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 How Deep Are You Selling?
The IT channel is increasingly turning to deep selling, primarily due to the high risk perception of engaging with new customers in an uncertain economy where the threat of payment delays and defaults looms large. After all, dealing with a known customer is better than selling to an unknown entity.
However, deep selling requires a complete change of mindset and demands a major shift in the business model from selling what you can to selling what customers need. A deep selling strategy is unlikely to succeed if it’s not well thought out and lacks long-term vision. It requires knowing your customers’ business and their pain-points.
For instance, Delhi-based Team Computers has been following the KYC (know your customer) policy. Information about every customer’s business—its revenue streams, its profitability, its existing business systems and processes, its potential requirements—are mapped by every account manager using advanced mind-mapping tools.
In fact, since the slowdown began, Ranjan Chopra, CEO, Team Computers, has actually added two new dimensions to their CRM: KYCC (know your customer’s customer) and KYCComp (know your customer’s competition).
“Unless you know about the dynamics of the markets your customers operate in, as well as the type of competition they face, it’s difficult to understand their pain-points and their needs,” believes Chopra.
ValuePoint is another interesting case-study of a partner that has used the deep selling strategy to diversify into not just other IT segments but also non-IT businesses. To help a few of its multinational customers, RS Shanbhag, MD, ValuePoint, decided to get into legal BPO and the language translation business a couple of years back. Today, both these businesses are successful and profitable.
Shanbhag’s philosophy behind the diversification has been to address the pain-points of customers even if that means providing services which fall outside the purview of IT solutions. “The objective is to tightly align with key customers and help reduce any pain-point they may have. We have helped a few customers with manpower recruitment and even insurance services. For such non-IT services we tie up with related companies to offer our customers non-IT services, and this has given us a stronger hold on our customers,” says Shanbhag.
As illustrated by Team and ValuePoint, the core objective of any deep selling strategy is to constantly be in tune with customers’ needs and find ways to address their pain-points.
Do that and the business will flow. Automatically. |