A. Surprise and Please Your Customers

"To create a truly dedicated customer base, you have to go beyond merely satisfying your customers and come up with ways to surprise and delight them – to add that special “something” that helps you stand out from your competitors and build unshakeable loyalty."

– Rieva Lesonsky

1. Deliver more than you promised,  go beyond and above customer expectation – package the expected and unexpected to succeed

2. Send your customers and prospects surprise gifts; spread the love around; reward your best customers via a surprise; take care of even your most casual customers to turn them into loyal shoppers

3. Invent creative marketing programs

4. Focus on customer-driven value innovation – every day! Be unique in your approach to creating and delivering customer value. Customers like uniqueness, and they will view their relationship with your business as a special, rewarding one.

B. Surprise and Awe Your Competitors

"He who controls the element of surprise will win the battle... The essential factor of military success is speed, that is taking advantage of others' unpreparedness or lack of foresight, their failure to catch up, going by routes they do not expect, attacking where they are not on guard."

– Sun Tzu

5. Develop the ability to surprise and move quickly to create competitive disruption; practice OODA – Observe-Orient-Decide-Act

6. Change the name of the game by introducing radical innovations

7. Search for opportunities everywhere and pursue them – with speed

8. Initially, stay beneath the radar of your competitors

; then emerge unexpectedly and keep accelerating the pace of change as your competitors weaken

C. Surprise and Excite You Employees

"We have found that by reaching for what appears to be the impossible, we often actually do the impossible; and even when we don't quite make it, we inevitably wind up doing much better than we would have done."

– Jack Welch

Discover much more!

3 Strategies of Market Leaders

Tao of Customer Value Creation

10 Commandments of Innovation

Competitive Strategies: 2 Types

Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Developing Competitive Disruption: 7 Strategies

Tao of a Winning Organization

Inspiring People: 4 Strategies

Energizing Employees

Stretch Goals