Teresa George

Speed is a moat in of itself. This thread [1] does a great job of breaking that down But, speed / urgency is also a moat in sales. Sales teams that: - respond right away to an inbound lead - do same day follow ups - set up POCs in a day instead of a week just compete better. This is because to get speed, you have to solve so many problems upstream from tooling to hiring to culture. [1] https://lnkd.in/gCkewMJV

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I am starting a series “SaaS tools for Indian D2C brands” for no-nonsense content around SaaS tools available for Indian D2C brands. There are a lot of SaaS tools out there for D2C brands which makes it difficult for growth marketers to start with any of them. Even if they choose one to solve a specific problem based on references or recommendations they often end up wasting time and money only to realise that the tool is not working for them. And there are a lot of reasons why even the best tools might not work for your brand 😕 To make the discussions more insightful I will be inviting/tagging people who I think can add significant value based on their first-hand experience and insights. In this piece, we will focus on the most famous attribution tool for Shopify brands: “Triple Whale” 🐳 (I have personally used this tool for my clients) The value proposition of Triple Whale (TW) is simple: to give correct attribution for every sale to different campaigns and channels involved in the conversion journey, so that growth marketing teams can make more informed decisions. Apart from attribution, two key features I found helpful in the tool were: 1. Unified dashboard for data from all the marketing channels 2. Access to important metrics like NC-CPA, NC-ROAS, etc. at campaign and channel level I have asked many Indian D2C marketers about their experience with TW and the most common response I have got is: Google Analytics (GA) provides us with broadly the same data that TW gives. The few new data points that TW offers are not worth the price, especially since GA is free. I agree with these marketers to some extent. TW and similar tools are very successful in the US because a significant proportion of internet users use browsers that have banned third-party cookies and have brought in strict privacy protection mechanisms like Firefox and Safari. The data a US brand sees in GA is inaccurate because of data loss in tracking due to browser restrictions. TW solves this problem through its proprietary first-party pixel. But in India, 89% of internet users use Google Chrome as the default browser. Chrome has not banned third-party cookies yet, it is planning to ban them in 2025. And that is why there is no significant loss of data in GA for an Indian brand. You can achieve what TW offers to a great extent using existing tools like GA, Shopify, Meta, and Google Ads Manager with a correctly set up UTM structure. Now the main question is “Does Triple Whale provide enough incremental value over existing free tools to justify its cost?” and if so, then “At what scale does it make sense for a D2C brand to pay for such a tool?” It would be great if you could share your opinion in the comments. Note: I have not included TW’s recently released feature “Sonar”, because there is not enough data on its impact yet. PS: Please don’t post promotional comments. Honest feedback and opinions would be appreciated.

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𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗛𝘆𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 $𝟯.𝟲 𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻! Lessons from Zepto's Quick Commerce Takeover Young, Fast & Funded!  Meet Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya V., the Stanford dropouts who just took their hyper-fast delivery startup, Zepto, to a whopping $3.6 billion valuation After securing a monster $665 million investment!  But what can we learn from their meteoric rise? 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝟭: 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗴 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝗲𝗻)!  Zepto's secret weapon is its breakneck delivery times.  By focusing on strategically placed mini-warehouses ("dark stores") and a streamlined system, they're offering customers what they crave - groceries (and soon more!) delivered in under 10 minutes! 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝟮: 𝗚𝗼 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗼𝗿 𝗚𝗼 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲!  Zepto isn't just competing with other quick commerce players.  They're setting their sights on established giants by expanding beyond groceries and offering lightning-fast delivery on a wider range of products. 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝟯: 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗲𝘀! With 40% of their latest funding coming from new investors, Zepto's audacity is paying off.  Investors are clearly bullish on the future of quick commerce and the potential of this young, ambitious team. The Future of Shopping is Here! Zepto's success story is a sign of things to come. Get ready for a new era of super-fast delivery that's redefining how we shop! P.S. What do you think about the rise of quick commerce? Disruptor or fad? Share your thoughts in the comments! #QuickCommerce #Zepto #FundingFrenzy #BusinessLessons #shripalgandhi

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The key to achieving sales numbers is the "tea-rrific" formula. Tea's aroma carries untold stories and where there is tea, there is hope. A cup of tea brings a moment of clarity. Even the temperature is extreme outside but Still Salesmen b like ❣️☕ #sales #salesmen #selling

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Phew !!!!! Just back from India, one of the hottest ecom markets 🛍 300+ D2C Brands in 2 weeks & tonnes of insights, here are the top 3 👇 1️⃣ Third party cookie deprecation Come August will be like an earthquake for brands as their major source of acquisition channel(paid) will have a major impact because of no cookies. Retargeting, Ad's, look alike audience etc will not working. Some estimate numbers to drop as much as by 50%. Sad part they are not prepared and still dont realise the importance of 1st party data 😫 2️⃣ Everyone know ROAS, very few know CR 8 out of 10 founders/growth marketers when asked what was their conversion rate said our ROAS is .... they didnt seem to know conversion rate figure or the kpi was not important enough to remember. Big big red sign 🚨 3️⃣ Omni channel engagement Most brands already have an SMS/Email/Whatsapp engagement strategy/platform in place. They all talk about going big on sending retention or abandoned cart messages on these channels. What they dont realize that for 80% of their traffic they dont have email/contact number for these channels to work on. They are leaving a lot of money on the table not utilizing onsite engagement properly, abandoned carts is the lowest hanging fruit 🎯 Most important take away ☝ Brands spend so much time and money in brining traffic and then focus a lot of automation flows for email,sms,whatsapp but fail to realize the point where the sale or conversion happen - Onsite 📱 The best time when a visitor purchases is when they are on your store. Optimize how you engage with them and your numbers will boost 🚀

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Highperformr.ai, a marketing SaaS startup floated by former Freshworks executives Ramesh Ravishankar and Srivatsan Venkatesan, has raised $3.5 Mn (INR 29.2 Cr) in a seed funding round 👇 The startup’s first product, Highperformr for Teams, leverages generative AI and LLMs to help B2B businesses maximise their return on investment (ROI) on social media campaigns. The fresh capital will be deployed to further the startup's research and development activity, build the platform's native AI capabilities, and expand its distribution network. To read more in detail, click here: https://lnkd.in/gV8tqWyU #startups #fundraising #growth #saas

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Last week Zepto introduced fashion, jewellery, etc as categories, without enabling any returns policy. You like them or you don't but Zepto has never shied away from charging money for its services. Be it delivery fee, platform fee, rain fee etc. According to me, this is one of the boldest attempts of late in a not so happening space of e-commerce. Either, Zepto will fail and learn that without returns, online shopping is not possible. Or e-commerce as an industry will get to know what it takes to build a profitable business. #ecommerce #returns #saturdaymusings #surispeaks

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Who exactly is losing market share in the hotly contest grocery commerce? I thought it must be the now-not-so modern retail, but I'm not so sure. Zepto raised $665 Mn at a valuation of $3.6 Bn, and is in talks to raise $250 Mn more. And their cofounder and CEO Aadit Palicha recently commented that they can beat DMart - Avenue Supermarts Ltd on GMV in the next 12-18 months. Swiggy Instamart also is growing, and Blinkit is likely to be more valuable than their owner Zomato itself - so they are all doing well, even if Dunzo isn't. Sure, no idea what JioMart Digital is doing, but deep pockets. Same with Tata Digital and their weird assortment forced to converge on Neu. bigbasket.com is trying to unlearn and relearn, and it just might. And Flipkart Grocery and Amazon Fresh are also upping their game - launching faster deliveries, discounts, improved fill rates, and selection. So I wonder if it is the modern-trade players? The likes of More Retail Private Limited, Spencer's Retail, STAR BAZAR, and SPAR Retail that are suffering? The nearest Spencer's to me is definitely a sore sight, now reduced to a shell of it's former glory - I think they aren't even replenishing inventory now. And we all know what happened to Big Bazaar - Future Retail. But Dmart itself isn't doing half bad - with pareto presence in just 23 cities, and no presence in UP (except NCR), Bihar, and West Bengal, they have considerable headroom, still. And they haven't yet quite solved for ecommerce, so while The Ken says that they are lost, they may find their way, eventually? I also don't think that the real consumption is growing, if at all, it may even shrink with the K-growth. Thus, some one _is_ losing share. And if it is not modern trade, then is it the regional chains? The single kiranas? The corner-store? The hand-cart? I'm not entirely sure because this data is hard to organize, and get. Would you know? Image created by AI in Microsoft Bing Copilot.

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It's a cutthroat world out there for -- SMEs trying to find a spot on Q-comm platforms like–– Blinkit & Zepto. For every success story, there are ~8 brands left biting the dust…. (yet, it's a game nobody can afford to sit out of). It's easier to land a date on Tinder than to secure a spot on these Q-comm apps 😂 That's the harsh reality shared by a bunch of early-stage founders, like a Delhi-based entrepreneur friend of mine struggling to get his snacks listed –– despite good customer feedback, growth, months of effort, he's hit a dead end…..(CatMans don’t respond only) For small brands targeting urban consumers & wanting to hit markets fast → being on these platforms is the ultimate goal & is more important than even Amazon, Flipkart. [we saw the sharks harping about this in S3 this year]. & why wouldn't it be?–– Q-comm in 🇮🇳 is already worth over >$5 billion annually, & they’ve just scratched the surface. While it may have struggled in the West, because of high costs -- analysts at HSBC believe Indians are ready to ditch the OG kirana stores for = Convenience (atleast the urban customers in the top 10 metros). But getting onboard & staying onboard is not a walk in the park…..back in the day, eComm giants like Flipkart & Amazon made life easier by - eliminating the NEED for being present in General Trade & Modern Trade (Retail). Markets have changed….& brands now look at going live on Quick-Commerce before E-Commerce….. ….Infact - Quick Commerce is the NEW ECommerce. Talking to founders & qcom execs, it's clear: Q-com is the next big frontier for D2C brands. BUT the odds are stacked against early brands in particular… They lack the pull of big names like ITC / Unilever, the backing of deep-pocketed Investors & crazy marketing budgets. But let's say you do manage to get listed… -the troubles don’t end there – brands need to deal with category managers across platforms —who love gatekeeping the relationship & restricting visibility on the platforms. Q-comm demands CONTINUOUS traction → If your brand doesn't perform = you are out. I’m not done.. to make matters worse -- listing fees are the newest thing in town. While some brands pay, others don't. & there’s no rulebook. [It's a game of uncertainty (where the only rule is to keep CHASING]. Spend BIG to stay = RELEVANT. But for small brands used to the comfort of their kirana stores, this is an uncharted territory ––– they need to understand that in the world of Q-comm, its “jo dikhta hai wohi bikta hai” -- & Marketing Dollars are EVERYTHING. All in all – while the journey to scaling Q-comm may seem like a turbulent one – it's a bet most brands will have to take. PS: Quick Commerce players will soon evolve into Marketplace, Drop-Shipping & Slower-Delivery-Time models in my opinion - which will add SKU capacity on the platform (biggest growth lever for them today). #ECommerce #Business #Marketing

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The humble brag. Very well adopted strategy on LinkedIn but also a crucial skill for CSM’s. When your customer achieved a goal or milestone it is useless if your customer  1. does not realise they achieved their goal or  2. does no attribute achieving the goal to your product. So it's up to the CSM to make sure your product gets the credit it deserves. A couple of humble bragging emails you can send: 1. Congratulate a user on achieving a goal with your product ( make sure to put the decision maker in cc of the email.) By: CSM To: User Cc: decision maker Subject: ‘Congrats [user]’ Body: ‘hi [user] Just saw that you achieved [goal name]. Really great job. Let me know if you have any questions.’ 2. The C-level humble brag. By: Your C-level To: decision maker Cc: CSM, Customer C level Subject: ‘Great feedback’ Body: ‘hi [decison maker] We were doing an account review today and hear from [CSM] that you have really embraced [product name] and have already achieved [goal name]. Super impressive! Let me know if I can do anything to help! 3. Congratulating your customers project team By: CSM To: decision maker Cc: project lead Subject: ‘Great work’ Body: ‘hi [decison maker] Just wanted to let you know that [project lead] is absolutely killing it with [product name]. We’ve been able to achieve [customer goal] a lot faster than expected and that’s largely part to [project lead]’s dedication and hard work. Wish all my customers had this attitude. Let me know if I can do anything to help!’ Make sure to track weather you 'shared success' in your CRM Any other humble bragging techniques you are using?

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The Two Villains of D2C Business: CAC & RTO Two major challenges : Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Return to Origin (RTO). CAC: The Costly Climb Acquiring customers is getting more expensive with rising digital ad costs. RTO: The Reverse Tsunami 🚚 Returns not only cut into profits but also disrupt your supply chain. We are at Shipyaari always working on this as we understand the pain of D2C Brands & it's pressure on Income statement because of these two heads. So we have to elevate the game & here is #ShipyaariElevate to elevate your D2C Game. Reach out to me on dm or elevate@shipyaari.com to know more. Stay agile, innovate, and outsmart these villains to drive sustainable growth! 💡 Vishal Totla Pallav Jagoori Bhavesh Thakkar Nishith Joglekar Yash Prasad Neha Bagchi #D2C #Ecommerce #BusinessGrowth #CAC #RTO #Entrepreneurship #CustomerExperience #Ecommerce #Syelevate

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B2B SaaS Sales, How do you teach this skill? 🤔 Here is an example of how we do it at HiveSchool 👨‍🎓 Imagine this: > You learn the fundamentals of GTM within SaaS > Go back, build a GTM Strategy for a SaaS Startup > Pitch it live to CXO's & get live feedbacks Sounds interesting? 👨‍💻 Apply for our flagship program (Sales Strategy & Growth) Link: https://lnkd.in/gmFJA2-Y Hunting for the "Last 4 folks" for our Founding Cohort 🎯 📹 : Aakanksha Anmol Dropping the best insights, as always!

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Freshworks has to be one of the great Indian success stories of the past 15 years. 🚀 $5.27BN Market Cap 💸 $597M Annual Revenue 🇮🇳 1st Indian SaaS to feature on the NASDAQ My 6 key takeaways with CEO & Founder Girish Mathrubootham 👇 1. Why Indian Companies Have to Win Globally Before Winning India Doing business in India is extremely difficult & customers will hijack your product roadmap. Winning globally first will give you a higher chance of success. It is easier to make a dollar than a rupee. 2. Price Low and Move UP We first targeted SMBs with limited budgets. Our cheapest product is 1/3 the price of our competitor’s. You can always build more & move into enterprise later. 3. Why Start High and Go Down Does Not Work   No single SaaS company started in enterprise & won in SMB. Freshworks, Salesforce, HubSpot… Companies always start small then build their way up. 4. Why Freshworks Lost to Slack We created FreshConnect as a Slack competitor. But we were late & took more than 2 years to launch. Slack & Teams have already dominated the market. 5. One of the Most Important Lessons for CEOs Your #1 OKR for new management hires is to get them to succeed. Be hands-off but closely involved in big decisions. Observe they are treat their people. 6. What This Billionaire Looks for In Founders He Invests In Three things 👇 - Right to win the market: They need to spend considerable time in the problem domain. - Craftsmanship: They can’t be world-class without a world-class product. - Ability to hire: You need to build a great team to go far. (links in comments) #founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup #seed #funding #SaaS

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If a customer makes a purchase in an e-commerce site/Retail shop using a Credit card, What option does he prefer? Option A - Can he convert that amount as Emi at the time of purchase? or Option B - Can he convert later as EMI? Can you guess the % split? In one of the largest banks in India, EMI at the Merchant place: 50% EMI post-purchase (Call Center/Digital Medium): 50% Do you know why? 1) Customers can't think at the time of the purchase which option is better. Either a bullet or EMI. So he does the transaction and later he can convert it into an EMI. 2) Sometimes there are fewer options in the Merchant place. For ex: Customers can also combine a few card transactions and then convert them into an EMI. This option is available via call center/digital medium. Customer convenience should be taken care of at all touchpoints. #manispeaksmoney

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Channel Partners are great for Builders !! Are they useful to buyers too ?? In a recent channel partner meet, one of Bangalore's top builders was saying that in 2023-24, almost 50% of their sales came from channel partners. And that in 2024-25, they are looking at this number going up to 60% or more. These are great numbers. Particularly when builders are all over papers and digital media with their offerings. But builders know what they gain from CPs. Builders usually pay CPs a standard 2%-2.5% and some incentives on higher sales. So the cost of sales for a builder is a mere 2% in most cases. Which is fantastic ! But how do buyers benefit from dealing with a property agent ? First of all for builder sales, no agent charges anything to the buyer ( though for resales, most agents charge 1% to the buyer). So the buyer is anyway getting a free service when directly buying from a builder through an agent. But is that all ? Not at all. Consider the following. Suppose a buyer is looking to buy a 3 BR apartment in Whitefield with a budget of Rs 1.5-2 CR. There would at least be 20 -30 projects to consider. And how does the buyer know as to which of these has 1. No balcony at all, or one balcony or two or three ? 2. Which of these has a servant room with a separate entrance ? 3. Which of these has at least the master bedroom sized 15X12 ft ? 4. Which of these comes with a pooja room or a terrace or even a balcony which is more than 6 ft wide and 10 ft long ? 5. And most importantly, which builder is more willing to negotiate than the others ? There are many such scenarios. I have seen many buyers view property agents with suspicion and have resorted to doing the running around every weekend all by themselves only to finally buy something that is not really the best for their requirements. This is quite amusing, but yeah, what can one do if the gentleman / lady is convinced that an agent exists only to cheat the buyers !! Thankfully, the numbers of these DIY Property buyers is coming down as people are seeing the value an agent brings to the table !! I can see that very soon, most buyers will engage an agent for property purchases.

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I am 101% sure every sales man can relate this a. when things are not working as per the plan b. when you are short of your quarterly numbers? c. When do your expected closures move to the next quarter? d. when your top customers are not responding to your calls/emails? e. when your blood commitments turn into water 💦💦 The most experienced #salesman be like #sales #selling #saleslife #corporatelife Dhiraj Dheeraj Mukul Ashwini Shaurya Krishna Kapil Minesh Ashok Raushan Setu Abhishek

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We're hosting a few founders at our 'House of Sales' in Bangalore. It's perfect for serial entrepreneurs who are proactive about sales and ideal for founders figuring out B2B sales & US market entry. These are only 4 things you need in the first 12 months to hit $25K MRR: We'll help you set-up the entire sales stack in just couple of hours.. + Account-based selling + LinkedIn-GTM strategies + Cold email lead generation tactics   + Crafting an effective sales pitch and presentation The idea is to fast-track the entire setup process by leveraging our collective knowledge and experience. We can accommodate only 5-8 founders who immediately need to fix their sales issues, so please DM me if you're interested. I'll share further details. Tag a founder who might benefit from this. Sandeep Balaji Avinash Haridas #founders #leadgeneration #b2bsales

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Think 'Sales Hackathon' This ain't about learning B2B sales insights to forget later. It's not for networking or growth either. It's strictly for founders ready to sell the hard way, taking action on the spot. tag a founder or SDR/AE who may benefit from it. #sdr #salesteams #accountexecutive #bangalore #hackathon

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