A good business strategy - tell your customer NOT to buy your products

I know many people would think that either I (the author of this post) do not understand business or Iv slipped my words here.

Well, let me clarify again, no I haven’t slipped on my words and well, I do understand business.

So how in this bad market conditions, can I ask my clients NOT to buy from me and still SURVIVE?

Innovation, my friend is the name of the game! Evolution is the way you play this game!

I got this idea when I visited a local market in New Delhi, for a small item I wanted to buy and there were two parallel rows of shops, which had the same stuff, each shopkeeper with some attractive discount or some other thing on offer. So competition in this market region was tough, I realized the moment I entered the small gully.

Now in this stiff competition how do the shopkeepers survive? Selling pretty much the same stuff, how do they really fetch business? Do they eat into each other’s I pondered! And then I went to one of the shops, who had the stuff I was looking for, but I thought I could get something better and I asked the shopkeeper, and he smilingly suggested me the parallel shop. I was pretty amazed at the gesture, because well, the basic business understanding says: market is competitive, conditions are tough, should’nt I look at covering the maximum?

I took this question home with me and started searching for examples on the internet, and I chanced upon Xerox. Yes, I know you know this name. The same company which is a second to none brand in the printer and copier industry. Every big installation, there are chances that you would see a Xerox printer in action! Now in this fiercely competitive market, what other than building the best printing tools for the print ecosystem should Xerox do to stay put and forge long term relationships, which probably may restrict the sales/revenue in the short term, but is a sure shot methodology of making it right in the longer run.

Ever heard of End to end solutions strategy to your existing printing infrastructure?

YES! That’s what Xerox has done! From selling printing products Xerox has diversified into selling printing solutions. There is such a lot of wastage that happens in your print infrastructure, which Xerox can help you save! I searched the Xerox India website (for their consulting services) and well, my understanding got confirmed. The client’s testimonials on the site, clearly state how just by consulting a client on an end to end basis on the existing infrastructure, Xerox helped the client not by asking him to replace all his existing printing infrastructure to its own, but Xerox consulted the client in increasing the basic efficiency of the overall system!

And the clients’ love Xerox for this! What’s Xerox earning from this game?

Well, though Xerox as a company, may not really be able to achieve its business targets in the short term, but the successful consulting assignments, which are increasing the overall efficiency of the client, reducing costs at the same time, are helping it forge new relationships. Bonds that would fetch Xerox, connected and trusting business.

So, sometimes its good to NOT tell your customers to buy your products!