Published December 19, 2011 | 
Be outrageous in your business. I do not mean wild, crazy, irresponsible, unrealistic, unplanned, and weird. I do mean that to be in front of your competition today you must be outrageous in what you do, totally and fully ahead of the game, no matter what.
You must be ahead of the game!
If you are doing the same basic things that everyone else in your market niche does then you are part of the pack and not leading the way. If your processes are the same, your basic customer service is the same, your commitment to follow up is the same, and a myriad of other ways you do business are just about the same as your competition, then how can you expect to be ahead of the game? There really is no difference between you and your competition.
One of the first things I suggest is to go back to your business and list every process and procedure that you do in your business. After you have written them down, change the way you are doing ALL of them or AS MANY OF THEM AS POSSIBLE and you will then be revolutionizing your business. You WILL be different. You will no longer be the same as they are. You WILL make a significant impact on your customers and you WILL be ahead of your competition. The reason is that they are still doing the same old things the same old ways getting the same old results and your results will be better and different. If you keep on doing what you have always done, you keep on getting what you have always got. From this day on however, you are changing the ways you are doing things. You will be recognized for that.
You must be willing to try new ways of doing things!
This is really where the rubber meets the road. If you are afraid of change or confronting your employees to change, then your business life will never be different. You need to become outrageous, because that is what your employees will say about you, your competition will say about you and your customers will say about you: “This guy (this action, etc.) is outrageous!” It will require that you throw the box of your thinking out completely and forever. Think differently. Think ways you have never thought of before. Think outrageously.
Several years ago I was talking to an owner of a successful business and had made a suggestion of a major change in doing things. His response was: “My technicians would never accept that change. They just would not be caught doing that.” He might as well have said that his technicians were running the show. He might as well have indicated that he was not in control but his technicians were.
Jeffrey Gitomer, national sales trainer, has said “Don’t compare yourself to the competition, differentiate yourself from the competition – and win the sale.”
In times like these you must try new ways of doing things and be committed to doing the new ways. There is no better time to do that than right now.
You need to be flexible!
Inflexibility is a killer and it will be seen in the first two considerations above. If you are inflexible and unwilling to look at your present procedures AND CHANGE THEM, or if you are inflexible and unwilling to try new ways of doing things, then you WILL NOT get ahead of your competition and you will not succeed in an extreme fashion. You may even wither away on the vine or just plain die, because you were not flexible enough.
You must be flexible. Don’t be like my friend who said he was “old fashioned,” which meant he would not be flexible and change the game of his thinking and what he was willing to do. He did not, and is still in the same boat he was in. Flexibility will lead to risk, which leads to possible failure, however flexibility can allow you to achieve things you have never achieved as yet.
You need to not be satisfied with average and being part of the pack!
All of these considerations run together. However, if you are satisfied with the average, you will never get ahead. You will never stretch, never turn over new ways of thinking, and never throw the box totally away. Would you rather lead the pack or would you rather just be another part of the pack? Frankly, in my business, we want to lead, not follow; stretch, not shrink back; invest, not hoard; seek healthy, positive opinions that may be different than ours, not join the negativity crew. We want to win, not lose!!! We want to be OUTRAGEOUS, NOT complimentary to everyone else.
My question to you is: What do you want, anyway?
