India, with its explosive growth across industries, presents a very attractive market for increasing the Top Line for companies building products and solutions. In this context, India can no longer be viewed only as the provider of inexpensive technical and IT resources, but as a strategic market that is poised to take off and cannot be ignored. The growth in the Indian market spans across all verticals with spending increasing in double digits in many cases.
Non-Indian companies who wish to sell in these markets need to understand local practices and culture. As one would expect, selling in any market requires attention to certain Maslow elements like product quality, industry knowledge, and price / performance. But, a successful sale often happens with a strong influence from factors other than the three listed above. How often have we seen that a higher priced or a lower quality vendor walks away with a sale? Or even worse, when you think you have a sale in sight, for the situation to unravel for seemingly unknown reasons? These unknown reasons frequently have much to do with local factors, such as personal relationships between decision makers, understanding of cultural nuances of how to articulate business questions, and familiarity with local practices that engage organizational bureaucracies.
Nonetheless, the fundamental questions still remain about selling: Is selling is an art? Or is it a science? Is it all about having the best relationships or having the best knowledge? Or having the best prices in relation to your competition? Is selling the same in every country globally and in every culture or sub-culture? Is it different selling high priced complex solutions versus simple commodity products?
None of these questions have obvious answers, and the answers could vary based on product complexity, customer situation, and cultural differences. A successful salesperson will have to look at each of the variables, identify which ones are in play in any given situation, perceive who the decision makers are at various levels of the process, know when to press forward aggressively and when to scale back the forcefulness of rhetoric. In the West, once the initial contact has been made with a client or account, mutually defined contractual frameworks come into play, and these govern the trajectory of the relationship moving forward. Though, of course, comfort and mutual goodwill operate in every situation, the degree to which these undefined and intangible variables play a part is very context-specific. It is not that India does not have contract-driven business relationships, but in India the contractual obligations are reinforced and strengthened at every stage by cultural variables.
One may argue that the language of business is worldwide and that a business person in, say, Russia speaks the same language as a business person in Nigeria. There is certainly a great deal of truth in this perspective. A very successful businessman in the United States, the owner of a multigenerational furniture company, once told me that what he learned from his father is that a businessman’s success is always based on the integrity of his word. If you are known as someone whose word is not to be trusted, you will never be successful in entering markets or forging relationships. This is indeed true, but in order for you to be perceived as “trustworthy,” you must know how to present yourself as such. And the presentation modes can vary from culture to culture, country to country. An executive who invests in multiple companies said, “We will never enter a market unless there is a trusted local partner who can help us navigate through local business practices.”
Therefore, small and medium companies who want to take advantage of the Indian market will do well to engage the help of a local partner, one they can trust to communicate the strengths of their products and services. A potential local partner could use this current opportune moment to establish certain key infrastructures in preparation to act as the vanguard into the Indian market. Some components of the infrastructure include a talented workforce, a strong network of local contacts, an understanding of local business practices, familiarity with government regulations, and ethics and integrity. These elements will all play a crucial role in expediting the journey from concept to cash. The above factors are wholly incorporated in ABOVE.
Kannankote “Sri” Srikanth
Member – Board of Directors
www.above-inc.com
