Being customer centric

Trying to write again after a long gap, hope I continue.

Being customer centric means keeping your customer's interest ahead of your own interest. 

I have few real world experience where I felt the company is customer centric and they care about their customers.

I was at Starbucks and I wanted to try almond milk latte instead of regular one. Got my latte and I didn't like it, I threw my cup in trash and went back to ordering my regular latte. Barista seeing me return said 'you didn't like our almond latte', he took my new order and didn't charge for it and said 'thanks for giving it a try'.

Rented Enterprise car for few days, and was passing through toll roads, I found there was no cash counter to collect the toll fee, it was all automated and I didn't have the RFID tag for auto payment, and with those high speed camera capturing my number plate, I was worried if I would get a ticket, called enterprise many times to learn how this works but nobody picked up the phone. While returning the car, I told them that I was dissatisfied with lack of phone support, and they apologized and immediately provided me 30% discount on my bill, I was pleasantly surprised by their gesture.

Ordered few products from Amazon, I was out of house when the order got delivered, I logged into my amazon account to track my order, apparently they kept the box near my locked door and took a photo proof of it and left. By the time I returned, my box was stolen, I informed the apartment security and then called Amazon, they heard what I had to say and said 'No problem sir, would you like to re-order those items for no-charge or should be credit your account'. 

Through these experiences, I learned what customer centric means.

10 rules for being a successful sales person

Here are 10 rules you can follow to become a better sales person.

1. Never show desperation. You certainly have to create an urgency in prospect's mind but don't push the prospect too hard to buy, take it one step at a time.
2. Qualify first, not every prospect is right for you and vice versa.
3. Be a professional and the same time be friendly, you don't want to make your conversations too formal all the time.
4. Be prepared with your product/service, know it in and out.
5. Know everything about the prospect. Spend an hour or two studying about them.
6. Focus on what value you can provide, how you can help the prospect achieve their goals.
7. Know a little bit about everything, be it politics, music, movies, sports, culture, industries, businesses among others, helps break the ice and connect better with the prospect.
8. Become a story teller, stories about how you served other customers and how it helped them etc. Best way to keep the prospects interested and engaged.
9. Follow-up without dropping the ball, key to winning deals is to constantly prove to the prospect that you are there, you are diligent and responsive.
10. Don't make it transactional, build relationship with your clients so they become your friends and well wishers.

Marketing Mindmap

Here is the marketing mind-map, I call it Marketing+ because along with Marketing it includes Branding and PR as well. Hope this comes across handy to understand what each one of them mean and what are the other factors involved here.

Mind-map below - Zoom in on the picture to see the details.

Click here Marketing+

Scrum Selling - The new way of selling

How many times we have made sales plan and kept at it for months, without knowing where it is going? and often mistakenly calling it as "perseverance" or telling oneself  "Well, it does take time, so let us not change direction". Running a plan for 6 to 12 months and then saying "We have tried everything and it doesn't seem to be working", and ending up blaming the market or the product/service or delivery organization or something else, this isn't the way sales process should be structured.

How about making sales process a little more agile/nimble in nature, how about implementing Scrum agile principles in selling and see how that works, well that is exactly what I have been trying for some time now. I can tell you first hand that it works. Here is the mapping of Scrum Agile to what I call "Scrum Selling"

1. Form a Scrum team of not more than 5 people, typical combination will be one sales executive, 2 lead generators, 1 or 2 contact collectors. 
2. List down all your campaigns (a typical campaign includes details like, industry you are targeting, service/product you are planning to sell, target audience (designations), target companies, your differentiator, email pitch and voice-mail pitch) - This becomes your campaign backlog.
3. Define your sprint cycle time, typically 2 weeks, first day of the sprint you basically do your planning, and everyday the team meets (scrum meeting) to share success/rejection stories, innovative idea for sourcing leads, prospect's reaction to your messages etc. This meeting takes about 20 minutes or so.
4. At the end of the sprint, do a retrospect, if required tweak your pitch, your preso, get an understanding of the market based on all your conversations with prospects and align your approach accordingly. 
5. Prioritize your campaign list based on how things are evolving on the sales side, repeat the process.

Sales plans are effective when you infuse the learning from the market (learning from prospects, partners, competitors, subject matter experts) into your outreach campaign and the best way to do is "Scrum Selling", the process is so nimble, that you can accommodate your day to day learning into your execution plan unlike the conventional model.

So wanna try this for few weeks? let me know your thoughts on this.

3 for 2 offer - Weird

I really don't understand the promotion Landmark has on books, it says "3 copies for 2", which means one copy is free, but as an individual what do I do with those other 2 ditto copies? gift to my friends/relatives? find 2 friends/relatives who has similar interest as mine and are willing to split the cost? (difficult thing to do takes extra effort) go with full price and just take one copy but then I don't get any discount/promotion on the book (which doesn't make me feel good). If I do go with the offer and don't find anyone who wants to buy from me, I end up paying double the cost compared to regular price of a book (so I am not going to take that risk). Other options is calling up people I know and pre-booking them to take a copy from me before I actually buy, in which case each one gets 33% discount (what are the chances of that happening, very slim). 

This whole scheme seems to work only for people who can find two more buyers or has a need to gift books, and I believe that would constitute only 5 to 10% of buyers, which means 90 to 95% of the buyers will not be interested in this offer, which makes the whole promotion irrational, now there is this angle of Landmark having over-stocked on few books and hence this offer is specific for those books, but this can be fixed at once by enhancing the procurement process, why would someone repeat this mistake and try these weird promotions (I have seen this type of promotion at landmark for last 2 years at least).

3 for 2, may works well for say apparel industry, wherein I can buy 3 shirts, same brand and same quality, but different designs, but making this work for books (ditto copies), doesn't make sense to me, instead a straight 10% discount would work better, and probably help compete with flipkarts of the world.

Your comments please...... let me know if I am missing something here completely.

Sales Mindmap

I like putting things in a mind-map format, a single diagram which pretty much captures all aspects of a business or a specific function, in this case I have tried to do it for "Sales". Content provided is about 20% based on my experience and 80% from books I have read (like "All marketers are liars", "The art of closing", "Rain making conversation", "Influence", "Thinkertoys"), but I take the credit for putting all of it together :) and trying to connect the dots. Idea wasn't to cover all that is possible but all that I felt was crucial.

I tried embedding the image here but it doesn't render well, hence providing a dropbox link, and I hope the link last forever. Please let me know your comments on this.

Sales - Mindmap

Sales: One BIG reason we won

If I have to look back at some of the deals we (sales and delivery team) won in last few years and I ask myself what was the single biggest reason behind each of the victories apart from the standard credentialization etc, it will be the following.

- Aspiration: Sold to a travel company that we can build a site, with a google type search box, wherein people can come-in and search anything and everything about travel/vacation and system will display appropriate tour packages for them. Showed new reality. Got the deal.
- Speed: Unbelievable turn-around time on submitting a proposal with benefit statements, our passion and speed was contagious. We won.
- Extra-Mile: Surprised the prospect with website mocks - which they didn't ask for, while other vendors were trying to please the prospect by showing only their past performance.
- Creativity: Presented 3 fresh ideas on how their product can be different and more engaging with consumers and act as differentiator, other vendors were busy giving discounts.
- Pre-call-analysis: we said to the prospect, we can talk about your company for 30 mins non-stop, do you want see how well we know you? Created an impression which lasted forever.
- Risk-elimination: Told to the prospect don't pay if you don't like, we aren't a company happy earning money without delivering value first. Of course they liked us!!
- Idea: Converting a prospect idea to reality, prospect came up with a question, "hey is this something possible?" and we went back with 30 slide detailed ppt on how we can achieve it together and what are the benefits. That just gave the power to the prospect to internally champion the idea and get us the deal.

The point is, if you keep asking simple questions like the ones below, you will invariably add value to the prospect and will stand-out, thereby increasing your probability of getting the deal.

- Why should the prospect buy from you?
- What can the prospect get from you which other vendors cannot provide?
- Are you giving the prospect just what they asked for or thinking multiple level beyond that?
- Am I really solving a problem for the prospect at a holistic level?
- Are we helping the prospect differentiate themselves in the market?
- Am I making sure to de-risk my prospect from possible failures?
- Am I making my contacts at the customer side look good in front of their bosses?

"Be a consultant and help your prospect buy from you"

Inverse the sales induction process

When you join an organization as a sales executive / lead / manager, they give you an overview about the organization, history, service offerings etc, then you are given a target number, a geography to focus on, then you start working on your elevator pitch and corporate presentation, you get into sales calls, start selling your company and their track record, that's it. This leads to zero "value add"... you are just not adding any value to the prospect in the call. Sales guys in my world are either a problem solver or one who can help their prospect get to their aspirations.

The way it should probably happen, is when you a join company, you spend your first one or two weeks with leaders in the company understanding what are the top 10 problems we have successfully solved for our existing customers, what are the best scenarios wherein we understood our prospects aspirations and helped them achieve it and how did we do it? What are the challenges faced? And then take some time to understand your differentiators and know if your USP will resonate with your prospects and why?

So inverse the process, first spend time with delivery/operation team -> understand what aspirations / afflictions you can solve for your prospects -> build authentic stories you can tell your prospects -> list out the benefits your existing customers got -> then build your presentation to match your stories -> then create the elevator pitch.

"Be a problem Solver"

My experience working with CEOs

Let me share some of my experience working with 6 different CEOs in past 15 years, what they had in common? do I see a pattern in their style of leadership? And how I think they will go from here? It may seem that I am trying to cross some of sort of line here, trying to comment on people whom I reported into or a bit pre-mature for someone who hasn't played the role of CEO before, but hey, I am just expressing my opinion based on my world view and not a judgment.

Out of 6 CEOs, 3 of them made is big, growing organization revenue from few 100 thousand dollars to millions, creating jobs for about 1000 people, achieving their personal and professional goals. While all the successful CEOs had "grit" as a common trait, all of the other aspects about them were distinctly different from each other, one of the CEOs was a super nice people manager and down-to-earth personality but wasn't probably a champion in sales, another one was an insensitive people manager but a sales super star. One of them was great with growth strategy and sales, but fell short on operational excellence and follow-through.

If you had an opinion that a CEO needs to be super good in everything he does, he needs to be an expert in all aspects of the game, that is not the way it is. Some of their great qualities overshadows their inadequacy in few areas and still make things work.

1. The CEO who was insensitive to people (going around hurting and ridiculing people at his will) still managed to keep a bunch of smart guys around him, because people wanted to learn from him "how to sell" because he was great at it, so they ignored his rants / tantrums / idiosyncrasies. .
2. Second was a great people manager, super nice to people and had unmatched grit, even though you may not learn new functional skills from him, you may still decide to work for him, because he would treat you with at most respect and provide all the freedom for you to perform.

It has been an interesting journey so far for me, and I think the CEO who is cognizant of his strengths and weaknesses and knows how to build a team which can compliment him, will have the ability to take their business to next level, and those who decide to ignore their limitations and keep their egos before anything else, will eventually fall or just stagnate.

I understand this blog could be missing several other dimensions on how a CEO's office works, but idea was just to share some quick thoughts on different types of CEOs I have dealt with. A comprehensive one will definitely come your way, when I am able to connect more and more dots in our corporate world.

"Happy Selling Value"

3 types of Prospects

When you talk to a prospect who has explicit needs and clearly knows what is needed, go with the flow and and see where it takes you, but when you find a prospect with implicit needs, don't allow them to make you run all over the place, you will have to guide them in a way it helps them solve their problem and gets you business. And then there are those who come into the calls for window shopping or for various other reasons (which never fetches you business), you need to identify those prospects and eliminate them from your list as quick as possible.

Ability of a salesman to eliminate prospects who may not be able to provide sizeable business in the short term or in the long term, is 100 times more important then feeling great that you had 5 sales calls today, the real question to ask is "Out of those 5, who is the best bet for you?" and can you spend substantial energy to help them solve their problems.

"Happy Selling Value"

Can you stop twiddling your thumbs and ask some good questions!!

Some sales people just wait wait wait for the prospect to come back and say formally if they are getting the deal or not, but I believe a good sales guy should be able to predict in most cases what is going to happen with the deal, instead of keeping at it for ever, thinking that I have high perseverance or praying that the deal comes through. One good way to get out of this trap, is to think more from prospect's perspective, ask yourself these simple questions, why should they buy from you? what you got which the other vendors cannot provide? and did you differentiate yourself enough so you are at the top of prospect's mind? if none of these are giving you favorable answers then probably you aren't in the right position to get the deal.

In addition to these ask some good questions to the prospect, like dear prospect, do you think we covered everything you needed? is there any area you think we didn't exceed to your expectations? you will see sometimes prospect's sounding their concerns or telling you things, which will provide you enough insight where the deal is heading and what you need to do about it.

Recently, to one prospect I even asked, you are contemplating doing this in-house, which means you can pull this off at lesser cost, then what you think are the most compelling reasons for you to go with a Vendor like us? I got some answers from the prospect, which gave me some cues where this deal is possibly heading, and what I need to do. Should I persist? do something to change the equation? or just exit?

Bottom-line, ask some tough questions, connect dots, question why you are the only one who is BEST suited for this deal and if you think the prospect's selection criteria itself are misaligned for their own good, tell them that, because that is the biggest help you can offer them as a consultant and by the way, that may even get you the deal.

PS: let me know your comments and also what you think could have been a better title for this blog.

Happy Selling Value!!!

Manager Vs Leader - a perfectly wrong question

I see inordinate number of people asking this question, what is the different between manager and leader? I feel the question itself is wrong. Manager is yet another role like programmer, analyst , designer etc...a good manager is one who can manage assignments diligently and tactfully and has good people management skills, whereas leaders can be found in any role (not just managers), an individual who takes initiative, who inspires, who wants to challenge status quo and who wants to achieve their goals and help others achieve theirs is a leader. And that individual can be lowest in the rank of hierarchy but is still a leader. Make sense? let me know your comments on this.

Believe in YOU

- world is hitting hard at you, hit them back
- people are telling you NO, tell them YES
- too much noise around you, cut them all
- if people are telling you it is tough, tell them that is why you are doing it
- world will direct you at its will, if you don't trust yourself
- only you know eventually you are going to make it, so keep at it
- success is sweet, not because it is easy but because it is tough as hell
- failure is beautiful, so take it with grace
- believe in YOU, because that's the only way you are going to make it

Start Narrow and Then Broaden

If you are in sales and building your team and pipe ground-up, it is better you take a narrowed approach in terms of what services you are planning to offer, which geographies and customer segments to focus on, and then broaden your reach depending on how things are progressing. 

Pick up one service offering where you think your organization has a differentiator, one geography and one customer segment. Now put in a plan for 8 to 12 weeks, in terms of number of leads you want to generate, problems you can solve for your prospects using your service, your differentiating pitch, pricing models etc..

Now enhance your plan frequently based on your learning, maybe you have to change your pitch, add in a different dimension to your pitch, change your target prospects (example instead of focusing on CIO, you may have to focus on CMO), developing new questions for your first call,  change/enhance your differentiator so you don't fall in the same mind bucket as the prospect has put your competitors in. This one is not hard as long as you consciously try to consolidate your understanding of the market and align your plan accordingly.

Once you have established your offering in a geography and for a particular customer segment, you can start thinking of adding more services or expanding on your customer segments or even geography for that matter. 

Can you derisk your prospect?

If you can safe guard your prospect from the perceived risk of purchase then you have a better chance of making a sale. Try to uncover what the prospect thinks are the risk of purchase (it can be your company’s reputation, service quality, impact on his social status, your experience, timing of purchase etc etc) and see how you can address them effectively one by one. Idea is to learn what are the possible risk the prospect perceives around your product or service and see if those can be addressed in your marketing message or your presentations upfront.

What is your USP?

What is your unique selling proposition to your current employer (from growth perspective) or prospective employer (in case you are seeking a new job)? If you are not able to answer this question is few seconds, then you probably don’t have one.  How about writing down, what you think your USP should be, and then figuring out a way to achieve it? And during every self assessment, you ask, how is my USP doing compared to last assessment? And the response to that, better be good J

Indispensable Employee

Your job is to make yourself indispensable; not by withholding know-how, not by playing politics; not by forming unions; not by rejecting change; not by seniority but by embracing change, sharing know-how, zero politics and by being an exceptional performer.

Shopping.indiatimes.com is flawed

I see Indiatimes advertising shopping.indiatimes.com, it somehow looks flawed to me. Not the ad but the name “shopping.indiatimes.com”, one it is too long, second the word “shopping” or “Indiatimes” already means something to the consumers, which means you cannot build a new brand (new thought / new feeling) around it, third the name doesn’t standout like the other online retailers, fourth it sounds like a compromise not having a separate name for online retail store. When other online retailers are investing millions on building a brand (flipkart/ebay) which stands for something, you cannot build your brand around generic words or words which already mean something else like “indiatimes”. Also short, catchy, different and easy to recollect names are better for online or word-of-mouth viral. 

Consumer Scepticism

Consumer scepticism seems to be a big issue in India; consumers don’t seem to trust any product or service even with sufficient evidence and guarantee, they do double, triple checks and may be more. This is something which is ingrained into each one of us I think, right from our young age our parents tell us to check the change which the shop keepers are giving us, double check the bill when you leave the restaurant, check expiry dates when you visit a medical shop, don’t go by the printed rates, always bargain, cross check in multiple shops before you buy, check for original seal, don’t pay anything before delivery etc etc.

A large part of this scepticism stem from the fact that quality of services and products we consume  today are either poor or not consistent (by and large), false claims or assurance from sales / marketing people, poor control / management by food and drug governance body. There have been several instances of expired drug causing deaths; several times I have personally seen hoteliers making mistakes in restaurant bills; there seems to be a free market for illegal or counterfeit products. And topping the list is corruption across the board. 

Given the circumstances, consumer cannot help than to be sceptical about everything which comes across them. There is no silver bullet to change this but for better political leaders, better governance, better quality standards and good business ethics across the board.

CIOs Role – Am I reading the trend right?

Saw an article today by a well known CMO of retail giant talking about their technology initiative with respect to BI for understanding consumer buying patterns, Social Media investments for brand building exercise and investment on mobile technologies for m-commerce and promotion through QR code and coupons. 

Early this month, I attended a conference and the analysts there were hinting that CIOs needs to redefine their role to enhance their relevance in the organization. Was dealing with couple of large retailers on their mobile strategy and interestingly the budget for all mobile app development was with Marketing than with IT.

Cloud computing has literally simplified the entire work around capacity planning, procurement, on-going maintenance, up-time etc, which use to take up a large part of CIOs time. Secondly business is increasingly embracing outsourcing of non-core business activities like, IT Global Service Desk, Infrastructure Monitoring and Support and ERP support, which is then shrinking the internal IT team owned by CIOs. And Social Media, SEO and Mobile App development and related budgets are assigned to CMOs (at least in the B2C space).

Are all these trends pointing out that CIOs needs to reinvent themselves? Possibly seek ways to broaden their role? May be play a business role along with owning IT? I don’t know the exact answer to this but somewhere it seems a change is on its way.