The Indian buyer is a tough one(3 min read)

When it comes to buying, Indians (mea culpa) have an attitude that needs a little (or a lot of) tweaking. Indians are always looking for a deal. As the world goes increasingly global in doing business this behavior works against more times than not

When it comes to selling to any consumer not just Indians, the lead qualification needs to be rigorous else you could end up wasting a lot of time chasing someone who looks like or pretends to want to be a customer but isn’t going to be one.

Just remember, no one buys unless they see the value in the solution
There are 3 categories of people you sell to –

1. Aware of the need and Ready for a solution — They know the problem they have and want it solved fast. Speed and efficacy matters. They’ve tried solving it themselves or are trying to. They are likely willing to run a pilot immediately and work with you to get to the solution. These are your ideal customers (they literally are your model customers)
1. Know the problem and open to learning— They dont know they have a problem or have one thats not painful enough. They are open to finding new ways to do things or to find solutions that can help them. But they haven’t taken the initiative to solve the problem. They may or many not appreciate the value of your solution and most likely are not in agreement with your commercial proposition of the amount it takes to solve their problem. Rigorous qualification required here. These are almost 80% of the prospects you will meet.
Segment these customers into
1. The problem exists but its not an urgent issue – Educate them how solving the problem helps. Show them the product. Conduct demos. Understand urgency and need. They will only buy after they need the solution. Keep in touch but don’t pursue hard.
1. The problem exists but budgets are too small. – Keep in touch to see when budgets align to your price point.
1. Unaware of the problem and ready to understand how it helps — Qualify them further to ultimate get them into one of the other buckets
1. Beware of the know it all customer – They may be a non-buyer
1. Aware or Unaware – problem isn’t painful — They dont have a problem that needs solving or they aren’t affected by the problem. Find these prospects fast and stop prospecting. They won’t buy. They’ll do demos. They’ll string you along. Even if they get the product for free, they wont really be using it. The problem doesn’t exist or isn’t painful to warrant a solution.

The Indian buyer has another element to their thinking. Given the relatively cheaper and capable labor they are always trying to play arbitrage. The thinking is “I could build it for cheaper, why bother buying it for $X’. Any enterpreneur knows the cost of time to market is too large – the smart decision in most cases is to spend the money solve the problem and get to market.

A wise person somewhere told me – A problem solved with money is an easy problem to solve.

This has stuck with me. Look at it simply, each of us has a finite amount of time, maximize the return on time even if the return on money invested seems somewhat poorer – so long as your time to solution and benefits drawn from that solution are accelerated

“I can’t solve every problem. But I can get most problems solved and narrow my focus on solving the ones that matter most”