As a leader, you must help develop the strategy of how you are going to attack your market. People are too often consumed with what their competition is doing. It’s one thing to take your competition into account. It’s quite another thing to try and emulate your competition.

If your competition has gained the high road with a certain product or service, then why would you create a strategy that matches what they are doing? They already are doing it. They have more experience doing it. And they probably are the best ones doing it. Successful leaders do not try and duplicate their competitors efforts. They strive to push the envelope and create a new benchmark of success that forces the competition to now chase them.

I refer again to Rodger Ekstrom, a sales executive who knows how to win. You already read about his feat in capturing greater market share with an existing customer in this month’s sales tip. Now let me tell you how he recaptured the business of a key account. This account is a large player in his market and they lost the business for various reasons. After taking The Titan Principle® training, he realized that every time he tried to get back in the door, he led with features that basically failed to motivate the buyer to listen.

Recently, he called and asked for a meeting to assess their challenges. Instead of trying to match his competition price for price, he found out was missing for the customer and the challenges they were facing. This information empowered him to come up with a solution that would provide outcomes for the customer they were not getting from their current vendor. End result: They recaptured the business. The customer mentioned how appreciative they were that Rodger and his team came in with an open mind, discussed their problems and came up with solutions they were in dire need of.

The only reason the competition failed to keep the business is they never stayed on top of their customers issues. Rodger was allowed to come in, push the envelope, and establish a new benchmark of success that separated him from the competition. If Rodger only worried about matching his competition, he would not have succeeded.

Stop trying to match your competition! It is a game that is hard to win. Move ahead of your competition by finding out what’s missing for the customer and provide the appropriate solution. Be a leader in the eyes of your customer and help them reach their goals.

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Jerry Jones, owner, president and GM of the Dallas Cowboys, is one of those people who you either lover or hate. There is no middle ground. The fans of Dallas despised him when he came to town on his high horse and quickly fired Tom Landry, the only coach the franchise has ever known. Yet, they came to love him when he brought in the hugely popular Jimmy Johnson to coach the team to a couple of Super Bowl victories. Then it all started to come apart at the seams. Johnson wanted more control and less interference from Jones, which Jones was not willing to do. For example, he is the general manager for the team participating in all meetings and making personnel decisions. You can even see him roving the sidelines.

After Johnson and Jones parted ways, Jerry Jones hired coaches who tolerated his meddling, but who also didn’t win. In the end, the franchise hit rock bottom and Jones had to bring in a turn-around artist who could swiftly right the ship.

Enter, Bill Parcells, a great turn-around artist with a long track of record of success who loses interest after he gets the job done. Parcells, also is a dominant personality who in the past sought complete control. Everyone asked themselves how long would it be before Parcells and Jones got into each others faces?

Jones knows that the foremost goal in business is winning. He knew that in order to win he had to get someone in who could do the job. While he does not meddle as much with Parcells as he did with other coaches, Jones and Parcells both decided to compromise and work with each other, accepting each other’s tendency to control things.

This year the partnership worked wonders. Parcells turned the Cowboys around and took them to the playoffs. Both admit they can’t guarantee that the relationship would be as successful if they had a losing season.

What we do know is Jones, as the ultimate leader of his organization, took the first step by being flexible in how he operated. He had a choice. Keep doing it the same way and getting the same results, or get someone who can do the job and stay out of the way as much as possible.

Some people may not have flexed as did Jerry Jones. Are you flexible in your approach to business and people? If not, you may not be winning as many championships as you would like.

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Organizations and individuals often have to make difficult decisions while walking the tightrope of success, decisions that can easily throw them off that path.

For example, Dell Computer and ExxonMobil have successfully built overseas call centers in India to handle many of their support calls. The reason is quite simple. The significant savings in labor costs and the ability to maintain a seamless operation that does not interfere with customer service adds up to a profitable decision.

But at what point does this equation not hold true? Dell found this out recently when it started receiving complaints from their corporate customers who claim they needed more technical solutions - solutions that required support in their local market. Dell responded to their customers feedback by simply flipping a switch re-routing many of it’s corporate technical calls to local support centers.

All of us struggle on a daily basis with the equation of how much of our limited resources we should dedicate to support and satisfy our customers. Resources that if targeted elsewhere may result in additional sales. The key to answering this question is simple. If you are doing things that at the end of the day are highly productive for you, yet not supportive of your highest producing customers, a call to change is in order. Do you hear the signals your customers are giving you? Or, are you blind to the signs and just focused on the strategies geared towards your bottom line?

As we prepare for 2004 and come up with our personal and organizational operating plans, you may want to take a moment and “shop” your services. Pretend you are a customer and call your company to see how the process works. Are the call menus too long? Are the instructions easy? How long does it take to get a call or question answered? If you are not satisfied with the results, why should your customer feel any differently?

Take this a step further and quiz your customers to see if the level of service you are providing is strong enough to meet their needs in 2004. What areas may be lacking that you need to address? Remember, any weakness you may have in servicing your customer automatically becomes the door opener for your competition.

Finally, the Dell example also teaches us the value of flexibility. How flexible are you to respond to customer needs? In today’s market, salespeople and leaders who are flexible to meet the needs of their customers are going to outperform those who are not as flexible.

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When former NY Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy worked for Pat Riley as an assistant coach, he learned a valuable lesson from Pat. Pat told him in a performance review that you need to have 4 things to get respect and results from players; sincerity, reliability, commitment and being trustworthy.

Sincerity- In order for people to take your lead and follow you down the path to success, they must believe you are sincere and that your motives are based on their success. If for any reason they do not feel an adequate sense of sincerity on your part, they will not go along for the ride.

Reliability- You can take my money, my house, all of my worldly possessions, but what you can’t take is my word. Our word is sacred and powerful. If you lose everything in life but you still have integrity in your word, then you will thrive again. People will believe in your cause and commitment and will take the chance on supporting you because of how strong your word is.

Commitment- You can’t expect your customers or employees to work hard on your behalf if you are not working hard to make things happen. Once people see your commitment to make a difference in their lives, they will then become committed to your success.

Trustworthy- Almost the same as reliable, but also includes the concept of honesty. You can say anything you want, but if honesty is not part of the equation, it will be extremely hard to gain one’s trust again. Trust is the glue that determines how strong the bond will be.

It seems like Pat Riley’s 4 keys to effective leadership go way beyond the basketball court. It affects every person who aspires to be an effective leader. How well are you doing in these 4 areas?

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A friend of mine was telling me how much of a B.S. artist his boss was. He was always promising things and never delivered on them. Whether it was getting something done or following through on some operational detail, there was always disappointment to follow.

If a manager is leading his life this way, the culture he is creating in his department is not one of meeting and exceeding expectations. The attitude being developed is one that says “if the boss can get away without having to come through on commitments, then so can I.”

Granted, most of us who promise things really do it with good intentions. But good intentions alone are not enough. You have to be certain you can really deliver. If not, the damage you create by falling short will be far greater than the rewards you have gained from making the promise in the first place.

Assuming you really did have good intentions and believed you could follow through, what do you do if your worst nightmare came true and you couldn’t deliver? The answer is not to run from the promise. While people do greatly value one’s ability to keep their promises, they tend to value to a greater degree the courtesy of not being blindsided. Customers and employees don’t want surprises. While they may not want to hear about failed expectations, being warned in advance at least gives them the opportunity of taking action ensuring your non-delivery of a promise does not set them back with other people who depend on them.

And that’s another point. If you fail to deliver on a promise to an individual, consider how many others are affected by this action. When you take the time to figure out the casualties of a failed promise down the food chain, you will find there are plenty of other people suffering the effects of your inability to follow-through.

What do you have to lose if you don’t follow through on your promises? Only your reputation. How much will that cost you? You decide!

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