Product and Services pricing

It is very intriguing to observe the play of pricing with a product and a service. Though this is not a very complex economic theory, my habit of observing economics at work in real life brings unique examples.

The other day I was reading on how Maruti Suzuki has brought down the manufacturing costs thanks to growing demand of their goods. The more people are buying the cars, the lesser is the cost of production. With more demand the production line costs which include costs of parts, assembling automation, testing, personnel costs everything has come down. They are able to pass of this benefit. It is called "Economics of scale".

The same day I took a Uber cab. Being a residential area the demand for cabs in my area is high. As the demand is high, Uber increased the price of cab to 1.7. The "Surge pricing" is just a function of demand. So in case of services, as demand increases the price increases. This is true for artists, musicians and every other "performer" or "doer".

The demand price function thus applies inversely to product or service.  

Is a democratic government better than a dictatorship government?

In democracy you choose a powerful man and make him sit silent or make him corrupt. The whole philosophy of democracy is that the majority decides what should be done. Sometime the majority can be completely wrong. (Remember the right/wrong definition is very contextual). The minority might be right. So now what does the minority do to correct the wrong? It either resorts to corruption or bullying. When the minority does that, the only institute to check this is the Government. So they either correct the wrong (and earn the wrath of majority) or stay silent (and be non-corrupt) or select the wrong (and earn a lot of black money). So in no way the Democratic government is like / better a Dictatorship government. In Dictatorship government, they decide the meaning of right and wrong and impresses the same on the citizens. Then they implement what is needed as per their thought.

Analysing a few Indian movements

In my previous post I have discussed on the anatomy of revolutions. As a next step, let me analyze a few movements based on these elements. I have taken three popular movements: Indian Freedom Struggle, Telangana movement and Anna Hazare.

Anatomy of Revolutions

I recently finished the book “The Power of Habits” by Charles Dhigg. You can read my review here (http://www.amazon.com/review/R25DJDTI7RGZO4 ). One aspect which the author touches is about the Civil Liberties movement in USA in the 60s. He impresses that the situation was made perfectly, giving the right ingredients for a successful movement. Any movement has three ingredients:

1.       Trigger Event

2.       Build on the social ties to gain critical mass

3.       Slowly induce new habits/routines which replace the old ones and make the movement come to full-life

Initiation Stage: A trigger event is something which incites the fire. While there can be multiple events which seem like a trigger, there can be one good event which invokes the step-2. It is hard to predict the trigger event.

Growth Stage: Once this trigger happens, the second step is building on the “victim’s” close social ties. (Victim is a loosely used word here and indicates any person who is a part of the movement).  His social ties, immediate friends and family, expanded network who are willing to vouch for this person. These individuals stand as the pillars of the movement. They bring the multiplier effect in the initial days by doing the ground-work. By this ground work, they gather some more steam, in terms of weak-ties of social network. Through these weak ties which generally influence through peer-pressure or general societal principles which are considered virtuous or good or guiding influencers who press upon participation in the movement for stand it takes on the cause, all bring the bigger multiplier effect into picture. Hence a leader of the movement should actually have good social stature in his network and be able to influence the close-ties. While the cause will ensure influencing on the weak-ties. In most cases the victim and the leader will be different individuals. This is because a victim not necessarily will have an optimal social standing. Then in that case the leader (who emerges as the prime-pillar of standing) will take over the movement on his shoulders. He is responsible for the close-ties and weaker-ties influences.

Sustenance Stage: Now the next and the most long-driven part is the Induction of new routines/habits. This is where a successful leader stands. Through his influence or speeches or live-as-an-example, he induces the masses to do what is needed to sustain the movement. Sometimes these new acts may directly support the cause or sometimes they might become figurative for supporting the cause. This sustenance is what differentiates a successful movement from an unsuccessful one. This sustenance should exist till the actual change occurs or till thoughts of change has been sowed in the other party. It should not fizzle too early or not drag too late. The skill of the Leader lies in making him an acceptable leader, devising and giving the followers a path-breaking routine, imbibing these routines into acts of the followers.

When all three of these occur then the movement will be a successful one.

My way of Cold-reach-outs

This post is in continuation my previous post here.

 

1.       Identify the company: Figure out the vertical/domain/technology. Based on this shortlist I use the database to get the names of company

2.       Identify the person: I use Linked-in premium to figure out the persons who meet my criteria for reach out.

3.       Identify the contact ID: Here is where Steps 3 & 4  of previous post come handy. And as mentioned earlier these days I prefer step 5 (refer previous post) which gives results in a jiffy

4.       Reach out on Mail: Use the email campaign execution tool to write to them

5.       Follow-ups: Follow-ups are necessary and not an options. The mode of follow-up depends on the industry/target audience. Sometimes it is emails and in other cases it is telephonic. Here’s where Skype credits come handy.

6.       Schedule a Intro call: Ask for a mutually convenient date/time for an intro call and schedule a conference event using Goto Meeting

7.       Maintain History: From my experience I realized sales happen to you over a period of time. You might forget the prospects but they remember you and reach out. At that time, past recorded history from CRM tools come handy.

Happy Selling!!

My list of Digital Tools for Selling

As every other list, each individual has his own preferences. This is my list of tools which help in aiding sales.

1.       Database: List of companies which use the technology or which are in domain you are targeting. I hate databases like Hoover’s, D&B, Zoom Info, which charge a bomb but still vague. For me Builtwith is the best. True, it just gives the name of the company and not the person details. But the later is for the other tools to figure out. Sometimes specific domain data lists like IRCE for ecommerce, tech crunch for funded start-ups are better.

2.     Linked-in Premium: Yes the free will take you somewhere. But with time breathing on your neck and a big target, you know you need to chase decisively and big. So cannot manage with limited search options, limited in-mails and limited transparency into network

3.     Email Permutator: This is a freely available email permutation provider. You can download one here.

4.      Rapportive: Firstly this helps me understand the person: where is he from, his time zone, what’s his education background, what his work profile. Second I also use this to check which randomly generated email id is the right email ID. (More in point 4)

5.       Salesloft: This is the newest addition to my list. This can combine and execute the job of 3 & 4 and give results in a jiffy.

6.      Email Campaign execution tools: A lot of tools are available, but I prefer lead squared. Lead squared gives a beautiful way of checking the prospect effectiveness by way of a weighted score.

7.       Track Clicks: I have been using lead-squared to track the click rates. Again these clicks are tracked and added to score of prospect effectiveness.

8.       CRM: At small numbers, leads can be managed on excel. But this will become cumbersome within a week. I like using Zoho CRM.

9.       Skype Credits: If I am calling outside my geography, calling sometimes might be expensive. Here Skype credits come handy

10.   Conference Bridge: I am comfortable using Go ToMeeting. But I believe webex or any other conference event organizer is fine. If I am on budget I use a combo of Skype and Join.me

Happy Selling!!

What happens when you read a lot of history books?

I have completed "Gray Mountain" by John Grisham. Though I have been an ardent fan of John Grisham and his legal background novels, its been more than three years since I read his books. In fact its just not John Grisham, but for last six years my interest fiction has declined. I am not sure if this changing preference is because of the way the book is written or I am seriously bored of fiction. That's the debate for now.

So when I started on this novel after long, my expectation on the book were very high. I wanted a joy ride of emotions: suspense, happiness, tragedy, heart wrenching drama, some heroism and a happy ending. But the book let me down. The plot seems to hold me at the seat edge occasionally but then it left the grip too early before I can soak in the suspense. Similarly some drama and some tragedy were involved but it did not match my expectations. All this means only one of the following three:
1. The plot is not great
2. The story was not told properly
3. My expectations were high.

Given the reviews and the plot seems to be pretty good. The story telling style for a veteran like John Grisham must be a seasoned one. So my belief is that my expectations from this was high. And pondering on the reasons of such high expectations, I sense that my previous few books based on political and natural history, had set the bar high. The journey through centuries on how things unfold (even though you know the end-result) has probably made my cravings for drama, suspense high. So my opinion for now is that, if one is involved in history, he can never go back to fiction with same interest. And did you say you did not like history at school because it was a drag and dull?

Book Link: http://www.amazon.in/Gray-Mountain-John-Grisham-ebook/dp/B00LM9S7H6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top