Any marketing folk here interested in starting a ‘Marketing Group’… that gets together and discusses marketing techniques, strategies, ideas etc etc for the Asia market.
Doesnt matter what industry or product. Perhaps we could even help each other with product launches, sub contractors for trade shows, advertising, outsourcing, printing etc, network development, or even cross company promotional ideas.
Either let me know by PM or by posting here.
We could meet for dinner, brunch etc, say, once a month?
If anyone can offer any insight into how you lead someone through the sales process when they a) don’t actually listen, b) don’t process what you’re telling them, c) will say whatever they think you want them to say regardless of whether it’s true, and d) won’t make a commitment then I’d be all ears.
I can’t offer that much when it comes to experience but for some tips on what works in theory I think I could contribute since I major in Marketing. It would definitely be cool to meet up with some people with experience.
again… this group can help with potential job offers we may of here in the field.
my marketing theory (MBA) conflicts with a lot of the realities of business in Asia and that is one of the reasons i want to get this group up and running. to discuss new ideas, supprt each other, find ideas for helping each other, as well as networking for jobs and just general discussion about how marketing and sales are too very different functions
I propose either a mid week beer and light meal gathering OR a Saturday brunch thing. What are peoples preferences?
For the first meeting I reckon we will have enough to talk about in terms of introductions etc. After the first meeting we can add a little more structure to the get togethers.
Why not come to the [Forumosa entrepreneurship meetings]? Marketing fits right in with all that business like stuff. There’s already a pretty big group that attend. You marketing guys could at some point (any point) just break away from the main group and do your marketing talk somewhere else. You’d probably even get some extra curious georges.
I would be into a marketing group since it was my major, I have attended the Entrepreneur meetings twice, and this sounds a little different and more focused…
Ok, cool… I have expressions of interest from about 6 people.
I am heading back to Australia at the end of the month and would really like to meet up before then.
I propose the following:
DATE: Wednesday 12 April
TIME: 730 pm (best I can do)
VENUE: Taiwan Beer Factory Beer Garden. Its an inside or outside vibe and depnding on the weather its lovely to sit out on a balmy evening.
ADDRESS: Cnr PaDe and JienGuo… nearish the computer market.
I can help Loretta, what is your product by the way? I can teach closing, buying signs, impulses, qualifying and many other valuable things. Basically walk you through the process. You have to remember that not everyone is worth a pitch, you must qualify first. Sounds like you are spending time with the wrong people. Its just a numbers game Loretta. Get back to me and I would be happy to help, I can assure you your numbers will increase!
That’s nice to hear, thanks. Maybe we could get a group together? I asked a question about this at a seminar last year and half the audience said they’d had a similar problem.
To be clear, I should say that I’m specifically interested in the problems related to selling anything in Taiwan, especially education. The theories and practises taught in the west don’t seem to hold here. And everyone who walks through the door is worth a pitch.
Specifically the problem is about what happens before you can attempt a close, the sales process leading to a purchase as the natural, inevitable consequence. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of rational analysis by the customer of what their needs really are, and if the solution proposed doesn’t conform to what they want then no amount of logic is going to shift that. Add to that the difficulty of getting any kind of a commitment out of anyone, or the fact that if you remind someone of a commitment they made that they’ll lose face and kill any possibility of a sale.
How do you qualify your customer under these circumstances?
It’s no good to say that you’re meeting the wrong people. Most students in Taiwan have unreasonable expectations, and feel that they know far more than any mere foreigner about how best to learn English. They want to be put into an inappropriate class, and simply selling them what they want leads to complaints later.
eg I had a student complain to me once that her IELTS class was ‘too much fun,’ because she expected to be drilled with grammar and vocabulary for 3hrs at a stretch. That was how she had always learned English, for 15 years or so, and pointing out that these methods hadn’t worked so far didn’t cut any ice with her.
Or how about the guy that wanted to join all the advanced classes in order to pass a test in three months? Pointing out that his English wasn’t good enough to follow the teacher in the advanced classes, or that the guidelines published by the people who set the test indicated that the total study time available to him was about a quarter of what he needed to reach the required level (even if he was following a structured approach instead of jumping in over his head) was a complete waste of time. None of that was important. He had to pass the test in three months and he was going to give his money to whoever was willing to tell him what he wanted to hear.
Or the guy who wanted to be in the advanced class, but didn’t speak enough English to actually ask me himself? He needed to get a friend to translate. How do you sell someone like that a class that will actually help him?
Sales in Taiwan seems to be a very one-way process. You keep telling the customer to buy until they buy. The customer is passive, not involved in the process, and never gives any commitment. If you’re good you can find their hot buttons to trigger an impulse buy, but in education you have to steer the customer into the right product because you’re going to be seeing them every week or even every day for months to come. It’s not just about making a sale, it’s about making the right sale.
From my observations people are much more like sheep here… they just follow what other people do… so If you can market it to the trend setters, the rest will follow. All you need to do then is identify the trend setters.
PM me, if this really gets started
