your brand or company to stand for it! You have to own what you say you are going to own. OWN YOUR WHAT!!! It has to be yours and yours alone in 15 words or less. Simple! Consistent, Committed and Clear.
Check out the podcast to find out more in-depth about how Bob took these strategies into the big businesses mentioned in the introduction.
Interview Links:
http://www.bobbloom.biz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-bloom-578b9822
More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up.
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Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach.
We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).
Mentioned in this episode:
PhD Research on CEOs
Quick favor: I'm in the middle of my doctoral research, and I need CEOs
Here's the question: is there a point where working more hours actually indicates a worse leader? Nobody has measured it. I'm measuring it.
If you're a CEO or president with at least ten people in the business and three direct reports, it takes just a few minutes. And Your team answers a few anonymous questions.
What you get back is a report comparing how you rate yourself to how your team rates you. That gap is usually the interesting part.
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