The 'unasked' questions

when we communicate with clients,we seem to be quite prepared,ready and good at answering all the questions posed by the client.

Are we missing on questions 'not' asked by the clients,but still bothering them?

Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile

Deal Breakers - "CORE"

Ask any sales person why an order is lost , chances are (s)he would say 'Price'!

Do we always lose orders because, we didnt lower the price ?

I would like to list the 'Deal Breakers' as 'CORE':

C - Competition: What was competition doing while you were pursuing the opportunity? How clued in are you on what they are offering/how/to whom? Have you considered these in your offering?

O - Objections: These are issues customer has 'expressed' to you , on your offering. Have you addressed each of those objections with a clear validation?

R- Risks : These are issues customer 'percieves' in working with you/your offering, but (mostly) will not 'express' it? e.g. Does customer doubt your solvency? Does customer feel you are a 'Fly-by-night' operator? Have you sensed and addressed these risks to the customer?

E-Empathy:  How much of your solution is customised based on customer's 'specific' situation? How much of customer research have you done and built that into your solution? Have you addressed the question - "It might have worked elsewhere, but wont work HERE!!!"


Look at your price , AFTER you have addressed all the above 'CORE' Deal Breakers!

Thinking beyond 'Problem Solving'

Traditional marketing text books talk about FAB ( Feature-Attribute-Benefits). This applies to products very well. But as significant pies of the economy today are from services, FAB applied to services could be 'Problem-Solution'.

Identify a/many customer problems and make your offering to be a solution. Simple, isn't it?

In the increasingly competitive world of services marketing, this is no longer sufficient.

When someone has a chest pain ( problem) and consults ( service) a doctor, the doctor not only gives medication ( solution) but also advises on precautions ( prevention). He/She also follows it through on implementation of these precautions and suggests improvements in life style etc ( continuous improvement).

Extrapolating this to services business, it is not enough to solve a problem for the client. To retain the client, one needs to help client prevent it, help client make continuous improvements not just around the problem but on other areas as well so that different problems do not arise in future. And that certainly builds a stronger, longer term relationship.

'Express' Elevator Pitch

Micro blogging,popularised by twitter limits your communication to 140 characters.

Content acesss on mobile phone has limited screen space.

Google Ads have tight character limits.

Information overload from smart phones,web,email and TV limit our ability to retain information.

Can you communicate your business value proposition in less than 140 characters?

welcome to the world of 'Express Elevator pitch'!

Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile

Blogging from my mobile phone

This is a test post for mobile blogging.please scroll down for my posts.

Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile

Mediocrity in Marketing

One of the characters in Dilbert Comic strip says," after many years in my life, I realized that I am born with no specific skills. So I ended up in Marketing!"

Jokes apart, I strongly feel that marketing is an area that gets more bad mouthing than it deserves.

Unlike a Production executive who needs to ensure that his/her staff follow the procedure manual to deliver output with least deviation, a marketing executive does not have the same luxury!

There is no process manual that guarantees $X sales! There is no guarantee that what worked for winning a customer will work for the next.

This makes it an exciting area that forces you to reinvent yourself every day!

I agree that learnings from previous success need be institutionalised to make it repeatable and scalable.But let that not blind you to believe that it will repeat success.

I also warn you against people wanting you to apply brute force on the same old idea ,'hoping' for success. Doing 'more' of the same will not get you 'better' results! It might get you the 'same' results 'many ' times!

The fight against marketing mediocrity for better results is not easy. All the best!

My recommended plugins to increase your On-Line productivity

Based on my anti-climax experience with Google Chrome, I recommend the following browsers

PC/Laptop - Mozilla Firefox

Mobile - Opera Mini

Having experienced IE,Safari,Chrome and Firefox, nothing comes close to Firefox in terms of 'extendability' and higher productivity.

With the browser question resolved, here are my recommended plug-ins on Firefox and why you need them:

1. Add to Search Bar : You can now add any search on any site directly to Firefox. e.g. if you want to search New York times movie reviews, go to NY times movie review page, click into the seach button, right click and add that search to your browser. From now on, your browser search window can throw up results from NY movie reviews.

2.Cooliris: Is there a better way to view search results for images and videos? Try it

3.Foxclocks: For all those global citizens working across timezones, this is a godsend. Add real time clocks to your browser status bar , in an unobtrusive way.

4.Google Preview: You vaguely remember the site you went to and how it looks? Now all search results come with thumbnail views of the page.

5. Morning Coffee: Opens all your favorite pages ,in one click

6. Webmail Notifier: As you are browsing, this keeps track of your web mail boxes and lets you know when the mail arrives. You click on the icon and your relevent mail box opens.

7. Score Watch : Live Cricket scores on your browser status bar. Most unobtrusive way to keep track of your favorite game!


You can find all these plug-ins at

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

Why do I like them?

Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Jack Nicholson.

What's common to these people?

Nothing I can think of , except that they are my favorites. Given a choice, I would like to watch a movie featuring one of them, better still... all of them.

Let me see what else is common:

None of them are strikingly attractive ( though Denzel is supposed to have the perfect facial measurements!)

Two of them are over 60 years old.

Two of them are African American.

Two of them play secondary characters in movies.( not the protagonist)


None of the above sound like typical reasons to choose a movie of preference.

Then why do I like their movies?


- Understated Excellence in acting?

- Their rejection of 'skin-deep' characters?

- Their distinct, powerful,deep voices?


You can see any of the following movies to figure out: ( in no particular order)


1.A few Good Men


2.Shawshank Redemption


3.The Bucket List ( featuring Morgan and Jack)


4.Courage under Fire


5.As Good as it gets


6.Crimson Tide


7.Under Suspicion



By the way, I recommend you these movies , even if its not about any of these three people.

Applying Advertising principles to our daily lives

I am sure many of you have heard the phrase ' Cut through the clutter'.

I have heard this used by Advertising executives/media planners to see how their client's message gets heard above the noise created by competition/information overload.

Why is this not applied in real life?

Why do we get into long winding sentences, wrap our messages with polite,flowery language? - In the end , the listener is wondering what you are trying to communicate.

People may consider you blunt, but 'cutting thru clutter', takes you quickly to the key message and gets things done quickly. You can filter out the 'bull' fast and manage your time better.

- When listening, try figuring out the key message ( 5-8 words)

- When talking, give this key message quickly ( 5-8 words)

In today's world of info-overload ( web/TV/mobile/mail), your bluntness to get to the point quickly will be highly appreciated.

Thoughts to ponder

Have a character like 'SALT'!  Its presence is never felt, but its absence makes things USELESS!

Life is not the amount of breaths you take, but the moments that take your breaths away!

One gets hurt, so one gets to know who cares when one is hurt.

Noone ever won a game of chess just by forward moves. Sometimes you have to move backward , for a better step forward.

My recommended websites this month

1.Twitter search

http://search.twitter.com/

2. Panoramic views

http://www.gigapan.org/?window_height=643&window_width=1263

3. World wide Telescope

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

'Results' oriented marketing

I have seen a number of 'marketers' who are measured by activities , relegated to carrying out 'fringe' activities that are non-critical to business and usually do not have the complete picture.

Some even wail in private, that they do not have clear results to deliver to, not measured on business goals and hence feel they are not being ' recognized'!

- Do the marketers in your organisation have complete view from opportunity generation to order conversion?

- Do they know what happens to the leads they create? why some die? why some go on to become clients?

- Are they willing to be measured on revenues both from existing and new clients?

- What role do they play in mining an existing customer account?

I am surprised to see the number of people who equate marketing with glossy brochures and ads.

Fighting 'Price Pressures' from customers

I am yet to come across a marketer who does not face 'price pressures' from customers.

Customers demanding lower prices,leninent terms, freebies, favors....

relentless competition keeps you awake at night....

Increasing product/service costs....

How do you still achieve the famed 'Profitable Growth'?

How about approaching this issue from a different end?

- Instead of trying to get a good price from the customer, why not 'find' customers who will pay you a 'good ' price?

Someone suffering chest pain will not hesitate to pay the price to a cardiac specialist, while someone with hypertension finds the cardiac specialist 'costly'.

If you are a cardiac surgeon, focus on reaching out to those with chest pain, not those who are just hypertensive.

Try finding those prospects who are in 'serious pain' and need you 'desparately'?

Chance are price is not the first thing on their mind!

Let No one else 'control' your happiness

There is no shortage of 'stereotypes' we come across in our daily lives - at home, at work, in society ... nervous wrecks, control freaks, short tempers,long tempers, dominators... the list seems endless. For all we know, we ourselves might be one or more of these at different points of time. Being with some of these stereotypes for long , might make us acquire these 'qualities' ourselves. How do we ensure these do not affect our 'happiness'?

I have a simple observation/advice to offer.

Many times, we let ourselves controlled by others by simply 'reacting' to these qualities.

The moment you 'react' to these, others have already started controlling you & your happiness.

Try this:

Understand that you 'need not' react to every impluse from others.

Know that the moment you 'react' you put your happiness in others' control.

Finally, stop reacting both internally and externally , knowing that this way, you alone will be controlling your happiness!

Wishing you 'happier' times!