Lessons in Strategy from a Saree Seller!

Recently, I visited a famous clothing shop at the heart of an Indian metro city. Someone recommended me to go there as this shop has a legacy of almost 100 years and specializes in silk products. My hope was that I will be able to buy something for my wife. While I took a walk of the entire shop, I quickly understood that I was getting more and more confused as I saw so many great products. I saw an elderly lady nearby who looked very confident while dealing with the sales person and thought it might not be a bad idea to ask for help. I quickly introduced myself and told her the problem I was facing with no idea of cloth material, quality and price. There was almost an instant connection while we spoke and she almost sidelined the salesperson and started showing me some of the best items out of a lot of all great looking products or seemingly so to a layman like me.

During the conversation, I got to know that she is a supplier and supplies a few types of products and has been associated with this place for over 35 years while her downstream suppliers are from various parts of India and Pakistan. By now, I was very sure that I am in good hands. While we scanned through a lot of variety of products, I was continuously asking questions on quality and durability of the product. Sensing my concern, she gave me a few out of context examples which I felt was very interesting and below is our exact conversation:

Lady: “I am sure you are having Amul Butter at home?”

Me: “Yes, almost from my childhood!”

Lady: “What about Maggi, which is a Nestle product?”

Me: “Yes, again since childhood and I hoarded up when it was banned temporarily (with a grin)”

Lady: “I am sure your son loves Cadbury?”

Me: “Yes, but why are you asking these questions”

Lady: “I just want you to realize, that there are some brands which are part of our life.”

Me: Nodded in affirmation

Lady: “Cadbury went down and came back strongly, Maggi went down and now is back again….we are not questioning their quality anymore, I hope you realize why…it is because we or our kids cannot live without them. There can be temporary ups and down but there is never a permanent setback because there is TRUST”

Me: “But how does it relate to my question?”

Lady: “This shop is around 100 years old and they have now many franchise all over India, but this particular shop will never cheat you because of the TRUST they have built and hence they have a strong customer base…Since, you are new here, I wanted to explain it to you with examples you can relate to”

I understood what she was trying to convey. While she not only helped me find good products, she also got me a supplier discount in a Fixed Price shop and got me fresh Coconut water served before I left the shop. I was amazed with this interaction and even though she was an unknown person and a supplier in a shop, when I reflected a bit on this, I felt she gave me some good lessons in Strategy:

1. Customer-centric Strategy helps build Trust: When an organization keeps the customer at the center of their universe and builds their strategy with the single objective to serve the customer better, it is bound to generate trust over a period of time. She fostered that faith in me about the shop irrespective of whether I made a purchase at that time or not. The entire time she spent, she was concerned that I get what I was looking for. She made sure I have a good experience from pricing perspective making me feel like a winner
2. A strong Product Strategy ensuring best-in-class Products: No matter how strong your Sales and Marketing strategy is, having a weak product lineup makes it difficult to sell. Amul butter, Cadbury chocolates and perhaps Maggi (you may not agree) are part of our life, atleast with most of my generation. I am not debating about how much you should consume, but if you can easily substitute them with competitor products.
3. A Marketing Strategy which leverages word of mouth mechanism today is essential: You may burn a lot of cash through hoardings, tv and print ads, campaigns etc. however with social media becoming so important, spreading the word through individuals is very important.

If, I think hard, probably I can derive more out of this whole conversation. If you read and feel there were any more takeaways, feel free to leave your thoughts.