Marketing & sales focus on customer acquisition and essentially the buyer. Customer support focuses on the user and is required for customer retention. This is valuable in businesses where customer lifetime value is significant; (ex: we keep visiting amazon repeatedly to shop); Especially, online retailers, automobile companies (who depend on significant revenue through service), hospitals, machinery/OEMs, technology products, SAAS products and other such businesses where delivery,...

Evil marketing Well, It’s is just a tool. But it is the marketer and the goods being pushed that really matter. If it’s drugs, or cigarettes, then yes, certainly it is evil. Then there are cases where the marketer started out with a good reputation and has turned malefic. Recently, a very large reputed mutual fund in India that holds tens of thousands of crores of people’s money in trust to invest on their behalf in certain types of funds (allegedly safer!) faced extreme redemption pressure...

Fundamental tactics of digital marketingThe tactics for digital marketing strategy are essentially advertisements, social platforms or direct mailing. The first two will allow us to market to an audience for a certain payment. They give temporary permissions to target certain audiences. In the case of ads, its like an interruption in the consumer’s flow of consuming media (like a TV ad), though, in the case of digital ads, the consumer is given a choice in whether to click on the ad. In the...

Owner driven small and mid-size companies grow quickly, but may at some point, consider professionalizing the business, to allow the next generation to take over, or scale up the business, or to bring in strategic investors. Reasons could be many. Owner led firms usually depend on preferential access to clients (by virtue of the founder’s relationships), talent & capital. Clients would know them well, their bankers lend because of their track record, and talent within the company sticks on...

Difference between the best companies and the rest Surveys have revealed that most senior executives believe that their companies do not have a winning strategy, nor do they have the right capabilities to execute the strategy. Companies that are great at both strategy and execution don’t necessarily follow existing industry practices. Below are a few things they do that contradicts conventional management wisdom, but if followed in your respective industries would lead to long term sustainable...

Most people think of Strategy as intellectual and exciting, while execution is considered mundane. It is often left to lower and middle level managers to handle on a day to day basis, and not much thought goes into it, especially among small and medium enterprises. Execution means effective management and this means challenges in the form of processes and people. Unless companies actively make necessary investments in these areas, execution is bound to be mediocre at best.  Today, as the bar...

Many mid size companies in India have good calibre sales men. In some of the older companies, these sales people acquire technical capabilities and are long timers in the company. They are pretty good in talking the customer’s language and closing deals. Unfortunately, 70% of a sales reps time is spent scouting for leads and in trying to get an appointment. They just don’t seem to have enough of them. The common complaint I hear from senior management is that the sales team is warming the...

Marketing has evolved from being personal to being generic and finally onto algorithmic personalization today. Marketing culture today is obsessed with digital technology. People are just data points and subsets of various online communities, profiling logic, databases etc., The outcome of such micro targeting has still been a hit and miss. Going forward, this could be a thing of the past. Messaging platforms are expected to make marketers do a U turn and get up close and personal with their...

After segmenting, targeting, understanding customers, positioning ourselves and exploring new markets to enter (subjects discussed in my other blogs), comes the task of reaching out to these markets. Channels are routes to reach customers,  Customers can be reached through a spectrum of channels ranging from a direct sales force or indirectly through distributors, volume resellers, value added resellers, service and support partners, solution partners, partner retailers etc., each providing...

Trading companies are the most widespread form of businesses and act as channels for manufactures to reach into far flung markets. Trading companies are complex organizations that have their own culture, diverse functions and customer relationships. They can range from small entrepreneurial set ups to professional companies with focus, and there could be large global trading companies like the Japanese sogososhas. In India, despite trading being controlled by business communities, as the size...

Articles going around on Amazon’s work culture talk about companies (including many start-ups) envisioning a new workplace which is fluid but tough, with employees staying for only a short time (meaning temporary) and employers demanding the maximum. Many are places where blue collar workers work in difficult physical conditions, while white collar workers feel driven hard, but get no empathy from their employer. A request for leave to care for a loved one who has fallen ill or a need to...

Many a times, the sales of a firm  starts off from the founder’s personal contacts and then expands into newer territories. As firms grow and expand, there is  need to diversify and derisk customer base, both in terms of revenue from a particular segment and percentage of contribution from a the top few customers. However, most companies find this desired state alluding, for many reasons. Sales structure, team reporting, carving of markets and sales measurements are the major roadblocks that...

Is branding required in the B2B context? In the B2C context companies like Coca-cola and Pepsi persuaded consumers that sugar water with some acids and colouring was better than water, and the in-thing to keep sipping all the time. If branding worked for them, it must surely have relevance in the B2B context as well. At the same time, surveys have shown that most industrial brands are just labels and do not really have strong correlation with the qualitative attributes of the product. What...

Most companies in traditional industries during the formative years typically have marketing and sales managed by a single department. On the marketing front, companies usually make rudimentary investments as part of sales efforts. They at best participate in related industry events or advertise in local media. However, as organizations grow, the need to manage marketing and sales as independent and yet complementary functions becomes necessary. In our observation, most companies run into the...

Most heads of organizations, founders and owners express that grooming engineers or professionals to be leaders is their greatest concern. Heads of organizations realize that they need to be able to groom these technically oriented engineers to become good managers and capable leaders, if they really want to grow and scale the business. Most of the technical staff have an engineering or professional background and are very happy solving technical problems, and getting immersed in their own...

Management is not just about strategy and systems. It is all about doing & managing people as well.  Managers make grand plans, but fail to get teams to work effectively to produce greater output. Often, there is a tendency to do everything themselves – individually. This is understandable, given today’s situation – resources lack competency, freshers have no clue what they are supposed to do, high churn among trained resources, etc. But despite this, if work is largely individual and team...

Companies need to evaluate their go to market plans every year. Whether it is SMEs or Family businesses wanting to reach new markets, expand reach and grow revenues, or large companies trying to align according to changes in products and markets, everyone needs to re evaluate their go to market plan at least once a year. This basically involves choosing the target markets or even exploring new markets, aligning with customers, and developing the plan on reaching out to customers. Choosing...