Growth & Strategy Conversations
Technology can extend your reach. It can also hand control of your customers to someone else.
A shop that sells only to people who walk past, or a manufacturer that sells only through two dealers, is limited by geography. Online catalogues, messaging, marketplaces and digital payments can remove that limit. They also bring commissions, returns, delivery problems and rules. This session helps owners decide which channel to test first and how to do it without risking the core business.
Explore this page7 sections
Selling further away means more than putting up a page.
A business that goes online meets new questions at once. How will an unknown customer trust you? Who packs, who ships, and what happens when something arrives broken? Who answers the message at ten at night? Which fees come off the price? A small business can handle these, but it should know them before the first order, not after the tenth complaint.
The aim here is not to push owners online. For some businesses, local depth is worth more than distant reach. The aim is a clear, cheap test so that the decision rests on what happened, not on what a platform’s brochure said.
What the session covers
33 topics across 7 areas. Seven parts, from the first question to the thirty-day test.
Starting With Your CustomersWhere does the demand come from?4
- Who buys from you now, and how they found you
- Which customers would buy from further away
- What they would need to trust you without meeting you
- Whether your product or service travels well
Some products are costly, fragile or perishable to move. That is a reason to test small, not a reason to avoid trying.
The Main Routes ComparedEach has a price and a catch.5
For each route, owners list what it costs, who owns the customer relationship, what rules apply and how easily they could leave.
- Messaging apps with a catalogue and simple payment links
- Your own website or online store
- Third-party marketplaces and listing sites
- Social media selling
- Selling through other businesses’ online presence
The Back End Customers Never SeeWhere online selling usually breaks.5
- Stock records that match what is listed
- Packing, shipping and who bears the cost of returns
- Taking payment and reconciling it
- Answering enquiries quickly
- Invoices and tax records for online orders
Check the current tax and registration rules for online sales with your accountant, as they change.
Dependency on PlatformsRenting an audience, not owning one.5
- Fees and rule changes that can alter your margin
- Being compared directly with cheaper sellers
- Who holds the customer’s contact details
- How to bring buyers into your own list, within the platform’s rules and the law
- Having a second route so that one change does not stop you
Customer Data and TrustPeople’s details are your responsibility.5
- Collecting only the data you need
- Keeping it safe on phones and shared sheets
- Asking permission before messaging people
- A clear answer to “what do you do with my number?”
- Checking what India’s data protection law and its rules currently require of you
Technology Inside the BusinessGrowth needs the inside to keep up.5
- Simple stock, billing and order tools
- Customer records in one place, not in five people’s phones
- Booking and scheduling for services
- Remote delivery of services where it fits
- Choosing tools by the problem, not the advertisement
A Thirty-Day TestSmall, capped, measured.4
- One channel, one product, one spending limit
- What you will count: enquiries, orders, returns, time spent
- What the real cost per order turned out to be
- A review date and a clear rule for scaling or stopping
Exercises owners do in the session
- Draw a map of current customers and where they came from
- Choose one channel and list its fees, rules and dependencies
- Work out the true cost of one imagined online order, including returns and time
- Write the thirty-day test plan with a spending limit
What participants leave with
- Their customer map and test plan
- A comparison sheet for online routes
- An order-cost worksheet
- A back-end readiness checklist
What this session is not
- A training course on any particular platform or tool
- A recommendation of any company or software
- A promise that going online will raise sales
How the session runs
A facilitated conversation of about two hours, in a small group. A practitioner who has helped traditional businesses sell more widely walks through the routes and their trade-offs. Owners then complete the order-cost worksheet with real numbers and plan a thirty-day test. Laptops or phones are useful but not essential; the exercises work on paper.
What your students leave with
- A map of where their customers currently come from, and where new ones could
- A comparison of the main online routes, with their costs and dependencies
- A thirty-day test plan for one channel, with a spending limit
- A list of the systems they need before demand arrives
- Awareness of customer-data and platform risks
- A rule for when to scale the test and when to stop it
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Know your customer, count the true cost, test one channel for thirty days, then decide.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.