{"id":917537,"date":"2018-11-28T12:59:26","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T20:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznology.com\/?p=37700"},"modified":"2018-11-30T08:08:53","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T16:08:53","slug":"b2b-marketing-in-india-interview-with-sudhi-seshadri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/b2b-marketing-in-india-interview-with-sudhi-seshadri\/","title":{"rendered":"B2B Marketing in India: Interview with Sudhi Seshadri"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/span>This fall, I enjoyed<\/span> a few months of teaching at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, and learning much about Indian business and life. To get some insight into what\u2019s going on in B2B marketing here, I tapped the brain of<\/span> Sudhi Seshadri<\/span><\/a>, who<\/span> is<\/span> dean and professor of marketing at<\/span> MYRA School of Business<\/span><\/a> in nearby Mysore, and has a PhD from Penn State. Sudhi has been teaching B2B marketing for decades, and knows the territory.<\/span> I posed<\/span> six<\/span> questions to him.<\/span><\/p>\n

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1. <\/span>I\u2019m told that<\/span> B2B marketing<\/span> is<\/span> still relatively nascent in India<\/span>.<\/span> How would you characterize the state of B2B Marketing here?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A bit of recent history is a good place to start. Prior to the \u201890s, Indian business<\/span> was<\/span> severely constrained<\/span><\/a>, and<\/span> B2B marketing<\/span> didn\u2019t really exist<\/span>.<\/span> T<\/span>wo waves of liberalization in \u201891 and \u201896 brought immense change. Firms were free to<\/span> compete, but<\/span> still<\/span> they didn\u2019t evolve much beyond hierarchical conglomerates.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the early 2000s came<\/span> a new national Competition Act in 2002,<\/span> along with<\/span> <\/span>rapid<\/span> globalization and demands from a<\/span> growing<\/span> middle<\/span> <\/span>class<\/span>. The Indian<\/span> economy<\/span> has been<\/span> fast<\/span> restructuring<\/span>, and market forces are changing<\/span> interorganizational relationships<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

So<\/span>,<\/span> <\/span>whereas B2B<\/span> m<\/span>arketing in the West is well over a century old, in India it has really come into practice in earnest<\/span> only<\/span> in the last decade<\/span> <\/span>and<\/span> <\/span>a<\/span> <\/span>half.<\/span> <\/span>So<\/span> B2B marketing<\/span> is<\/span> a young field, but one<\/span> that<\/span> is at an inflexion point.<\/span><\/p>\n

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2. In the US, marketers perennially state that their top objective is delivering leads<\/span>\u2014lead<\/span> quality and lead quantity. How do Indian B2B marketers see their top objective?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Lead delivery and \u201cfeeding the funnel\u201d are right up there. But often lead management is in the domain of sales management, rather than a marketing function.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since markets are \u201cthinner\u201d here, and fewer purchasing organizations are market driven, the top issue for B2B<\/span> m<\/span>arketing is business development through value creation.<\/span> T<\/span>he marketing organization focuses on developing customized<\/span> offerings while<\/span> trying to reduce<\/span> the cost to serve. Think of it like<\/span> the Toyota \/ Lexus model<\/span>.<\/span> <\/span>You develop separate<\/span> offerings for<\/span> different buyer segments.<\/span> Lead delivery follows from this<\/span>,<\/span> but is very different for<\/span> each<\/span> segment<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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3. Much of B2B communication has gone digital in recent years. Are you seeing the same shift<\/span> in India<\/span>? What seems to be working best?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Interestingly, the term \u201cd<\/span>igital marketing<\/span>\u201d is commonly used<\/span> in India<\/span> to mean e<\/span>\u2013<\/span>commerce or<\/span>,<\/span> in B2B\u2019s case, e<\/span>\u2013<\/span>procurement. This channel is likely<\/span> to<\/span> continue to grow, as exchanges multiply, regulations relax, and SMEs enter the formal sector in larger numbers.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I think what you\u2019re really asking about is what we usually call multi-channel marketing. The short answer is that it\u2019s not living up to its potential. A scientific approach would try to optimize by looking at elasticities for each and divvy up the tasks among hybrid digital channels. However, we are long way from th<\/span>at<\/span> in India.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it will come, especially as the exp<\/span>e<\/span>r<\/span>i<\/span>mentation going on in B2C pays off and catc<\/span>h<\/span>es the attention of business marketers.<\/span><\/p>\n

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4. Are trade shows and conferences still an important part of the marketing mix?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yes, they are. The simple economics of trade shows and events such as conferences for lead generation in early funnel stages are unmatched. The relationship building advantages are also significant.<\/span><\/p>\n

We know that<\/span> most<\/span> international marketing is B2B, whatever the countries involved.<\/span> <\/span>India also uses B2B marketing in building exports, and these sort<\/span>s<\/span> of interpersonal, traditional approaches allow foreign buyers to develop trust in unique ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the software industry, where marketing is directed in a large part to a developer or collaborator community, the importance of conferences cannot be understated. All the major software platforms have long been using conference-type events in their marketing mix.<\/span><\/p>\n

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5. Ironically, much of the data used by US B2B marketers for prospecting and current customer marketing is generated by researchers in India. How are Indian B2B marketers using data themselves?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Prospecting from data provided by<\/span> l<\/span>ist<\/span> v<\/span>endors is widespread.<\/span> Eventually, this will move from<\/span> simple screening rules to predictive modelling.<\/span> <\/span>Furthermore, the<\/span> growing service-oriented industry in<\/span> d<\/span>ata<\/span> a<\/span>nalytics and<\/span> m<\/span>arketing<\/span> d<\/span>ecision<\/span> s<\/span>cience<\/span> is now spilling over to Indian customers. Rapid growth of data driven business models in India is further fueling this emerging trend.<\/span><\/p>\n

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6. What are the particular sales and marketing challenges faced by the Indian B2B community?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Let me highlight three.<\/span><\/p>\n

A<\/span>s a longtime educator,<\/span> I might be biased<\/span>. B<\/span>ut I think the<\/span> first<\/span> problem is that too few talented and trained professionals are<\/span> entering<\/span> <\/span>the<\/span> B2B marketing community. Marketing education in India is almost entirely<\/span> about<\/span> consumer<\/span>,<\/span> directed at the FMCG sector. Most MBA programs do not teach<\/span> B2B, or<\/span> do not have the right sequence of courses. Therefore, all the learning is<\/span> done<\/span> on the job, and the important B2B frameworks are not widely known and understood.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second,<\/span> integration of marketing and sales in B2B has been difficult<\/span>,<\/span> both at the conceptual and at the practice level. This is not entirely the fault of the B2B practitioner community. It is only recently that purchasing and sales literatures are coming together and evolving joint marketing frameworks. This lack of perspective has historically kept marketing artificially distant from sales or purchasing functions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Third<\/span>,<\/span> we need<\/span> collaboration between education and practice<\/span>, to support<\/span> centers of excellence<\/span> similar to Penn State\u2019s<\/span> <\/span>Institute for Studies of Business Markets<\/span><\/a>, to<\/span> develop research and case materials in India. The<\/span> financial<\/span> contribution of B2B marketing has yet to be fully recognized at the CXO table.<\/span> In short, we<\/span> still<\/span> need to make the business case for<\/span> B2B marketing<\/span> in India<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This fall, I enjoyed a few months of teaching at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, and learning much about Indian business and life. To get some insight into what\u2019s going on in B2B marketing here, I tapped the brain of Sudhi Seshadri, who is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11252,"featured_media":897884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,130],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917537"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11252"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}