Author: animeshjmathur

Do a brain dump…..reduce the nagging feelings

Brain size, Focus, Human Brain, Worry

I have over multiple posts written about how the Zeigarnik effect helps us. While there might be detractors to this theory, I know something like this exists because my brain keeps me alert on things that I need to get done.

While my brain does not remember all the things that I need to get done at a time, it does ensure that it keeps sending me the alerts if I am missing something.

On the other hand this effect actually keeps prompting you with feelings, for all the unfinished tasks, and eats up a lot of energy.The feeling of overwhelm also could be sourced to this phenomenon in my belief (no scientific proof of this).

You may have also had an experience like this. Whenever I go on a vacation or even for a two day break, for the first day or so, I am always having a feeling that there was unfinished business. I keep trying to rack my brain to find the source of the feeling, it dodges me, but the nagging continues. This nagging feeling makes me more irritable also.

This could also happen because the mind is pre-occupied with a lot of things. If you have a clear mind then, maybe you will get a signal on the exact item that the brain is pointing you towards.

II have found that a better way to handle the situation is to use the focus finder method of isolating yourself for 50 minutes ,which Dean Jackson has (You can search the video on YouTube) and dump down everything going on in your mind, on to a piece of paper. (This method is so good that after I do the brain dump, my mind gets so relaxed that I start feeling sleepy) This way the issues of nagging feelings can be reduced considerably. One day before you go out, just ensure you have ticked-off all the items on the list and you can have a decent break.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Branding – why it’s so important

B2B, Consistency, Trust

Today’s is going to be a short one. Most of my posts are generally less than a three minute read, but this one would be even shorter.

Today I had the opportunity to visit two luxury hotels in Delhi.

It is heartening to see that the travel and hospitality industry is coming back so strongly . This is one industry which employs so many people directly and indirectly.

What’s important to note is that both these hotels are 5 star properties. So they are not cheap by any standard, but still they are going full. One is an international brand, while the other is an Indian brand with an international presence.

My thinking is that people trust that these brands would be taking necessary precautions which unknown brands would not.

During tough times, the brands , that have built a strong relationship based on trust, get to grow their business. Brands are built by consistently delivering on what they promise.

Whether you are in B2B or B2C , consistently delivering on your promise gives long term dividends.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Launching a new product or service in B2B

B2B, Customers, Product Management

In this post I will only take one part – which is you already have customers for some other products or services and you are launching something new. In case you are getting totally new then you can read a lot of my older posts to help you achieve that objective.

For purposes of simplicity I will use the products, but the same logic would apply even when you’re launching a new set of services.

If you already have customers then whenever you are launching something new, the obvious thing would be to first take the new product to your existing customers. Nothing new here.

However I will put a little caveat. Start with your biggest customers and then go in descending order. The biggest customers are more invested in you and would like to succeed. Since they are big you will also get scale fast.

If you can also involve them at the 80% completion stage to use the product and advise on the glitches, then you will get real life feedback on the challenges that your product has technically as well in terms of customer experience. Large companies like Microsoft actually create Beta sites just with this objective.

Since these customers are invested in building the product with you , they will also own it more and will be more loyal. You may not get major revenue out of this, maybe even nothing. But if you have your large customers using the product then you can use them for reference purposes. That would be of much more value.

In this way you can reach critical mass faster.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Single Target Market – getting down to the person in B2B

B2B, Business, Customers, ideal customer, Marketing, single target market

When you are looking at the B2B space, you have to keep one thing in mind always – you are dealing with multiple people not one person. In the consumer space you could look at the consumer and maybe the influencers like the wife / husband or children who can influence, but generally it’s a small set of one or one plus.

In the case of B2B sales however its always by default Many Buyer Persons getting involved even though at the company level this may be your Ideal Customer Profile.. Its very very rare to identify a single person who can take all the decisions. This however may happen if the buying value is very low.

Now if there are going to encounter multiple people that you have to influence towards your product or service then your first exercise should be to identify all the people involved. So before you talk to thousand clients in the single target market – you first need to analyse just one customer and how will the process move.

Recently in one of the cases that my team was fighting we got blindsided by the procurement team of the customer. We did all the evaluation exercises , the technical team was coordinating with us and we were supposedly rated the best. But suddenly we got to know that the order was handed over to someone else.

Our challenge was that we had not analysed the hidden agendas that were getting played out. This happens a lot when you are in the B2B space. Its called getting zigged when you should have zagged.

Once you have analysed the niche and got down to the usage, you then need to start mapping who all could be involved in the decision making in ONE customer. Once you have analysed what happens with ONE, then you can replicate the process across the whole segment that you have identified. You may still get zigged, but if you have put the identification in your process, then the chances of being zigged will get reduced.

Till next time then…..to your success in the market.

Carpe Diem!!!