Direction One

On this Teachers day, a big Thank you to Indian Institute of Management Bangalore for the transformation that you brought into our lives. Grateful.

In product training, sales is bombarded with hundreds of product features. Which they rattle off mechanically to every customer. Here's Instagram founder Kevin Systrom with a different message. We were in a field sales call recently observing the company's sales team of 3 people meet with the purchase & technical team. The 45 minute presentation covered 14 of the company's products with each product having a minimum of 10 features. Was the customer dazzled? The technical guy - mostly yes. What about the economic buyer? He was looking at his watch 20 minutes onwards. Instagram founder Kevin Systrom was once asked by a VC "why aren't you adding more features to your product?" He said that's not the right strategy to scale up. "We are only working on features which are relevant to to the customer." Question to ask - what do my customers love about my product today & how can I make that part even better? All customers are NOT interested in all features & benefits of your product. One customer may be interested in that features which saves money. Another customer may be interested in faster delivery & installation. A third customer may be super interested in the convenience of usage. Sales people need to customize their sales pitches as per the customer's needs. Instagram followed that principle when they were 15 mn users. Today they have billions of users. Great sales people make customised pitches to their customers. Avoiding the "spray & pray" routine. Watch the full 46 mn video - link in comments. Its a 12 year old interview. If you want your sales team to get these insights, call us for training. Head to our Youtube playlist "B2B Sales & Marketing" for in-depth videos on this. Sign up for the B2B Sales & Marketing Bootcamp course. #marketing #marketingstrategy #marketingtips #b2bmarketing #negotiationskills #negotiationtips #sales #salestraining #salestips #mba #casestudy

Early on in digital, they told us - always run full funnel campaigns. Uber once STOPPED top of the funnel campaigns on Meta. Saved $25 mn. Here's how it happened with #marketing data. Thanks Josh Lachkovic Sundar Swaminathan for this story. The context. #Digitalmarketers often suggest that you run full funnel campaigns. Top of the funnel campaigns to create "problem" awareness. Middle of the funnel campaigns to educate about product. Bottom of the funnel campaigns (#leadgeneration) to drive purchase. Sundar Swaminathan was the data science head for brand at Uber. What Uber discovered for its business. If riders have to wait for more than 8 minutes, they start leaving the app. If riders start leaving, drivers also leave the app. Liquidity falls apart. So surge pricing becomes key. Driver incentives becomes key. These are the business growth levers. At Uber data science teams were structured along two teams. "Driver ops" would analyse the supply side. & "Rider ops" would analyse the demand side. What did an analysis of the #marketingdata reveal. CAC - Customer acquisition costs were fluctuating wildly week on week. Marketing spends were constant. No of sign ups varied week on week widely. So what. Next they looked at penetration vs TAM in major US markets. The TAM - total addressable market - for Uber in US. Penetration - no of app downloads out of that. Third party data revealed that they already had extreme sign up penetration. Data revealed that there were a huge no of sign ups who had downloaded the app but just never used it. The top of the funnel was NOT the marketing bottleneck. It was app activation. Getting users who had already downloaded the app to start using it. Long story short. More tests were done. They switched off Meta ads for top of the funnel. No impact on the funnel. Saved $25 mn. Focus shifted to creating new strategies to grow the middle of the funnel. Reengage, reactivate & bring customers back. Focus on #retainingcustomers. Data helps you do that. For years, whenever we have asked aspiring marketers "why do you want to get into marketing?", the response has been "I like to meet people". #Data helps a #marketer run better campaigns. Key questions marketers & business leaders need to ask. Which part of my marketing funnel is the biggest bottleneck? Top / middle or bottom. Are my marketing spends & leadership attention aligned to the root cause of the issue. Its not just about randomly distributing the budget all over. #marketing rocks. #digitalmarketing rocks. If you need your team to better understand these concepts, call us. Follow our digital marketing playlists on YouTube. Sign up for our free digital marketing course. Links in featured section of profile. #LeadGeneration #leadgenerationexpert #marketing #brandmarketing #googleads #facebookads #leadgenerationcompanies #digitalmarketing #socialmediamarketing Y Combinator

I've seen hundreds of #B2B #sales & #marketing people underachieve their targets every month. It boils down to 6 common mistakes that they do. Mistake 1. Talking too low. At a electrical goods company that we work with, this is what happens. Individual home buyer hires architect. Architect hires a master contractor. Master contractor hires electrical contractor. My sales team is talking to only the electrical contractor. They get the customer requirement on Friday. Monday the order is lost. Sales people have to talk with senior decision makers. Most don't know how to or are too scared. Mistake 2. Talking only to #purchase. #Purchasemanagers are the most #price sensitive people in any company. Users focus on #features and #benefits and operational impact. #Economic buyers look for value. We are not talking about bypassing the purchase department. But if the user and economic buyer are convinced, the sale is easier. Mistake 3. Talking only about the product. One reason it happens because most sales people go through detailed #producttraining. But very little knowledge of the customer is given. Product features are critical. More critical are benefits. But #valueselling is king. a. My product uses the best quality materials. b. Achieves time and fuel efficiency savings. c. YOU will save Rs 30,000 per month in fuel bills. Most B2B sales and marketing folks only talk a or b. Rarely c. Because that requires knowledge of the customer's business. That's the gap. Mistake 4. Talking transactions, not at an #accountmanagement level. Most sales people are focused on closing the current deal to achieve their #monthlytargets. But the account has so much more potential. We have analyzed account potential for many large institutional clients in our workshops & many times the account potential is more than the annual target of individual sales people. Sales & marketing folks need to develop business at an account level. Top 10 #strategicaccounts. Top 50 #keyaccounts. Separate strategies. Separate teams. Mistake 5. Spray and pray. Spraying the same product sales pitch on every customer out there. Same sales pitch to technical & financial decision makers. Same sales pitch to users, purchase, technical buyers & financial decision makers. No customization at all. Result - poor conversions. Mistake 6. Buffet counter. Or the menu card approach. Selling ALL products of the company. Every customer may not need all your products. YOU may not have a competitive advantage in all your products. Nor are all products equally profitable for your company. Have I missed out any other major mistake, let me know in the comments. If you have a sales & marketing team that needs to be trained on these skills, call us. Check out our playlist "B2B sales & marketing" on YouTube. Sign up for the B2B sales & marketing Bootcamp course to learn more. Links in features section of profile.

It was in June 2022 that Ankur Warikoo taught me How to YouTube. 2 years later - over 400 videos. We just reorganized them into 9 superb playlists. 1. #FMCG Sales & Marketing Tips (9 videos) - https://lnkd.in/dA_AGUry 2. #B2B Sales & Marketing Tips (11 videos) - https://lnkd.in/d-VuiMFd 3. #Marketing #CaseStudies (12 videos) - https://lnkd.in/dMNNWa7W 4. #Negotiation Tips (13 videos) - https://lnkd.in/dTcuUca3 5. #SocialMediaMarketing Tips (13 videos) - https://lnkd.in/dXn5fp9x 6. #Leadership Tips for #Managers (16 videos) - https://lnkd.in/dWwPr-_X 7. #CareerGrowth, #Resume, LinkedIn Profile & #Interviewing Tips (36 videos) - https://lnkd.in/dWmyKHCF 8. Facebook & Instagram Ads Tips (15 videos) - https://lnkd.in/dtbzsHZW 9. Google #Search, Display & YouTube Ads tips (7 videos) - https://lnkd.in/dZZdp83S Lots more content being developed every week. Follow "Direction One - Success" on YouTube for regular videos on all these topics. Do share with your network. #fmcg #b2b #sales #marketing #marketingstrategy #marketingtips #fmcgmarketing #b2bmarketing #negotiationskills #negotiationtips #sales #salestraining #salestips #mba #casestudy #careertips #CareerGrowth #successtips #resumetips #linkedinprofile #careergrowth #careeradvice #LeadGeneration #leadgenerationexpert #googleads #facebookads #leadgenerationcompanies #digitalmarketing #socialmediamarketing Y Combinator

ITC Limited's sales from ecommerce & Modern Trade has DOUBLED in the last 4 years. FMCG Sales & Marketing folks need to reskill for this new reality. The context. Every #fmcg company sells through multiple channels. The biggest is #GeneralTrade - kiranas, departmental stores, panwalas (convenience outlets). Wholesalers. Then there is #moderntrade. This is mostly a duopoly. #Reliance has >50% share. Followed by DMart - Avenue Supermarts Ltd >30%. There is #ecommerce. Amazon Flipkart are the biggest. And now #quickcommerce. Zepto Blinkit Swiggy instamart. What is the split? 10 years back it was 90% general trade (GT). 10% modern trade (MT) & ecommerce (ecom). By 2020 it typically was 15% for ecom/MT & 85% for GT. For ITC Limited this ratio was 17% - 83%. For ITC in 2024, this changed to 31% for ecom / qcom / MT and 69% for general trade. #quickcommerce has clearly played a role here also. This changes things a lot as this trend plays out in other #fmcg companies. What else will change? Required marketing skillsets. GT requires vast numbers of frontline sales teams (TSIs - Territory Sales Incharge) stationed in state capitals travelling 22 days a month to rural & urban markets creating & servicing demand. Modern Trade is different. Modern Trade requires a Key account manager for each account (e.g. Reliance, DMart) based at HO. Supported by merchandisers at key cities. Negotiations are tougher at modern trade outlets. Lesser number of outlets / with higher volumes per outlet or chain. The role is more demand creation through merchandisers ensuring availability & visibility. General trade was more about placement. And a little focus on merchandising, not much. Ecommerce / quick commerce is totally different. Doing demand creation here requires an understanding of digital marketing. Understanding shopper buying behaviour in different areas. Understanding category focus of the platform. e.g. grow the chocolate biscuit category in modern trade in UP. Grow premium hair colours (higher AOV avg order value) for Zepto in Tamil Nadu. Higher need for data analysis. As consumer attention changes from GT to MT/qcom, the marketing budgets are already shifting. Think - local area #digitalmarketing campaigns on the platforms themselves e.g. ads on Blinkit. Earlier the marketing budgets went to merchandising / retailer schemes at the local city level. Different SKUs packs for different channels. e.g. a biscuit combo pack for Zepto. Driving the supply chain to deliver. Business planning with the DMart - Avenue Supermarts Ltd RSM and ASM in Punjab. Launching first on "digital" then in GT in specific geographies based on the digital success. So many states & platforms. Hundreds of SKUs. Different marketing channels. Think of the customizations possible in marketing planning. And the execution skills required. #FMCGSales rocks. #FMCGmarketing rocks. #marketing #marketingstrategy #salestips #mba

Became a trainer at 29. Initially got laughed at because of my age. By 34, I had done training for Asian Paints, #HUL, ICICI Bank & Mahindra British Telecom. Here's one technique that worked for me. Cold Calling: My first #fmcg client was HUL. Those days it was HLL - Hindustan Lever Ltd. I called up the board line, asked to speak to the head of sales training. Board connected me straightaway to the decision maker. 60 days later I had done my first sales training assignment in #fmcg. Same process worked with Citi India & Asian Paints. Asian paints had just launched a division called "Home Solutions". Traditional advice - start small. Start with the smaller companies. Then go to the big brand names. What I recommend, what worked for me. Start with the BIGGEST names in your industry. Why? 1. Decision makers in bigger companies are more confident of working with newcomers. 2. Smaller companies, on the other hand, will ask for "how many other companies have you worked for?". 3. Senior leaders in most companies are more approachable & humble than most middle level managers. 4. Larger companies have more volumes to offer. 5. Once you get the larger company brand name on your biodata, the rest of that industry welcomes you. I started my career in ITC Limited. My first #fmcg client was HLL. Over the next 10 years I did tons of work for some of the biggest #fmcg companies in India. Cold calling works. I personally vouch for its success. But it requires huge self belief. And a thick skin that enables you to to bounce back after multiple rejections. I got these big brand names after over 100 companies that I approached. 10 of those calls ended with the decision maker getting angry. Many did not respond, blocked by the receptionist. 3 clicked. That's the success ratio in sales. You have to sow lots of seeds that grow a few plants. And see a handful of them grow into trees. That's life. And sales. #marketing #marketingstrategy #marketingtips #fmcgmarketing #b2bmarketing #negotiationskills #negotiationtips #sales #salestraining #salestips #mba #casestudy

On this day of Guru Poornima, a big THANK YOU to all my teachers. Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Vishwakarma Institute Of Technology. ITC Limited. My first & only job. All my clients. All my fellow trainers. G K Suresh Murali Shankar Ramakrishnan Medha Karwande Bhushan Lawande The thousands of learners who taught us the best practices. The HR & Business Leaders who showed us how great companies are built. Neelmani Singh who taught us how to run learning at scale at ICICI Bank. LUNA MOHANTY at Reliance Industries Limited & Sabyasachi Mitter (Asian Paints) who taught us how learning is linked to strategy. Nimit Shah who introduced me to the world of digital. Vaibhav Sisinty ↗?who taught the value of LinkedIn Ankur Warikoo who gave the push into YouTube branding. And countless others who have inspired me. Keep rocking. The world is a very different place because of you guys. Thank you. #leadership #learning