DIRECT Marketing

As promised,I am posting an article on Direct Marketing.Direct Marketing is any advertising activity which creates and exploits a direct relationship between you and your customer as an individual.The purpose is to isolate your prospects and customers as individuals and build a continuing relationship with them to their greater benefit and your career profit.The advantages of Direct Marketing are:

1)Treating Clients as Individuals:By isolating your prospects as individuals,you can find out what makes them tick and use the knowledge you gain about them to help you select the ones you feel confident you can serve and ignore those who are less likely to want to work with you.You need to understand and calculate the likely income you could gain from each prospective client and likelihood of being able to win that business.Then a decision of which individuals to invest can be taken.

2)In Control: With Direct Marketing,you are in control.You can test your message, change it for each person you are addressing.You can contact your prospects at times you think will be likely to elicit the best response.If you record every communication and its response on your database, you also then have the data that is necessary to make good decisions and you can learn from each promotion.

3)Cut down on Risks: Most of the consultants are success oriented and record their wins effectively but fails to understand the failures.However,to make the most of the investment, you need to find out exactly why you did not win and make sure that the lessons learnt are incorporated into your planning for future pitches. Direct Marketing helps you to understand the failures and work on it so that it does not affect your future endeavours.

HUMAN Behaviour in BUSINESS Schools

Should the business schools teach HUMAN BEHAVIOUR as a subject?? Quite interesting and a relevant question posed by one of my friends in Linkedin.It inspired me so much that I decided to write a post in Human Behaviour.

Human Behaviour is often considered as one of the important traits to test during HR interviews. It includes they way a person talks, his body language, his views about the people and organization and a lot of factors which influences him to act/react in a certain way.But,as a matter of fact, human behaviour is not stable. The way a person portrays himself during an HR interview might react in a different way under different situations.This gives rise to two important questions:
1)How to train business graduates on "Human Behaviour"? Whether there should be a different subject for them the way they learn about organizational behaviour?
2)How the HRs can use this aspect to hire the best talent?

One of the effective ways to access a particular person and make a person understand human behaviour is Case Studies.There should be case studies on various situations and how a particular person should react given a particular role and situation.This might vary from organization to organization and one role to other.Framing of right questions is important.The case studies should be categorized on the basis of fields chosen by the candidates like Sales/Marketing,Customer Support,Client Interaction/Presentation,Client Interviews in Business Analysis or Business Consulting etc.

Human behaviour can be altered or measured using stress tests.For example,the reaction of a particular employee can be monitored putting pressures on him in different levels.It will give an insight of the employee's stress taking abilities.The same could be applied to the managers in the organization.

Culture of the KNOWLEDGE based Company

A knowledge based company values knowledge workers rather than employees who work from 9-6.Most of the knowledge based companies send their employees to seminar,workshops conducted by creme B Schools and other associations.The employees in a knowledge based company just not focusses on his work rather takes interest in different roles so that he can swap roles if ever the organisation demands.A knowledge based company conducts training and workshops and encourages their employees to take training that can enhance their skill sets and knowledge benefitting the organisation. Apart from that, the Senior Management/Manager conducts meetings where he discusses the initiatives of the organisation with their.his employees and ask their feedback thus involving them in the whole process and make them responsible for their organisation.Carrying this activity,they make sure that the lower level employees are aware about their organisation and are taking keen interest to work in the organisation. Sometimes,knowledge sharing presentations are conducted where the employees are asked to prepare a presentation on different topics and share it with their respective teams.Such initiatives makes the employees more confident and enhance their communication skills.

First Ever CONSULTING MEET in Mumbai

I am thinking to organize a Consulting Meet in Mumbai where like-minded people can gather and discuss topics on Business/Strategy/Management Consulting. The idea is to gather people from varied backgrounds under one platform and organize Consulting Meets in Mumbai once a month where we can know each other,discuss topics related to business consulting and do some business networking.If anyone is interested, reply to the topic and if we have substantial number of people,we can decide the venue and time for Consulting Meet. People nearby Mumbai or outside Mumbai can also join and attend the Consulting Meet.

Well,the common mail id for all the interested participants is
consultingmeetmumbai@gmail.com

and the Password:consult11

All the interested,please drop a mail to this e-mail id or add yourself to the Contact List.

Please do share your views.

CONSULTANCY Marketing Strategies

How do we define the term "Marketing" in Consultancy language.Put in simple words,Marketing is a way of looking at doing business,promotional activity and a location.Infact, most consultants would associate the marketing approach as being able to understand the clients point of view-the issues they have in their industries,in their companies and in their own roles.The marketing concept involves meeting three requirements which are:
1.decisions about what your business should do are based on your clients' needs and wants.
2.you select the best way to meet the needs of your clients and prospective clients.
3.your organizations' performance objectives are achieved by meeting clients' needs in a way that satisfies them.

Generally,in a Consultancy,the consultant enters the client's domain to learn all there is to know about the client's fears and desires and then uses that information to design and supply the service.Marketing in the consulting language is being able to createa product or service that fits the client so it will sell itself.

I would post on one of the most important aspects of Consulting i.e. "DIRECT MARKETING" in the next post...So keep reading

Essentials of a PROPOSAL

Last time I discussed about proposal and presenting the proposal,but,preparing the proposal is a challenge and it has to fulfil all the purposes of the entry phase,in particular

1.specify the objectives for and the approach to the assignment,based on an agreed understanding of the problem.
2.be a persuasive selling document.
3.be the basis of a legally binding contract.

The below mentioned should be described clearly in the proposal.
1. The problem described in the context of the client's business situation,strategy and competitive position.
2.The anticipated benefits of the assignment.
3.The methods and approaches the consultancy will use.
4.The results that are expected from these approaches.
5.The experience and the staffing of the consultancy.
6.Experience and capability of the firm.
7.Professional Staffing.
8.Standard terms and conditions.
9.Professional fees and expenses.
10.billing arrangements.
11.Standard terms and conditions.

I will try to elaborate on each of these points in my forthcoming posts..So,keep reading and putting your valuable comments and suggestions.

Formal PRESENTATIONS to the Clients

A proposal is something which gives an insight of your consulting firm and the consultants to the clients.This is probably the first formal interaction between the Consultant and the Client.And, as someone truly said "First Impression is the last Impression", you need to look certain things before you approach your client.Typically,some consultancies may be eliminated when the proposals are received and others may be invited to make presentations to the clients and discuss the proposal in depth.A presentation is required even when the client has either eliminated the other bidders or never invited any others in the first place.

WHAT TO FIND OUT IN ADVANCE
1)What the client's expectation from the presentation are.
2)Whether or not a formal presentation is wanted.
3)The time allowed for a formal presentation and for discussion.
4)Who will be there and what their interests are.
5)Which other firms have been asked to present.
6)What's the order for presentations.

The PRESENTATION
1)Prepare the presentation carefully.
2)Rehearse the presentation and make the presentation client-centered,stressing what is important to them.
3)Make sure all visual aids are of a high quality.
4)Do not follow the presentation literally:keep to key points and change the order to suit the situation.
5)Decide who is to attend and the role of each and encourage discussion.

Hope this post helps and you give your best whenever you approach client with a presentation.

TECHNICAL Analysis and DOW Theory

This post is dedicated to the basis on which the investor takes his/her investment decisions.While fundamental analysis and security evaluation explain why share prices fluctuate,what to buy and sell, the Technical Analysis helps when to buy and sell.Technical Analysis of the market is based on some principles,the first one being, all fundamental factors are discounted by the market and are reflected in prices. Secondly,these prices move in trends or waves which can be both upward or downward depending on the sentiment, psychology and emotions of traders.Thirdly, the present trends are influenced by the past trends, and the projection of future trends is possible by an analysisof past price trends.

Certains tools used to Technical Analysis are Daily fluctuation and trends data, floating stockand volume of trade,price trends and volume trends,Rate of change of prices,Japanese Candlestick method,dow theory,elliot wave theory,theory of gaps,Advance decline line,relative strength index.

Dow Theory postulates that prices of industries securities tend to move in tune with the business cycles of the boom,depression in the economy.If the business conditions are good,demand increasing,industrial performance will be good and the corporate share prices will be on the upswing.The reverse is true in times of recession and depression in the economy.The trends in the economy are reflected in the market average prices of shares.All fundamental factors are discounted by the market, and get reflected in average prices. A study of these average market prices is what is attempted in technical analysis and its trends are in the form of peaks,troughs and cycles.

Top 5 Company Mistakes That Cost You Money

Even if your business is moving along in a seemingly smooth manner, someone in the company may be dropping the ball in certain areas. It only takes a few small holes to eventually sink a ship, so now is the time to assess how many mistakes are being made.

When you add up all the little problems, you may find you are losing major money because of them. Here are the top five "little" company mistakes that cause big problems:

1.Invoice Errors – Your accounts receivable department has a very important job on their hands. Are you sure they aren't slacking off or making mistakes? From typos on invoices to failure to mail out invoices, there is no room for error when it comes to getting paid.
2.Misfiling Documents – Your administrative team should be diligent about keeping accurate, orderly files. You need to have back-ups for everything and those files should be easily accessible. When something falls between the cracks, major problems could occur later.
3.Running Out of Stock – If you have customers who are getting frustrated by your constant lack of stock, then it's time to increase production. Otherwise, you may find they stop returning altogether.
4.Delivery Problems – Whom are you depending on to deliver your goods? It starts with your own company, so make sure everything is properly packaged and sent out in a timely manner. Then, make sure the delivery service you offer is fast and dependable. If something is damaged or lost in shipping, you will pay for it.
5.Poor Customer Communication – Customer service is paramount to your business, so don't ignore or disrespect your patrons. Hold everyone in your company to the same standard when answering phones or contacting customers in any way.

Perhaps a few of the above mistakes only happen from time to time, but that is enough to slowly whittle down your business' profits. While no one enjoys working for a micromanager, it is very possible that you are being too passive about your company's "little" mistakes.

Heather Johnson is a freelance business, finance and economics writer, as well as a regular contributor at Business Credit Cards, a site for best business credit cards and best business credit card offers. Heather welcomes comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com

FINANCIAL Planner

What makes a good Financial Planner or what are the fundamental traits of a successful Financial Planner.
1. Building trust with the client by empathizing with them and understanding their aspirations,concerns and needs.
2.Familiarity with taxation and estate planning issues.
3.Good knowledge of financial products and options, their risk-return profile, and a strong understanding of the behaviour and track record of various investments and asset classes.
4.An understanding of the various stages in a client's life and wealth cycle and the asset allocations that make sense of each of these stages.
5.An organized way of working, with one of the critical elements being a written financial plan which documents client needs and resources,a specific investment strategy and the progress made towards achieving these objectives.
6.A clear focus on the overall financial well-being of a client,rather than on individual transactions.The financial planner should link his remuneration to the overall achievement of client goals,rather than relying on a fee from each transaction.