Plus the competition in these products is too high with multiple brands fighting for the same category and the same exposure. Laptops, Tablets, Televisions, Washing machines, Air conditioners are examples of product categories where there is huge competition and even small advantages can be turned in to USP’s.

So how do you sell in retail and what are the sales techniques which a retail sales person can apply?

1) Presentation– A retail Sales person needs to have presentation and self grooming. He should be very much aware of his self image and the image he portrays to a walk in customer.

Remember, that customers are capable of deciding whether or not they are going to buy from a showroom in the first minute itself. The self image of the sales person, as well as the display of the products is critical in presentation.

2) Understanding the customer – A retail sales person needs to be a reader of people. He should be able to differentiate people on the basis of small gestures. A person’s financial background, the class he comes from and his expectation from a retail store are apparent from the way a customer walks and talks in front of a retail sales person. Thus these cues are not to be missed.

Furthermore, the customer might have some unstated needs which he cannot talk about. For example he might like a lower priced product or even a premium product. In such times, it is important that the sales person understand the customer and display the right kind of product to him.

3) Knowledge of the product – A customer who is passionate about a brand or a product will be turned off if the sales person is unable to impart knowledge of the product. Today the best retail chains display laptops with all the necessary information like RAM, processor and hard disk already shown on the laptop.

But on the other hand, there are so many smart phones in the market that the sales person needs to have knowledge of each product such that he can answer customer’s questions confidently. If the sales person has to go to someone else to get questions answered then in that time the customer might lose his purchase edge and might just walk away by losing interest instead of making a purchase.

4) Awareness of the competition – You need to win from your competition. For that, first you need to know what your competition is offering. If the customer talks to you about one USP which the competition has, than you need to have another USP which your product can provide to the customer and which is better than the competition.

Only via this exchange, the customer will gain confidence on your product and think of purchasing. If the customer mentions a USP of the competition and you keep mum because you don’t know about it, than the customer is likely to head over to the competition.

5) Follow ups – A regular follow up is the key to closing a customer. Several times, a purchase may be in the back of the mind for a customer. However, reminding him of the purchase is the job of a retail sales executive. At the same time, many customers will also look at the interest level which a company is showing during the time of purchase.

If the company has a professional approach during purchase, than it is bound to have a good after sales backup as well. Thus, your follow up gives trust to the customer that he is dealing with a professional and interested company rather than dealing with a lethargic and no commitment company.

6) Being smarter than the customer – You have the knowledge. You have the confidence. You know the product inside out. The only thing you have to do is to let the customer make the decision. But if you are a smart sales guy, you will know that you can steer the customer to make a decision that you want.

The very first thing you need is to understand what the customer wants. After that, you can customize your offering as per what your customer wants. This leads the customer through a smooth sales process and he doesn’t feel pushed. Instead he is being offered what he wants in a polite manner. The customer thus makes the final purchase decision quite easily.

A Vision statement is written by an organization to showcase its dreams and where it wants to be in the long run. A vision statement will be of 2-3 lines and it will generally outline the following

1) What the company does

2) A customer driven approach where the company outlines the values and benefits which the company believes in and provides to its customers.

The above is the skeleton of a vision statement. Take a vision statement of any brand in the world and you will find the above two points forming the base of the vision statement.

Example – Amazons vision statement is “Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online”

A mission statement on the other hand is derived from the vision statement. It is just like cause and effect. The vision statement is the cause whereas the mission statement is the effect. To achieve the vision, you need to have a mission.

A mission statement can have the following traits

1) Long term action plan – how the company plans to achieve its vision. For example – by providing cutting edge technology products

2) Focus of the company – Where is the company focusing on? Several companies mention employees, shareholders as well as customers. Some other companies may mention profit goals or operational excellence.

The above two points will in essence form a mission statement.

A mission statement can be the same as the vision statement. In the above Amazon example, Amazon claims that its vision and mission statement are the same. Amazon also says that their customers form the base of their company and hence their mission too is to be customer centric company.

Not every company is as smart as Amazon. And hence most companies have a vision statement which is generalist in nature and promotes a value or a product the brand stands for. The mission statement on the other hand states how the company will achieve its visionary goal.

One of my readers recently wrote to me of what I think of the current economic environment and whether or not marketing has increased in its importance today? My answer is a resounding YES.

Marketing is increasing in importance due to a tough business environment

To understand the relationship between marketing and today’s environment, we need to define some of the traits of current economic environment.

Competition – Every brand and product is being affected by competition. There are ‘N’ numbers of products and brands present in any category. Each product has a USP of its own and each brand is targeting one particular niche. Thus the choices for consumers have increased a lot which causes loss of brand loyalty. Due to lessening of brand loyalty, customers can be lost to competition much faster than was previously possible.

The way to fight against competition is to offer better products and build a better process such that the customer is thoroughly satisfied and sticks with your product / brand.

Internet / word of mouth – Due to the advent and large spread usage of internet, customers are aware about your product in depth even before entering the store. Furthermore, there is a lot of reference selling wherein a customer buys a product because their friends have recommended it. For example – if 10 of your friends recommend 1 movie as very good, you will definitely check out the movie as early as possible.

Thus, internet marketing and digital campaigns have become an important part of marketing strategy. If a business is offering services, than they will need to have a higher budget for internet marketing as their potential consumers search for services through google or through online classifieds today rather than recalling TV ads or outdoor media. In India, Justdial is a perfect example of how consumers are searching for products and services online.

Consumer decision making – With so much competition already present in the market, and with a powerful medium like internet being used, there is too much noise for the customer to make a sound decision. Thus, today the focus is equally on the complete marketing mix as well as on manufacturing products which are unique.

The recent success of Micromax against Samsung is an example of how penetrative pricing can be used along with product development. Unlike Samsung, Micromax had not used much marketing communications. Rather it relied on solid product development, a penetration pricing and word of mouth as well as a digital marketing strategy. The result was that Micromax canvas phones are taking away a chunk of market share from Samsung smart phones.

Niche markets rising up – Today there is huge market for cell phone accessories, automobile accessories as well as home decoration. These markets are niche markets but they are on the rise and many of the SME’s have made it big by bulk supplying their products to OEM’s. In such niche companies, communications and distribution plays a critical role.

For example – In ear phones and tablet covers, packaging and design is most important, whereas in spare parts of white goods and automobiles, distribution and marketing strategy is essential. Thus even in niche product, the company cannot survive without a proper marketing plan and strategy.

Combine the above four traits of a business environment and the environment becomes complex, dynamic, multi faceted and consumer driven. In such a market, the marketing mix is ever changing and hence the need arises of smart marketing managers and smarter marketing strategies.

A customer value proposition is important for an organization as it helps the organization understand the complete market environment and how it will affect their own products. Where value proposition outlines the key benefits of the products, customer value proposition will highlight the business environment, the competition, and more importantly the reason which compels the customer to buy your own product.

Who is your target audience – Your customer value proposition cannot be made if you don’t know your target segment. This CVP is going to be presented to these target audience itself. Thus, If Mahindra holidays are targeting only the holiday travellers than its products will be different as compared to another company which is targeting business travellers.

What does your target audience want – Before developing your product, it is necessary to understand what does the customer wants? This can be done through a market research in your industry, or if you have an insight for a product which is missing in the market and which will find a wide application. In both the cases, you will know what the customer wants and this will create an immediate value for your product. On the other hand, if the product already exists in the market, than you need to ask what features will differentiate your product from the others. You need to devise your marketing strategy in such a manner that these features are highlighted.

Benefits of your products – Once you know what the target audience wants, you need to design the product with the right features and then highlight the benefits of your products. Always remember that your marketing mix is dynamic. Thus if your product has many benefits, the price of the product will be more and vice versa. Thus, you might again need to look at your target audience and depending on your demography, diversify the customer benefits that you are going to advertise. This helps create a much clearer customer value proposition.

How are you better than your competition? – Do not ignore your competition, because your customer certainly will not ignore them. Be realistic and accept the facts that just like the customer has approached you, he is going to approach the competitor. The customer might openly ask you why he should buy your product, or he might go to competitors, collect information and then make his own decision. It is your job to understand what the competition is doing and thereby build the customer value proposition in such a manner that your product appears stronger than the competition.

Commitments to the customer – As a famous marketer once said “Brand is a promise”. Once you sell your product to your customer, you have made a promise to the customer that the product is up to his expectations. However, if you fail in your post purchase service, the customer is likely to shift to another brand. Thus it is very important that you outline your own commitments well in advance. Many electronics brands provide customers with warranty cards, product usage guidelines as well as company policy along with the purchase of the product. This is to ensure that the customer understands your commitment to the product and at the same times understands that you have your limitations.

Thus your customer value proposition can end on the commitments that you are ready to make to the customer. If your target audience is right, you have marketed the right product in the right manner, you know who your competition and where you stand against the competition and finally if you make the right commitments to the customer – your customer value proposition is up to mark.

This is the reason why formulation of a customer value proposition is very important.

Let us understand customer value proposition from our day to day experience. If you meet any sales person, he will try to show you a catlog or a presentation of the product he is trying to sell. The catlog will highlight all the key features of his product, it will show the price as well as products in different price range and ideally, the sales person will communicate verbally with you of WHY his product is better than the competition and what are his products USP’s.

The salesman is just trying to put across a Customer value proposition. He wants to make you understand the value of his product, and why you should buy his product. If you are in top management, If you are a CEO of a small business organization, or even if you are in the junior most position in sales, you need to know what is your products value proposition.

Typically a customer value proposition consists of the following criteria’s.

Product – What is your product and what are the features of your product. A customer can be impressed if you have a lot of USP’s and if you highlight these USP’s. If you don’t show all the features of your product, than the customer is most likely to lose interest.

Segment – Are you approaching the right segment for your product? If you target a wrong segment, the customer value proposition will probably be lost on your customer. He will not at all be interested in the proposition because he is not the target audience.

Price – Deals are made and broken on the basis of price. Is your price too high or too low as per your target segment? Is your competitor giving a better price?  A complete value proposition will understand the dynamics of pricing and the proposition will be made accordingly.

Value – You may not be interested in a local toothpaste brand, but you will definitely be interested in Colgate. You may not show interest in a local made Cola, but you will like it when offered a Coke or a Pepsi. The brand carries value. The best practice is to highlight your brand and its heritage while preparing a customer value proposition.

Competition – Whether you want to listen to this or not, but the truth is your customers are equally interested in your competition. They will choose you only if you have the right customer value proposition which meets the customer’s requirements.

Overall, Many marketing activities are covered while building a proper customer value proposition. The complete organization, its heritage, people involved, products which the organization makes, the value proposition of these products, their price as well as their features, all help in making the right customer value proposition and hence the decision for the customer.

Successful companies understand that value proposition is the most important part of business. And to stay ahead of competition, you need to build value as per what the customer wants, and not as per what the company can provide.

One smart move which samsung did was go for global advertising. In India it is showing ads not only of Indian background, but from across the globe. Check out the three ads below. One is of basketball which shoes the power of Samsung galaxy S4 to “Share the beat”. The other is of Spain which shows how a son is sending his own pictures with sound to his mom. The last one aired recently, which shows the Air gestures power of Samsung galaxy S4 and how it mesmerises the audience.

All of the ads have been shot in different countries with a different audience. Thus, samsung hits two birds with one stone. It saves its cost of advertising as well as sends a global message. Samsung galaxy S4 is not the hot property in just one country, its the favorite across the globe. Just check out the ads below.

A similar concept can be applied to organizations. If an organization is asked where it wants to be in the future and what is the meaning of the organizations existence, then the answer is the vision statement.

A vision statement is used by an organization to define and document the ambition of the organization. As in the case of humans, the vision can be far fetched. It is not necessary that each organization achieve its vision. However, the vision serves as a lantern in the dark and defines the reason for the existence of the organization.

Ideally, the vision statement should address three core criteria’s of an organization

1) What it does
2) What are its ambitions in the long term
3) Customer element – Most vision statements also bring in the customer element which is generally aimed at the greater good in society.

Let us take an example of McDonalds Vision statement

McDonald’s vision is to be the world’s best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness, and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile.

What it does – McDonalds is a quick service restaurant
What are its ambitions – To be the worlds best quick service restaurant.
Customer element – Make every customer in every restaurant smile.
Some more examples of vision statement

Ford – To become the world’s leading Consumer Company for automotive products and services.

GM – To be the world leader in transportation products and related services. We will earn our customers’ enthusiasm through continuous improvement driven by the integrity, teamwork, and innovation of GM people.

Honda – To Be a Company that Our Shareholders, Customers and Society Want

Walt Disney – To make people happy

In the past as well as in the present, whenever there has been a pessimistic environment across the country, some brands have used it and made an emotional connect with their customers. One of them was the Tata tea Jaago re campaign against corruption which made a mark. The other one was from Times of India itself which showed that people need to unite and that a single person can lead the mob. One more was from Mumbai mirror – I am Mumbai.

Now, Times of India brings a new campaign which is I lead India. Targeted towards giving the power of “the chair”, in the hands of a few people in every city, Times of India is trying to bring a change at the grass root levels itself. The campaign is an initiative to select 5 people in each city across 26 cities. The selection process is rigorous and in the end it will bring 5 change makers in each city. These change makers or leaders will be given specific tasks so as to take initiative in bringing the change the country needs.

Storyboard –  The ad has a very smart message. Young people all across the country are seen throwing away Chairs in a high heap. They are putting in a lot of efforts to carry the chair to a single place. Obviously, here the chairs signify the seat of all the politicians. Hindi movies as well as history shows us that politics is a struggle for the chair and who sits on it. The youth burn the chairs so as to show that we DO NOT NEED POLITICIANS. We will lead India ourselves. And that we will be the change which India needs.

Likely to bring the best of the best forward, we hope that this campaign encourages people to join up. However, we cannot understand how can only 5 people in a city make the change? We need more. We need one person in every 10 kms so as to protect our women, ensure that no corruption happens and also to backup others who are making a change. Although the campaign may not be able to implement things at such a micro level, we are sure happy that changes are happening at the macro level for the country.

The mission on the other hand mentions the route through which the organization will achieve its vision. Where the vision involves the complete organization, the mission will involve individual elements like employees, shareholders and more importantly – how the company can become better for its customers.

To better understand Mission vs Vision we have mentioned below the vision and mission of McDonalds.

McDonald’s vision
McDonald’s vision is to be the world’s best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness, and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile.

McDonald’s Missions
Be the best employer for our people in each community around the world
* Deliver operational excellence to our customers in each of our restaurants; and
* Achieve enduring profitable growth by expanding the brand and leveraging the strengths of the McDonald’s system through innovation and technology.
* Try to fulfill our customer, automatically our profit will improve.

As seen from above, the vision of Mcdonalds is to be the best quick service restaurant and to make their customers smile. This is a long term goal of the organization.

The mission on the other hand mentions the employers, the process as well as the brand and more importantly the way through which the organization is going to achieve its vision.

Thus, if vision is the final destination, the mission is the road which has to be traveled to reach the vision.

1) To form a long term and short term goal for the company – The first steps of marketing strategy involve forming the Vision statement and Mission statement of the company. Though both, the vision and mission are long term statements, Vision is used more for what the company wants to achieve throughout its existence whereas Mission statement is more of an action plan of how the company will achieve its vision. Thus while forming marketing strategy, the firm decides on its vision and mission.

2) To get an internal analysis and competitive analysis – The second step in the formulation of marketing strategy is the internal analysis of the firm which helps the firm in deciding what resources it has and whether or not there is optimum utilization of resources. At the same time, the firm may also conduct competitive analysis. By comparing both the above form of analysis, the firm can determine its exact standing in the industry; which areas the company is weak in and where it is strong.

3) For targeting the right customers – Once the company knows its resources and its standing in the industry, it can use the information to form the correct marketing mix and to define the right market segment. This in turn can help the organization in targeting the right customers for its products. This can be possible only if the previous two steps of marketing strategy are achieved.

4) To have a tactical advantage – Tactics are decided based on the short term goals of the company. However, tactics can become dangerous if not implemented in the right manner. Thus the sales and marketing tactics of an organization should be in line with the marketing strategy or the marketing plan decided by the management. For this, a marketing strategy needs to be in place as a guideline for the managers.

5) To implement the vision of the organization – A marketing strategy is needed not only to form a vision for the organization but also to ensure that the vision is achieved in the long duration. Everyone can have a vision, but the vision needs to be realistic and achievable. Thus based on the marketing strategy, the right plans need to be implemented such that the vision of the organization is realized.