Leaders lead, and leadership by example is the best technique as proven for thousands of years. No great leader has ever been a disciple of “Do as I say, not as I do.” Over and over again in the study of leadership, it comes out. The greatest leaders are those having volunteer followers. Inspiration through example moves people to follow more effectively and for longer duration than anything else.

Inspiring and influencing others to follow voluntarily is leadership in its purest form.
Of course, there are other forms of leadership such as totalitarian authority, positional, monarchical, or elected majority and so on, but in the operation of a highly effective and long term successful company, volunteer followers are what we need, not slaves, serfs, or robots.
Probably the antithesis of the type of leaders we are striving to illustrate would be the army which is based upon positional authoritarian leadership. There is no choice given to the followers, it’s either obey or be punished. The leaders are identified by their title and it alone qualifies them to direct, give orders and make decisions.

Jesus might be the greatest example of a true leader. He had no title or position, no real power other than truth and example. He led by example and the power of His vision.
Ghandi is another example of a basically powerless man who is acknowledged to have been a great leader who influenced by example.

In our companies, we are the leaders. We have a title which demands respect and we can utilize the army model of chain-of-command leadership and management if we choose to do so. Most companies do but most of the best companies do not.
In today’s world, and, seemingly even more so, tomorrow’s’ high performing companies use a different style. Modern leaders will be more like Jesus than Patton.
Influence will be more effective than positional power and developing the ability to be an effective influencer is key.

To close our time today, let’s hear the famous poet Edgar Guest as he says:

I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day,
   I’d rather one should walk with me than merely show the way.
The eye’s a better pupil and more willing than the ear;
   Fine counsel is confusing, but examples always clear;
And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds,
   For to see the good in action is what everybody needs.
I can soon learn how to do it if you’ll let me see it done.
   I can watch your hands in action but your tongue too fast may run.
And the lectures you deliver may be very wise and true;
    But I’d rather get my lesson by observing what you do.                              

For I may misunderstand you and the high advice you give,
   But there’s no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.

Our pricing policies influence how buyers interact with us and actually help to shape their behavior, which is why training and discipline in this area is so important. Our sales and order desk people should work to engage and understand the buyer upfront by asking a series of questions to ‘profile’ their objectives, personal perspective and readiness.  Based on their answers, we’d alter our presentation to maximize the fit of our offer.

Understanding the customer’s exact role in the buying process, along with what and why they’re buying, lets us to zero-in on their expectations. This helps us to meet or exceed these expectations, thereby justifying a healthy price for our products or services. Taking the time to initially engage and profile the customer enables us to understand how they’ll buy. Remember, they buy emotionally and justify intellectually. We must satisfy both needs so as not to derail the purchase. Customers don’t like the feeling of being sold something. They like to buy while being confirmed in the wisdom of their decision. Even when our selling offer is fairly standardized, customers want to feel that we’ve tailored something for just for them.

A customer’s experience with us generally involves three dimensions: quality (i.e., brand reputation,  features, durability, fitness for use), service (i.e., responsiveness, delivery, warranty, field support, ‘moments of truth’), and price (actually perceived value). Quality is now a prerequisite for long-term participation in most markets. Without it, you’ll be discounting prices and incurring cost premiums just to stay in relationship with skeptical customers. It’s service excellence that often separates outstanding companies from mediocre ones. Think about companies such as Disney, FedEx, Lexus, Ritz-Carlton, and American Express. They’re all ‘premium’ companies, offering a superior service experience that enables them to set the price in their field. It’s easy to match someone else’s price, but tough to match a well-run company’s service! Consider these results from a Rockefeller Corporation study on why customers defect:

• 4% die or move away
• 14% buy from a friend or a competitor
• 14% are dissatisfied with an aspect of the offering
• 68% believe you don’t care about them

Face it, if everyone were price conscious we’d all be driving Hyundais or Kias. Most people aren’t price sensitive as much as they’re value conscious. Studies show that just 15-35% of consumers consider price to be the chief factor. More than 60% don’t consider price at all and 80% remember the brand, not the price. In every product category, ‘high-involvement’ buyers outnumber ‘price-fixated’ shoppers more than two-to-one.

With this in mind, for pricing to become a core competency in our business we must take specific steps with our team to understand and incorporate the ‘five Cs’ of value:

• Comprehend value to customers (i.e., understand segment-based value drivers)
• Create value for customers (i.e., create/deliver segment-based value solutions)
• Communicate the value you create (i.e., tell them upfront and reinforce it later)
• Convince target customers to pay for value (must profile/know them to do this)
• Capture value with strategic and disciplined pricing based on value, not cost

At the end of the day, what we’re selling is value. If we can’t communicate this value, our team can’t maximize it and capture it with price during each customer engagement. By ignoring what drives customer value, we give the customer the upper hand in negotiations, resulting in lower pricing and profits.

1. Defining your Dominant Selling Idea (DSI) Our DSI is a unifying, energizing, focusing, trust-building, clutter-removing, lean-value-creating notion – a motivating difference at the moment of the purchase decision – that communicates our #1 position in a ‘desirable specialty’ that’s important to our target customers. That’s a mouthful, but unless we’re able to define our DSI, we won’t be able to ‘attach it’ to our name… a requirement for branding. Our DSI fuses our name to a #1 specialty in the customer’s mind. Remember, our customers must ‘cut through the fog’ of competing suppliers in an instant, hopefully as follows: Industry  Category  Specialty  #1 in Specialty  Our Brand Name

  First, we must articulate our clear ownable specialty. To view us as #1 at something, customers must first relate us to a specialty category, even if we have to invent it! When internal combustion engines became commonplace, Evinrude coined the term ‘outboard motor’ and dominated its growing niche. After airplanes became pervasive, proliferating specialty categories enabled leadership positions to be carved out in jets (vs. propeller-driven), fighter jets (vs. passenger/freight/corporate), supersonic (vs. subsonic), and stealth (vs. radar detectable). Boeing became #1 in the ‘jumbo jet’ category, just as many automakers now hope to be #1 in ‘hybrid cars.’ Within the global auto industry, little Subaru has become #1 in the “SUV Wagon” category and Volvo is branded as “the world’s safest car.”

After defining our clear ownable specialty, we can now develop our DSI. Imagination helps. For example, Rolaids invented the term “Acid Indigestion,’ Hall’s coined “Vapor Action,” and Metamucil renamed flea seed fiber as “100% Natural Psyllium.” To be powerful and memorable, our DSI should be as concise as possible (e.g., M&Ms–Melts in Your Mouth not in Your Hands; Allstate–The Good Hands People).

Ideally, our DSI will possess five ‘selling attributes’:

◊ Superlative – we’re best-in-class at something

◊ Important – that ‘something’ really matters

◊ Believable – there are logical reasons why this is the case

◊ Memorable – an emotional, easy-to-remember, ‘hook’ related to needs and wants

◊ Tangible – real and trusted based on our actual performance

 Once we have a DSI, we can use four vital supporting elements to bring it to life.

2. Your Company or Product Line’s Name When our name accentuates our DSI, we’ve got a powerful one-two punch! A descriptive and memorable name is best. Initials, family surnames, and innocuous labels can, of course, become familiar and meaningful in time (e.g., Toyota, Sears, IBM, etc.), but it’s far better to have a name that’s:

◊ Directly supportive of our DSI

◊ Descriptive, memorable, or evocative

◊ Ownable and protectable

◊ Easy and pleasing to say

Consider these communicative names that seem to have a built-in DSI: DieHard Batteries, Invisible Fence, Home ATM Software, Egg Beaters, Ball Park Franks, Super Bowl. Compare their marketing power to generic names such as Acme, Universal, Smith, etc.

3. Your Tagline This valuable selling tool supports your DSI by clearly ‘promising a difference’ that customers want to buy. Like your name, it will ideally be concise, colorful, evocative and memorable. Here are a few famous ones:

◊ Timex – Takes a Licking and keeps on Ticking

◊ Bounty – The Quicker-Picker-Upper

◊ Prudential – Get a Piece of the Rock

◊ Black Flag Roach Motel – Roaches Check In, but They Don’t Check Out.

◊ Visa – It’s Everywhere You Want to Be

4. Key Visuals While graphic design gives a brand consistency, key visuals demonstrate the performance and proof of your DSI at a glance, demonstrating that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Many are, in effect, instantaneous selling demos. A few examples:

◊ Masterlock – rifle bullet blasting through

◊ Tropicana – an orange with a straw in it

◊ Milk Industry – white milk mustache

◊ Crazy Glue – helmeted guy stuck to football goal crossbar

◊ Michelin Tire – secure smiling baby sitting in tire

5. Making it Real We either perform in such a way to make our DSI real or we don’t. Nothing kills a great brand message faster than poor follow-through.

Strong marketing creates great anticipation that can quickly turn into anger, a sense of betrayal, and a dead brand! Team unity and alignment, consistent with our company’s purpose and values, is essential to success. Assess how customers experience your DSI and evaluate your performance at each ‘touch point’ to ensure each element of the customer experience resonates with your promise.

What have we learned? Brands really matter! They’re accessible to all types and sizes of companies who consistently communicate their Dominant Selling Idea using readily available tools. Finally, they involve leadership focus and teamwork more than money to implement.

   Throughout Proverbs there are many themes which are repeated for emphasis and presented in different ways to help us see their application more clearly. Examples of this repetition technique are seen in the warnings given across such disparate areas as: the folly of disobedience, sexual sin, rash speaking, laziness and the dangers of debt. The book breaks into 31 chapters, which makes it very suitable for a monthly ‘chapter-a-day’ study. In fact many believers have made it their practice to continuously read through the Proverbs this way for months or even years at a time, employing the repetition technique in their desire to hide these truths in their heart. When such a daily practice is undertaken for any sustained period of time Proverbs’ recurring themes become clear.

A Theme Intended to Get Our Attention

  One theme that is of particular interest to those of us called by God to lead businesses is the call to look for counsel. Counsel in this context means meaningful advice. The most cursory scan reveals more than 20 references to this topic within Proverbs. Here are just a handful:

“A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel.” Pr 1:5

“Give instruction to a wise man and he will be wiser still.” Pr 9:9

“Where there is no counsel the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is victory.” Pr 11:14

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.” Pr 12:15

“Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards reproof will be honored.” Pr 13:18

“Without counsel plans go astray, but in the multitude of counselors there is victory.” Pr 15:22

“He who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment.” Pr 18:1

“For by wise counsel you will wage your own war; And in a multitude of counselors there is safety.” Pr. 24:6

  These are just a fraction of the many Biblical examples exhorting us to pursue counsel which we could cite. The clear emphasis of God’s Word in this particular area needs to be taken seriously and soberly. We truly disregard it at our own peril.

  The reason we need wise counsel is that it is so hard to know our own hearts. The Bible says it this way: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it”? (Jeremiah 17:9) The innate ability to deceive ourselves is resident in every one of us. As humans, self-justification comes as a part of the package. We are able to justify almost anything we want when we are left to our own devices. There is no doubt about it…we need help and protection in this area!

  Of course it isn’t only counsel per se that we need. We need Godly Counsel, God’s very truth and wisdom for application to our life. There are many possible sources of counsel but they are not all equally valuable. In fact, some counsel can be terribly harmful and, in fact, devastating to us. In our culture there are many, often attractive, sources of ungodly counsel. We may not realize it but the devil often works his distractions from God’s purpose for our lives through the suggestions or counsel of other people. Counsel that will be truly helpful to us and guide us into the things of God must originate in the heart of God. Many will speak to us, but not all are of God. It makes an enormous difference whom we seek out and listen to. Ideally, seek unity of response from a number of trustworthy Christ-centered advisors when dealing with important issues.