Sales & Marketing------Strategies( THE COLA WAR)

Dear Friends,

 I guess we discussed enough about Sales and Marketing last time. You should be able to say by now that the photo opposite is wrong, if the intention behind posting it was only for Sales &Marketing! Nah, I just got carried over as these guys really look cute in those superhero costumes.

The Error in the Picture
              The thing that is wrong with the photograph is that a couple of more of Marketing's sub-ordinates are not here. And one among them whom you just can't ignore, leaving sales aside,as he is really really indispensable. Monsieur "Strategy" is the one I refer to. 
In our profession,ladies and gentleman, costing is okay but she is no ogre. What is important is how and with what strategy, the approach is made. This is much more important  than the price in Selling of High-Value Equipment.

     In certain  Sales blogs,you often come across Lao's "The Art of War"but as I have said before, I prefer to read Clausewitz's book "On War"which reflects on history's famous wars to underscore the points in his book. Great rivalries today see the market leader take themselves up as the competition. The best defense is not to lack the courage to attack yourself says Clausewitz. If Coke had launched an own variant with a 'youth' target, Pepsi would have had no niche to operate.

[Karl Von Clausewitz was a 
General in the Prussian Army who wrote the  book in 1852 after retirement].

Clausewitz tells us at length about how the strengths of the enemy can often be converted to weaknesses.One of the best examples of this (says Ries and Trout)is how Pepsi Cola of New York socked one to Atlanta's Coca-Cola. In 1915,Coke was sold at a price of 10c for an unique capacity of its bottle which was 6 1/2 oz. Coke had no real competitors, which led to complacence.

THE PARETO PRINCIPLE CUSTOMIZED

You must have heard of the Paretto Principle (also known as the 80/20 law). Rubbish? That is right. I do not remember the exact words but I am darn SURE that I had made a similar comment when I was first discussing this principle with a live person (not a book). What is this principle anyway and what’s it doing here within a discourse of sales & marketing of capital equipment? The principle states that 80% of your input is responsible for 20% of your output and the balance 20% of your input brings about the other 80% of your output. And let me also tell you ..IT WORKS with approximations of-course.

If  taken into selling, the principle will state that 20% of your business comes from 80% of your customers and the balance 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. This is valid principle everywhere but when you are selling high value equipment, the South East Asian Market is just a little different.

• ·         10% of your customers can bring you 0-20% of your business revenue.
• ·         30% of your customers will bring you 80%-60% of your sales output.
• ·         60% of your customers will bring you 20% of your sales revenue.

This is one of the main differences that at any time you will always have a joker (or two jokers; God forbid). What does the joker do? The Joker is something you can never rely on until you get the Purchase Order. Nevertheless, why? You will ask. Is he a sadist? Does he get pleasure from seeing you as a victim of tensile and compressive forces? That’s not it friends? A Joker is someone to whom a business commitment means nothing. He is so whimsical that he can take an approach at 180 degree to the original at the last minute. For the joker, money counts,period.

I don't say that the joker can stop your orders. If you have been true to the marketing principles and if your offer is suitable, you can bring him around, but your target date is already gone. So, how do you defeat the joker in his own game? You don’t.  The only thing you do is to keep an allowance for him. Never underestimate the joker. He has got enough clout to stop all your orders. Be on good terms with him.

This is how you should think of devoting time when you are fixing up strategy. And, unfortunately in SE Asia, directors’ do not plan as a team. Unless you play as a team and so get them all-in (up to Dy. Manager level). Tell them the strategy. Ask for feedbacks. Do this and you will be shocked. You will realize that you have huge creativity with you.. The fact is that you have failed to tap it. How you tap it is the key here!

Finally, do not ever make heroes of your sub-ordinates or encourage them to be heroes. In Capital Equipment Marketing, heroes are losers . We once more quote an actual general Gen. Patton. Gen.Patton just before his victorious run is supposed to have said to his troops “Remember, no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country, he won it by making the other poor dumb bastard to die for his country”. There are no heroes in a marketing victory. Everyone has to contribute to it. If not, run for your life because you are about to be annihilated. What you are feeling is the eye of the hurricane!

Cheers then folks,

Till the next time

it's BILBO