HAPPY DIWALI

May this Diwali, Lord showers you with choicest of blessings and brings the best of of health, happiness and prosperity for you and your loved ones...

Wishing you a very very

****Happy Diwali!! ****
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Kabita Kalita

Learn How To Build Relationships With Your Customers To Increase Sales

You want to get your brand name out there and take control of the great product or service that you have to offer. A good way of doing this is to use marketing to create a personal relationship between what you have to offer and what the customer is looking for.

According to Rick Roth of Advertising Age, "Chief marketing officers (CMO) who understand the interplay between their key retailers and their brand also fair better. How retailers advertise a shelved product also adds to or detracts from a brand's value."

"The retail trade seems to enjoy more control over the fate of a brand with each passing day. Years ago, clients knew exactly what they wanted from in-store, demanded a certain level of performance and got it. Today, there is one brand major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Costco, Best Buy, Target and Safeway care most about...their own. Marketers are squeezed by an empowered consumer, a controlling retail channel, and, on top of it all, a lack of predictability in the impact media truly delivers. No wonder they are increasingly focused on return on investment and are zeroing in on where they can best measure results: at the point of sale," claims Roth.

So how do you create this relationship between you and the customer. Roth believes you must find out how your potential customers move throughout their day to day operations, how do they interact with your competitors and their products or services, or where could it. You must be able to identify the most powerful moments to intervene with your product or service.

Roth stresses, "Retailers hold tremendous leverage in the relationships shoppers have with your brand. CMOs must investigate the relative strengths of each key retailer as well as their individual brand propositions and their category and market challenges. CMOs must also build marketing plans in such a way that considers the needs of their retail brand, and, ultimately, they must create programs that contribute to retailers' and their own businesses."

He stresses that in order to build up your product or service, you should also help build up the retailers business. By doing this, both will be successful and thrive from the lucrative partnership.

An example of such a partnership was when Levi's created a new brand exclusively for Wal-mart, and as Roth puts it, "the retailer was able to leverage the credibility of the Levi's name, and Wal-Mart provided Levi's with an unmatched volume opportunity as a means to jump-start their new brand." Of course a more recent partnership was AT & T and the Apple iPhone.

McKinsey & Company noted that approximately 70% of purchase decisions are made at the shelf-regardless of what the consumer was originally intending to buy. Roth says he conducted an in store study where the results show that 37% of consumers walked by displays without even looking at them, 32% looked but did not bother to stop, only 4% did stop, but did not buy, and 27% stopped and bought.

"The study pinpoints seven critical moments-from category visibility to checkout-that lead a shopper to purchase. Barriers are at each step and involve everything from planogram and store design to product placement, packaging, signage, pricing and shopper demographics," claims Roth.

Purchasing decisions vary by what you are selling, the region of the world you are based in and of course gender. To better market your product or service you should understand the who, what, when, where, and why questions, to narrow down what kind of consumer it is geared toward.

You must be able to create and build valuable relationships with your buyers. If these relationships created have a strong foundation, such as commitment and understanding, you are sure to see your business grow tremendously.

How And When To Choose The Right Six Sigma Training

The term "Six Sigma" may seem difficult to comprehend at times, but is actually very easy to explain. The term is derived from a character in the Greek alphabet, which is used for representing a standard variation in statistical mathematics. Statistically, Six Sigma can be defined as a near perfect method of production that restricts the number of defects to less than 3.4 for every million opportunities that exist for a defect to occur. This makes Six Sigma one of the preferred quality management techniques for achieving near perfect business processes through process improvement.

Data Driven And Disciplined Approach

Six Sigma follows a disciplined and data driven approach for eliminating defects in any type of business process, whether it is the product manufacturing process or after sale customer service. The two most commonly used methodologies in quality improvement projects are the DMAIC process (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) and the DMADV process (define, measure, analyze, design, verify). The former is used for improving the quality of business processes that have not met customer specifications and require improvement. The latter is used for developing new products or business processes that conform to Six Sigma quality levels. Both the processes are carried out under the guidance of Six Sigma Green Belts and Six Sigma Black Belts, who in turn are guided by Six Sigma Master Black Belts.

Companies often want to know exactly how many benefits can be derived from Six Sigma training. Just to get an idea, one can look at the financial data of General Electric, one of the companies that have successfully implemented Six Sigma training. It is estimated that the total value of benefits derived from the training was close to a staggering $ 10 billion in the five years after implementation. It is estimated that on an average, Six Sigma Black Belts help companies save $ 230,000 per project. Given that most companies can execute 4 to 6 such projects per year, the total savings can translate into $ 920,000 to $ 1,380,000 per year.

Selection Process

After selecting the most appropriate type of training, a company needs to find the right consultant who has the necessary skills and experience in implementing Six Sigma programs. The selection of the training consultant will depend on the type of Six Sigma program that the company is planning to implement. Some programs are implemented all throughout an organization whereas others are implemented in a specific area only such as individual functional departments. The decision regarding the selection of the consultant needs to be made only after consulting other employees, as they are the ones who will eventually interact with the consultant during the implementation process.

After getting approval from the employees, it is advisable to seek references from business associates in other companies that have implemented such projects and can provide the necessary insights. Companies need to interview potential trainers and ask questions regarding their previous work relationships, referrals, total number of candidates trained by them till date, training materials used, earlier projects they have worked on, and their qualifications. This is essential since companies need trainers with a great deal of real-world experience. Companies need to inquire in depth about the type of training that the trainer is willing to provide. Usually, companies prefer training firms that operate online help desks for helping clients in dealing with problems that might arise after the training has been completed.