In this podcast, Arindam Paul, CBO of Atomberg Technologies, also has amazing insights about the offline market and how AtomBerg penetrated into it
These are 8 lessons you should learn when you enter the massive offline market
First of all, let us understand what the need to crack the offline market.
In the offline market, there is always an increase in the margin of your profits, the costs remain almost the same, and profits keep on increasing, which is very different from online markets.
Let us straight away dive into the points:
1. Good supply creates demand:
Sometimes you don’t need a market, you need to create a market.
An exceptional product can create an exceptional market. Let us take an example:
In India, spectacles were used only to correct eye problems. Lenskart started a new trend of usage of multiple spectacles according to occasions; now, spectacles are mostly used as an accessory more than as a device for eye problems.
Now you may be thinking, “How can I create an exceptional product?” To be true, it is not everyone’s piece of cake. We will talk about it later in our upcoming newsletters.
2. Window of time:
When you create an innovative product, don’t you think a giant player in the market can copy it and sell it in masses? The answer is No, here comes the concept of the Window of Time.
When you create such a product, you will get a time gap where no competitors will be there; this is where you need to go all in. Here are the 3 reasons for it:
No competitors means customers only need to buy from you
All the distributors, retailers, and anyone in between the lines have only one source: that’s you
This is the time when you establish your brand, so that you sell your future products with ease
3. Retailer should showcase your product:
As a famous Hindi quote says, “Jo Dikhta Hai, Woh Bikhta Hai” which means what is visible that gets sold.
You need to convince your retailer to place your product in such a way that your product is clearly visible when a customer enters the shop.
4. Consumer words are the most powerful:
At the end of the day, the customer is the only one who decides whether your product is winning or losing. Investors, distributors, retailers, and all are just a pathway to reach your customer.
Your first question should be “Why is my customer buying my product?”
Second question: “What are the pain points he is facing in my product?”
Now, how do you answer these questions? You need to ask your consumers these questions. Remember, selling offline means you need to get down to the field, and it is the only way possible.
5. Your time starts when the customer enters the shop:
Now you know the right questions to ask, but do you know where to ask these questions? This is the game changer.
“I will ask these questions to my customers about these questions when they buy my product and take it.” if you are thinking about this, then you are wrong.
Once a person buys a product, they will never give you honest feedback, because psychologically, they need to agree that the product is very good. Here is what you do: when a consumer checks the products in your category, ask them the questions, and now you will have honest replies. Do you know why?
If they agree that everything is good about the product and matches the requirement, now they need to buy, the only option.
If they disagree, you will get a clear cut answer as to why the product is not matching their requirement.
6. Real treasures are in the customer’s home:
Now, customers have purchased your product. How do you know whether it is meeting your requirements? Is it working the way you expected? Now comes the time to reveal the real worth of your product.
You need to go to the customer’s home, which sounds awkward, but it is the golden step. You will see how your product aligns with their home setup, and what features you could have brought to make it even better.
Another reason is that customers will get a feeling that you really care about their experience, rather than just getting money from them; it is one of the best moves to build customer loyalty.
7. Don’t rest on your laurels:
Once you have captured a good amount of the market share, don’t stagnate with your product feature; innovate it, take feedback, repeat.
This is how you utilise your customer loyalty, expand your market share even more. If you have relied on what you have done in the past, a new contender comes in and washes you out.
8. ADHD (Always don’t hate distributors):
When you have a good market capture, you cannot directly go to the retailers; you need distributors.
“I will eliminate distributors to keep more margin in my product.” You are thinking of a stupid idea. Money is not the only factor to win. Time and volume are also the 2 other factors you need to look at.
“What advantages will I get from a distributor?” Here are the 2 things:
Supply chain: Your supply will be more structured than if you were directly selling to retailers.
Entry into more counters: In some regions, you cannot directly go to retailers; it is not practical, so distributors will open the gateway for reaching to reach more retailers in those localities.
I had a question: “Why would distributors buy from me?” If you had a similar question, here are the 3 points:
ROI: Distributors need a good return on investment. Ideally, if you show that your distributor will get >18% ROI from your product, you will get a deal.
Volume of Business: Distributors are not like retailers; they need a high volume of products to make actual business, so your purchase rate should be high.
Net Profit: This is the most important parameter for them. Their whole business lies in this.
Net Profit = Volume of product * Margin of the distributor
If you have asked yourself, “How can I find the right distributor?”, now you have arrived at the right question. Here is how you do it.
You need to understand the concept of Reverse Engineering, retailers are the ones who buy from distributors, which means retailers know the best who is an ideal distributor for them. So retailers will give you the best answer.
Conclusion:
This was a long newsletter, but it is very important to understand offline markets in depth. The biggest takeaway from this newsletter is that, offline market is more of systems and human interactions, so you need to give a personal touch in this market, and it is the only way to penetrate it. I hope you get the point and will build your next successful offline brand!
Keep building yourself every day!
P.S.: Are you looking for a semi-automated system to enter the offline market? DM “System” on my X handle