A BDE does more than just selling

I took up a test today called ‘the self analysis test’ that digs deep into student’s strengths majorly on his/her domain and behavioural skills. Also, there could be certain other questions incorporated in it too. There was one particular question that grabbed my attention the most which sounded something like this – what role does a Business Development Professional play that enables overall growth for a company? The most obvious answer is that a BDE (Business Development Executive) generates revenues through increased sales and this has to be a BDE’s major and foremost objective.

Well, is that it? Nope, a BDE does more than this. He is considered as one of the major touch points for consumers who would be judged based on his appearance and his proficiency in handling clients. This judgement goes a long way in the clients’ re-visiting the firm for a repeat purchase or not. He also acts as an internal brand ambassador who indirectly is involved in brand building activities where he represents one of the crucial promotional tools (personal selling). A BDE also acts as a co-ordinating link among various departments of a firm as he is required to interact with every business function.

A Business Development Executive does not only generate sales, he also is indirectly responsible for innumerable deeds that bring about unparalleled growth for a firm.

Unconventional yet acknowledged

Who’d you pick - A Brand Ambassador or A Brand Face?

This question is quite clearly posed to marketers of whom would they choose to feature in their Ad campaigns. There is a need to define and also distinguish these two terms that could support a marketer’s choice. A brand ambassador is one who serves as the spokesperson for a particular brand, enhancing the brand image by appearing as a testimonial for the brand’s benefits. He or she becomes an integral part of the brand persona and helps build an emotional bond with the consumers. And this goes beyond just appearing in TV commercials to running promotional campaigns, to attending press conferences, to even using the product (brand being endorsed) so as to make it visible to the public. The brand ambassador transforms into a brand champion where he is associated with every aspect related to the brand that could also enhance his/her laurels.

Now, a Brand Face is just like a tool used to increase brand recall and would only appear in advertisements and nothing beyond that. Brand faces would have limited or temporary contract periods under their kitty for an instance Sona Chandi Chawanpryash using Sourav Ganguly for a while in its commercials. They are simply forgotten once the campaign ends. Now the question could arise – why choose or incorporate brand faces in the first place? Wouldn’t they create a temporary brand image that people can easily forget after the campaign ends? Yes, this is true, but it is important to know that everything is contextual and fits well with situations. This is also true with brand faces, that it is going to be appropriate to use them not for a long term brand building objective (which will rather be done by brand ambassadors), but for short term goals of promoting awareness of a newly launched product, or to communicate a discount in prices, and many such goals.

The choice therefore is based on the context or situation that a marketer or a brand manager faces.

Understand consumers better than they do

How easy life could get for marketers, if they could really understand consumers better than consumers themselves do. In many cases, it has been evident that consumers don’t know what they want or even what is possible. For example, even 20 years ago, how many consumers would have asked for now-commonplace products like cell phones, i-pods, digital cameras, 24 hours online buying facility?

Such situations call for customer-driven marketing – understanding customer needs even better than customers themselves do and bring out products that meet most existing needs and more importantly the latent needs. This has been proven repeatedly by the world renowned organization, known for its persistent innovative abilities – 3M.

Officially known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, has gotten people to believe that failures indeed do not indicate 'ceasefire'. The mention of the phrase ‘3M has indeed, stumbled into some products’ by CEO Richard O. Carlton again exemplifies their flair in creativity that has fetched them consumers from almost every country accepting their products which were even considered to be gratifying the latent needs of consumers world over.

“Marketing is a (SOCIAL) and managerial process”?

Flipping through what many marketers baptize as bible – Principles of marketing, inscribed by the infamous Philip Kotler and co-authored by Gary Armstrong, I came across the following definition of marketing – Broadly defined, marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and organizations obtain, what they need and want through creating and exchanging value with others.

The term that grabbed my attention was SOCIAL. Would marketers want to socialize with every customer that he/she comes across? Consider an instance where your consumers mostly entail those who belong to the premium segment (higher end), and wonder if they'd really like it if you socialized with them, talk to them about their work, their raiment habits and hover most of the conversation around their personal life? They would quite clearly get snappy and turn down your market offering even before you start your sales presentation.

There needs to be a proper interpretation of the term social here, and comprehend it in accordance with the kind of consumers that you deal with. With such High Net worth Individuals (premium segment) it would be best to just go about doing business as usual with very little or absolutely zero attempt at socializing. ‘If this is the case then how would we achieve repeat business’, could be an argument. Simply put, after the actual sale happens these consumers can be given a ring at a time that is convenient to them and be the first to offer a discount on the next repeat purchase. Again, there is absolutely no requirement for socializing, with the exception of adding a pinch of politeness to the conversation.