The importance of the Web
The other day I was having coffee with Nikhil who's the founder and CTO of a 40-50 people company. I won't disclose other details here but Im sure if he is reading this he'd know. His company is a provider of specific enterprise solutions. They employ sales people who target these enterprises, reach to them and sell them their solution. Some time back they tried out google adwords ... and this will surprise you - today, majority of their business comes via google.
Another friend of mine, Gaurav, who's also the founder of a 40-50 people company and is doing very well indicated how sitting in India they get business from the US and most of their customers find them via the web.
This forced me to re-think some of our strategy, now on one side you would have a sales strategy where you reach out to potential customers, e.g., you send emails to a 100, 5-7 might reply back and you might close a deal with 1 if you are lucky. The other side of this is that you'd publicize yourself at a place on the web where your customers are most likely to come and once you have done that your customers come and find you. Now for a startup with limited funding where you don't have all the sales people you'd need, your web presence might prove to be handy.
So what does this mean, well ... expect lots more about Wirkle on the web in the coming days!!!
Another friend of mine, Gaurav, who's also the founder of a 40-50 people company and is doing very well indicated how sitting in India they get business from the US and most of their customers find them via the web.
This forced me to re-think some of our strategy, now on one side you would have a sales strategy where you reach out to potential customers, e.g., you send emails to a 100, 5-7 might reply back and you might close a deal with 1 if you are lucky. The other side of this is that you'd publicize yourself at a place on the web where your customers are most likely to come and once you have done that your customers come and find you. Now for a startup with limited funding where you don't have all the sales people you'd need, your web presence might prove to be handy.
So what does this mean, well ... expect lots more about Wirkle on the web in the coming days!!!
Labels: wirkle
3 Comments:
Varun,
I sort of agree with the thought over there, but let's delve a little deeper into the process. I believe there are a number of factors that will help determine the amount of work you can find from google adwords etc. Let's start listing them one by one:
1. The industry you're in will play a major part in how much business you can generate from the web - whether the industry is comfortable enough with outsourcing/offshoring some of its development, how mature it is, and how much of the work can be given out.
2. The clientele you're going to pursue will also have a major impact. For work that requires a lot of interaction with the client and the development of a certain level of trust, references always count, if one doesn't know the people outright.
Let's look at clients from a different perspective - look at them as partners, not only do they provide Wirkle with work, but also a potential to work together in the future and build something mutually beneficial. In the mobile space where everything is nascent, such clients could prove to be very useful. These should be first order strategic clients that Wirkle agrees upon and pursues regardless of other work we get.
So, that was first order - now the second order strategic clients - these would be clients where Wirkle has the potential of getting more work from. In the consulting jargon, we call it getting a larger share of their wallet.
The third order client (barely strategic) are those that help us pay the bills. We get short term work from them...get money and get references from them.
My judgement says that Google adwords will only be helpful in generating third order clients...we may be able to convert them into first and second orders, but not really.
Therefore, it is paramount that we have a first order client list and strategy that we chase.
A very thought provoking comment ... first lets re-classify the clients
Clients A - Strategic partners
Clients B - Large/mid size relevant clients
Clients C - Small Size relevant clients
Clients D - Not relevant clients, only those that help pay the bills.
Hope this makes sense. I think the web (or google adwords) would help clients C reach you if you do things in the right fashion. If the message is clear in terms of what needs you fulfil ... the right customers should reach you.
Now, all this means is that they're in need for something which you can fulfil and does not necessarily mean a deal closure. Beyond this point comes credibility and relationship building. Again the web can help you tell the world your credibility ... the relationship building you have to do.
For clients of type B and A (there are much fewer of those) ... I think a sales strategy would probably make more sense. At the same time, I think it would take a while before clients B, A would take a startup seriously.
My thoughts exactly...read my strategy email from last night.
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