ICONIC

How Organizations and Leaders Attain, Sustain, and Regain the Highest Level of Distinction

Scott McKain

• Publisher: Forefront Books
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781948677073
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

Named by Forbes Inc. as one of the Top Ten business books of 2018. Scott McKain, award-winning speaker and author, explains how to move beyond being distinctive and to take your brand and business to the next level, to become iconic by knowing your customer and audience and providing the Ultimate Customer Experience every time. What if merely "standing out" from your competition isn't enough to take your brand and business to the highest level? How do you become an iconic organization or leader? Being distinctive in the marketplace used to be the pinnacle of success. In today's global marketplace, that mountain has become significantly more difficult to climb. And, with the explosion of social media, the competition for attention -- and customers -- is more intense than ever before. Standing out is not only more challenging than ever, it now has less of an impact on sustained growth. To be a lasting company, leader, or brand on a positive trajectory today, one must become iconic. In his new book, ICONIC, award-winning author and speakerScott McKain examines what an iconic organization or leader is -- and helps you attain and retain that rare status. If your company has slipped in its standing (for example, think Sears or Nokia), McKain teaches you how you can regain your position. This is accomplished through unconventional ideas such as: • Go negative for greater success
• Do not "under-promise/over-deliver"
• Quit selling your products and services ICONIC is filled with insightful advice and practical examples. It's not a book merely expressing an unproven, unrealistic theory. ICONIC teaches the critical, specific steps required to attain the highest level of distinction. Each chapter includes study questions to be used in company-wide or departmental focus groups to help you achieve iconic status. And, the examples used are not merely another recitation of praise for Starbucks, Apple, Google, Southwest, and Amazon. You will discover the only two factors upon which customers and employees judge your organization. You'll meet and learn from the millionaire chimney sweep…the valet parking attendant building an iconic craft brewery…the single store steakhouse in the Midwest with higher revenue than New York City's famed Tavern on the Green…and many more. ICONIC delivers powerful, practical, and precise steps for anyone from a Fortune 500 CEO to a solo-entrepreneur. From major industries to network marketing, there are critical insights awaiting you in ICONIC. The goal of this book is to is to help you and your organization achieve iconic status through sound research and practical wisdom. After reading ICONIC, you will be ready to take your business to the highest level.

PART ONE

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ICONIC

CHAPTER ONE

WHAT IS AN “ICONIC” ORGANIZATION

For every Amazon, there is a Sears. For every Apple, there is a Nokia. For every Starbucks, there is a HoJo’s. When we mention an iconic company of today, we often forget there was one in the past that was equally dominant.

Remember the goals of this book are to help you or your organization achieve iconic status, maintain that status, and if your reputation has slipped, how you can regain that level of distinction. In this chapter we will examine the Four Levels of Business Distinction and what is so special about those businesses that have attained iconic status.

THE FOUR LEVELS OF BUSINESS DISTINCTION

You may not be as different as you think.

On a recent flight I enjoyed a brief conversation with the person sitting next to me. As we landed at our destination, my seatmate turned to me and presented her business card. Coincidentally, I discovered that she was involved in a similar business to the one my late wife, Sheri, worked in for many years. Naturally, I was interested in knowing more about her organization, so when I got home I looked up her company’s website. The headline I saw there—What Makes Us Different—really struck me. As I’m fascinated by elements that make any organization stand out from their competition, I read the four bullet points listing the aspects that her company believed were the ones separating them from the others in their industry.

• experience

• depth of knowledge

• founded by innovative entrepreneurs

• depth in multiple market segments

I thought about each point on this list. Experience is just longevity. It’s as if they’re suggesting their competitors are staffed with rookies who have no background. Using the same logic, when they say depth of knowledge makes them unique, it seems they’re asserting the competition is dumber than they are. The fact that they are founded by innovative entrepreneurs doesn’t strike me as an extraordinary trait since, by definition, every business had to be founded by an entrepreneur. I guess their competition was started by unimaginative entrepreneurs. Finally, the company claimed to have depth in multiple market segments. My wife said the same thing about the company where she worked in the late nineties. I promise you this is nothing new or unique.

None of these points make the company different. There is absolutely zero here that would truly qualify to be listed under the heading What Makes Us Different! These points merely make that company moderately relevant in the hypercompetitive industry in which they play.

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Could you be making the same mistake?

If you and your rival are both claiming that your great service is what makes you different, then from the customer’s perspective you aren’t.

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This company has inadvertently displayed that they don’t get it. They don’t understand what would make their customers perceive them as superior to the competition.

If your prospects think that you don’t understand your own uniqueness, wouldn’t they also surmise that you might not grasp other salient aspects of doing business together? And just because you say it is so doesn’t make it so.

You cannot attain differentiated, distinctive, or iconic status by demand.

In other words, no individual or organization can stand up and announce, “We are iconic, dammit!” Well, I guess they could—but based solely upon their declaration, no one else would recognize them as such.

Obtaining iconic status happens only through hard and smart work that leads to overwhelmingly enthusiastic evaluations from your customers in a competitive marketplace. Attaining the highest level of distinction is something that you attain because you have attracted it—not because you have demanded it.

There are too many companies and a multitude of professionals proclaiming they stand out from the competition. What they evidently fail to recognize is that the marketplace decides their status—not them.

I’m acquainted with—and a big fan of—the iconic Fox Sports personality Colin Cowherd. One of the segments on Colin’s show that I love is, “Where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong.” He presents a few of the predictions and opinions that he’s previously expressed, then he reviews where he was on target and analyzes where he missed the mark.

Well, in reviewing my previous book, Create Distinction, I confess that there was a point where I missed the mark. I wrote about the three levels of business distinction. However, after sharing the concept with thousands of leaders, I realize now that I failed to recognize a fourth level. Ironically, it is the most significant level of all.

Let’s first examine the Four Levels of Business Distinction. Then, I’ll help you evaluate where you fall on that spectrum, so you can design your plan to elevate your standing.

LEVEL 1: SAMENESS

Do customers perceive a compelling difference between you and your competition on something other than price? Do they see you as something more than a commodity? If not, you fall into the first level of business distinction: sameness. This, I believe, is the worst spot in which any organization or professional can reside.

Years ago, I had a manager tell me that customers were loyal to his company’s product because, “We are the cheapest in the market and that’s what customers are looking for—the lowest price.” I explained that his customers weren’t attached to his product; they were just committed to being cheap. All his competitors had to do was start selling a similar product at a lower price and his customers would run for the door.

The problem for this manager—and many like him—is that it seems to be easier to keep cranking out what we’ve been doing for years than to try to move up into a higher station. Many people think that continuing to do what’s worked in the past will continue to be safe. This approach isn’t safe at all. In fact, it’s the most unsound and unhealthy place to be. At this level—where margins are small and competition is intense—the failure to provide an aspect that sets you apart from your competition can be deadly.

LEVEL 2: DIFFERENTIATION

When customers perceive there is something about your product or service that is unique from the competition, you have differentiated yourself in the marketplace. It simply draws more attention to you and your efforts. In addition, customers are willing to pay more for products or services that have some aspect that sets them apart from the swarm of the similar.

This approach works for individuals as they seek to grow their career as well. The professional who has something special about her background, knowledge, or approach will naturally find her talents more highly valued than one who has taken the same path as the horde of others seeking advancement.

The challenge here, however, is that it is easy to presume that mere differentiation translates into superiority. It doesn’t.

Different is not better.

Different is just different.

As I’ve noted many times, if I slap every customer in the face, I am different. That does not mean I am better.

DOES “WHY” MAKE YOU DIFFERENTIATED?

There is a lot of discussion these days about a little word Why. In 2009, business consultant Simon Sinek wrote a megabestselling book Start with Why in which he espouses that we start by asking why questions:

• Why are we in business?

• Why do we get out of bed in the morning?

• Why does our company exist?

Many entrepreneurs, business leaders, and professionals began asking themselves about the why of their business or their careers. Sinek instructed his readers to use their why as the foundation upon which they will differentiate themselves in the marketplace. He suggests when we do this, we begin the process of becoming more valuable.

I agree that why is a great question to ask yourself. It is one that can lead to higher levels of understanding and insight that can be important to your personal and professional journeys. It requires deeper thinking about your purpose and priorities.

Sinek takes it a bit further, though. He advocates that people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

On this point, I respectfully but fervently disagree.

For instance, the burgers at Shake Shack are unbelievably good. They are so tasty, I believe that is what differentiates Shake Shack from the standard burger competition. As their customer, I don’t give a damn why they make them so delicious—I just care that they do.

Author, speaker, and close friend Joe Calloway has brilliantly observed that even at a company like Apple (one that Sinek cites as a primary example of starting with the why), this approach does not work. “Go into any Apple store,” Calloway says, “and ask an employee at the Genius Bar why he is there. He likely won’t cite any Apple corporate mantra. Instead, he’ll probably say it’s to pay off his student loans.”

“In any business—large or small—there are many varied ‘whys,’ ” Calloway continues. “People buy what you do—and, more importantly, how well you do it. The key is not the ‘why,’ it’s to be the best at what matters most to customers.”

Problems in differentiation are usually not about your why, it’s that you need to deliver a better how.

In many of the organizations I’ve observed, three of the most frequently asked how questions are:

• How do we sell more?

• How do we cut overhead?

• How do we enhance our profits?

Notice what all these statements have in common? They’re all inwardly focused.

What if, instead, we asked questions like:

• How can we be of greater service to our customers?

• How can we make the experience of doing business with us more compelling?

• How will the steps we are taking impact the prospects we want to convert to clients?

While Sinek states the how is important in everyday decision making—and that your how should align with your why—there’s a critical difference that I’ve noted among iconic companies and leaders.

Disney is unquestionably an iconic company. Through the leadership of CEO and Chairman Bob Iger, it continues to navigate the difficult waters of the changing media and entertainment environment. So what is the why of Disney?

Perhaps in an earlier time, one could say Disney was in business to create, promote, and distribute family entertainment. But now they own or have a controlling interest in, among other ventures, ESPN, A&E Network, Hyperion Books, Reedy Creek Energy Services, ABC Television Network. So how do they define their why in today’s world? None of those subsidiaries is devoted exclusively to family entertainment.

“If you want to thrive in a disrupted world, you have to be incredibly adept at not standing still,” Iger told Vogue magazine.¹ It would be very difficult to pivot as quickly and move as rapidly as Iger suggests if you’re dogmatically focused on an esoteric why as opposed to the more practical how.

If a customer decides to do more business with you, which of these two comments do you suppose is most likely to express the reason for their choice:

• “I like why they are in business.”

• “I like how they do what they do better.”

Moving from level one to level two does not commence with asking why. Instead, ...