Customer Behaviour

“The customer is always right” – As a salesman you are moulded into the habit of not questioning the customer, rather sheepishly nodding in unison. The rebel in the salesman; you need to appreciate that he falls into the species of human beings, sometimes rises up.

India, a rising economy with quintessential Asian ethos and culture. Family and social bindings take centre stage in the list of priorities. There is no cost cutting when it comes to spending on children’s education, trying the best to make them adept to run the race of competition.

Along with regular schools, there is a huge presence of educators and education companies catering to the space of providing training to students in subjects such as mathematics, logical thinking, English etc. These companies, who are mostly in niche areas of skill building in young minds, have their roots to passionate individuals who want to contribute to the existing vacuum in school curriculum. Even as a distant observer one cannot be oblivious to the passion over pouring in their course-ware, teaching style or delivery model. A market already exists for these players and more often than not, money is neither a problem nor a deterrent for business continuity.

I have always been a big admirer of such offerings and fully relate to their passionate contribution to the overall development of the budding next-gen. And I saw a lot of synergy between their contribution in this niche market segment and our technical offerings in the education space. And then is when I saw the difference.

Most, if not all, of these education companies were in a way contributors to “Learning 2.0”, the next phase of revolutionary wave sweeping the education space. However, they were unable to appreciate the contribution or need of technology and perceived it as an unnecessary spending.

“We don’t need this now, we want to take it forward but will it help,” most of these educators quipped as I met them. From Delhi to Chennai, the message was the same. As more of these meetings progressed, the rebel salesman wanted to walk out of line and show light to a bunch I perceived who needed to adopt technology – adopt it now!

­What was the problem?

As the rebel settled down and slowly but surely was giving way to reasonable sensitivity, I decided to look at the problem from a different angle. Here is what I realized:

1. A huge fraction of these educators were essentially teachers or from similar backgrounds to whom teaching using a chalk & blackboard came easy rather than typing on a keyboard. What I mean essentially is that came from non-technical backgrounds and could hardly perceive technology to be a facilitator.

2. Even if some were from technology backgrounds or tech-savvy, terms such as “Learning 2.0”, “Digital Content”, “Learning Management Systems” & “Cloud Computing” seemed to be alien, equivalent to forgotten Latin languages.

3. Their passion in delivering a “particular” courseware in a “certain” way made their thoughts restricted and wary of course structure essentials lost in the technology Broadway.

4. However, a pivotal reason that I noticed that deterred them from doing business with a technology company like us, let alone using technology – was the inexperience of working with IT service sector companies.

All summed up, there needs to be an approach customized for these players and moulded to be more of an educative one rather than an offering. And there is when, the reformer takes over the rebel and chooses a path unknown till now. So, the path is:

1. Behave as partners rather than vendors and do not infringe into their passionate space, the space considered sacred – the education content and structure.

2. Help them understand technology, if even it takes to stoop to very layman terms, so be it. More so, make them understand the IT services business model – use simple allures, such as how a carpenter renders his services.

3. Last but not the least, walk the talk. Behave as a consultant, partner and vendor to the customer.

And so, the journey begins..