Sales

“Inspire” Your Customers to Stop Losing Deals to Status Quo – SIMPLE Framework for Sales Effectiveness

In an earlier blog post, I had introduced the “SIMPLE” framework to increase your sales effectiveness. I had elaborated on the 1st step which was about how to “Surprise” your customers to initiate their engagement. Today, I shall elaborate on the next step – Inspire your customers.  One of the biggest reasons why deals don’t go through is in-action. Sales teams don’t lose a deal to their competition but to status-quo.  The first step in fighting status-quo is to inspire your customers to act upon the new insight that you had used to surprise them. Paint a picture for your customer […]

Customer Engagement, Marketing, Sales

Did You Wish Happy Valentines Day to Your Customers

Valentine’s Day is a day when we don’t fail to wish and take special care of our loved one’s. So, why not spread the love to our customers, who are also special people in our lives (after all, we spend a significant amount of time with them or thinking about them). So, what could you do this Valentine’s Day for your customer: Send a hand written thank you note to the key people who have worked with you in the recent past (whether as part of a sale – won or lost, more importantly so if you lost the deal). […]

Leadership, Sales

Three Key Skills All Great Leaders Share

Everyone at some point in time of their career aspires to become a leader and hence the abundance of research and literature about leadership, different kinds of leadership styles, roles of leaders, skills and tasks of leaders and the list goes on and on. In this vast sea of leadership literature, I want to share my pearls of wisdom as well. In my opinion, every one of us need to be working on ourselves to become a good leader, like everyday. This is not only beneficial when we become a leader, but will enable you to do well in your […]

Sales

“SIMPLE” Framework for Sales Effectiveness – 3 Ways You can Use “Surprise” to Engage Your Customers

In an earlier blog post, I had introduced the “SIMPLE” framework to increase your sales effectiveness. The first step in the process is to be able to “Surprise” your customers with an insight or point-of-view that they are not yet aware of. This step is essential in improving the sales effectiveness as this enables the sales teams to initiate the process rather than wait for their customers to come to them with a requirement. There are three ways that sales teams can come up with insights that can truly surprise the customer. Some of them are as below: Network: One […]

Entrepreneurship, Strategy

Could Online Retailers Be Profitable and Grow?

Most online retailers are not profitable yet and the industry estimates are not looking good either. The online retail industry has so far been competing with each other on price and costly customer acquisition, which in combination does not auger well for profitability. The prevalent belief is that only at scale (aka, a billion dollar or more in revenue) can these retailers believe to be able to amortize their customer acquisition and marketing costs. This belief stems from the assumption that you need to pay (or offer a hefty discount) for people to shop online and to market (aka advertise) […]