Selection of Dealers

• The company does not advertise for new dealers. Whenever the need to appoint a new dealer for an area is felt the word is spread around. This is being used as the type of dealer who sell pumps and motors are mostly concentrated in a locality in every town or city
• The interested dealers are asked to present before the branch manager and the group marketing manager as to how they would be able to serve the company
• The selection is then done on the basis of following criteria:

1. Financial Strength: The capability of the dealer to be able to hold sufficient stock as per the potential of the area, both in the present and in the future, and whether he will be able to pay the companies dues in time.
2. Manpower: the strength of the workforce for handling sales, delivery, store handling, after sales service etc. the quality of the workforce in terms of educational qualifications, technical competency, and experience is also seen.
3. Contacts: As the business for these types of products is done on  the basis of contacts that form a major basis for selection and include the present customers of the dealers, experience in dealing with such customers, and overall contacts in the society
4. Floor space: Depending on the quantity of products to be stocked for the targeted sales, the floor space of the godown should be sufficient and located close to the market
5. Location: Location and ambiance of the outlet are not important.

• Feedback from the market is obtained through the market network and the present dealer network. The feedback is sought for things like authenticity of the claims and the reputation of the person to be appointed.
• Appointment is given to the elected dealers after they give a security deposit. Every dealer is required to make a deposit with the company, which works out to roughly around three months of expected sales.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Effective Segmentation

Segmentation does not promote marketing success in all cases. Effectiveness depends on the following basic requirements:

• The market segment must present measurable purchasing power and size.
• Marketers must find a way to effectively promote to and serve the market segment.
• Marketers must identify segments that are sufficiently large enough to give them good profit potential.
• The firm must target segments that match its marketing capabilities. Targeting a large number of niche markets can produce an expensive, complex and inefficient strategy.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Direct Sales Calls

• Do sufficient research to identify potential customers who appear to need your product. This means pulling together names, addresses, and telephone numbers of companies in your market area that use the types of products you are trying to sell. Calling on companies that do not use your products only wastes time, energy, and money.
• Get the name, address, and telephone number of the specific individual responsible for purchasing the  types of products you are selling. It won’t do much good to talk to the marketing manager if you’re trying to sell computer programs, or the general manager if you’re selling machine tools.
• Know your sales pitch before calling. No one has time to chit-chat about superfluous subjects. No one cares about how you feel, nor do they care to tell you how they feel. One sentence describing your product and why the listener should buy it is all you’ve time for. If you continue beyond one sentence, either you’ll be thrown out or you’ll lose the interest of your  potential customer. When buyers want to hear more, they ask questions. If there are no questions, there’s no interest.
• Don’t attempt to close an order at the first contact—either by phone or in person. If the person is interested, ask what would be convenient time and place for you to return and elaborate on your product offering, including prices, delivery schedules, and quality guarantees.
• Focus on the benefits to be gained from using your product, not on its price. Explanations of product pricing and delivery options should wait for second contact. If you’re forced to the wall, try to keep your description of your pricing structure general.
• Follow up all potential leads with another call, a letter, or a sample of your product. The scret to building a first-stage business base through direct sales is to continually follow up with any potential customer that seems the least bit interested in your product.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Subsistence Economy

In such an economy, each family unit produces everything it consumes. There is no need to exchange goods and services. Each producer-consumer unit is totally self-sufficient, although usually its standard of living is relatively low. No marketing takes place because marketing doesn’t occur unless two or more parties are willing to exchange something for something else.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Competitive Marketing Theories

Competitive market theories are derived from the neo-classical economic concepts of rational choice and maximization of utility. The assumption is that individuals choose jobs which offer them maximum benefits. The utility or value of these benefits – money, vacation time, pension entitlement and so on – vary for different individuals according to their personal preferences. People move from one organization to another if improved benefits are available. At the same time, employer organizations attempt to get the most from their employees for the lowest possible cost.

The outcome of this process is a dynamic and shifting equilibrium in which both employees and organizations compete to maximize benefits for themselves. Within a specific region or industry there is a balance between supply and demand for human resources. Pay and conditions for employees are determined by the relative scarcity or abundance of skills and abilities in the employment market. Competitive forces push wages up when demand for products – and hence employees – increases, and downwards when the economy is in recession. In the latter case a market clearing wage is eventually arrived at which is sufficiently low to encourage employers to increase recruitment and eliminate unemployment. This discourse reinforces the view that employees are objects to be traded like any other commodities in the market – human resources in the hardest possible sense. Supposedly, they offer themselves – their skills and human qualities – for sale to the highest bidders. Within this mindset they could just as well be vegetables on a market stall.

Competition theories assume that job-seekers have perfect knowledge of available jobs and benefits. Job-searching is an expensive and time consuming business. The unemployed do not have money and those in work do not have time. The result is that few people conduct the extensive searches required to find jobs which meet their preferences perfectly. In practice, most individuals settle for employment which is quickly obtained and which exceeds the reserve minimum wage they have in mind. There is a considerable element of luck involved. Moreover, the job-seeker does not make the choice: in most cases the decision is in the hands of employer.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Financing Alternatives

By the time your company reaches its first stage of development, it has probably consumed most, if not all, of its original seed capital. Although business may be looking up, sales are not generating enough free cash to buy the inventory needed for further growth. And, of course, the amount of cash you have taken out of the business for personal living expenses has probably been negligible.

Except in very rare circumstances, a new business needs about three years of steady growth before it generates free cash in sufficient amounts to survive. Working capital to keep the business growing must come from outside the company. Financing must be obtained from banks, other leading institutions, or investors, or the company will stagnate and quickly die.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

The Concept of Service

If we open a new business, the key issue is how long we are planning. If all we want to do is make a quick buck and move on, there is absolutely no point spending a single penny we don’t absolutely need to. But that is not the route to creating an amazingly successful organization.

The only approach for an organization to take if it wants to become amazingly successful is to become highly effective and highly focused. And that doesn’t pay dividends overnight.

But no single working culture is right for every situation. Why should anyone spend money to create a future that they do not expect to be part of?

Why invest in intangible assets that are hard to value on the balance sheet such as staff, improving team moral, developing customer focus and lifting competence levels, if you expect to be moving on soon?

A working culture centered around the concept of service generally and customer service specifically is the most likely to deliver long-term amazing success.

An organization that wants to adopt a service-based working culture must however be ready for the long haul. It must have both the patience and the resources to get through the early stages in a market where market dominance and being the largest are critical whatever the future price?

Some organizations are better off starting with one working culture and then migrating to another when scale and success allow or demand it.

Planning to evolve or change our working culture is fine as an idea when those in charge are sufficiently switched on to the challenges of changing an organization’s culture: to act at the appropriate time and effectively instigate a culture shift in line with new market conditions.

Let’s not forget that the larger an organization is, the more careful it must be in choosing its working culture in the first instance. Larger organizations are always going to be harder to change; they are clumsy and less fleet of foot than their smaller counterparts. Larger organizations must change their working culture less often and less dramatically, so must put more time and effort into avoiding problems in the first place.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Authority Levels

Authority levels should never be engraved in stone. They must be adjusted from time to time to meet the changing needs of the business and the changing responsibilities of the jobs. Assigning the appropriate authority levels to jobs at all levels is critical to the efficient operation of any business, particularly those businesses that offer a service. One of the primary causes of consumer discontent stems from people not having sufficient authority; the customer is bounced around hither and yon before he finally reaches a person who is able to make a decision concerning his problem.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you periodically reassess the authority levels assigned to jobs in your area:

• Have the responsibilities of the jobs changed in my way?
• If the responsibilities have changed, how should be authority levels be changed?
• Do the authority levels enable the company to meet the clients’ and customers’ needs as efficiently as possible?

This reassessment of authority levels is especially important to maintaining employee morale. If a person is given an increase in responsibility without a corresponding increase in authority, the result can be as devastating as failing to give him an increase in salary.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Direct-mail Marketing: Checklist

• Is there a perceived need for the product or service?
• Is it practical?
• Is it unique?
• Is the price right for your customers or prospects?
• Is it a good value?
• Is the markup sufficient to assure a profit?
• Is the market large enough? Does the product or service have broad appeal?
• Are there specific smaller segments of your list that have a strong desire for your product or service?
• Is it new? Will your customers perceive it as being new?
• Can it be photographed or illustrated interestingly?
• Are there sufficient unusual selling features to make your copy sizzle?
• Is it economical to ship? Is it fragile? Old shaped? Heavy? Bulky?
• Can it be personalized?
• Are there any legal problems to overcome?
• Is it safe to use?
• Is the supplier reputable?
• Will backup merchandise be available for fast shipment on reorders?
• Might returns be too huge?
• Will refurbishing of returned merchandise be practical?
• Is it, or can it be, packaged attractively?
• Are usage instructions clear?
• How does it compare to competitive products or services?
• Will it have exclusivity?
• Will it lend itself to repeat business?
• Is it consumable, so that there will be repeat orders?
• Is it faddish? Too short-lived?
• Is it too seasonal for direct mail selling?
• Can an add-on to the product make it more distinctive and salable?
• Will the number of stock keeping units – various sizes and colors – create problems?
• Does it lend itself to multiple pricing?
• Is it too readily available in stores?
• Is it like an old, hot item, so that its success is guaranteed?
• Is it doomed because similar items have failed?
• Does your mother, wife, brother, husband, sister, or kid like it?
• Is direct mail the way to go with it?
• Does it fill an unfilled niche in the marketplace?

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Company Demographics

For all customers or prospect records the following basic attributes will lay a solid foundation for numerous segmentations:

1. Category code: A four-digit code is usually a sufficiently descriptive definition your market is concentrated in several Standard Industry Codes, then going to the six or eight digit level may be appropriate. Remember the SIC is currently undergoing revision, so be flexible with this field.
2. Company size: There are two choices – sales volume or employee size. It is probably best to use employee size, as it is more easily obtained and more accurate than company revenue. Record employee numbers by site so that they can be rolled up to the corporate level.
3. Site Type and Linkage: There are some standard definitions here such as branch, division and corporate headquarters. It is important that you take time to develop a site definition that fits your business as this might include plant, research center, etc. secondly, link the sites to a corporate structure, so that a roll-up to the enterprise level can be carried out to look at the customer picture.
4. Financial year: For those selling situations that involve the customer needing to budget for your product or service, the knowledge of the fiscal year becomes critical, as this will drive the buying process and therefore your selling cycle. Most companies are on a calendar/fiscal year, but about 20 percent are on a different fiscal year basis. In the consumer market this might also be relevant – for example in acquiring expensive items.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.