tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20848095677484647252024-03-08T02:18:52.441-08:00Cause and EffectMarketing is the cause and we will see how it effects the next billion.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-35804744927166951292008-12-26T21:34:00.000-08:002008-12-26T23:45:43.154-08:005 wishes for 2009 .<span style="font-size:85%;">Who doesn't wish to have to more and better things for the future? This is my wish list for 2009, they may look crazy, but I badly want these things to happen.
<br /></span><ol><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2009 Elections in India makes a revolution</span> : This is my favourite. I would love to see a revolution happening. Bringing democracy back to life. A leader and billion people making not just one difference but a lot of difference. Off course blogs are just blogs, keyboard is just a keyboard, we really need to get our hands dirty. How I wish 2009 to be the year when it is no longer OK for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Mayawati</span> to have birthday bash, no longer OK for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Devegowda</span> to own <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">crores</span> worth of land,<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Karnanidhi</span> no longer thinks he is the GOD and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">APJ</span> comes back.
<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Climate change no longer a Myth</span> : Ah ! Many still don't care, but hope in 2009 people finally wake up and say "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">OMG</span> this is happening because of climate change. " Are we people still not seeing that December is warm? Didn't you hear about the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6665257.stm">Himalayas melting</a>, <a href="http://www.china.org.cn/english/environment/227153.htm">Chinese desert expanding</a>.... Forget the Financial crisis it will solve by itself within a year or two, but <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">iceage</span> take little longer than that ! <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cactus23/2435889642/" title="Melting Himalayan Glaciers : Direct Evidence of Climate Change by ~~ zorro ~~, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2070/2435889642_c5f9b2ae9f.jpg" alt="Melting Himalayan Glaciers : Direct Evidence of Climate Change" height="333" width="500" /></a>
<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Somebody really solves the energy crisis</span> : OK lets assume we have solved the financial crisis, we have all the money, people keep buying cars, people keep building houses and industries, what next ? No energy ? I guess Indians are already seeing this problem. Rapid growth but not enough energy.... I wish there would be a revolutionary <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">cleantech</span> stuff that gives the world energy for free, unlimited,clean and refreshing. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/26715412@N03/2922575338/" title="Ausra's Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) solar technology by pgegreenenergy, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3289/2922575338_aaf36e96ba.jpg" alt="<span class=" error="" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" />Ausra's Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">CLFR</span>) solar technology " height="333" width="500"></a>
<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">People will see farming as a cool profession</span> : Well I may be thinking too much on this one ! But people ! Industrial revolution is old story, food is becoming scarce. Billions of people eating everyday, the market has always been huge ! The market needs more to feed the ever hungry world. It's already happening, the super cool <a href="http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/jul/02iim.htm"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">IIM</span> guys selling vegetables</a>, farming is not very far. Think again people, our work place won't be fabric covered cubicle, but acres of green land, amazing work tools, real pets (No more <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">screensaver</span> fishes or desktop flowers) and ya not to mention the great health. Well with all the financial crisis going back to farm doesn't seem to be bad idea ! Thing again folks, which is a great idea? Selling software to bankrupt banks or selling food to the hungry billions !</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/00000/1000/400/1483/1483.strip.print.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 560px; height: 174px;" src="http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/00000/1000/400/1483/1483.strip.print.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Somebody really stops stupid scientists from doing stupid things</span> : There are lot things happening with science that will ruin everything for human beings. Have you not seen this on <a href="http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/paranormal/ten_ways/world/index.shtml">Discovery Channel</a> ? I'm not saying 2009 will be the end, but somebody has to stop stupid stuffs like genetic pollution of the food. See it's not science fiction anymore, it's <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/genetic-engineering">already happening</a>.</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/I_am_legend_teaser.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 303px; height: 448px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/I_am_legend_teaser.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> This one from the move I Am Legend "So you have actually cured cancer...." </span></li></ol>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-90853935785758475192008-12-23T03:33:00.000-08:002008-12-23T04:48:47.776-08:00Ground realities ! Cheating the poor.<span style="font-size:85%;">I was in a place called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shringeri">Shringeri</a> this weekend to visit a very old friend of mine. He happens to run a small printing press in this small town which is just two streets in width. He is the local reporter, a deal-maker and person who helps people file RTI. So this person took me three NGOs in here are the true stories.<br /></span><ol><li><span style="font-size:85%;">I travelled to another town to meet a person from a cooperative society that makes products collected from the forest, like honey,dalchini,soap nut and others. This was a very well run society, it was more like a business, totally self sustainable. The manager here was very professional.They had very clean honey processing unit. (Honey tasted great and right now I have a bottle in my room and almost finished it now :),more on this latter....). They had a transport department. They asked me to help them with a website and I'm working on it now.<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">After this I we went to meet a lady who runs an NGO. They train poor women for self employment and so on..... She is a very popular "Social worker" in the town. Seemed perfect, until we started talking in detail about the financials of the trust. All this woman wanted was money ! Get some grants, put them in her pocket and buy a car (She was jealous of another NGO chief who had bought a car from the grants she got from some organization in Delhi). Well so this is very common thing in Indian NGOs isn't it? OK read my next story.....</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">In one of my previous post, I told you about the rural market survey and what exactly the people in these region need. Myself and <a href="http://www.ashwinupadhyaya.com/">Ashwin</a> were still confused about how so many people would talk about selling expensive things to the rural poor and here is the secret. First promote yourself as a social entrepreneur, find some investment, get praised for doing something out of the box to help the poor. Then go to one of these regions, find a greedy NGO and some cooperative bank that provides loan at a very high interest rate (Yes poorer you are higher the interest rates). Find a family in need of money,tell them they would get a loan if they buy this product and the Greedy NGO gets some commission from the poor and the Social entrepreneur sold the product, the bank manager gets a bribe. The poor family would get the loan to buy this product and some extra money for a business. The only reason they would buy this product is because of the extra loan they get....... Phew ! I thought corporate managers were evil.</span></li></ol><span style="font-size:85%;">For people here these things are "fine" , because they have faced worst things in the past. Before the naxals came in, corruption was unstoppable. Naxal seem to bring a fearfactor among the corrupt , they somehow are responsible for stopping the illegal mining, they seemed to have helped the tribes understand the democracy. Now I'm confused more than ever, whom do we trust????</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-5588579360689754482008-12-11T22:00:00.001-08:002008-12-11T23:01:51.627-08:00Customers,humans and robots<span style="font-size:85%;">Starting new things with my company <a href="http://enlen.in/">Enlen.</a> One thing we figured out during our long discussions was that customers are going to be our most important assets. The market is crowded and one thing that will make us a purple cow, will be our service to customers. Luckily for us,everybody in the team accepts this. No body has a second opinion. So the next obvious thing we had in mind was, to what extent can a company accept and delvier what a customer wants?<br />We have heard a lot of stories, jokes about a customer care executive getting confused, trying to calm down an angry customer and then when they put down the phone the executive either laughs or curses himself for choosing that job.... Now what exactly happened here? A disappointed customer ! Really bad thing for a business isn't it? Often I have come across big companies, who really don't think customer is a king. Say for example Reliance Mobile. They really don't care if they loose one customers because they are big and loosing 600Rs per month is no big deal. They don't seem to get it, do they? Customers are humans. They have emotions, they get angry when something goes wrong. Humans don't want to interact with robots. How often have you come across IVRs that hide the human interaction asking you keep dailing numbers, throwing you from one invisible menu to another! Ah finally you found an option to talk a human being ! You ask him in a question, he searches his script and answers you. Search a script ??? Another robot!! Yes there is some guy behind all this, implementing IVR menu, preparing scripts and ultimately saving money for the company and getting an award. Oh yes he also drives away an existing customer and few potential customers who had plans to buy his product. Yes they are not visible in the company accounts, so he is safe, he is happy, his boss is happy,everybody is happy except the customer.<br /><br />Ok now coming back to our plans to serve the customers. We are sticking to <a href="http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/taylor/2008/05/wy_zappos_pays_new_employees_t.html">Zappos</a> model. This is our customer policy.<br /></span><ul><li>No scripts, customers are humans so are we. If I don't need a robot, my customers don't need a robot as well.</li><li>Give the customer what he wants and if it matters give him more than he asks for. Even if its about loosing money now, this will help us make more in the future.<br /></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-59083187358233414362008-12-08T08:56:00.000-08:002008-12-08T08:59:53.360-08:00Bees can do amazing math<span style="font-size:85%;">So many wonders, so little time. How about learning cartography from bees? Oh they don't need GPS and they know how much sun moves !!!</span><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4NtegAOQpSs&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4NtegAOQpSs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-1835321232318232552008-10-17T11:04:00.000-07:002008-10-17T11:47:39.031-07:00Open business as in Open Source<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;">There is always so much to learn from Open source. Sharing ideas,technology,<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">webspace</span>... <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">GPL</span> has always been useful for every person who uses it. It teaches a lot about team work,enthusiastic people from all over the world, with common goals of the helping the needy with their source code. Most importantly they are honest,responsible group of people coming together to change something and make it work. They really have some great stuff, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Firefox</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Ubuntu</span>, you name it they have it. What is that which makes open source better ? <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/opensource.html">People work better when they love what they are doing.</a> So true !<br />There is definitely a lot business can learn from Open source. Perhaps the term Open Business is just amazing. Every aspect of the business is open to stake holders. From marketing to finance, from technology to operations, the stake holders know everything. The business is run by a community of interested people. The money is visible, compensation is known. The philosophy is clean and simple,</span><span style="font-size:85%;">talent is distributed, so is the business. It's a community run business and in today world web 2.0, things get much more easier.Most importantly the CEO doesn't spend the companies money Golfing or hunting...<br /><br />I'm very keen to start an open business in India, specially after seeing huge success of community driven events like Barcamp.<br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-88329791454488513682008-09-28T12:12:00.000-07:002008-09-28T12:27:40.036-07:00Are you selling the right the thing ?<span style="font-size:85%;">When is comes to BOP market, the firs question you need to ask is are you selling the right thing?<br />When I say "right thing" it means is you service worth selling to the poor. Ask a few questions for yourself before you jump into the business of improving life at BOP.<br /></span><br /><ol><li><span style="font-size:85%;">How big a change does your product/service will bring into their life ?</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">You have sold a story to an investor, he bought it, but is it right to sell it to the people at BOP? </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Is you price justified ? I usually see the prices for BOP products are very much higher compared their counterpart products in regular market.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Are you comparing you lifestyle with theirs to sell your product ? </span></li></ol><span style="font-size:85%;">If it doesn't improve their life then better sell something else. As I have already said, they don't want a shoe !!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-10729126432413563852008-09-23T04:13:00.001-07:002008-09-23T04:26:07.806-07:00Market research of BOP and LED lighting<span style="font-size:85%;">After writing the blog about rural market for lights. We decided to do a market research. We choose rural regions close by to our place. It was round 1 of our market research. The villages were already electrified and were connected to grids !!! They do have regular power cuts but our research was to see how much difference would these lights to their lives. We will do a round 2 in remote villages, for now here are our findings.<br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;">They had maximum of 8 hours power cut at irregular intervals and 2 hours in the night. Which really didn't matter to any of the villagers. Of course it doesn't matter much to people in Cities in India.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">They are happy without light for an hour or two, there is no way they will buy a rechargeable lamps.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">There are technical guys in these villages who can connect lead acid batteries to grid and make it work if they really need backup.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Solar panel should be optional, a better battery management would be the best solution.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">They are aware of low cost Chinese products and thats quality for them. They don't mind if the light is blue or white. It's just light for them which is better than kerosene.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">They did ask for warranty !!! </span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Pricing is a major factor. They will probably buy Alkaline batteries for a good lighting product rather than pay high upfront cost for rechargeable batteries.</span></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;">This just few rural regions. Things vary widely. Will most our next market research data which will come remote villages with little or no access to grid.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-50966939974019492302008-09-19T06:29:00.000-07:002008-09-19T06:48:54.721-07:00Things the BOP market needs<span style="font-size:85%;">This is my first blog in the series. This series will deal with services and products that the BOP needs. Here we go...<br />The most hottest product sold in the rural market are the high efficient white LED based light. Either powered from AC or a solar panel. This has given raise to few startups dedicated to provide lighting solutions to the rural market. The lights are cheap and provide a better lights compared to kerosene. There are three main players for now, all of them are venture funded.<br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.dlightdesign.com">D.light</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.cosmosignite.com/">Cosmoignite</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://intelizon.com">Intelizon</a></span></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;">Dlight seems to have 3 types of products now. There is also SELCO India, which is much more amazing in it's business model. There are few more companies that donate the lights, but thats a different story. Though the market existed in India since a long time ( even in Urban India, I remember using tubelight based emergency lamps during my exams), it is in recent times that major VCs have seen a potential market. The logic behind is simple. Most villages have either no grid power and if they have there is no sufficient power for them. They use kerosene, which gives bad light,fumes. An average person in a village would spend Rs1000 per annum of kersoene which can be replaced by these lights. There is a market for millions of such lights !!! With cheap electronics and plastic you have a very good margin.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-26110239869627544592008-09-13T05:49:00.000-07:002008-09-13T05:53:51.466-07:00Get your hands dirty<span style="font-size:85%;">You have a great product, a clean website and you know people in villages need your product. Thats not enough guys, go in, talk to the villagers, get your hands dirty.Understand their lives, see how your product can help them.Teach them to use it. That is the only way you can these people. Your website and blogs sends you good luck wishes from people who will never use these products.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"> So go get your hands dirty...</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-11078035348352243382008-09-10T05:53:00.000-07:002008-09-10T06:26:14.849-07:00Mobile phone to close digital divide<span style="font-size:85%;">Mobile phone are very popular in rural India. Probably they are the best technology ever made for BOP. As I said in my previous blog illiteracy is the greatest challenge for using PCs in rural regions. No wonder there is an obvious solution to keep use computers with a different GUI.May be PCs are best used in rural production center but a mobile phone seems to be an obvious choice for an Individual. <a href="http://www.emergingfutureslab.com/perspective_20/2008/09/mobile-phone-ec.html">Niti</a> is right, it will be a great way to teach basic business. It will be easier to teach usage of 10 numbers and then teach them to use calculators.<br />Single day sessions on how to effectively use mobiles for there business will be a great idea, but this can work only Mobile service providers consider this market. They can probably do this as a part of CSR activities ! Well it's for profit.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-32083972472038975122008-09-09T00:39:00.000-07:002008-09-09T00:40:01.037-07:00Closing the digital divide one step at a time<span style="font-size:85%;">We have seen lot of articles about the existing digital divide between the urban and rural India.But why do we talk about the digital divide when rural regions lack even the most basic of basic requirement like light,water,food.....<br />Now lets go back to the basics. Computer, they truly amazing. Can do wonders. Change your life style. If they can change yours they can changes any life. When we talk about rural India, <a href="http://www.echoupal.com/">echoupal</a> has proved what computers and internet can do for Indian villages. Thats nice, but wait a minute, there is a basic flaw !!! villagers need to know how to read and write. Even if they literates, they need to know english. Every Indian state has it's own language. Do you get computers and keyboard with all these languages ? And where do you get trainers who can teach computers in these languages ? Or do you first teach them english and then computers ?<br />So how did echoupal do ? Well ITC has resources to help them.They hired people who can help villagers. But you may not be able to do that. There needs be a practical solution. So if you are trying to build a computers to help the Indian rural regions its not only about the cost, it about literacy, its about linguistcs. Here is the solution:<br /> "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Build a software that is </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/02/tech/main1364019.shtml">illiterate proof</a><span style="font-weight: bold;">, and probably use the same to teach them how to read and write.</span>" Isn't is simple?<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-75484611776324204922008-09-03T22:02:00.001-07:002008-09-03T23:37:40.547-07:00Buy one and we will donate one,thats crazy!!<span style="font-size:85%;">I have come across many social startups that run with this model. You a buy a item that they sell and they will donate same item to someone in the third world countries. I say thats just crazy.<br /> Firstly, you are charging your customers twice as much it costs. Secondly even if the customer is here to help, it's better he donates directly. The reason is pretty simple. The needs of the customer who is buying are totally different from needs of the people who are accepting the donation. Take this example of <a href="http://www.tomsshoes.com">TOMS Shoe</a>, for every shoe you buy they donate a pair to poor children in Africa. It's pretty obvious from the photos that shoe is something that need right now.<br /> Now you give them something that they don't need. You have purchased something you might never use !!!! But the website has sold 2 items. It's the same with $100 laptop (<a href="http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pledgebank.com%2F100laptop&ei=snS_SJvxMIi46gO11sHoDw&usg=AFQjCNEl57De1Thk9FO1DL6yxcAW6tbg9Q&sig2=V7oOAeUBnK2QR-H4UzdE-A">OLPC</a>). Seriously if you want to help someone in need donate what they directly, I don't you will be using that laptop ever when you have a cool new MAC at your place. There are organization dedicated for the cause and most importantly think if they really need what you are donating. 'A pair of Shoe ? really !! Why do you want a pair of shoe when you haven't eaten properly for a month ?<br /> The only winner is the person who sells two items in a single sale.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-58550935475320334652008-09-02T07:47:00.000-07:002008-09-02T22:37:59.370-07:00Impact maximization : One more piece of bread<span style="font-size:85%;"> The idea is pretty simple. Maximize the impact for a single family. It's a small village. Every extra penny creates a story. Every person talks about the story. Within a short period you have more people asking for your product or service.<br /> In most cases it very easy to see the impact. A single extra bread for every family member is a huge impact. Enough to create a wave among the tightly connected village population. Most people are unaware about the benefits of the product/service you are trying to sell. They ignore you just because they can't afford. They simply assume it be a piece of gold. Find a way to show the impact. May be find few people whom you think can show the 'impact figures' and let them use your product/service for free or just rent it. As I told you one extra piece of bread/roti is a great way to measure impact. Everybody wants one for himself and his family.<br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-486161345314464102008-09-02T07:04:00.000-07:002008-09-07T10:17:55.502-07:00Indigenous product<span style="font-size:85%;"> When I started digging the web for renewable energies for the world's poor, I came across lot of innovative ideas. The ideas were just great. Hats off to the brains behind them. They said: "We have created 'something' that can help the world's poor and this system can be built from indigenous materials."<br /><br />Now take a close look again. There is a fundamental flaw. Most of these designs come from developed countries. What's indigenous in US is not indigenous in Indian villages. A car dumped in US is great for your work. But a car never get dumped in India !!!! So to all those innovative engineers out there, keep up the good work, just redo your design and save the world !!!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2084809567748464725.post-61578610004922799532008-09-02T05:18:00.000-07:002008-09-02T05:53:43.653-07:00Getting ready to change the world<span style="font-size:85%;"> You have a great new product that you think can change the lives of world's poorest. You are all set to move to Africa or India and start selling. But few months into the business it gets harder and harder to sell.<br /> Say you have a perfect product that gives almost free electricity for life. You have a great young team. Yet it gets harder day by day. So where are you failing ? Heres the thing,<br /> <br /></span><ol><li><span style="font-size:85%;">The keyword is 'convince'. Convince them, prove that your product can truly change there lives.Change just means which can give them extra few dollars or even few cents every day or cure a disease.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Make sure you provide them with the a great finance options. Well if you don't trust your product can pay you back then don't sell it to them. They will be investing there life savings into your product.<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Make sure they pay you back by giving them ways to use your products productively.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Provide a great customer service.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Finally make sure they need your product. I mean before you sell water heaters make sure they have access to drinking water. Don't try to solve the wrong problem at wrong place.<br /></span></li></ol>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0