Apple’s profits increased by 90% in the first quarter of 2010 to $3.1 billion with revenues of $13.5 billion.  A standard mobile phone is what people may need, a basic smartphone maybe an additional business requirement the Iphone is the product which people desire and aspire for.

Consumers will go out of their way to queue up in front of a store and pay a premium price and get tied into a very expensive mobile contract just to own this phone. In the words of Dragons Den Entrepreneur Doug Richards, “Apple builds lickable products, the products are so good looking and tempting that as a consumer I feel like licking them and proudly display them to my friends.”

It does not matter whether you operate a B2C or a B2B business model the secret of building desirable products applies universally.

Secret no 2: "Take advantage of your strengths"

Too much time is spent by CEO’s focussing on correcting their weaknesses and speculating risks. This strategy may be important to save a sinking ship, it is not good enough for a moon landing.

Every company has different strengths, some may be good at product design, some in sales, some have cost advantages, some have scale, some may have great customer service, some have a luxury brand and some are just lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

Salesforce.com is one such business which has focussed on a particular vertical which is CRM and Salesforce Automation through their Software as a Service Business Model. Their strength was to provide a service which can scale globally instead of selling individual software packages. Zoho.com  is a new competitor to Salesforce.com whose strength is cost advantage where the company can offer many basic CRM and Sales Automation services also through a web based service but at the fraction of the cost to the customer.

Both businesses are growing exponentially in the same market and may have similar business models but have a completely diverse product strategy leveraging their individual strengths and catering to customer segments within segments.

It is like comparing Michelin Star restaurants with McDonalds. Both serve food, both are successful, both are famous; however they focus on their own individual strengths and cater to different customer groups.

Secret No 3: "Enable customers to buy your services easily and be accessible"

Free anti virus software, mobile applications, social networking services, etc. can only go so far without a revenue model. Freemium and Free Economics are not good for any business. You may give a small proportion of your services for free to add value, acquire new customers or reward existing accounts but majority of the services need to be paid for.

Most common mistake companies make are by creating a complex sales and buying process which acts as a barrier for customers. Most companies do not even advertise their telephone numbers on their website and expect qualified buyers to fill in contact forms. If you have a completely web based business model like Google than it is a different matter but if the web is not the main vehicle for concluding transactions you should make your product and people as accessible as possible.

Customers should be able to buy your products easily so learning from super market retailers maybe a good example. Put the product in front of the customer’s eyes, be transparent by telling them the price, make it easy to buy, be available to help customers and answer questions, sell more, be accessible and encourage repeat business.

Secret no 4: "Listen to your customers and take action"

Many companies build products without speaking to existing customers or conducting consumer research. Every company claims to listen to customers but only few take actions.

Jaguar Cars is a good example where a company has turned around their business back into profitability by taking action. Jaguar X Type and S Type cars though were cheaper to buy were not the most popular and were not fully catering to the requirements of a typical Jaguar customer. Jaguar customers expect impeccable quality, style, luxury and performance.

Jaguar phased out the X and S models. They completely redesigned their new XJ, XK and XF models to a very high standard and are now again competing in the luxury car segment commanding a much higher price and desirability. The company has taken action by listening to their customers and are seeing increased revenues.

Secret No 5: "Build revenue sustainability and long term customer relationships"

We are all familiar with the business model of the desktop printing industry where the printers which are expensive to produce sell for cheap while the cartridges which are extremely cheap to produce sell for an extortionate premium for the entire life of the printer.

Well this business model may be evil to the customer in some cases but if your intentions are clean the business model can also act as a benefit to the customer. Apple’s strategy of selling music downloads and apps as a value addition to customers who have bought their devices is a mutually beneficial business model for the company and its customers.

This model benefits the customer by giving him choice of services from the brand they like and to make most use of their device. Music Labels benefit from increasing paid downloads of their songs and application providers have found a new channel of reaching out to customers and generating revenues.

At Wireless Expertise Consulting we strongly believe that these principals we have discussed are universal and can be applied to any industry whether it is Telecommunications, Media, IT, FMCG or Finance it should not matter.

By applying our five principles or known secrets of increasing product revenues, I strongly believe that companies can innovate their way out of the recession and become increasingly profitable.

I will be happy to speak to you and discuss if I can be of any help to your business in increasing product revenues.

Thanks and regards,

CEO
Wireless Expertise

Web:      www.wirelessexpertise.com

Email:    anuj@wirelessexpertise.com

Mobile:  +44 7 916 056 916

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