“You sell it and they may forget you You serve well and they may remember you always.”
This has been source of great inspiration for me as Sales & Marketing person working to create great memorable experiences in lifecycle journey of customers.
Post pandemic curves coupled with spike in unemployment has led to quite an uncertainty. There has been cuts in discretionary spends and people are more conscious of what to buy and consume.
Have you ever felt when someone is talking to you and you are trying to concentrate but multiple thoughts emerge in your mind and you struggle to concentrate. It has happened with me multiple times and I always felt these are just thoughts. But the reality is if we can control our thoughts a lot can change in our everyday lives.
I have been since time memorial mesmerized by the game of soccer. It’s such a thrilling experience watching a fast paced, action packed soccer game. In almost 90 minutes flat while watching the game, one can enjoy the game and also pick up so many valuable lessons in Sales Management. There are several common touch points that the game and sales per se share in common; it’s absolutely enticing. A few key attributes are jotted as under:
As the COVID -19 pandemic continues spreading across the globe, it has brought together the world of the unknown and a flurry of uncertainties. Its apparent now, the whole universe is in the state of unprecedented crisis; the magnitude and scale never ever witnessed in the history of mankind.
In the panel session on “Crisis &Everyday: The Role of Physical Security in a World of Change” in Genetec’s Virtual Tradeshow, Connect ’DX, the Principal &Managing Consultant of The Brekke Group, Brad Brekke emphasized just how complicated the pandemic’s effect on the security industry is. “This is a unique challenge,” Brekke said. “This is a biological risk, and it’s unknown — there is lack of data, not just for the security industry, but for the world. There’s a lot of uncertainty as we navigate this, and we’re being challenged in a way I’ve not seen before.”
The consumer journey to picking up your brand is not a straightforward process of eye level & buy level anymore, which means that no more does it involve only being present in the retail and blasting the media out with the brand hard-selling proposition. Consumers are evolving and the information overload because of the digital world the complexities are increasing by the day, It involves many explorations over the net, checking with friends, experts, word of mouth, the influence of peers, media, and other touchpoints that the consumer visits. It is essential that the brand engages the consumer at all these points to drive him towards the moment of truth where he or she feels the real urge to pick up your brand.
We have heard the word VUCA for years now, what does it really mean…. It is a world which is constantly changing. Be it the economic impact of 2008 due to Lehman brothers, the influence of the digital world, emerging needs of the global consumers, the rise of a generation with a cause “The millennial” or the unexpected pandemic these are but the real experience of the jargon VUCA. Today the experience is far beyond the corporate world and has impacted every facet of our life.
The VUCA influences rapid transformations be it the economic outlook, consumer purchasing behavior, changing consumer needs, changes in the entire value delivery system for instance from mom and pop stores to supermarkets to e-commerce, physical money to the Paytm a and the traditional communication on TV to talking to a more informed digital consumer. The changes are happening at a lightning speed.
VUCA requires different kind of leadership and thinking. The most AMAZING part of the VUCA world is that leadership can come from any quarter and therefore anybody can be a leader… Wow!! How can this happen. The reason is fairly common the organization is looking for a solution, and whoever offers that is a leader.
Covid, Pandemic , Unprecedented times – Now that I have got your attention let me assuage
you that I am not going to be a harbinger of bad news imapt the number of soothsayers
and crystal ball gazers have increased, and my attempt is not to venture into that territory
at all. Situation has caught us off guard and we are going through testing / trying period in
human history. How we deal with it will determine our future as a collective human race.
Therefore, it will be stupid on my part to predict the future.
However, crisis always makes us look hard at our current practices, take a deep look at
shifting behaviors and help us measure our own relevance with the changing world.
Companies/ people who are able to demonstrate this adaptability and course correct always
thrive. I was recently called upon to learn and interact with academia who are always
thinking ahead on such matters to discuss this issue at large. In the course of this writing I
would like to present my views on this issue.
A new year brings 365 new opportunities. To do more. To make mistakes. And to learn from them and grow. While this is certainly what I wish for you, dear reader, there is one mistake I hope you stay away from this year, which is to take some of the social myths on their face value. This is concerning because most of these social myths are out there ,without people knowing them to be false and without anyone calling them out.
Recently, a five-year-old story went viral once again about how McDonald’s reported that restaurants that introduced self-ordering kiosks experienced an average of 5-6% increase in sales. This is not just about them. When Chili’s added self-ordering kiosks to its tables a few years ago, the chain too saw a massive 20%increase in dessert sales.
We have seen these self-ordering kiosks and tabs in a few cinemas and restaurants as well, and in principle, self-ordering would seem like a natural solution that provides a win-win. I, for one, being a foodie, find the self-ordering solution delightful. I can choose what I want, at the pace I want, change my order, customize it if required, with no one to judge or look over my shoulder. And what more, there is one less social interaction! For a foodie and an introvert at that ,this is a blessing.