The Flame of Hope begins to shine brighter

I apologize for having stayed off the air for a long time, and I shall make amends. I can only say that the last 2 months have been too hectic (What's new there - you may ask). But this time, they were hectic enough to keep me away from my two cherished hobbies - writing and photography. I have hardly been able to put in a decent effort in either of these areas. Well, now that the need is back, the effort will match as well.

I attended a conference on Digital marketing in Mumbai on 26th November last year (Yes, you got it right, 26/11 it was). I am going to just mention some very key and important learnings there:

1. The Digital media is growing faster than you and I imagined. The western world has really progressed far more in this area than we have. The buzz is just beginning in India now.
2. More people are spending time on the net than watching TV. This applies more to youngsters than older people. People are even creating an alternative and imaginary life on the web where they are born, go to school, grow up, have a job, make or loose money, meet people, have a romance, marry, divorce and much more. While much of this is fun and fantasy, it is also going to provide opportunities for sales people to create scenarios for prospective customers. e.g., Prospective home buyers will scout around the locality and then enter the house their broker is showing them, see and inspect the specs, the amenities, the list of neighbourhood store, prospective friends for themselves and their kids and much more. How soon will this happen? Weel, your guess is good as mine. It may even never happen.
3. Web-behaviour is quite different than physical behaviour. One thing is currently certain - As Prahalad Kakkar put it nicely - A reader will be more informed than a web - browser. Real knowledge will never come from the web. But instant reference and reviews will. For a sales person, this means that any unhappy customer will surely go to the web and vent his ire. So beware. Sales people can no longer afford to leave issues open. Closing customer complaints and making the customer feel satisfied will be very important.
4. An important point Kakkar made - No matter what, one cannot fake it, even on the web. Humans have very strong sense to detect anything synthetic - be it food, cloth or behaviour (even on the net). So keep that out.
5. Most important learning - Like it or not, I do not have an option but to get net savvy, be socially active on the net and learn to use it to my advantage before others do. It is a race here like anywhere else.

Well, there you have it. A full day's learning in 5 critical takeaways for a sales person.

As promised, I will be back soon and will keep coming back. For a change, I have also put up a new picture on the web-site. The picture of a Saturday morning guest at our window. Do see it and please send me comments on how you liked this post.

Regards,

Vishwajeet

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