Archive for the ‘Business Solutions’ Category

It’s not Sales – its Business Development!

May 15, 2012. No comments.

Time has seen new developments taking place not only in the educational front and jobs market but also in careers. Sticking to one kind of job exposure will not do any good. In this era, to stay at the top of the game, one has to prove their worth in more than one domain. This is what I was told when I was introduced to the new area of Business Development.

business development

Business Development is rather a new terminology but gives a diverse working experience. Lately the sales executives were responsible for bringing in numbers, marketing executives were to introduce new marketing campaigns, product developers had their defined responsibilities, accounts and legal department were to look after the after-sales and legal matters respectively. Today put all these job responsibilities in a blender and you get a perfect blend in the form of a Business Developer. A lot of young graduates would think, business developers are jack of all trades, I must agree, yes! They are and in a good sense. Business development is a high potential and growth career which offers a lot of learning and responsibility instead of keeping the prospect to a dull monotonous job.

What makes business development more exciting is the exposure one can gain by bringing in more clients as the key account person, understanding the client’s needs and offering the right product, developing a perfect marketing message to bring in more clients and consequently numbers. It also asks for the candidate to have the financial and budgeting exposure in addition to having some legal knowledge, as these people are also responsible for developing legal papers like NDAs and MOUs etc.

Business Development is the perfect job an MBA can dream of; all it needs is energy and passion to succeed. When I mixed and matched my MBA majors (marketing and finance) people would ask, where do you want to land? Didn’t know there is one domain particularly made for people like me who have guts to challenge themselves. Take my word if you are a BD person you can take on anything that pleases you, make your own marketing campaign, make your pitch, bring in numbers, make your budget, get discounts, make legal papers and develop all type of collateral, where will you get more exposure then this?
acquiring talent from social media tools

July 15, 2011. 2 comments.

Few questions before we talk about our topic in detail. Are you keeping up with Social media for your recruitments? Are you already engaged with clients and followers using the social media? Are you an HR executive or human resources professional and wondering just what is social media and how can social media support your business agenda ?

People are central to social media and its success. Social connections and interactions make an obvious difference in promoting any business and capturing the market more easily on a large scale. Many successful HR consultants are pretty evangelistic about using this tool as it offers looking beyond the organization to find new talent.

“Social media can give you a great and efficient way to engage with your community – candidates, clients, customers, partners, prospects, etc. – on a very level playing field with the companies you are competing with for talent (or business).” says Chris Havrilla national recruiting manager Hitachi Consulting, a global leader in delivering business and IT strategies.

An HR can be efficient enough to make its organization stand out in hiring people that are diligent. Social media increases the visibility among jobseekers that enables the HR personnel to communicate about their company culture and the many benefits that are offered to the employees.

It invites a pool of talented and potential jobseekers which we may not find the other way. Business and organizations that recruit successfully through Social media use this space to interact with users on a personal level. Hiring through social media also gives potential employers unique insight into the candidate’s true character that is not likely to be revealed during the conventional interview process.

According to the latest research by the ACHIEVE Group, 10% of respondents surveyed in the Recruitment through Social Media Report 2011 have used social networking sites to hire staff. The results of this report have indeed showcased a novel and fascinating trend emerging, as more and more companies begin using social media as a recruitment tool.

Recruiting through social media is gaining momentum and it will emerge as most hyped trend. So are you geared up for Social Media Recruiting?

By Fatima Ahmed.
How to Personify your Brand

March 8, 2011. No comments.

A common thing that all unsuccessful brands lack is – persona. Any selling entity whether a person, group, product or service should discover its persona and bring it to the limelight. So speaking for businesses, a persona becomes the foundation and drives the way they’re presented.

You cannot present a brand as only a tagline, product or a logo. Brand is a Relationship. A brand:
- Connects businesses and customers through a rich emotional relationship and experience.
- Delivers the sense of relevance to customers about your identity and services.
“Whether you are a Mac person or a PC person, even the briefest exposure to the Apple logo may make you behave more creatively, according to recent research from Duke University”
Let’s shape up your brand persona in step-by-step approach:
1. Create a point of view. You need to have a strong identity. Who, what and why are questions to ask yourself about your business.
2. Be passionate and obsessive. Whatever you’re going to present to customers – be very mean about it. After all, it’s all about creating an impression and inspiration.
3. Know your targets. Getting to know the audience of your brand is really very important. Actions packed games are just right for teens and so are golf club promotions for the elder lot. No discrimination here; just being specific.
4. Consistency in the brand. Different logos on each marketing communication (web or print) can be a setback when consumers would be judging on same good quality in your business solutions.
5. Delivering a unique experience. Brand persons bring a differentiating experience. Same two businesses can represent themselves in totally different way with USP (Unique Selling Points).
6. Connecting and collaborating. “I’ve never been particularly good at numbers, but I think I’ve done a reasonable job with feelings. I’m convinced that it is feelings, and feelings alone, that account for the success of the Virgin brand and all its myriad forms.” -Richard Branson.
selling solutions – not boxes

February 9, 2011. One comment.

I happened to be at a furnishing store and checked out new furniture designs. Initially, I felt lost in picking out some nice trendy designs. I was looking at various aspects like design, size, wood, portability, durability and lot more. And then out of nowhere comes the salesman with a worn out catalog. Nothing really seemed appealing to my perfectionist eyes since spending this lot of money needs justification :). While I flipped pages over and over looking for an optimum solution, the lightning struck – my personalized bed. I was precisely looking for a customized solution and not a boxed product.

Likewise, we can relate such customized solutions to open ended business services. Services turned solutions are the way consumers / clients are expecting from businesses. Merging a couple of features from different samples, I got a design matching the interior theme at my home while also gratifying the aesthetics sense. I could’ve even ask for embossing my name on each piece, but let’s just keep it here. Similarly, we keep ourselves in the paradigm of successful product selling rather considering the customer experience in mind. Even then, companies hardly pay attention to the end user experience of the boxes sold out. The customer experience remains ignored while dynamic businesses keep bringing better services turned business solutions to their customers.

Implying expertise and skills in a unique market or improving user experience in particular business domain is what is the trend now and we can see so many companies imparting this concept. The ultimate focus now remains to optimize the end user experience. In our area of expertise, the faith lies in understanding the pain points of customer to bring quality, retention and satisfaction – resulting in a partner program initiative. Proper requirement gathering, analysis and elicitation eventually lead to closely matching what customer wants. In my case above, the most amazing furnishing experience at home.

New trends are pushing companies to be more engaged with customer to get feedback on user experience. Crowd-sourcing, real-time collaboration and social media engagement platforms are bringing more customer-centric solutions to our agendas while being the most trusted partner of our customers.