Category: Strategy

Strategy

Saving the Nano….

After the fantastic launch of Tata Nano, the cheapest car in the world, we have seen that the fan fare and the interest levels have not kept up and there is a drastic decline in the sales of Nano and the Tata Motors management is working overtime to get this corrected and to generate interest. A big ad campaign has been launched. The results are yet to be seen. Tata Motors is trying hard to revive the fortunes of their Chairman’s dream project.  Safe and Secure: No one wants to buy a car which is considered to be un-safe. The […]

Strategy

Fueling growth from existing customers

It is a well known fact that it is much more expensive to acquire a new customer than retaining an existing customer. But as they say, common sense is not so common. We find that businesses are going out of their way to attract new customers by offering them great deals. I do not think there is anything wrong in this, but when you exclude the offer to your existing customers, you are inviting trouble.  This is a very important reason for customer loyalty to become so rare. There does not seem any  benefit for customers to remain loyal anymore as […]

Strategy

Building great products

I have been thinking about a lot of great products that have now become an integral part of our life aka Google, iPods, iPads, SAP ERP, Zappos, Facebook, Twitter, Intuit, Amazon, Mitticool, etc..  When I think about what is common across these products and their growth to super-stardom and i found these common traits: Great products are highly focused in solving a particular need of a particular customer. No product ever succeeds if it tries to solve a lot of problems for a lot of people.  Great products are very simple to learn & use. Great user experience can make the difference […]

Sales, Strategy

Next wave of Growth for Banks – Retailer Credit Card

Farmers in India are offered Kisan Credit Cards to provide adequate and timely support from the banking system to the farmers for their short-term credit needs. The banking industry can take a clue from this and introduce a retailer credit card for exclusive use by small-time retailers to pay to their suppliers.  The idea:  Banks to offer small retailers a Retailer Credit Card with a minimum credit limit of 10000 INR.  This offer will also come with the credit card swiping machine which the retailer has to use in his retail counter. The rent will be waived off if the retailer does a minimum […]

Strategy

Follow-ups

One of the most important activities in the sales process is the follow-up process post your discussions with them. This critical steps can at times help you move towards a closure or take you away from the deal. Critical questions that one need to address in this process are :- Share new information: Is there any new information (read new offers, whitepapers, references, etc) from the time you had the last discussion. If so, it provides us a good opportunity to contact the prospect and check with them on the current status Timing: How often do you want to follow-up […]