Official Blog of GTM360 Marketing Solutions
This is a slightly edited version of my answer to the following question on Quora: This question reminds me of a Patek Philippe ad in which the luxury Swiss watchmaker says, “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation”. The tagline of the ad is “Begin your own … Read more
Here’s another post on the cultural differences across different markets, with specific lessons for sales and marketing. Many years ago, Fortune had used the following lede to introduce the largest company on its prestigious list of 500 largest corporations in the world: Walmart is the #1 company on the GLOBAL FORTUNE 500. As the largest … Read more
Today’s Economic Times published my letter on H-1B and the controversy over surplus or scarcity of STEM talent in the USA. It was in response to the following article on this subject two days ago. The published version of my letter is a highly condensed version of my original letter. As a result, it’s quite cryptic (even … Read more
Like me, you may have come across people who appear obsessed with security but happily book cabs, send messages, order food, and even make payments without entering a single password / PIN on their smartphones. This is not as contradictory as it seems if you look at the end-to-end customer journey. For the uninitiated, Customer Journey can … Read more
Today’s Times of India has two op-eds on petrol pricing. The one by Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyer (@swaminomics) advises the government to hold taxes at their present levels and leave petrol prices as they are. The other by Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) advocates exactly the opposite approach. In the past, I’d leaned towards the former point of view. That changed … Read more
There’s no better introduction to this year’s FORTUNE GLOBAL 500 than Fortune’s own lede: Change is everywhere in this year’s Global 500 – except at the very top. Walmart, with $500 billion in sales, ranks No. 1 for the fifth straight year on Fortune’s annual list of the world’s biggest companies ranked by revenue. Apple … Read more
When my employer posted me to Germany in the early 2000s to open its subsidiary for the so-called D-A-CH (German speaking) market of Europe, we had no reference customer in Germany. When prospects asked who we worked with, I’d rattle off the names of several American customers. Prospects would shake their head and ask for … Read more
Many people complain that cashiers decline Apple Pay even though their stores have advertised support for Apple’s payment service. I’ve come across the same experience with HDFC Bank’s PayZapp mobile wallet. The cashier at a restaurant in my neighborhood told me they hadn’t started accepting PayZapp although there was a “PayZapp Accepted” sticker on his … Read more
When an offshore IT services provider enters a new market, it’s (relatively) unknown in that geography. Many companies in this situation eschew end users and try to drive their go to market strategy by partnering with local IT companies. Ideal partner candidates are boutique shops and systems integrators that are well known in the target … Read more
In Part 1 of this blog post, we’d seen three best practices for converting Freemium to Premium viz. Ask For Money, Create Pinch Points, and Drive Enhanced Usage. In this second part, I’ll cover three more best practices for SAAS vendors to upgrade their freemium users to paying customers. #4. INTRODUCE VALUE ADDED FEATURES You … Read more