Actors on the sales teams in India

Whenever you want to pump up your sales team, take them to the nearest multiplex to enjoy a hindi potboiler. Hindi cinema has predictable storyline comprising a hero, heroine and the ubiquitous villain. You would wonder how it would help in improving the target achievement. Well let me explain the relationship. The sales guy (hero) has to constantly fight with the villain (competition) to wrest the heroine, which is the sales target. And the story is complete with few songs & dances. Therefore lots of rehersal would be required before the actors face the audience. So training sales team can not be a one time activity it must be an ongoing process.

India is a land of SMEs and these businesses face unique challenges, particularly in organizing the sales & marketing function. Many a SMEs that have regional & national sales organizations are still straddled with teams that were relevant 20 years ago.  Sales teams are full of people who have no business education and have never been trained on the job. Such teams function in a bureaucratic manner and lack creativity essential for real success in the market.

Few years ago I was hired by an established SME to rejuvenate & reengineer their sales team. The said company has been led by an amiable technocrat engaged in manufacturing of capital equipment for high speed packaging machines catering to the need of business organizations. The machines they made were quite complex and were generally sourced from abroad. Therefore there was a ready market of export substitution at an Indian cost to the entrepreneurs.  But their sales team having national presence had become an obstacle in achieving higher sales numbers as they were the only people that were in close contact with the customers. Another company manufacturing bath fittings had virtual no control over their major market as the person incharge of the territory told the company to route all communications through him exclusively.

Several SMEs are in awe of the power & hold of their sales people on the market. The company is held hostage to the ways of the existing team that controls the top line. There is need to create & train the sales teams to face the challenges of the contemporary market scenario in India. SMEs need to audit their sales team periodically and organize them based on their objectives such as nature of the competition, product handled, type of market and demand structure in the market. The top management must keep two paces ahead of their sales force to get the desired results.

Always New Products-Good for the Environment

Cutomers always want to have new prodcuts as against the old but they do not want to go through the buy, discard and replace cycle all by themselves. It is the job of marketing professionals and the manufactureres to fulfill the desires of the market. So waht are you doing to achive it?

The durable industry has to constantly churn out new upgraded versions of thier offers to remain competitive in the market. This is leading to huge mountains of hazardous waste and also depresses the replacement demand. With economic slowdown markets have undergone profound changes and it is going to be entirely new place with new set of rules for success.

Although new capacities are being added the form of emerging economies of BRIC countries but still the way
people buy & consume products nd services would never be same as it were in pre-meltdown era. There are many ways to do it.

Toyota can market its flagship Corolla brand as a Always New Car. Or a TATA  motors can market its Indica on the simillar platform. Nokia. Motorolla, Apple, Sony must consider such marketing so as to delight the consumers and remain socially responsible too. How to do it is not very complex just contact me.

A jingle for Sh. Ram Krishan

Nadwai mein Bhagwan hai!

1. Ram bhi aur Krishan bhi

Nadwai mein bhagwan hain

Hum sare uski santan

Nadwai mein bhagwan hain

2. Ram hamara Krishan hamara

Who apni pahchan hai

Bhai bhai hum sare hain

Nadwai mein bhagwan hain

3. Seedhay sahdhy hum log yahan

koi chotta barha nahin

magar na humse tum takrana

Nadwai mein bhagwan hain

4. Apni behno aur bachon ko

Ijjat aur piar miley

Gandi baten door rakho tum

Nadwai mein bhagwan hain

5. Bina bajurgon ke kia karna

Unke agay sir hai jhukana

Yahi hamari maryada hain

Nadwai mein bhagwan hain

IPL is not India Pakistan league

Some say that cricket in India is a religion, well that's almost true. Like religion depends on faith as compared to demonstrable scientific phenomenon so is the Indian cricket. There are several arguments about the popularity of cricket in India despite several other team sports available and played by millions of Indians. Cricket is like a long film which gives us an opportunity to spend our time without much exercise of the brain or limbs. It suits our temperament. Other games have speed, continuous action, involvement and rush of adrenalin therefore cricket is better, it is some work, some leisure and takes lots of our time. Did you ever wonder why we have 3 hour films, even without a clear story line? That's cricket!

The commotion created by exclusion of Pakistani players from IPL has shown how similar the two countries are in our behavior. Pakistani establishment is livid about denial of earnings to their cricketers as if they had a share in that. The IPL guys were doing a right thing as per their thinking by avoiding Pakistani cricketers they could save the league. The IPL management knows that large section of Indian society and their political crusader parties prefer not to have any relations with Muslim Pakistan as it suits their vote bank therefore inclusion of Pakistani players would have given those guys an opportunity to target the league and damage it.

If Pakistan believes that they are helpless in curbing terrorist activity from its soil how can Pakistan government assume that Indian government is capable of handling such elements within India? Don't they know that in the past pitches have been dug in India? So the IPL guys are just protecting their commercial interests, not playing any politics. The financial loss of Pakistani players is just another example of what terrorism can do to the world.

I have close affinity with Pakistani people because they look, eat, talk & feel like me and we both have developing economies. Let us all wait for a time when our countries become more civilized members of the world community and focus our energies of bringing happiness to our families by stopping all kinds of violence and leave the war to our military establishment only.

Why there is no IIM or IIT in private sector?

Privatization of higher education in India has not achieved the same results as we see in school education sector. The private schools have created a great redoubtable reputation over the state schools but in the higher education the dominance of the state institutions is still growing despite existence of competition from the private sector for over two decades. Recently the HRD minister Kapil Sibal has made a lot of good noise about giving more freedom to the private institutions from layers of regulatory bodies like UGC, AICTE, & Medical Council etc. But what ails the private sector institutions particularly in professional & technical education category?


The brightest students still seem to prefer IITs, AIMS & IIMs therefore companies in search of them end up on those campuses only. Those who swear by this argument are discounting the rationale of the privatization itself. I believe the privatization of the education has happened because most of us believe that prevailing examination dominated system fails to do justice with large numbers of bright students who could not make it to the existing institutes. Therefore new institutes are required. Most teachers and others involved in education management that I have interacted with agree that quality of students that enroll in private sector is almost at par with those who score very high score to enter the reputed existing institutions.

Second most important factor in an educational enterprise is the quality of teachers. Let us take a cue from the quality of teachers in reputed private schools as compared to government run schools. Isn’t it markedly qualitative? My experience of the 4-5 private & state run higher education enterprises has led me to believe that faculty in state run institutions have greater exposure & learning opportunities on the job. The on- the- job exposure factor is the major differentiator in up-gradation of the quality of teachers. Private institutes generally hire faculty at less cost as compared to the state run which limits their chances of selection & retention of senior faculty, hence reduced quality of teaching and resulting poor education of the students. Faculties in private institution have less learning opportunities in general and lack educated charismatic leadership required for their development. Give me good teachers I will give you shining educated persons.

I will right about other reasons in due course.

Iphone & Google Nexus One battle!

Firstly both the products would garner significant share of the smart phone market that is predicted to grow from the present 15 percent to 65 percent of the market very soon. The size of the market would not be a limiting factor to achieve the targeted sales volume, but the challenges in achieving marketing objectives would be formidable.

Since marketing thrives on newness of an offer therefore Google Next 1 would surely attract a segment of Iphone users who have not yet become diehard loyal fans of it. Some 25-65 percent current users of iphone may jump onto Google bandwagon. This is understandable phenomenon. But studies have shown that the customers may return to iphone if they do not find a major discernable difference in the new offer. Most divorced couples tend to long for the first companion once they have lived with the new one for a brief period. Therefore Google has to keep the Nexus One new for quite a period. This would be huge challenge to the marketing team while rolling out into the global markets.

If Google followed Iphone style market launch it would amount to conceding the race before the finishing line. Google has to design a new rollout strategy that could express value for its target segments. On the other hand iphone would have to resist altering its product significantly in next 18 months. Any noticeable change in iphone offer could convey a wrong signal to the market and lead to dilution of branding in the market. History of marketing is never relevant for the future of marketing but still there are many important lessons in it for the marketing warriors.

This fight certainly would be bloody and long. And the chances are that both the warriors would emerge unscathed and robust from it. But in the process personal computer making companies may be hit very badly. The pc may be reduced to its desktop avatar and the laptop may get eliminated from the market. Well, as they say when giants fight, it is the grass that takes the brunt. PC has to evolve completely into some new form to remain useful as an internet station.

Did someone say something about Blackberry? Uh!

The blues of the 'Blue Ocean Strategy' ?

Na i certainly am not interested in writing an unauthorised review of the Blue Ocean Strategy by WC KIm & Renee. The book in fact is inspirational. Its emphasis on finding blue markets through NEW way of analysing the markets is commendable though not really a new idea. Marketing lives on the power of the new and so does life and us. Let us examine some new prodct ideas here:

1 Shirt with three pairs of Changeable collars and cuffs: Twin color shirt: Shirt is the main male dress that has stopped evolving. Why not have a shirt that comes with three pairs of matched cuffs & collars so that it could be worn three times before a wash. Great economy and style that would be.

2. Desi Ghee in Pouch/satchets: Indians eat lots of desi ghee ( Clarified butter). Ghee is bought in Kg packs then used with a measure of spoon for garnishing the curries and vegetables. Why cann't we have Desi Ghee packed in 2-5 gms satches like shampoo and ketch up? Open a satchet and pour into dal or sabji!

3. Joy stick steering in cars: Steering wheel can be replaced with a joy stick to save space in car. It would lead to better driving pleasure as the driver would be able to keep it any place close to the body and saves money. Tata Nano could try that.

4. Classroom Video notes: Indian classroom is based on teacher to group teaching method and the students are hardly encouraged to ask questions. Why not record the teacher's lectures in video format and let the class see. Questions if any can be asked through emial. This would eliminate the need for teacher to go to class and save salary for the institute.

If you need any innovation write me, easy!