Posted on Author admin Categories Blog

DIGITAL MARKETING CONCLAVE | Startup Xperts

Chennai witnessed the first Digital Marketing Conclave organized by Think Media Inc. and VIT University, on 21-July 2014 @ Hotel Trident. The theme was based on ‘Digital Marketing in the Emerging Markets’ and the conference was well attended. The event covered various topics of interest like Social media, Inbound marketing, Outbound marketing, how marketing is exploiting the digital growth to its advantage, and many more. This program brought together more than 200 delegates comprising of MD’s, CEO’S, Senior Marketers, Head of Agencies, Digital Mentors, Publishers, Industry Bodies, Associations, Technology and Solution Providers.

It was inspiring to see a great initiative taken by Mr. Vijay Michihito Batra, Founder & Chief Editor, Think Media Inc. and Prof. Dr. M. J. Xavier, Executive Director, VIT University, Chennai.

Startup Xperts was represented by Shyam Sekar S, its Chief Mentor and Strategist who acted as a moderator and also addressed the audience on Online Marketing, Analytics and ROI.

Shyam mentioned that “in Digital Marketing, Web Analytics should play a very important part in your decision making as you never know which bucket that you have invested in, brings you results. Having spoken with many organizations, I notice that they use analytics more for a directional indication rather than using that to slice and dice the data to take a decision. It stems from that fact that they either do not know how to exploit this data, or do not have methods to capture this information to make a meaningful insight out of it.

Most often I hear companies asking me a question as to how to figure out the ROI that we spend on social media, etc. because it is for the purpose of creating a brand? Well, if you can identify your measurable goals, assign dollar spends to the respective areas, you will be able to measure and compare your results.

At the end of the event, I was certain of one thing; Chennai is on a rapid movement path especially in the arena of entrepreneurship, digital marketing and startups.”

To know more about Startup Xperts, visit us at www.startupxperts.com or write to us at info@startupxperts.com

0
Posted on Author admin Categories Blog

How to manage your sales process? Part 2 | Startup Xperts

Most of you would have read the “Does Sales Process Outsourcing (SPO) work? – Part I”, that touched upon those phases of the sales cycle that lend themselves to outsourcing. This part of sales process outsourcing article touches upon factors to consider before an organization decides to outsource the whole or a part of their sales process.

One of the most fundamental aspects that an organization needs to consider while contemplating outsourcing is the complexity of the solution, or product, or service that is being sold. At one of the spectrum, the offering could be complex business applications that require customization as per customer’s requirements. Such solutions have a relatively long sales cycle, with potentially face-to-face engagement with the customer. Typical examples include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications, turnkey solutions and business applications that automate specific business processes.

At the other end of the spectrum are products or solutions offering a specific functionality, with very limited or no customization requirement. Typically, such solutions are sold online, with the entire transaction being consummated without the need for a face-to-face discussion with the prospective customer. Such solutions invariably fall within the self-use category, or backed by a service provider who takes responsibility for delivering the output electronically. Examples include specific document conversion activities, retail products sold online, consumer products, consumer services, selling online courses, etc.

Sales Phase Attributes
Products/ Simple Solution Suitability for SPO Complex Solution Suitability for SPO
Lead Generation Typically well-defined audience Well suited Well defined audience Well suited
Lead Qualification Qualifying criteria for purchase typically well defined.  Hence easy to qualify Well suited Qualifying criteria may at times be elaborate.  A first level of qualification alone will be possible Partially suited
Solution Demonstration Product/Solution features well defined; so product/solution demonstration, service explanation is straightforward Well suited Solution/Product demonstration could involve customer specific aspects Limited suitability.  Only a high-level feature/solution walk through is possible.  Detailed, client focused demonstrations will not be possible
Solution Proposal Solution proposal would essentially be a price quote Well-suited Solution proposal would factor client specific requirements, and would be a comprehensive document;  It would also need specialist/ expertise to prepare Not suited
Negotiation/Closure Since scope of work and price involved is well defined, there is very little room for any strategic negotiation Well-suited.  The possible area where attention may be required is in working out volume discounts Values of proposals involved are high, and negotiations could potentially involve several stakeholders Not suited

Moving towards complex solutions, one realizes that sales success is dependent on selling skills and customer relationship management. While it is possible to identify the various phases of the sales cycle at a broad level, working within each phase calls for a balanced mix of ‘sales’ skills and vertical specific understanding / competencies in the chosen domain.

However, it also remains a fact that generating sales worthy leads remains one of the most challenging aspects of the sales process, regardless of the domain in question. Many a time, organizations are left with fewer options to generate leads: whether widen the scope of the lead generation process through strategic marketing initiatives, or reach out to more customers through telesales activity. When the process is controllable and has lesser risks, it becomes amenable to outsourcing.

To sum up, both marketing initiatives like digital marketing that includes online campaign management, SEO, SEM, etc. and back office sales processes are less risky and should be explored for strategic outsourcing or off-shoring. This ultimately helps them scale up their lead generation area faster, cheaper and better; it helps make use of their financial and people resources more effectively.

Sales process outsourcing is not easy, as it demands for a reliable partner who has the drive, passion and zeal to ensure success with your partnership. However, having identified the right partner, proper set up time is essential to have the right team in place. Effective coaching is critical, before they get on to the live work. Proper systems have to be in place at the outsourced partner’s end for performance monitoring and to take corrective steps, quickly, when required. Reporting mechanism should be simple but robust to ensure transparency between both parties (customer and vendor partner).

Startup Xperts is a business growth consulting firm with an objective to transform CEO’s vision into achievable, actionable goals that deliver results. Our mission is to help companies to steeply accelerate their revenue growth, profitably. Be it family run business, small or medium enterprise or a boutique firm, Startup Xperts have all the right answers to step up their growth. Startup Xperts help clients in a range of service areas including business consulting, strategic consulting, sales and marketing consulting, digital marketing, Sales Process Outsourcing (SPO), HR, Operations and leadership training, sales training and coaching.

To know more about Startup Xperts, visit us at www.startupxperts.com or write to us at info@startupxperts.com
The views expressed in this article are that of the author’s and Startup Xperts is not responsible for this content. In case of any objection in content, IP violations, incorrect or inappropriate information, please inform us at ceo@startupxperts.com. We will do our best to act on it at the earliest.

0
Posted on Author admin Categories Blog

How to manage your sales process? Part 1

The business of selling, in much of the corporate world, is perceived as a function to which business targets (sales quotas in strict sales-speak!) are handed down, with the expectation that they will be achieved somehow. Sales was perceived as a profession that is invariably personality driven: it is very common for field sales representatives to be viewed as a flamboyant individual who uses the ‘power look’ to intimidate prospects, or uses ‘closing techniques’ to make the prospect sign on the dotted line. In short, sales was perceived as more of an art, rather than as a science.

Although service delivery capabilities and functional expertise is very critical to any business, without the right sales efforts, nothing gets achieved. It is a no-brainer that without sales there are no revenues and hence no growth. Sales, which is such is a critical function, is often not managed in the right perspective. Just pushing the target down the throat does not work anymore. As said before, it is more of an art and there are very few professionals in the industry today who not only understands the sales secrets, but who also able to manage their sales team far more effectively and build high impact enterprises.

Every organization cannot excel in their sales process. More often than not, start-ups, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will observe that bringing in the right sales talent is one of the most common challenges they face. This challenge becomes more evident when the founders of such organizations come from a strong technology/operations/service delivery background.

With no in-house sales ‘expertise’, the question that comes to anyone’s mind will be – can the sales process be outsourced?

The answer to the question above is a ‘Yes’, as well as a ‘No’!

To understand more about when Sales Process Outsourcing (SPO) can work, and when it cannot, we need to break down the general sales process into various phases, and relate each phase to the organisation’s specific product, service or solution. The objective of this exercise will be to understand how amenable a particular phase will be to outsourcing. Depending on the nature of product or service, the complete sales process, or a few phases at the minimum, will lend itself to outsourcing.

Captured in the table below are the various phases of the sales process, and their amenability to outsourcing:

Sales Process Phase Suitability for Outsourcing Factors to consider before outsourcing
Lead generation through tele-calling A very common activity that is outsourced.
Can be streamlined significantly through the concept of ‘ideal customer profile’
Lead Qualification Can be completely outsourced for products and also solutions having a relatively straightforward functionality
Product Demonstration / Service pitch Where the solution being sold is complex, or lends itself to extensive customization to the prospect’s business needs, this is best done by the organization itself.
If it is a product or services pitch this process can be outsourced.
Proposal preparation As it applies to the Product Demonstration phase;
If it is a product / simpler service, can be managed through ready-made template that can customized for different prospects.
Negotiation/sales closure As it applies to the Proposal phase

From the table above, it is evident that by and large, the first two phases of the sales process (Lead Generation and Lead Qualification) are amenable to Sales Process Outsourcing. The next three phases, namely, Product Demonstration, Proposal preparation, Negotiation/sales closure lend themselves to outsourcing only when the type of solution offers a relatively well defined functionality, with almost no scope for customization. Typically, such solutions can also be sold online as it can be targeted towards self use type.

While contemplating the outsourcing of the lead generation and/or lead qualification process, it is worthwhile to use the concept of the ‘ideal customer profile’. The ideal customer, as the name implies, is a customer that an organisation would like to have in its client list. Even where the product or solution is complex, when the ideal customer profile is well defined, organizations can derive significant improvements in the productivity of their field sales force, since the outsourcing partner is broadly able to qualify leads that are fed into the sales pipeline. Field sales resources ultimately get to work on good quality leads when the ideal customer profile is well defined.

Sales process outsourcing will be a win-win scenario for both the outsourcing organisation and its outsourced partner, provided the ideal customer profile is well defined. Regardless of the product/solution/service focus of an outsourcing organisation, outsourcing their lead generation efforts, and after careful consideration of the complexities involved, other phases of their sales lifecycle will help them significantly improve the rate at which they win deals.

In Part 2 of this post, we will dwell upon a few scenarios where outsourcing various phases of the sales cycle will benefit an organisation.

Startup Xperts is a business growth consulting firm with an objective to transform CEO’s vision into achievable, actionable goals that deliver results. Our mission is to help companies to steeply accelerate their revenue growth, profitably. Be it family run business, small or medium enterprise or a boutique firm, Startup Xperts have all the right answers to step up their growth. Startup Xperts help clients in a range of service areas including business consulting, strategic consulting, sales and marketing consulting, digital marketing, Sales Process Outsourcing (SPO), HR, Operations and leadership training and coaching.

To know more about Startup Xperts, visit us at www.startupxperts.com or write to us at info@startupxperts.com

The views expressed in this article are that of the author’s and Startup Xperts is not responsible for this content. In case of any objection in content, IP violations, incorrect or inappropriate information, please inform us at ceo@startupxperts.com. We will do our best to act on it at the earliest.

Read More
0
Posted on Author admin Categories Blog

How to Grow your startup business?

Not all startups are successful. The reasons could be a combination of – business planning, revenue model, leadership team, target segments, product, and most often execution. I have seen startups that had almost all the elements needed to transition into a sustainable, high-growth business, but lacked guidance and experienced leadership team. Building a startup is difficult but converting it into a high-growth business is even more challenging, and often requires a different skill set than that was required in the early days of a startup.

So what are those ingredients for that secret sauce of building a startup, successfully?

Having right business mentors and startup consultants are critical success factors for a startup to be successful. According to the first research report of Startup Genome Project in 2011, it was found that founders who learn are more successful. Startups that have helpful mentors, track metrics effectively, and learn from startup thought leaders, raise 7x more money and have 3.5x better user growth.

Bill Joy, Founder of Sun Microsystems once said, “No matter who you are, most of the smartest people don’t work for you”. So it is best to avail professionals / mentors to support your growth mission; and in building a successful and sustainable high-growth business. You can avail mentor support across functions like marketing, sales, accounting, human resources, operational excellence, training, etc.

To ensure sustainable growth you need to have:

 Right business model that acquires customers

 Leadership with ideology, beyond just passion and vision

 Ability to seize opportunities

 Creating a high impact, marketing and sales engine

 Retention strategies

Have the right business model that aligns with customer acquisition. Do not build products / services that just excite only you and not your customers.Focus on long-term AND short-term goals and activities. Most often, companies tend to forgo short term profits thinking of reaping those profits in long term, but practically they are only digging themselves deeper.

Your ideology has to reflect upon your culture and beliefs. Like how Walmart’s ideology is focused on customers, Hewlett Packard – its employees, 3M – its innovation, Ford – its products, your activities and outcomes need to be consistent with your ideology.

Most often when you start to scale, you might stumble upon some great opportunities. Do not leave them since they are not products or services that you are currently pursuing. As long it fits the core of your ideology and purpose, do give it a try. 3M came out with Post-it product just by accident; Johnson & Johnson accidentally introduced baby powder which then climbs up drastically to have over 40% of their revenue share; Marriot Corporation got into the airport services business by accident and that became a roaring success. All these were once a small startup which later became large corporations. These successes are not attributed to great business or strategic planning, but show their abilities to seize opportunities. Explore options, pick what works for you and discard those that don’t work.

Most startups fail to scale due to lack of customers. There may be initial success but if you rest on your laurels you will get run-over. Set an effective, high impact marketing and sales engine. In my numerous meetings with CEOs and entrepreneurs, marketing and sales have been predominantly mixed up. Both are like chalk and cheese, so you need to have dedicated professionals for marketing (especially digital marketing) and sales functions.

Building revenues is paramount, a non-negotiable factor and laser focus on sales is very critical while you are scaling up. Hire ‘smart’ sales persons, and keep them on optimum heat so that they fire in the right areas. Fuel their passion and increase your revenue visibility.

Do not stop with lip service on customer satisfaction; honestly walk that extra mile to ensure that you stay on top of your customer’s mind, always. Incorporate customer feedback into your system and ensure that it is acted upon at the earliest. It is difficult to win customers, and if you lose them it takes more than 7x efforts to win another; not to mention, that their potential could be far lesser than what you had lost.

Your employees should be taught not to just please their bosses, but to ensure that their customers are taken care of. Make them treat customers like their CEO and success will look easy.

Your employees should be taught not to just please their bosses, but to ensure that their customers are taken care of. Make them treat customers like their CEO and success will look easy.

Beyond startup phase, while you are scaling up, it might be easier to afford more salaries to recruit key resources. While you might be able to attract talent, it is important that you have strong retention policies. Have small celebrations, cheer songs and team meetings to share corporate values and beliefs, from time to time.

Be tolerant for honest mistakes. We all know that while a startup is beginning to scale there are bound to be mistakes. Just make sure that the same does not crop up in future. Even large organizations do make mistakes. Allow them to experiment and bring out their best, as long as it does not become a corporate failure.

Finally, it is all about consistency; consistency in winning deals, consistency in getting customer appreciations, consistency in building robust products or solutions, consistency in delivering high quality services and consistency in collecting payments on-time that separates winners from those who also-ran!

Startup Xperts is a business growth and consulting firm with an objective to transform CEO’s vision into achievable, actionable goals that deliver results. Our mission is to help companies to steeply accelerate their revenue growth, profitably. Be it family run business, small or medium enterprise or a boutique firm, Startup Xperts have all the right answers to step up their growth. Startup Xperts help clients in a range of service areas including business consulting, strategic consulting, sales and marketing consulting, digital marketing, Sales Process Outsourcing (SPO), HR, Operations and leadership training, sales training, business mentoring and executive coaching.

To know more about Startup Xperts, visit us at www.startupxperts.com or write to us at info@startupxperts.com

Author Shyam Sekar acts as a Chief Mentor and Strategist at Startup Xperts and provides business consulting and execution support to numerous startups and SMEs, helping them build their enterprises successfully.

The views expressed in this article are that of the author’s and Startup Xperts is not responsible for this content. In case of any objection in content, IP violations, incorrect or inappropriate information, please inform us at ceo@startupxperts.com. We will do our best to act on it at the earliest

0
Posted on Author admin Categories Blog

How to start a startup – Points to consider!

Is Just an Idea Enough…?
Points to ponder before start(ing) up…!
An innovative idea is the most important seed for a startup business venture. An innovative idea can bring about a significant change in the way a product or service is adopted by the customer, but there are a host of other aspects that come into play to make the idea a working business proposition.

An innovative idea is absolutely necessary to establish a startup. But an innovative idea alone does not guarantee success in the marketplace…!

What turns an idea into a successful business venture?

While an idea by itself may be innovative, the real challenge for the originator of the idea lies in:

Stitching the idea into a profitable business model:In this context, a business model essentially refers to (a) how the idea (or a product/service based on that idea) will deliver value to the end user (b) how it can be monetized, and (c) how scalable it is.
Evolving a go-to-market (GTM) strategy that takes the business model (essentially the idea) to the market:Having conceived an idea, how will it be taken to the end user? The first question a budding entrepreneur with an innovative idea has to ask is this: what will be the profile of an ideal customer for me? Will it be, for instance, an online user from the general population looking for a specific service, or will it be a corporate entity looking to address a specific business need?
Among other questions, the GTM strategy has to, at the minimum, answer the following questions:

What is the profile of my typical customer? This question helps segment the market into various categories
Where is my ideal customer located?This question helps segment the market into various territories / geographies
What problem does it solve for my customer, and how critical is that problem?This question helps draw up the ‘sales and marketing pitch’ for the customer
What are the typical expectations my ideal customer would have from my product/service?This helps identify whether there exists a similar product/service in the market, and how your idea can be differentiated from existing offerings
How much would my customer be willing to pay for my product or service?Am I able to offer my product/service at a particular cost, or should it be high or low?
Managing Funds/Bringing investments during incubation:Working capital requirements are one of the most important aspects to be factored while establishing a startup. Entrepreneurs at times have a heady conviction behind their product/service, making them unintentionally overlook the fact that employees have to be paid their salaries, and that rentals and utility bills are a monthly occurrence!
The best way to kick-start a venture is through ‘boot-strapping‘. Self generated funds, or funds sought/borrowed from friends and relatives have been the widely used avenue in raising initial capital to set the venture in motion. If this option is not feasible, or when additional funds are required investments can be brought in through other options too; loans towards working capital or equity infusion from the investor community. Both options have their own merits (or demerits depending on the perspective!) depending on which stage of the business lifecycle the startup is at the time.

The main advantage of a loan is that it keeps management control of the startup with the entrepreneur themselves. This enables the entrepreneur to take operational decisions on organisational strategy, product/service roadmap, etc. based on market conditions, and while doing so, stays in sync with the vision with which he started off.

Equity infusion is a double edged sword. While it gives the entrepreneur access to the potentially vast network of contacts held by the investors, he has to concede certain extent of management control. Equity infusion is ideal when the startup has started to yield revenue (perhaps not profits yet!); such infusion is required to take the startup to the next higher orbit of revenue and profitability.

Whatever the investment route the entrepreneur takes, it has to be aligned with the merit of the idea, the business model, the GTM strategy and the long term plans for the venture.

The People Perspective:Having conceived a brilliant idea, a robust business model to go with it, and a GTM strategy that addresses the needs of all possible market segments, how well is it going to be executed? Having right people on the right seat. It is important to bring on board people who have a shared passion and vision about the idea/product/service.
Working in startups is characterized by the absence of role clarity – every role in the company becomes multi-faceted! The CEO could find himself making a pitch for funding during an investor meeting, at the end of which he would need to pick up the telephone to cold call a potential client! These situations will be the norm rather than the exception; hence it is imperative that the people who form the core team do not bring any bureaucratic baggage about hierarchy, role-compartmentalisation and other related aspects.

The People perspective covers not only employees: it also covers external consultants, professional mentors, advisors, partners, vendors/suppliers and others who are equally critical to the success of the startup; they bring the much required view from an external perspective, and along with it, a (brutally!) honest assessment of any shortcomings in execution.

Managing growth after establishing the business model:The issues, challenges and priorities will start to change; from the time of business start, and+ when it has reached a certain stage.
Managing growth could also involve the exit strategy for the founders. When does a startup cease to be a startup? At what stage will the founder reduce their stake in the venture? Is it the vision of the founder to make his startup a global organisation? Alternatively, is it the vision of the founder to have his startup acquired by a larger organisation which sees his idea to complement their business (typically associated with serial entrepreneurs)? It is not surprising to see examples of startups working in niche areas, eventually getting acquired by larger enterprises.

The aspects captured above are just the tip of the iceberg. It is wise that these are best approached by having a clear vision, goals, and backed by a robust execution strategy.

Dwight Eisenhower once quipped, “In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.”

Indeed, establishing a startup is no different from a battle. While we may not have all the answers at the very beginning itself, there needs to be certain goals and milestones that needs to be signed-off but be flexible enough to incorporate any changes in plans or execution, during the journey!

Startup Xperts is a Business Growth and Consulting company with an objective to transform CEO’s growth vision into realistic, strategic, actionable plans that delivers results. Startup Xperts supports enterprises through business strategies, goal setting, sales and marketing set up, developing a high performance sales engine, digital marketing, specialized trainings, executive coaching and leadership hiring.

0
1 2 3 4 5 6