Srikanth SESH

9 Characteristics of Successful Contact Centres - FOCUS

2011-06-01T07:33:00.002+05:30

Read more on my & fellow Expert contribution ---- http://www.focus.com/content/download/25917/

Birth of SmartConnect Technologies

2010-11-11T09:20:00.000+05:30

Orchestrate | Channelise | Unify

The hunger to create an enterprise, and the urge to "make a difference". The gumption to dream, and the will to make the dream come true. The ability to do, and the ability to do it well.

SmartConnect was a dream that truly started on the proverbial table napkin in a restaurant.

The spirit of enterprise, fuelled by pure adrenaline. A finger on the pulse of emerging technologies, very throbbing minute. A consuming awareness of the fact that no human endeavor is left untouched by advances in technology and an uncompromising stance on customer satisfaction.

When we first gazed over the emerging UC landscape, we couldn't help but notice a glaring hole in the way integrators provided solutions. Sure, customers could go to one consulting house for IPT, another for contact-centre, third for Web Services, others for Unified Communications et. al. But we could not see anyone out there with the skills to package it all together.

Wanting to fill that void, we decided to rewrite the rulebook and build the strengths internally through a combination of services & IP, which could turn it into a full service provider (FSP).

We saw the opportunity to bring vertical-industry solutions together by wrapping strategy with technology components to provide a fully integrated solution. Since then, we've taken this concept of being an FSP and run with it.

Your Success !!!

2010-09-12T09:04:00.000+05:30

Success - starts in your mind.
Positive Thinking creates the advantage.

Success - comes with a good mood.
Listen to your most preferred CD before an important meeting.

Success - is increased with a little attention.
Give others something - maybe a nice gesture is enough.

Success - comes when your body is healthy.
Body and soul are inseparable.

Success - comes with partnership.
Show this others by thinking for them.

Success - is also a question of your outlook.
Do not leave it up to coincidence; instead plan carefully - from head to toe.

Success - is determinant with your security.
Everyone wants to be on the side of the winner.

Success - is ruled by your target.
Set yourself realistic but always higher goals then demanded.

Success - is a question of stamina.
Stay in the court! Hang in there! (Even when things seem to drift away)

Success - is based on systematic work.
Without engagement no success.

Success - is predetermined.
Train over and over again all possible situations.

Success - is a state of your mind.
Check and - if necessary - change your old attitude towards others and situations.

Success - is also the success of others.
It is no secret how they are successful! Watch them and let them teach you.

Success - is the opposite of failure.
Delete the possibility of failure from your mind, since you are successful only.

Eight ways to get Fired (www.baselinemag.com)

2010-03-30T20:12:00.001+05:30

Doctoring your Resume – This one cost Notre Dame football coach his job
Sexual Harassment or Misconduct – Unless you are a politician, of course.
Absenteeism – Half the job is showing up, so you need to show up.
Too much personal business – The internet takes this to a whole new level.
Theft – Come on people, this one’s in the Bible.
Poor Job Performance – Jay Leno and his boss can pull this off, but not you.
Being a Jerk – The bar is pretty high for this one, for better or worse.
Insubordination – The modern, team-oriented workplace still has its hierarchies.

Profit Minded Contact Center

2010-03-14T20:37:00.004+05:30

Building an ROI Case for Customer Interaction Solutions in Financial Services.

Executive Summary

The contact center is in a state of transformation. As financial services firms increasingly focus on organic growth, contact centers, which span phone and Internet channels, are expected to drive cross-selling efforts as well as strengthen customer relationships.

But what must happen to make today’s contact centers a powerful contributor to profitable growth?

One critical factor is the recognition that inbound, customer-initiated interactions must be managed with extreme care and precision. If financial players are to provide an exceptional service experience and strengthen customer loyalty, they must be able to rapidly identify and act on customer issues. If they are to capitalize on customer-initiated interactions to drive growth, they must be able to address their customers in a personalized fashion and present offers that are highly relevant. Unfortunately, most financial firms presently lack the ability to truly personalize and contextualize interactions with their customers. They are prone to pitching irrelevant or inappropriate offers that can actually damage the customer relationship. They undermine perceptions by failing to manage customers across channels in a seamless way.

To thrive in today’s hyper-competitive markets, companies must invest in intelligent interaction platforms that are designed to provide a compelling customer experience and strengthen profitability. Truly intelligent solutions of this kind must provide a single view of the customer across channels. They must have the ability to apply real-time analytics and business rules to customer profiles drawn from historical data and contextual data captured during the customer interaction. Leading financial firms now understand the value of highly intelligent, fully integrated and profit-minded contact centers. By enabling multi-channel interaction, delivering a full-spectrum view of the customer and providing real-time guidance to agents, Customer Interaction Optimization solutions will take contact centers to the next level of performance.

Brief analysis herein, shows how contact centers can deliver differentiated customer service, build more profitable customer relationships and demonstrate the ROI on customer interaction solutions.

Market Drivers: Key Trends in Financial Services.

Several industry mega-trends are influencing the environment in which contact centers are now evolving. Among them:
1. Intensifying Competition.
2. Customer Backlash.
3. Organic Growth.

The Challenge: Irrelevant Offers and Inappropriate Interactions Undermine Relationships.

Against this backdrop, financial firms are looking to their contact centers as a force for profitable growth. As the front line connection to customers, these centers are now expected to go beyond conventional forms of customer service and capitalize on opportunities to deepen customer relationships. Considering the diminishing returns and high risk of annoyance associated with outbound telemarketing, companies are becoming particularly interested in the possibilities of inbound marketing – which is initiated by the customer’s call or visit to a Web site or even a face-to-face interaction in a retail branch.

The problem that contact center managers face is that their systems are inadequate for the growing demands being thrust upon them. They suffer from an:

1. Inability to Personalize Offers and Recommendations.
2. Inability to Manage Customers Across Channels.
3. Inability to Empower Front-Line Service Personnel.

The Opportunity: Intelligent Customer Interaction.

Profit-minded contact centers are building their foundation on Customer Interaction Optimization platforms. This represents the next generation of intelligent interaction solutions – going beyond basic analytics to provide predictions around customer behavior and drive action that maximizes business benefits. Such platforms are software-driven solutions that provide recommendations to service representatives or communicate directly to customers, drawing on continually refreshed profiles of contextual and historical customer data. Such interactions may occur in the call center, within an IVR, on a Web Site or at an ATM or retail branch. These solutions are notable for their intelligence (drawn from real-time analytics and data on historic behavior),their orientation to the individual customer and their capacity to enable channel spanning interaction. Whereas today’s call centers and Web sites are often siloed and rule-bound, the Customer Interaction Optimization approach is based on the principle that companies can most powerfully strengthen customer relationships through an integrated platform based on real-time intelligence.

Advanced Customer Interaction Optimization solutions are composed of several key elements including:
1. Real-Time, Personalized Guidance.
2. Multi-Channel Engagement.
3. Full-Spectrum Customer Insight.

For financial services firms looking for a competitive edge, such systems provide several key benefits and advantages. Among them:
1. Enhanced Cross-Selling and Upselling.
2. Stronger Retention and Loyalty.
3. Compelling Customer Experiences.

What to Look for in a Customer Interaction Optimization Solution Provider
As financial services players consider possible ways of addressing their customer-focused business challenges, they’ll need to examine the types of solution providers that can get them to the next level. Here are some of the key decision criteria that should guide an investment in a Customer Interaction Optimization solution:
1. Industry Expertise
2. Channel Neutrality
3. Analytical Depth
4. Real-Time Capabilities
5. Seamless Integration

Strategy Distraction

2010-02-28T07:09:00.003+05:30

As many of you know, we are passionate supporters of strategic planning. We believe your sales and marketing success depends on it. We believe in a well-built strategy that tightly integrates the sales and marketing process and consistently communicates a company's position (who you are, what you do, and why you) in your market. And, we believe a strategy based on the knowledge your target market is not everyone, your product/service does not do everything, and you do have competition will win every time—especially when executed flawlessly, consistently, and as planned.

And so it is with great sadness we report an epidemic—"strategy distraction." And like most epidemics it is running rampant and wreaking havoc throughout sales and marketing organizations everywhere. In fact, this epidemic can often be traced to the very top. Adam Hanft in his inc. magazine article "It's Swing Time" perhaps illustrates it best: "I've seen CEOs change strategic direction over a weekend—and not even a long holiday one—based on a single article they read, or a cocktail party comment, or because they confused the inability to execute with bad strategy."

Aside from having no strategy at all, it is this last reason (failure to execute) that we see as the most significant cause of strategy distraction. If you honestly analyze your sales and marketing effort and find a) your messaging varies from sales rep to sales rep and marketing piece to marketing piece, b) your marketing plan keeps changing with your newest idea or target market shifts, or c) executing your marketing plan only becomes a hot priority when sales are down, then it is time to cure yourself of strategy distraction:

Build a strategy of uniqueness—it must be relevant. As with everyone (including myself) everyone has built a plan and like many have had trouble completely executing it. However, if you haven't yet built your plan, there are great reference books / tips, available on successful planning. Again, the key to a strong strategy is understanding the integration points between sales and marketing, having a good understanding of your target market, product positioning, and competitive landscape, and building a marketing mix that communicates your unique value and leverages the impact of multiple vehicles.

Get REAL buy off from your team—they must believe. Real buy-off requires real input. Don't create your strategy in a vacuum. Include the sales and marketing team throughout the entire process. And, before you begin execution, present the final strategy and implementation plan to your sales and marketing teams for one last buy-off. A team that believes in the strategy (and they should, they helped create it) will by nature be more inclined to execute it as planned.

Execute the plan—you must commit. As the introduction of this tip indicates, building a strong strategy with internal buy-off from your team is important, but will only get you halfway there—execution is critical. Don't bite off more than you can chew. If the plan isn't something you have the resources to implement and stick with, scale it back to something that you can more easily commit to. Then, build a detailed project plan for implementation, detailing departmental dependencies, resource allocation, project tasks, and key deadlines on a weekly basis. And, hold each other accountable to delivering on the strategy, whether strategic or tactical.

Measure, measure, and measure—we must be accountable. Measurement of your strategy should be multi-faceted. First, did you execute what you planned to execute? After all, if you failed to nail down your positioning statement, missed a mailing, never got that article written, didn't get your email out on time, were unable to reach your target market, etc., then can you really tell if your strategy was on target? Next, assuming you did execute completely, what were the results? Create a scorecard based on the goals you set out for yourself in the planning process (i.e. # of leads, web traffic, information inquiries, proposals/bids, sales, etc.) for tracking this monthly. Of course to do this you will need to get disciplined about asking, "how did you hear about us" at every contact.

Remember this key point as you continue to analyze your results—failure to execute a strategy is very different than failure of the strategy itself.

Why Thought Leadership - Most Valuable Asset

2010-02-27T06:35:00.003+05:30

As a B2B marketer, thought leadership is one of the most valuable assets your brand — or you — can attain.

In down economies, prospects conduct even more research leading up to the purchase. This means B2B marketing professionals must help educate prospects in the early stages of the buying cycle; doing this well can help frame their buying process and establish your brand as a trusted advisor that understands their problems and knows how to solve them. Therefore it's more vital than ever for your organization to be viewed as an industry leader and trusted resource for all key stakeholders: customers, media, analysts, investors and everyone in between.

Unfortunately thought leadership is not as easily quantifiable as other demand generation metrics like revenue, sales or leads. And investing in reputation building may not produce the same short-term, immediate effects of efforts such email marketing campaigns. But cultivating thought leadership can have a significant long-term payoff, as in time it elevates your brand at scale.

What are the qualities that define thought leaders? Thought leaders:

Develop relationships with customers, prospects and others by engaging them in non-sales, industry-relevant conversations.
Become the go-to source for research, insight and interpretation of the latest news and trends.
Gain trust among prospective customers so that when the time finally comes to purchase, customers turn to the thought leader organization.

Try incorporating some of these ideas in your marketing efforts to build your organization's reputation:

Provide original research. Conduct a poll on your website, send out a survey to customers or perform a more in-depth study with the help of a third party. Whatever type of research you conduct, this information can be especially useful for media and industry analysts. And the more often your research is picked up by these sources, the more likely prospects will view you as a trusted source.

Use your company blog to provide insight. Every company is now a media company. And while networks like Twitter are all the buzz, the most flexible and ultimately valuable publishing tool remains a blog. For your blog to succeed at positioning your brand as a thought leader, you need to go beyond simply reporting and reacting. Include insightful commentary and analysis on industry trends, and start threads of original ideas. This will position you as a leader as opposed to a follower.

Be a solution for specific problems. If your finger is on the pulse of your industry, you'll understand clearly what the pain points are for prospects. Taking the time to articulate solutions to timely problems will position you as a trusted source. When you are able to solve specific problems that people in your industry are actively seeking solutions for, you'll be positioned well ahead of competitors.

Join the speaking circuit. From keynote speeches to panel discussions to breakout sessions, opportunities abound to provide insight for potential customers at industry events. Research the types of conferences, meetings and conventions that you prospects are likely to attend, and develop relationships with event organizers.

If you still aren't sold on the value of cultivating thought leadership, consider the indirect result of these measures. Done well, reputation-building efforts can:

Provide you with additional quality inbound links to your website
Increase higher-quality referral traffic
Elevate your brand to become referential

Plus, the more optimized content you produce in the form of whitepapers, blog posts and webinars, the higher your search rankings. What's not to like about that?

Rrrrrng a Bell ?!

2009-10-28T17:37:00.005+05:30

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW 7 Series advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Cartier sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, 'If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?'

Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, 'Sure, Why not?'

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his HP notebook computer, connects it to his Nokia N95 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany.

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-Tech Miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, 'You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.'

'That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,' says Bud.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the Bud says to the young man, 'Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?'

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, 'Okay, why not?' 'You're an IT Consultant', says Bud.

'Wow! That's correct,' says the yuppie, 'but how did you guess that?'

'No guessing required.' answered the cowboy. 'You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a herd of sheep. . .'

''Now give me back my dog''

Your Idea Alone has no Value !!!

2009-08-07T21:21:00.002+05:30

Contrary to popular belief, great companies are not borne from great ideas alone. We'd all love to think that if we could simply invent the next Post-It note, we could sit back and watch the cash tumble in.

But if great ideas don't spawn great companies, what does?

The short answer is: you. The longer and far more complicated answer is how you specifically position yourself and your company to execute on an idea. Anyone who overhears your idea, has the same idea at the same time, or basically plans on doing anything similar, is already on the same playing field as you are.

In order to differentiate yourself and your idea, you don’t need a patent or some proprietary method. You need a focused plan that allows you to execute above and beyond your competition every day of the week.

Think of your competition like your favorite professional sports league. There are dozens of teams which have talented players on them, but only one team that is going to perform better than everyone else. Your goal is to build that team.

Focus on Execution

There is a massive chasm between having a great idea and executing flawlessly on a business model for a great idea. Lots of people have great ideas, but very few people ever execute well on them.

Execution isn’t just about showing up for work every day and punching a clock. For the team that wins, execution is about going above and beyond the call of duty each and every day. It’s about reaching out to your customer when there are no problems just to see how they are doing.

It’s about releasing a product feature faster than your competitor even when you’re already ahead. It’s being the first car in the parking lot in the morning and the last one to leave at night. It’s doing what the guy next to you isn’t willing to do.

Service the Heck out of your Customer

Even a product that’s a total commodity, like food, can take on a whole new meaning when you compare the service that comes with it. In your city there may be a hundred places where you can order a filet mignon, but only a handful that are considered top notch.

The difference is that the top restaurants understand that in order to differentiate their product, they need to rely on better service. They pay attention to every detail of your experience, from the greeting you get at the host stand to whether you’re given a white or black napkin based on your pant color.

Exceptional service is by no means a commodity. It’s a rare and unusual thing that very few companies can deliver. Chances are your competition isn’t going to go the extra mile to service the heck out of your customer, which creates an incredibly powerful competitive advantage for you.

Find the Weak Spot

It’s not uncommon for a startup company to go toe-to-toe with a much larger company offering a very similar product. On its face, it looks like the startup is at a severe disadvantage. Surely the behemoth megacorp can provide better execution and better service with its vast resources than a scrappy little startup can.

If you were to try to compete against the behemoth on their own terms you’d get crushed. That’s why startups tend to look for the weak spots in larger companies and exploit them. You can easily differentiate your product from a larger company by focusing on stuff large companies mess up all the time.

Unlike a large company, you can offer the personal service and attention your customers love and probably are missing from your bigger competitor. You can leverage your speed by releasing new versions of your product faster and responding to market conditions more quickly. You can offer talented managers founder’s stock while a big company can only offer another bonus plan.

Every weak spot that you can exploit is another way to add value to your idea. Once you’ve identified the points, the more pressure you put on those weak spots, the more value you’ll build for your own product.

Tying it Together

Outmaneuvering your competition isn’t about doing any one of these things – it’s about doing all of them consistently. If your idea is great and novel, the only guarantee is that it will be copied. If it’s not, you have to wonder how great of an idea it really is.

When your idea does get copied, the only thing you’ll be able to rely on is your team and your execution. All of the points about going above and beyond the call of duty, servicing your customer, and exploiting the weak spots will soon be used against you.

The only defense against the next up and comer and the only way to consistently create value around your idea is to stick to fundamental execution. Nothing else has value.

Walk the Talk !!! It's your Job...

2009-08-07T21:11:00.002+05:30

It never ceases to amaze me that how little managers running businesses in service companies know about how their operation works. In service companies, less than 10% of P&L managers get out of their offices and go and take a look for themselves at what goes on at the front line and in the operation? Why so few? I suspect that part of the reason is that P&L managers do not tend to get promoted from operations or from the front line and therefore these areas are under-valued. This makes me very angry.

However if you do manage to drag a manager out of his office and make him walk the line i.e. walk the end to end process, the result is always the same – absolute horror. I have been on 100s of waste walks myself in contact-centre services companies and each time I discover at least one example of ‘process nonsense’. The level of waste is there to behold – you don’t need process expertise to see it – it slaps you in the face. Typically you see process after process; report after report, delivered the same way with absolutely no clue whether there is a problem or whether things are normal.

The tragedy is that this is the norm. Most managers or employees in service companies cannot imagine what a great process looks and feels like. No-one sees the need, never mind the opportunity, to improve. Any CRM service company would be out of business if it were run along similar lines. When I take managers on waste walks, I see the light bulb go on and the spark of a strong desire to improve. The good news is that improvement is typically inexpensive and not difficult with the appropriate vision and support from the management and help from lean experts.

A great process is a joy to observe. Reduced waste means people get more out of their jobs; visual management means that a manager can see if there is problem within 30 seconds; increased productivity means improved bottom line numbers and fewer errors and faster turnaround times mean happier customers.

Good leaders walk the line regularly to see for themselves what is happening and are proud of their processes. Great leaders walk the line and are never satisfied. Which are you?

Be Where The Puck's Going To Be

2009-05-31T18:44:00.002+05:30

The "Great One" said it best
Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, when asked how he was always on the puck before anyone else, pointed out that he was by no means the fastest skater on the ice. Instead he explained that he always just focused on skating toward where the puck was going to be. Gretzky knew that if he couldn’t be the fastest in the middle of the game, he would have to figure out how to stay ahead of the game.
Sometimes trying to keep up in the middle of the game is a wasted effort, especially if you’re not necessarily the fastest company in your market. Instead of wasting your energy trying to keep up with the big boys, think like Wayne and get your edge by moving ahead of the game.

If you can't move faster, take a shortcut
Taking a shortcut really means getting a sense for where the market will be at some point in time and heading in that direction now. It’s a lot easier to defend a space before people start fighting for it, especially if no one else realizes it's valuable yet. Taking the shorter path allows you to get in early and pick up a lot of the low hanging fruit.

Fortify your position
Chances are you're going to have a limited amount of time before the competition realizes they also need to be where you are. You need to spend this valuable time fortifying your position as best you can with your available resources.
If your business involves intellectual property that you can potentially patent, even provisional patent can be a valuable tool to ward off the competition. Additionally, you may be able to land some early customers with exclusive agreements that provide an effective barrier to entry to later participants. Keep in mind that you gain a potentially huge advantage from building early relationships in your space before your competition or your customers even know how big it could potentially be. Definitely take advantage of this.

Stay ahead of the puck, not out of the game
There is a big difference between being ahead of the puck, and being out of the game entirely. When thinking about where the market is headed, it's important to have a reasonable expectation of when the rest of the action will catch up to you. Sure, someday we'll all be flying around like George Jetson in hover cars, but before you build the next Spacely Sprockets to manufacture them, you may want to have a good guess when the future is going to show up at your doorstep.

Often when you progress ahead of the existing market you get into a position where there few (if any) customers looking to buy. To avoid this, it's helpful to pick a point ahead of the game that gives you a first-to-market advantage but still leaves you enough room to do business in the with current customers. Startup companies are often strapped for cash, so being too far ahead of the curve without any ability to generate revenue while everyone catches up can be disastrous.

Keep your eye on the game
Like a hockey game, the business world is in constant flux. It's almost certain that the path of progress will change as time goes by. This is fine as long as you continue to adapt your position to fit the path. If you ignore the changes in the existing market you may find that the "market-leading" position you created for yourself is not ahead of the game, but rather in the wrong game altogether.

Promote your early position
A nice benefit to being "first to market" in a new segment is the ability to claim that title early on. Claiming your "number one" status early on will help you build your position among customers, investors and even competitors. Even later on when the market catches up you may still be able to use your "we were the first" claim to legitimize the forward looking position of your product and your business.

Take your shot
With the right timing and some careful planning you will find yourself in the right place at the right time, with a healthy lead on your competition. This means it's no longer time to "plan for the market" but instead to execute on all of the planning you have put in place. Don’t hesitate here. Your early lead is only valuable if you use it to not only get ahead of the market, but stay ahead of the market.

Keep Moving
Some companies make their legacy from making one move ahead of the market at the right time and reaping the rewards for a lifetime. Short of making such a lucky move, you’re going to have to keep looking for new opportunities to take shortcuts and play ahead of the game. Hey, it worked for Wayne.

Hunter vs Farmer

2009-04-05T17:18:00.003+05:30

We are often asked, "Isn't the main criteria for a successful salesperson their personality?" This comes from the general feeling that to be good at sales, you either have "it" or you don't. The truth is, successful sales is not ALL about personality (experience, skills, subject matter knowledge, and process also play important roles) but it is a contributing factor.

And, when looking at personality there is more than just the "it" factor to consider. The better determination, as to whether you have the right person in a sales role, is matching the right PERSONALITY with the right ROLE.

And the analysis of this equation starts with answering the question for each sales person: Are you a Hunter or a Farmer?

The Hunter is the person who gets their sales energy off of the “hunt” for the new opportunity. They are often consultative sales people who innately find and assess an opportunity (even when there doesn’t appear to be one) within a prospect, and find a solution within your offering that meets the specific need. They are networkers. They are independent. They generate buzz and excitement. And, they are not always good at follow-through and focus.

Typical sales roles: Account Executive, Field Sales Rep, Business Development Rep/Mgr

The Farmer is the sales person who builds and cultivates relationships and opportunities, typically within existing accounts. Farmers are the sales people who turn a customer from good to great by the nature of their relationship and the loyalty they gain from their efforts. They nurture. They collaborate. They are team players. And, they are not always good at prospecting.

Typical sales roles: Account Manager/Rep, Customer Service Rep, Inside Sales Rep

When reviewing these two types of sales people, do not get lulled into thinking..."I need a team of all HUNTERS." Actually, for a company to truly succeed in sales, they need both. The reason for this is if you have a sales team full of hunters, you may acquire new customers fairly quickly, but experience high attrition in your existing business. And, if you have a team full of farmers, you may have a loyal customer base, but slower growth as new business is harder to come by. Also, if you are a smaller company, you may need one person to wear both hats (hunting AND farming), while these combinations--the Hunting Farmer or the Farming Hunter--exist, they are harder to find. Based on the priority of your specific company business development goals (customer acquisition or customer loyalty), you will want to make sure you have the right balance of BOTH Hunters and Farmers.

Value & Value-ADD

2009-04-05T16:44:00.003+05:30

As sales and marketing people, we are constantly faced with the pressure to negotiate price. This is especially true for those of you who sell, or want to sell, at the higher end of your market.

There are many schools of thought about dealing with this common sales objection/issue, but the general consensus is to steer the prospect away from the conversation of price and toward a discussion of VALUE.

But, what is value? Technically, value means "the amount of money or relative worth that is considered to be the fair equivalent for what is to be received in return." Should be easy to identify and communicate, right? Ahhh, if it were only that easy. The truth about selling value is that it sounds much easer than it is to actual do.

Why is that? The reason is two-fold:

Value is in the eye of the buyer, not the seller (what you think has value, may not have relevant value to the buyer). We see it time and time again. A company believes they have a value proposition that matters to the buyer, but in the end...its not enough. What your customer values, and what they'll pay for it, are often at odds. Don't get caught in the fallacy that what you are providing, at the cost you are providing it, will be considered "value" by your buyer. Survey your customers and define your value proposition based on what you find.

Buyers assume value is a given...what they really want is VALUE-ADD. When you look at the definition of value again, you can see that this is true. Buyers come to the table assuming that what they are going to pay for something will be a "fair equivalent" for what they will be receiving. What they are really looking for is a good value. No matter the price point, buyers want to know that what they are buying is worth more than what they are paying. As you define your value proposition, look for things you offer that add exclusive, yet relevant value, but are included in your price. Make that value-add things you a tangible part of your messaging!

So, as you begin to develop your "value pitch," remember these two very important things...your value must be RELEVANT to your buyer and it must be an exclusive (meaning only you offer it) value-ADD.

How to retain employees !!!

2008-12-13T18:53:00.003+05:30

1. Develop a ‘talent mindset’
…at all levels of the organization, that is. You need, across the organization, a deeply-held belief that having high-caliber people in the most value-creating jobs is critical to achieving the aspirations of the company. To do this you need to develop a rigorous and candid review process to identify high and low performers, outline individuals’ strengths and weaknesses, and identify specific actions to address ‘under-performers’.
2. Create extreme Employee Value Propositions (EVPs)
… that deliver on your people’s dreams. There are four keys to this mechanism for capturing more than your fair share of talent: a great company, great leaders, great jobs, and attractive compensation.
3. Build a high-performance culture
…that combines a strong performance ethic with an open and trusting environment. Company culture is a critical element of the EVP. The combination of these two elements – highly competitive and open – is most satisfying for ‘talent’ to work within.
4. Recruit talent continuously
The most aggressive companies are always on the prowl for talent. They have a keen sense of who they are looking for, and they do their looking in new ways and in new places. (Where? Click on the list of Fast Guide headlines – use the blue links on the left of this screen to call the list up’- and look for Tom Peters’ guide to where to find talent).
5. Develop people to their full potential
Every company leaves a tremendous amount of human potential untapped, because its people are inadequately developed. Effectively conceived stretch jobs coupled with informal feedback, coaching and mentoring are enormous developmental levers.
6. Be ruthless with non-talent
Act on the negative influence of under-performers. They make you unable to attract top talent, do not develop the people below them, block opportunities for those around them, undermine the morale of the group, and ultimately cause better performers to leave the company
7. Re-recruit your top performers
‘Retention’ as a concept is boring. So, think of it as ‘re-recruiting’. Beyond the EVP, companies must demonstrate that they value and appreciate their people. Simply helping high-potential people feel connected and vital to the future of the business can be a powerful retention tactic.

Selling Is...

2008-09-09T12:34:00.018+05:30

Selling is the one game in town that pays the bills, that keeps the doors open,that nobody wants to admit they do.

"I'm not in sales, I'm a supervisor,doctor, lawyer, banker, administrator, accountant.""Don't look at me, I'm just the secretary,nurse, receptionist, shipping clerk."Funny - if nobody sells . . . how do you get new students,new patients, new clients, new customers?

Selling is everyone's business and when it's not, you're in trouble...

Think about it... Remember the time you decided not to go back to a company,because the shipping clerk sent you the wrong item,the receptionist was cold & surly,the manager didn't have time to talk to a mere customer,the doctor had you wait two hours.

That's selling . . . negative selling.

Remember - everyone sells,and not just externally, but internally as well.

When you want a raise,you sell your boss on your skills & value.

When you set new policies and procedures you sell these to your staff in a way they can accept,or you'll soon find they'll ignore them . . .When you expect more of your staff than you're willingto properly train and supervise them for,you're whistling up a hollow tree,because they're only as good as the training you give them.

But there's more to selling than that.

Selling is knowing . . .Who's your competition? Who's your customer, client, patient or public? And what's important -- you or them?

Selling is knowing . . .What your service, idea, or product is - and isn't; what your public's needs are;and what services or products you offer to fit those needs.

Selling is knowing . . .When to market and where;Where your competition isn't and then being there;Why some things are accepted and others not.

Selling is knowing...How to treat your public as you would like to be treated;How to market and merchandise better than your competition;How to listen and learn from your staff as well as your public;How to assess your own knowledge, or lack of it about your services, ideas, goods or products;and how to make it easier for your public to accept what you are offering.

And finally,SELLING IS knowing that this business is after all, a profession... THE PROFESSION of selling.

Let us not pretend it's someone else's problem.

Five Great Ways to Drive Your Best Workers Out the Door

2008-08-26T13:16:00.004+05:30

– Mary K. Pratt, Computerworld
Managers' reality check: Your top workers can almost always get another job, even in a shaky economy.
"The best employees are being recruited at any given time. Managers need to make that assumption and create an environment that's going to make them want to stay," says Paul De Young, a talent management practice leader at Watson Wyatt Worldwide Inc., a global consulting firm.
Are you really doing that? Or do your management tactics have people scurrying for the exits? Before you answer, consider these cautionary tales that can help you avoid pushing your own top talent out the door.

Mistake No. 1: Keep the creative juices bottled up.
"Programmers and developers have their own views -- reasonably strong views -- on how to do things, so it's not uncommon to hear that there are clashes between them and managers," says Pradeep K. Khosla, founding director of CyLab and dean of the College of Engineering, both at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Khosla points to an acquaintance who quit his programming job because he wasn't allowed to pursue his ideas about the IT architecture he thought the company needed.
The better way: Even the most talented workers won't get their way all the time, but managers need to balance employees' creative ideas against corporate policies and programs.
"The organization has to create a culture from the top management down that gives people an opportunity to be creative," De Young says.
And though most companies can't adopt a model like Google Inc.'s, which lets engineers spend 20% of their time pursuing their own projects, De Young says many can and should allow their top staffers some time away from their normal duties to delve into projects that stretch their imaginations.

Mistake No. 2: Micromanage your staff.
It's hard to imagine the founding executives at a $1 billion company demanding that they approve all IT expenditures over $1,000, checking employees' time sheets and requiring retention agreements for workers seeking job-related training.
But Adrian M. Butler, vice president of IT-telecom and support services at Accor North America Inc. in Carrollton, Texas, knows an IT director who found himself working for those executives.
The tight management control was a clear and extreme case of micromanagement. "It led people to feel there was a lack of trust in their abilities," Butler says, noting that the IT director left his job after just two months.
"He didn't feel empowered in the role," Butler says, adding that the manager who hired the IT director also left for similar reasons.
The better way: This problem is tough because the tendency to micromanage is more a personality trait than a policy decision, says Franz Fruehwald, CIO at Catholic Human Services-Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He has also experienced that type of manager in the past.
But if you solicit honest feedback from close associates, you can recognize and curtail micromanaging behavior in yourself, he says. "I have a couple of direct reports who have the ability and permission to speak to me frankly," Fruehwald says. "I tell them, 'You need to give it to me straight.'"
Mistake No. 3: Deny new opportunities and challenges.
As a facilitator for the Regional Leadership Forum, a development program run by the Society for Information Management, Bart Bolton sees many promising IT workers. In fact, most who attend the nine-month program are sponsored by their organizations because they're considered high- potential employees.
But not all companies know how to manage such workers. Bolton remembers one senior IT manager who found that his boss wasn't willing to give him new opportunities after he completed the program.
"He wanted more challenges and more responsibility. They talked about it, and nothing happened," says Bolton, who is also a leadership consultant at Lifetime Learning in Upton, Mass.
The manager didn't stick around. Within a few months, he found a new position at another company where he felt he had more opportunities to grow.
The better way: Set realistic expectations, says Anne Marie Messier, founder of Straightline Management Solutions in Chelmsford, Mass. Tell workers why they're being sent for training and what they can expect once the training is completed. If you don't have immediate opportunities for advancement, letting enthusiastic workers know that they are on the short list for new challenges can go far in retaining them. But be sure to follow through.
Mistake No. 4: Don't listen to your employees.
As a senior systems analyst working on a team to develop clinical and business applications at a hospital, Ben Berry worked with a medical doctor to determine business requirements for the entire institution.
Although he and the doctor shared responsibility for the task, Berry remembers that the doctor didn't want to hear anyone else's ideas. "He didn't take input from the team. He was trying to drive all the decisions. It was undermining the team, and I personally felt underutilized," says Berry, who is now CIO for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Berry discussed the situation with his supervisor and the doctor directly. But nothing changed, so he left for a better position.
The better way: Use all the talent around you. "We hire people that we believe can do the job," Berry says. "If we don't allow them to use all the tools in their toolbox, or we try to pigeonhole people into doing it the way we've always done it, then we're doing a disservice to the individual, the team and the organization."
Open-door policies and consensus-building allow all staffers to contribute and voice their opinions, he says.

Mistake No. 5: Change the work environment without considering the impact on employees.
When a national retailing company outsourced its IT operations and most of its business analysts, it learned how the talented workers who are left behind typically react: They bolt.
Tried-and-true tactics
When CIOs reported on their most effective tools for IT staff retention, these were among those most often cited:
Increased compensation ------------------------27%
Professional development/training--------------21%
Flexible schedule options------------------------18%
Telecommuting----------------------------------- 7%
Extra time off------------------------------------- 6%

Base: April 2008 survey of more than 1,400 CIOs at U.S. companies with 100 or more employees

Source: Robert Half Technology
Bob Rouse, a professor of computer science and IT planning officer at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, knows the story. The outsourcing reduced the company drastically -- from about 2,500 IT employees to 1,000, he says. The remaining employees handled more work and different work than they had been doing. Moreover, many of the best employees had gone to the outsourcer, and because the surviving top-notch workers found themselves working with a weaker internal team, they had to pick up even more of the slack.
As a result, the company lost 10% of its top people within a year. "These were very marketable people who would never have considered leaving the company if it hadn't been [for the] outsourcing," Rouse says.

The better way: Keep the people in the business equation. Companies often focus on business objectives and financial goals when making tactical moves and forget that "there are human beings left behind," says Bob Eubank, executive director of the Northeast Human Resources Association in Wellesley, Mass.

Your say
Ever been pushed out the door by an inept manager?
To avoid an exodus of top performers after a change, executives and managers should tell workers about impending events as early as possible, Eubank says. Managers should be particularly attentive to their best workers, letting them know about postchange opportunities. If employees see opportunities down the road, he adds, "people are often willing to sacrifice."

Ten Commandments for Making Profitable Growth Happen

2008-08-05T16:04:00.004+05:30

Inspired by Ram Charan's Profitable Growth is Everyone's Business , which is a growth bible for any aspiring sales guy, I started carving the ten commandments for making profitable growth happen !

#1 Customer is the Source of Livelihood: Does everyone realize that the customer is paying for your salary, which is paying for everything you are worth ( other then those lucky souls, who had rich inheritances). For the rest of the guys, you don't have a choice but serve the customer for what they are worth.

#2 Growth is Everyone's Business: Starting from Sales team to Collection team (oops, hope you don't have to add the Legal team) ! Yes, I believe all customer touch points (will be damned if your organization is paying someone for doing nothing for your customers!) should be made to realise about point # 1. I am quite sure I will start rethinking if my cellphone company's telephone operator ( or receptionist) forgot that ! End to End is the word.

#3.Sales must learn how to Add : 1+1 = 3 , must have the sales team on numbers and the entire company , I repeat the entire company must be there to support them , like there is no end. After all Sales will make numbers, only if they fulfill and sustain their commitments. I hope you understood what I meant here. Quarters are important , but more so the years!

# 4 Customer's Don't Buy on Price, alone : If this would have been true, then there would have been no business but only charity. Need I say more? But the “alone” is important.

# 5 Measure and Reward on Business KPI's : Most organizations fail to achieve their potential because they failed to either measure or reward their teams on Business KPI's. As simple as this two words, Business KPI's mean each employee's KPI must be measured on it's relevance and contribution to the business. No more award money going to the also rans! Winner Takes It All.

#6 Focus on Proactive Marketing : As Ram Charan , says Upstream Marketing is all about analyising the customers for their usage of the products and services and what competitive leverage they are getting by their usage and what competitive advantages will be required to win the customers and at what price points. Marketing will be useless function without this.

# 7 Repeat Business is Good Business : You must make your customers more difficult to churn, atleast more difficult then your competitors! Cross sell, leverage sell, incremental business adds up. Do your maths , and you will realize the cost of selling and the value of repeat business.

# 8 Create a Growth Ecosystem in your Organization: If you must, change the DNA of your organization, for Growth's sake ! Must ensure there is away of thinking and acting in our day to day operations that sets up both day to day actions and long term agenda.

#9 Build Harvesting systems for Innovation from Employee's : Innovate and Change for heaven's sake. Innovation is not for the genius sitting on the 'strategy' chair, as the soil is changing right under his shoes. Allow all individuals to air their innovative ideas, setup internal process to commercialise the ideas and bring them to profitable differentiators for your organization in the market!

#10 Compensate Generously and you'll never Regret : As Jack Welch said: “If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you almost don't have to manage them"

9 Lessons from Google

2008-08-05T15:57:00.004+05:30

Jim Lecinski, Managing Director for Google, broke down his company’s innovation strategy into nine notions. Each notion contains an important lesson that all professionals can learn from.

Innovation, not instant perfection. Google believes in launching new products and ideas early and often, rather than trying to perfect those ideas behind closed doors before releasing them to the public. Then, customer feedback and popularity prove which projects are most successful.

Share everything you can. Small teams that communicate openly have proved the best results for Google. They believe in transparency in the workplace so that everyone knows what everyone else is working on. (Scary, right?) They have a computer program where employees can look up names and see what others are working on, so if they have an idea to contribute they know who to talk to.

You’re brilliant, we’re hiring. When Google interviews employees, Lecinski said they set the bar very high. They focus more on hiring generalists rather than specialists, as they have found generalists are more valuable and can contribute ideas to different parts of the company.

Allow employees to pursue their dreams. Lecinski said Google allows its employees’ time in a 70/20/10 model. Seventy percent of the time they work on Google’s search and ad flagships; they develop new programs like Images, Desktop and Finance 20 percent of the time; and 10 percent of the time employees are allowed to pursue their own high risk/high reward projects. Lecinski said Google Earth is a result of one of those projects.

Ideas come from everywhere. Sometimes Google turns to the public for new ideas. The Google mastheads, which are customized for holidays and events, are taken from non-employee submissions. One of the mastheads was designed by a 12-year-old girl.

Don’t politic – use data. With all the ideas floating around Google, the best way to determine which may work is to use supportive data. As Lecinski said, “Data beats opinion.”

Creativity loves restraint. Again, Google has to have some way to keep all of the employee-generated ideas streamlined towards the company’s goals. “Let people explore, but set clear boundaries for that exploration,” Lecinski said. Get users and usage – the money will follow. This goes back to one of Lecinski’s larger points, “respect for end users,” but is a principle to follow in any form of business. He says to focus on creating things that are innovative and useful for people, not something you can sell.

Don’t kill projects, morph them. Google doesn’t waste ideas. Instead, they try to change and transform them into something the company finds useful.

Is your StartUP idea ready to VENTURE!!!

2008-06-15T16:45:00.008+05:30

After you listen to about a hundred startup company pitches you start to notice that they all sink or swim on just a few basic points. Given enough time, you don’t even need to know what the product is. Instead you just start asking whether or not the entrepreneur has the right answer to a handful of questions that validate just about any startup idea.

This isn’t about having a sixth sense about the success or failure of a potential business idea. No one has that, not even the investors sitting across from you pretending like they do. This is about boiling your startup idea down to the few principles that make all the difference in the world. So here they are, in order of importance.

The Problem / Solution Issue

Every great business idea comes down to a solution to a problem. As entrepreneurial visionaries, we sometimes get enamored with our solution at the expense of having a real problem to solve. If you’ve ever wondered what a solution looks like without a problem, just take a look at anything being sold in a Sharper Image catalogue.

The value of a good product idea is proportionate to the size of the problem it solves. For example, if I tell you I have the cure to cancer I don’t even have to tell you what the product is. You inherently know what a massive problem cancer is, so certainly any solution I have must be somewhat interesting.

When you can communicate the severity of the problem to investors, and they nod their head and say “yeah, that’s a huge problem, I get it” then you’ve got an interesting business idea.
When you can communicate that same problem and back up it up with a solution that consumers respond to with “here’s my check” then you’ve actually got a business!

The Sales and Marketing Strategy

Although you may have the solution/problem thing licked, it means nothing without knowing how to bring a customer in the door. Anyone telling you that a product will sell itself should try walking into a grocery store after it’s closed. I guarantee when you don’t bring people through the door, the products don’t sell themselves!

That’s why a powerful sales and marketing plan can be even more critical to your business than an initial revenue model. Don’t get me wrong, you can’t sustain your business forever without revenue. But I’m 100% sure that without any customers you’ll never have to worry about your revenue model.

You don’t have to have a ten year plan for every type of media you will buy and sales pitch you will perform. You just need to have a basic explanation for how you can cost effectively find customers over the next year or two. Your plan might stink, but not having one is a huge red flag.

Revenue Model

There are many conflicting schools of thought on what it means to have a revenue model for your business. Some people will say that with enough customers you can eventually make the numbers work. Others will say that if you grow quickly enough you can get acquired long before you ever have to worry about making money.

Both schools are rarely right, and the exceptions only prove that there are exceptions. “We’re going to sell to Google” isn’t a revenue model any more than “I’m going to win the Powerball Lottery” is a full-time career move.

Your revenue model should be simple – someone is willing to pay for what you offer. Whether they pay for it indirectly through advertising or directly through a purchase, there has to be a sustainable and readily identifiable revenue model.

More importantly, it has to be a profit model. I can sell dollar bills for 99 cents and generate tons of revenue, but will certainly guarantee that the company will go bankrupt. The only companies allowed to exist without a profit model are charities and major airlines.

If you Figure all that out, Let’s Take a Look at the Product

The last order of business, which may sound bizarre, is the Product Plan itself. That’s because if the product doesn’t solve a customer’s problem that you can make money on, it just doesn’t matter what the product is.
In many cases you can test the market for your product against the three previous points by simply doing some basic research. Long before you actually build a product, you can ask customers if they’d buy it. You can start to figure out how difficult and costly it might be to acquire more of them. You can also get a sense for what you could sell your product for and get a basic understanding of whether you could do it profitably.

When you’ve got answers to all of these questions, then, and only then, it’s time to go build a company. Until, then, keeping asking questions.

LEAD QUALIFICATION ... Getting to NO!!!

2008-06-05T09:40:00.005+05:30

Lead Quality. This is the crux of most sales and marketing disputes, isn't it? And, it is no wonder. Lead quality is possibly the most important element to sales success. Because, no matter how great your product, or sales skill, or tools, if the lead itself is not a good quality lead, you have NOTHING.

Lead qualification is harder than it seems, which is quite possibly why it is so often skipped in the sales process. The problem with that of course is ....better lead quality directly relates to higher close ratios.

So what is the trick to identifying quality leads? Getting to NO, is just as important as getting to YES.

Many times sales and marketing team avoids questions that may lead to a "no" because they don't want to hear it and they feel they can persuade their prospect to a "yes" as long as they don't ask the question.
This almost never works.

What happens instead is we don't find out about the "no" answer until we've invested a lot...too much...time on the alleged opportunity. It is always better to know the answer is "no" earlier than later. This gives you the ability to determine one of two approaches 1) move on to more active quality leads and 2) uncover the true objection causing the no and face it (again, earlier than later).

Never be afraid to get a "no" from a lead. In fact, ask for it. Develop a lead qualification process (checklist/questions) that deliberately leads you to determining when "no" is not just a "no" for your lead...but a "no" for you too. THAT is when you know your lead qualification process is going to really work for you.

SALES NEGOTIATION: Always negotiate, but never out of fear.

2008-06-05T09:27:00.006+05:30

"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." - John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American president

Negotiation skills are the cornerstone of a good sales person. And yet, many sales people struggle with the negotiation when the time comes. Some negotiate poorly...and others not at all. Why is that ?

Primarily fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of losing the sale. Fear of failure. And, by definition, fear=a lack of confidence. And to be a successful negotiator, you must have confidence.

Here's what it takes to build the confidence to successfully negotiate:

Believe in your product. You must believe in your product and the benefits it can bring. If you don't have a strong belief in what your product can do, you start off at a distinct disadvantage. Passion is infectious. If you believe that strongly in your product, your prospect will too. It is a rare person who can negotiate a deal successfully, without a strong belief in the product they sell.
Consider who has the power. The seller or the buyer? This comes down to understanding who needs the sale to come through more...you or them. This ultimately comes down to fully understanding the need of your customer and the value you bring. A lot of people talk about "value proposition," but it is important that you not only think you have one, but that you really DO...and that it aligns with the customer's need. To be sure you understand the customer's need, ask open-ended questions...and then SHUT UP and listen.
Know the bottom line. Too often, a salesperson enters negotiation without really knowing where their "line in the sand" is. A good negotiator knows their bottom line, before they enter negotiations. Having that understanding early on instills confidence throughout the entire process. You "have to know when to walk away" and be willing to do it.
Approach negotiations as an act of trade offs. A well negotiated deal is one where the sales person makes trade-offs, not concessions. Having the attitude, that the deal must be a win-win for everyone will lead a sales person to a better result. Approach the negotiation with "if we do this, you will do that" type questions. Negotiation isn't easy...but it can be satisfying. Remember...it comes down to confidence. Always negotiate...but never out of fear!

Staying on TOP OF MIND (Without Being A Pain In The Neck)

2008-01-03T16:22:00.001+05:30

Five Guidelines For Keeping Top of Mind

1. Assess the Potential: Staying top of mind takes time--something we all seem to have too little of. Before you launch into a six times or more per year contact plan, make sure you want to keep in touch. Ask yourself, "How much work will this client potentially have over the next 12 months? Over the next 2 years? Is it worth my time to make sure we are the first ones they think of for new assignments?"As much as we can grow to like our clients on a personal level, not all are worth a continuing business relationship. In addition, freeing ourselves from those with limited potential provides us with the time needed to focus our efforts on those with the greatest potential.

2. Provide Value: The fear of bothering or annoying their clients keeps many service providers from contacting them. In some cases, that may actually be the truth, especially if your conversations consist of you asking, "So, what have you got for me this week?" If, in each contact you make with your clients, you provide some sort of value they will look forward to hearing from you and ultimately remember you by the extra value you provide.You can provide value in the form of new information about trends in their industry, an article you thought would be of interest to them, or simply a perspective on a recent news item about the client's company. Depending upon how well you have connected with this client, simply calling or taking them to lunch can be of value. (But don't rely on your own good company as the value proposition every time.)

3. Expand Their Knowledge Of You: If you only call your clients once a year, do not be surprised when a client says, "I didn't know you did that, too." It is okay to let clients know about new services or other services you provide that they may not have sampled. If they are happy clients, they will certainly be open to hearing about the other work you do.They will be even more receptive to hearing about your services if you provide value in the telling--case studies, non-proprietary data from the work, similarities of problems and solutions, etc.

4. Change The Communication Texture: We all like variety in our lives. Do not let your communication plan get stuck in the world of electronics. Letters, especially because they are so rare these days, stand out and get through. Hand-written cards, newsletters, brochures, and phone calls all provide a different feel and impression to your clients.By mixing up the vehicles, you stand a better chance of your clients actually seeing and reading what you have sent. In addition, old-fashioned hard copy materials will stay on the client's desk and become more than just top of mind, but maybe even closest at hand.

5. Build The Relationship: In the end, professional services are all about relationships. True relationships are honest, sincere, and of value to both parties. As you work to stay top of mind, also be true of heart in developing a relationship that is meaningful and desired by the client as much as it is desired by you.

The client relationship built on a strong foundation of constant, varied, and sincere communication has less of a chance of being pushed aside when someone new comes along or happens to be the last one in the door. Follow these five guidelines and the chances of your phone ringing the next time your client needs a service will be much greater.

Where the Mind is Without Fear

2007-12-02T23:22:00.001+05:30

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection:
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is lead forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

--Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.

IF - By Rudyard Kipling

2007-12-02T23:18:00.000+05:30

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

Top Five Marketing Mistakes.. And How to Recover !!!

2007-11-22T07:57:00.001+05:30

When marketing efforts are not successful, many companies wonder why… They sent out direct mail, or refreshed their website, initiated Google Adwords, or attended a trade show, but are left disappointed and frustrated with languishing sales and underused resources. Why isn’t the phone ringing? What went wrong?

The high level answer to this question is that marketing efforts must be more than a disconnected series of tasks. Effective marketing is not a single activity, but a well choreographed effort that takes planning, consistency, and fortitude to accomplish. The deeper answer comes from analyzing the top five biggest marketing mistakes we've seen companies make. Are you making one or more of these? If so, consider our tips on how to recover:

#1: MARKETING WITHOUT A STRATEGY IN PLACE
Common Mistake: Believing your product does everything, your target market is anyone who has money to spend, and /or you don’t have competition.
Because companies are frustrated by a lack of revenue, they often equate limiting their target market with limiting opportunity. The fact is, for marketing efforts to succeed, you must define a target market segment where your product has the most relevance and the best competitive advantage! Most of us can simply not afford to market everything to anyone with the delusion we are the only option for our customers to consider.
Recovery Plan: You need a strategy—and fast. Stop all marketing activities immediately and take the next three to six weeks to plan your new approach. Build a brief overview description of each product and service you offer, including features and benefits—concentrating on the differentiating features only. Research your competition and document their offer, pricing structure, strengths and weaknesses, along with your competitive advantage. Once you identify your key advantage over the competition, play it up consistently in every marketing vehicle you produce. Recognize you can’t afford to market to everyone and define your target markets by grouping and categorizing the characteristics of your current customer base. Then choose marketing vehicles that only cater to that defined group of potential buyers. Finally, create a calendar of events and associated budget that will act as your roadmap to success!
Watch your sales begin to climb! But don’t congratulate yourself yet; effective marketing takes patience and persistence. Your journey is just beginning!

#2: BEING INCONSISTENT WITH YOUR BRAND.
Common Mistake: Changing your company’s positioning depending on the audience, marketing vehicle used, or person delivering it.
Although some companies have actually gone through the steps of clearly outlining their company’s positioning language, we find that many individuals within that company still have their own version. And this “customized” statement can change depending on who is receiving the information. The result? A confused audience—unsure of who you are and what your company does—that is unable to convey your offering to anyone else. Brand awareness is only built by CONSISTENTLY communicating your company’s position and identity each and every time, so that eventually your “listeners” will repeat your positioning exactly as you intend them to repeat it.
Recovery Plan: You need positioning language that clearly defines who you are and what you offer, strongly differientiates you from competition, and can be delivered consistently by every employee. Host a brainstorming session with key team-members and craft a statement that everyone agrees upon, understands, and supports. The positioning statement must include who you are, what you offer, for whom, for what result, and why someone should choose you over anyone else. Launch it internally, and define its use and how employees will support it. Then do a full audit of your materials and fix any inconsistencies. Gaining buy-off at the executive level will ensure success from the top down.
Remember all employees must work together as ambassadors of the brand. Understanding this concept before you spend money on marketing activities is imperative to your success!

#3: NOT INTEGRATING MARKETING WITH SALES EFFORTS.
Common Mistake: Developing marketing programs or materials that fizzle out in the sales process and never get used by the sales team.
Often marketing teams spend a considerable amount of time, effort, and perhaps most importantly money to create a collateral kit and sales presentation for a new program or product offering. The sales team rejects the materials because they don’t address the most compelling selling points and produces their own one-off presentations and brochures that send mixed messages to prospects and customers. To further illustrate the point, many times a marketing team will launch a new direct mail program to “generate sales leads” for the sales team, only to find that sales doesn’t follow up on them because they don’t feel the leads are “qualified.”
Not having a clear integration between sales and marketing can only result in failed marketing programs, costing you lost revenue opportunities and wasted expenses.
Recovery Plan: Ask your sales team to participate in marketing planning. Implement a sales advisory committee that is run by marketing and includes both sales management and representatives to participate and provide feedback on proposed marketing programs and deliverables. Also, schedule quarterly customer visits for marketing and sales to call on a variety of current clients together. These visits provide more insight into the customer’s perspective and the sales person’s challenges than any other technique. Bring the lessons learned back to the advisory committee to shape more relevant marketing tools.
Without uniting sales and marketing efforts, your strategies are only realizing one-half of the equation. Integrate now to gain the buy-in and support necessary to generate sales!

#4: MARKETING SOMETHING YOU DON'T ACTUALLY DELIVER.
Common Mistake: Aggressively marketing a skill set, technology, product, or service that has not been tested or validated, or is simply not available yet…the “we could offer that syndrome.”
Your marketing team has created eye-catching materials, compelling positioning, and an aggressive campaign for the launch of a new company product or service. The campaign is very successful, however operations cannot handle the demands. They are either under-staffed, or worse—they do not have the skill sets or ability to deliver on the new program. Or maybe, the product itself is not available in time, or has production problems. This not only upsets your customers, it demoralizes your sales and marketing team. They stop selling and the pipeline dries up.
Recovery Plan: Ask company leadership to immediately realign the efforts of marketing and operations. Perform a gap analysis and assess what needs to happen to fulfill the new business demands, from both marketing and operational perspectives. Then create a plan and detail the specific steps required for each team to support existing sales as well as successfully roll out the offering to new customers. Identify milestones for each group to report on and demonstrate progress. This not only builds confidence within each team, but also fosters a sense of pride across the organization.
You must raise your game to meet the new demand. It is a good problem to have, but take care of it quickly as you won’t be given another opportunity to prove yourself.

#5: NOT USING THE MARKETING MIX EFFECTIVELY.
Common Mistake: Fixating on only one marketing vehicle to promote a company and/or its products.
Many marketing plans we see only focus on one activity like direct mail, advertising, public relations, or cold calling, and do not use several or all of these vehicles together in concert. Putting your eggs in only one basket may generate some leads for your company, but this strategy will ultimately limit your ability to maximize sales opportunities within a target market. Your customers need to see and learn about your company through a few different vehicles before they will be finally prompted to respond to your offer.
Recovery Plan: Your goal should be to touch your prospects from the many angles they conduct business. Choose the activities that cater specifically to your target market, and then create a program schedule that ensures the right level of coverage across the multiple channels, increasing activities around key product launches or to address seasonality issues. Then be patient and let them work. It takes time, but rest assured, the variety of vehicles, working in concert, will build awareness and generate leads at an exponentially higher rate than any one vehicle alone can accomplish.

Lee Iacocca’s 9 C's of Leadership

2007-08-31T10:53:00.001+05:30

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

1. A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care.

2. A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. Leadership is all about managing change -- whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt.

3. A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth.

4. A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power."

5. A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.

6. To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION -- a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done.

7. A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma.

8. A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing.

9. You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. THE BIGGEST C IS CRISIS. Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis.

5 Sales Call Myths

2007-07-26T08:57:00.003+05:30

Customer calls - whether in-person, on-phone, or online - are the heart and soul of B2B sales. So it's surprising that misconceptions about sales calls abound, even among sales pros who ought to know better. Here are the most common myths and how they torpedo sales success:

MYTH #1. A Sales Call is a Social Call. Some sales pros try to keep conversation at a superficial level as long as possible in the mistaken belief that chatting will build a good relationship with the customer. Wrong. Too much emphasis on the social makes you seem like a pop-in visitor rather than a professional whose time is valuable. That, in turn, makes it all the more more difficult to build trust, credibility and rapport.

MYTH #2. A Sales Call is a Therapy Session. This myth comes out of all the "consultative" sales theory that's batted around. It's one thing to ask questions to try to figure out what the customer might need, but it's a mistake to become so obsessed with questioning that your become passive and unengaged. In this case, the customer is likely to run on and on, providing irrelevant data that results in a content free sales calls where the sales rep never contributes any substance, thus losing credibility.

MYTH #3. A Sales Call is a Third Degree. This is the flip side of Myth #2. Some sales reps become so aggressive in their quest to uncover information about customer needs that they come off like a detective interrogating a suspect. Not surprisingly, the customer quickly feels annoyed and pressured, with a consequent loss of trust and rapport, while credibility goes immediately out the window, never to be recovered.

MYTH #4. A Sales Call is a Lecture. Many sales pros have a canned PowerPoint presentation that they're determined to show the customer, no matter what. The presentation is full of product details, solution detail, case studies, diagrams, and so forth, most of which has only the vaguest relationship to actual customer needs. Canned presentations communicate one message: "All the stuff you told me is interesting, but here's what I want to talk about, regardless of what you think you need."

MYTH #5. A Sales Call is an Arm-twist Session. Sales pros that are overly goal-oriented often push a solution long past the point that a customer feels railroaded. Even "consultative" techniques can seem harsh and awkward in the hands of the goal-obsessed. If the sales pro is focused exclusively on making the sale, the customer will realizes that the point of the questioning is simply to manipulate the customer's answers inexorably towards a close.

I've told you what sales calls aren't, so I suppose I should tell you what they are. A sales call is part of the process of building a long-term collaborative customer relationships. The goal is to set up a situation where the customer actively brings up business and opportunities and asks for your help. This kind of relationship only takes place when the sales pro can develop a strong feeling of trust, credibility and rapport with the customer. And that's only possible through conversations that have substance and balance.

Research has repeatedly shown that it is eight times easier to earn new business from existing customers than from new prospects. As a result, sales pros who understand how integrate a sales call into an overall relationship-building process are in high demand, because the end result is that the sales pro's firm becomes the customers' preferred provider. By contrast, sales pros who make the mythic sales call mistakes are dime-a-dozen.

Six Be's of Listening

2007-07-04T12:35:00.001+05:30

#1: Be Smarter- JUST Listen: No 1 rule. If you listen to what the prospect or customer is saying, you will become smarter - and they will like you better. They will tell you what type of business opportunity they are looking for or what products they are interested in. You'll learn their needs, wants and interests. If you spend all the time talking and making a canned sales pitch, you'll never find out this information.If you instead take the time to learn about them, you can adjust your sales message to meet their specific needs. You will also have started the important bonding process by which people decide to connect themselves to other people. No one has ever entered a relationship - business or personal - with someone they didn't like and respect. By giving the prospect time to talk, you are showing respect and a personal interest in them.

#2. Be Patient - Let others finish:Don't you hate it when you get interrupted? Downline prospects and customers hate it too, and they don't even know you. They will assume you are not interested in what they have to say - and that you are rude to boot. Be patient, and let customers finish what they are saying. In most cases they will be very appreciative that you have heard them out. They will then be more patient to listen to YOU when you are offering your information.

#3. Be Interested - Don't talk for talk's sakeBe genuinely interested in what the prospect and customer is saying. Don't fake it. If you show genuine interest through your questions and answers, the customer will know it and respond positively to your message. If you are talking to impress the listener with YOUR knowledge, but not interested in what THEY have to say, you will lose them.

#4. Be Ready - Formulate insights/responsesKnow how easy it is to let your focus drift when someone is talking to you, particularly if they drone on and on?? Practice your listening focus. Use the time you are listening to the prospect to get insights into the prospects needs, wants and personal circumstances. Be ready when it is YOUR turn to talk. Be ready with the intelligent responses you formulated while you were listening.

#5. Be Effective - Reiterate / ClarifyIt's easy to misunderstand what a customer/prospect may be saying particularly when it's over the phone and you have no body language or eye contact to help you out. When it's your time to talk, make sure to reiterate and clarify what THEY have said and what you have jointly discussed.

#6. Be Proactive - Set a next stepGaining a new distributor or a new customer rarely happens in just one call. Listen carefully for what the prospect needs to move to the next step. More information, a product sample, references?? Once you've identified what it is, don't end the conversation without setting a specific follow up appointment to provide them with what they want.

The next time you are speaking with a prospect or potential customer, keep the "6 BE's of Listening in mind."

Leadership vs Leadershift

2007-07-04T12:01:00.001+05:30

What is the difference in the two words? This is not a trick question. It is the "P" and the "FT". In Leadership, it is central to a person the leader. In Leadershift, the focus is on finishing together. In other words, we want to shift the leaders vision to the entire organization. This is exactly the goal of High Performance!

A High Performance organization achieves outstanding results by making each person a contributing partner in the business. In other words, employees understand the business and are committed to getting results. People are organized into self-managing business units and teams that take responsibility for decisions, problems and continuous improvement.
The High Performance Model pushes taking responsibility down the chain of command. It empowers employees on all levels to make decisions. It enables leaders to do less managing and more leading! Managers become mentors, coaches, and leaders and emphasis is on soft skills as opposed to technical skills. Some teams even evolve to become self-sufficient; still accountable but not managed daily. In a High Performance team, a non-compliant member will be hammered out by team members quicker than management could ever do. This only happens because they take pride and ownership of their results.
A High Performance leader has one primary goal; to earn the hearts and minds of their people. A High Performance leader performs from a different paradigm. They share their vision thoroughly. Everyone in the organization understands the companys mission and goals. A consistent trait gained from the High Performance Model is a very high level of trust in the organization.
High Performance demands more, not less, of individuals in the organization. It raises the bar for employees and their leaders. You can create an organization founded on the vision of an ideal and create conditions which encourage others to rise above mediocrity and perform at their best. It will impact your business across the board at every bottom-line measure!

Managed Services - Applications

2007-06-30T09:30:00.000+05:30

The growing trend in cost-reduction, offshoring combined with trusted & secured networks, have opened up a new opportunity for companies to explore managed-services based application deployment. This trend has opened up the possibility for both large & SME organization to explore deployment of strategic IT assets thru a pay-by-use (or) rental model than investing huge CAPEX, which used to be the traditional working model.

iSmart Panache is in the process of creating a unified environ, which will provide an array of products to enterprises, to enable them in managing their entire gamut of operations from call-centre, case-management, ERP, SCM & other operations. This operations allow end-user organizations to choose a range of services to be provided as pay-by-use structure, either in-premise or out-hosted.

Enterprises looking to invest in technology, should explore these strategic mechanism before venturing a long-way into investing in huge CAPEX.

Keen to discuss with like-minded professionals/strategic partners to explore areas where we could synergies & revolutionise the way IT is deployed for enterprises.