Are structured sales techniques becoming obsolete?

People in Pakistan are just waking up to Structured processes in their sales… most of sales is still either relationship driven, or is too simple a process (i.e. selling Cellphone rate plans).

A structure sales process typically goes through the following steps:

• Step #1. Engage customer.
• Step #2. Investigate needs.
• Step #3. Present a product.
• Step #4. Demonstrate the product.
• Step #5. Propose a purchase.
• Step #6. Negotiate terms.
• Step #7. Answer objections.
• Step #8. Close the deal.

Around the world, however, it seems that the structured sales process is diminishing over the internet.

This article explains a couple of good reasons for this.

What stories do you want to see on Green & White?

I have a tonne (umm.. ok about 15) different stories in draft, and each of them needs its own due time to complete into a good article.

But I keep noticing some posts get a lot of hits and others not so much — so since this is like an interactive newspaper, YOU get to have a say in what you read!

If you LOOOVE Green & White, then please tell me what you want to see in this blog?

What would make you go viral and grab all your friends, install RSS readers on their PCs and get them hooked too?

Why people are afraid of becoming Coders, and what companies need to do about it

Now this is going to be a very lengthy discussion, and I can only put in my two cents. I hope the community (YOU) can also add to this constructively, and we will keep posting more about this issue.

People, and fresh engineering grads, are becoming deathly afraid of becoming labelled as “coders” in Pakistan, and this is an Issue that I think needs resolution at large. Lets put a basic complaint aside: this issue isnt one of salary - it is with the mere act of actually having to write, read, or otherwise deal with source code.

I’ll be frank in saying this puzzles me. Why are more and more kids from Fast, Lums, Nust expecting to immediately get into higher end tech jobs without being willing to experience the entire SDLC? Why do they feel proud in thinking that “coding” jobs are more suited to people from other (and perhaps “lower”?) univs?

The question I want to ask today is, how did this general aura of misconception and fear regarding coding jobs develop in the first place, what is the impact this is having to the industry, and what are the ways of crossing this chasm?

Simplicity = Relevance = $$$ (Great products reduce the overload of choice)

All products and businesses serve people. Successful products and businesses create relevance for the people they serve.

I’ve often said that you know you have created relevance when your customer cannot sleep after hearing or reading about your product or service — the impact on his or her life is too important for that person to ignore, because of how relevant the offering is.

One of the easiest and best way of creating this relevance to help reduce the confusion in a person’s massively overloaded lives.

Today, people are massively overloaded — with information, with news, with ads (Aur Sunao anyone!?), and with options! Just remove those nuisances, and you’re relevant to someone!

Here is a great way, then, of identifying successful product opportunities:

1- Recognizing the said overload is simple enough — how many times can each of us tolerate the Aur Sunao ad before adding a todo list item that says “Switch cellphone carriers away from Mobilink — tell friends to do the same”

2- Reducing the said overload is simple enough as well — just remove the pains!

3- Launch, highlight, and trumpet your simplicity.

The first law of media states that if you reduce the total set of media, the attention to any specific media would increase — from competitive economics it implicitly says that the fewer choices of media will also be higher quality choices, and thus there will be a high probability that they will be relevant to the segment at large.

This is a fairly common approach of creating relevance through simplicity. One way of controlling the scope — and hence quality — of media presented is by creating niche-content, such as AAG TV.

This is the approach used to simplify the overload of news and media.

But what about the overload of Choice?!

Take a look at your desktops after a few months of use, and if you’re like me they will look like a war zone. Take a look at many plugin-enabled software products (such as Firefox or MS Word) with all of their options open (a problem called Feature Creep — see the Wikipedia entry on it).

Beyond software, look at Starbucks — which now boasts over 35 different ways of getting coffee! Or, perhaps, even down to Subway, with a lengthy exam to go through to make your sub.

Finally, take a look at ANY remote control being manufactured today, and try not to wonder why God decided to put you through that experience.

We live with WAY too many options, and this can more than overwhelm the typical person. Honestly, the choices we struggle through in day-to-day life makes the Office Clippy look like a refined gentleman in comparison.

The excessive options stop us from doing what we actually set out to do, and constantly give us moments to think and measure options and make decisions. Anyone, then, who can help us sift through the options and can allow us to actually do what it was that we wanted to do, will create successful products, and if nothing else allows you to build a successful niche set of customers.

Examples?

- Quiznos Subs VS Subway — If I’m going in to have a sandwich, dont put me through an exam that makes me lose my appetite — Quiznos menu structure is a clear winner.

- ANY TV remote control VS the Apple TV Remote — This is even on the CDF Engineering test for all applicants — a 6 button remote can do everything a 50 button one can, AND looks nicer too

- ANY CRM software VS 37Signal’s HighRise — When all we want to do is keep track of our company’s interactions with our customers, why have the sales team spend more than half the day filling up forms?

- MS Project Server + MS Sharepoint Server + MS Project Client VS BaseCamp or GoPlan – Ugh… dont even get me started on Project server series…

So… short answer to a long answer to a short question: Simplicity = Relevance = $$$

Bhutan among World’s Happiest Countries

Businessweek recently posted research that quotes the world’s happiest countries.

No doubt the top spots are claimed by the peaceful European states of Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden etc… but #8 was Bhutan!? Interesting!

Here is the excerpt…

Here’s a surprise: The small Asian nation of Bhutan ranks eighth in the
world, despite relatively low life expectancy, a literacy rate of just
47%, and a very low GDP per capita. Why? Researchers credit an
unusually strong sense of national identity. Plus, the country has
beautiful scenery and a largely unspoiled culture, thanks to strict
governmental limits on tourism, development, and immigration. Pretty
counterintuitive, but Bhutan seems to have found a recipe for
happiness.

Activists fight back against Viacom in support of YouTube

I mentioned last week that Viacom had sued Google/YouTube for $1B for claimed copyright infringement.

Today, an activists group sued Viacom back for having asked Google to remove an episode of the show “The Colbert Report”, claiming that having that show on YouTube was protected under the “fair use” clause of copyright agreements.

You can see the full story here.

This goes to further show how rights protection is evolving in the world today.

Diallog a good example of customer-focused telecom companies

I think Diallog is one of the more under-rated telecom operators in Pakistan. Despite their relative small size in the Wireless Local Loop (WLL) space, they command a fairly loyal following in a niche, and most importantly, they have vision.

I think they have a great track record of being able to meet their operational targets with lightning speed (1.5 month network rollout?), led by the youngest telecom company CEO in the world, Artem Orange.

Mr. Orange has deep vision of how telecom should be supporting society, some of which you can even see on their website http://www.diallog.com.pk

What about that loyal following? What I always feel from the Diallog brand (even though I have never used their services) is that they strongly believe in a telecom service contract being a relationship. Just by looking at their website and products, I get the feeling that their niche is targeting slightly more intellectual people who want to have relationship conversations with their telecom provider.

I believe that in comparison with all of the WLL operators, and even some of the cellphone operators, Diallog focuses the most on creating a slew of content and value added information services.

It is good to see a telecom company go the extra mile in customer support — such as hiring a number of content writers in-house to ensure they get good content out there, rather than simply out-sourcing poor-quality content from a larger number of publishers.

Another good sign was a telecom company that actually shares their 1-year vision with their customers on the website itself before releasing new products.

A third good sign is the fact that they have a comprehensive news feed on the Pakistani telecom industry as a whole, which is great for analysts like me to visit to keep up to date on major activities.

Recently, they’ve announced that their press-releases will be done over RSS. Again, this is a good sign of support for their niche — which seems to be slightly more intellectual and forward-thinking people in ISB and Lahore rather than mass consumers.

All in all — a good intelligent firm getting some things right (although they could certainly improve their website’s stock photography)

RSS feeds now Customer Experience compliant

I noticed recently that the RSS feed of Green & White was only showing excerpts of the stories rather than the complete post.

That goes against my own product customer experience principles. Why tax the person who wants to subscribe to your newspaper? Why add more costs and steps on the user?

Shame on me.

Green & White RSS feed will now show you the full text of the stories on the blog, you can get involved fully.

If you like a post though, get involved! Spend that extra time to click on the post, go down to the comments, and pour me another cup, or bash my coffee mug straight out of my hand.

MNP to be implemented on March 23…?

Saw a news ticker saying that all telecom operators have agreed and are ready for the March 23 deadline for MNP implementation in Pakistan.

I dont have any inside info, but lets see how this one plays out … we remain cautiously optimistic.

Analysis of Customer Feedback methods - UFONE vs MBL vs Union Bank

Companies in Pakistan are beginning to recognize the strategic importance of curbing customer churn. As a result, some of the leading companies are implementing interesting and new ways of getting Customer Feedback to get some data on customer experiences.

While this discussion should generally be a market research conducted over
hundreds of companies, lets analyze three approaches.

Disclaimer: This may not be the apples to apples comparison you expect, because I am not counting traditional approaches such as help lines, ticketing systems, etc. What I am analyzing are “innovative” new ways of getting customer insight that the three firms are using.