Winning your Customers- 1

Just a thought for my team in Dubai. I share it here.


Being a B2B salesperson it requires special set of skills to sell products in a market which is filled with the type of products that you sell.


In order to sell better you need to understand what kind of relation you need to keep with your customers as to maintain a long term business relation.

Here are three simple key ways:-

1. Minimize the risk of your customer. This is done by eliminating the fear from customers mind, fear about spending too much money or buying a product that will malfunction or that will have complaints. Spend time with them and make them feel confident about Milano, putting it as a problem free product.
2. Enhancing your customer’s competitive standing. Just like you even your customers want to move ahead in business. Make them believe that keeping Milano as a brand will make them look good in front of their competitor shops. This will defiantly make you strong when your customer bargains on price.
3. Help your customer Achieve their Goal. A salesperson that provides his customers with a solution that will increase his profits or decrease his costs will always be irreplaceable. Help your customer achieving his goals and dreams. So when you go next to your customer shop he won’t see you as a seller he will see you as his partner, as his adviser.
In all of the above you are building relationship to your customers and the outcome will be better sales.

With 38 SKUs Crest enjoyed 36% market share, with 50 SKUs it lost leadership to Colgate..know how

Crest is among many other brands who have fallen into the trap of brand extension. Power of brand is inversely proportional to its scope. As soon as a brand becomes successful, marketers tend to expand the brand in need of more sales. No doubt the brand expansion works to keep the counter clicking, but what happens to the brand in the long run? Does it keeps as strong as it was before it was expanded.

Once a market leader, Procter and Gamble’s Crest toothpaste lost its leadership to Colgate. With 38 SKUs only for Crest the toothpaste enjoyed 35% of the market share, when the number reached to more than 50 SKUs Crest slipped to 25% market share, weakening its self and giving a way to Colgate.

What Crest did in the toothpaste category, Chevrolet did with cars. Chevrolet was the leading selling brand in America. Soon the brand Chevrolet was put on to many car models, cheap, costly, small, big even truck. The brand became weak and the leader was replaced with Ford. Along with line extension marketers use various other methods to milk their brands and they are successful, but it only remains for short term In the long run brand expansion diminishes the brand power and weakens the brand image.
The answer to a healthy brand lives not in its extension but in narrowing. 

The Corporate Game

They are playing a game. They are playing at not playing a game. If I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me. I must play the game, of not seeing I see the game.
by Kevin Kelly.

Positioning

Today companies are all fighting for a share in market. New brands take their share stealing from existing brands. So what are brands all about? Does two brands from two different companies are any different from each other in product features or superiority? The answer is no, its just they are positioned differently. Ask any smoker who is loyal towards Malboro he will say Malboro is different. Is it really different to other cigarettes? It is not if we take a blind test the smoker wont be able to make out any difference. So why Malboro loyalist has to say its different, it is only because of Position that Malboro has created in prospects minds.

Situation Analysis (5 'C)

In order to profitably satisfy customer needs, the firm first must understand its external and internal situation, including the customer, the market environment, and the firm's own capabilities. Furthermore, it needs to forecast trends in the dynamic environment in which it operates.

A useful framework for performing a situation analysis is the 5 C Analysis. The 5C analysis is an environmental scan on five key areas especially applicable to marketing decisions. It covers the internal, the micro-environmental, and the macro-environmental situation. The 5 C analysis is an extension of the 3 C analysis (company, customers, and competitors), to which some marketers added the 4th C of collaborators. The further addition of a macro-environmental analysis (climate) results in a 5 C analysis, some aspects of which are outlined below.

Company

• Product line
• Image in the market
• Technology and experience
• Culture
• Goals

Collaborators

• Distributors
• Suppliers
• Alliances

Customers

• Market size and growth
• Market segments
• Benefits that consumer is seeking, tangible and intangible.
• Motivation behind purchase; value drivers, benefits vs. costs
• Decision maker or decision-making unit
• Retail channel - where does the consumer actually purchase the product?
• Consumer information sources - where does the customer obtain information about the product?
• Buying process; e.g. impulse or careful comparison
• Frequency of purchase, seasonal factors
• Quantity purchased at a time
• Trends - how consumer needs and preferences change over time

Competitors

• Actual or potential
• Direct or indirect
• Products
• Positioning
• Market shares
• Strengths and weaknesses of competitors

Climate (or context)

The climate or macro-environmental factors are:

• Political & regulatory environment - governmental policies and regulations that affect the market
• Economic environment - business cycle, inflation rate, interest rates, and other macroeconomic issues
• Social/Cultural environment - society's trends and fashions
• Technological environment - new knowledge that makes possible new ways of satisfying needs; the impact of technology on the demand for existing products.

The analysis of the these four external "climate" factors often is referred to as a PEST analysis.

Information Sources

Customer and competitor information specifically oriented toward marketing decisions can be found in market research reports, which provide a market analysis for a particular industry. For foreign markets, country reports can be used as a general information source for the macro-environment. By combining the regional and market analysis with knowledge of the firm's own capabilities and partnerships, the firm can identify and select the more favorable opportunities to provide value to the customer.