The Non-Financial Side of Business
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Lose some…Win 'em all.!
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Look forward to your views. And if you liked this one, consider following/subscribing to my blog (top right of the page). You can also connect with me on LinkedIn and on Twitter.
Seasons Greetings Y’all.!
Compared to businesses abroad, companies in India have been notorious for having too many public/festival holidays. And employees, of course, have always been grumbling about not having enough.
There are numerous and diverse religions and cultures here. And its our collectively celebrating festivals is what makes Indian culture unique and rich in itself.
Now since most Indians would give priority to celebrating festivals of their own religion… (just a thought)… imagine a scenario where you, as an employee had the option of working on a holiday that you normally would not celebrate, but just sit around watching tv at home, and in turn would get the choice of taking another day off in that year.
Sure there might be hiccups initially, like not having a common holiday as your friends do, and so on. I also wouldn’t want to incur the wrath of anyone’s angry spouse. If they were home on a festival holiday that is (that you both don’t celebrate), but you tried to be smart and chose to work instead of shopping.
But in the bigger scheme of things, imagine the positive impact it will have on businesses and profitability in companies. While the number of holidays available to employees will not change, businesses, especially B2C ones will be available to customers on a larger number of days. And anyone who has gone to work on a weekend will agree that you tend to get way more work done with fewer distractions. That doesn’t mean you sacrifice weekends. No one deserves to work on weekends. Except start-ups, maybe.
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Sell Blankets to Eskimos
This post requires you to think a bit. Might be difficult on a Friday night, but do give it a thought over the weekend.
We all know how challenging the life of a salesperson can be. Unrealistic sales targets, unwelcoming prospective customers, unending follow-up calls and meetings. And then demoralizing posters outside offices and the crushing pressure of time as end of the month approaches. Not to mention clients who like the thrill of being pursued by multiple businesses.
image: glasbergen
And if all that was not bad enough, there are the trials of making it through the day with erratic food timings. I have spent a grueling stint in a Marketing role, and while I had the luxury of driving for meetings, lunches were more like a mirage in the desert. I always had 6-7 bottles of water stacked up, and that usually kept me going. From skipping lunch to spending time explaining a concept to a prospective client, to pecking at food at god-forsaken eateries, to the thrill of eating after a chain of hopeful meetings.
The internet connection at home was down recently. Finally when the engineer showed up, it turned out that the re-configuring would take about an hour. There was a big mug of tea waiting for me, so I offered the engineer some. He declined, saying he suffered from acidity, and tea would only worsen it. Something I am very familiar with, thanks to the poor eating regime I’ve followed over the years. But, it got me wondering about the thousands of sales people and field engineers who spend long hours chasing prospects or fixing things, resulting in them neglecting their own health. So I wanted to ask you, for ideas on how we could find a solution to the people who sell all the awesome stuff, and for those folk who fix our gadgets and appliances whenever they act up.
image: TrinityMarketingSystems
Can you think of ways by which sales and support folk can have their meals on time? Especially when they’re doing the rounds?
To get the ball rolling, here are a few initial thoughts that came to mind…
Let’s have your ideas, and hopefully someone can actually start working on a business service that’s focused on selling to those who sell.
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Just Like That
I have always disliked the idea of businesses buying, and friends forcing ‘Likes’ on Facebook. The number of likes really skews the picture. It makes it difficult to differentiate between a business that has bought 300 likes from one that has earned 200 likes with quality business and customer delight.
Surely, Twitter, feedback, and public reviews help maintain some transparency in the quality of services and show truer pictures of companies. But we cannot always be expected to undertake massive research before taking small decisions.
image: Link
Here’s a simple question that businesses still considering buying ‘likes’ on Facebook should ask themselves:
“How many, or what percent of your employees ‘like’ you on Facebook?” (of course without you asking, beating or threatening them to, and without offering them some insanely tempting monetary or other benefit to do so)
If that percentage isn’t too high, you might want to re-look your focus on one of your important customer bases, your employees. If they don’t “like” you, how do you expect your customers to?
And there are a few suggestions from an older post, in case you missed that one [Like Endorsing, Endorse Liking?].
I’ll leave you with a good ‘ol song you might ‘like’. [May not be safe for work].
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Look forward to your views. And if you liked this one, consider following/subscribing to my blog (top right of the page). You can also connect with me on LinkedIn and on Twitter.