Note to Retailers: Going Old School for Relationship Building
Incorporating the human touch into customer relationships can help online retailers increase buyer spending. A simple, inexpensive, and...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jul 28
- 3 min
Shoppers and the Pursuit of Meaning
The need for meaning is as critical as the need for pleasure in making purchase decisions. Buyers pursuing meaning focus on a wide range...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jun 28
- 3 min
Crisis Management on Social Media: No Laughing Matter?
Brands can find themselves dealing with negative events or crises. In the age of social media communication gaining constantly in...
15 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jun 14
- 3 min
Shopping Cart Handles: The Key to Make Buyers Purchase More?
Retailers use several tactics to encourage in-store purchasing but often neglect the importance of shopping cart design. A cart with...
80 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jun 1
- 3 min
Semantic Framing: The Gift of Encouraging Donations
Charity is universally lauded, yet charitable organisations often struggle to raise the amount of funds they need to meet their prosocial...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- May 8
- 3 min
How Many Fans Must a Band Have?
Traditionally, music artists have been advised to focus on a narrow selection of heavy listeners for marketing and earn revenues by...
103 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- May 2
- 3 min
Why Do (or Don’t) People Invest in Retirement Planning Products?
Retirement planning is critical to avoid drastic changes in lifestyle post-retirement due to lack of income. Yet, a majority of people do...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Apr 12
- 3 min
How to escape the BNPL Debt-trap? Mindfulness is the Key!
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) is a convenient way to get credit. Unfortunately, its convenience leads weaker sections of society to make...
36 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Mar 28
- 3 min
I Feel, Therefore I Buy: Emotions and Omnichannel Price Promotions
Buyers often depend on emotions to make purchase decisions. Omnichannel retailers should consider this fact while designing cross-channel...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Mar 15
- 3 min
The Problem of Choice: How 6 Countries Perceive Levels of Choice
Both choice deprivation and choice overload can reduce satisfaction. However, choice deprivation is found in more countries globally,...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Feb 28
- 3 min
How to Offer Discounts During a Crisis (Without Being Called a Profiteer!)
Retailers offer discounts to offset lower consumption during a crisis. However, buyers might perceive them as profiteers if they do so....
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Feb 18
- 4 min
How Personality Traits Affect Sales: When Salespersons Go “Dark”
Salespeople tend to score highly on Dark Triad traits of psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. Salespeople with these traits...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Feb 8
- 4 min
What Makes Salespeople Tick: Embracing a Quiet Ego
Adaptive selling is necessary for B2B sales. One of the qualities that can lead to adaptive selling behaviours is having a quiet ego....
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jan 30
- 3 min
Selling Service Innovations: Do Incentives Work?
Industrial firms are increasingly turning to service innovations to stay ahead of the curve. They use monetary incentives to encourage...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jan 23
- 3 min
How many free gift choices is too many?
Free gifts (or premiums) are a popular promotional tool, and these days retailers are offering buyers a choice between multiple gifts to...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jan 12
- 3 min
Shopping as a Couple: 👍 or 👎
Shopping is a social activity. When couples shop together, especially for joint consumption, they tend to buy more and spend more. This...
38 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jan 4
- 3 min
Making Scarcity Work for You
Scarcity can be a major driver of product sales. However, different types of scarcities push different types of products. Demand-based...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Dec 21, 2022
- 3 min
Salesperson Onboarding can Boost your Topline!
Salesperson training is critical for firms, especially onboarding, as it helps new employees assimilate and understand the firm. A...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Dec 16, 2022
- 3 min
Can B2B firms capitalise on ad hoc sales encounters?
Although over 80% of B2B customers are ad hoc, B2B firms face sales loss due to mistrust towards their sales representatives by these ad...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Dec 12, 2022
- 3 min
Using sales promotions to increase impulse buying
Sales promotions are an important tool for marketers and retailers. However, their effectiveness in boosting impulse purchases can be...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Nov 29, 2022
- 3 min
Want the good news first or the bad news?
Promotional offers are often in the form of a “Good news/Bad news” statement with the offer or “good news” first and the restriction or...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Nov 25, 2022
- 4 min
Getting customers to pay per use
Customers often choose flat-rate pricing plans for services over pay-per-use plans even though flat-rate plans cost more. Their choice is...
25 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Nov 15, 2022
- 3 min
Sale or Clearance: Words matter, choose them carefully
Retailers use words like “sale” and “clearance” in promotion communication widely and often interchangeably. However, buyers expect deep...
35 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Nov 1, 2022
- 3 min
Boosting Performance through Knowledge Diffusion
Knowledge diffusion from high-performing employees to other employees is key in ensuring a firm’s continued performance improvement. The...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Oct 27, 2022
- 3 min
What to do when reviewers exaggerate?
Exaggerated reviews can hurt a brand since retailers depend on word-of-mouth as a marketing strategy. Certain behavioural traits drive...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Oct 19, 2022
- 3 min
Your customers aren’t redeeming their online coupons!
Digital coupons have many advantages, but their redemption rates are extremely low. To address this issue, marketers need to focus on...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Oct 10, 2022
- 3 min
Online advertisement focus: sales volume or reviews?
Online reviews are crucial for decision making by shoppers. However, online retailers need to advertise their products keeping in mind...
15 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Sep 27, 2022
- 3 min
How to talk to customers so they’ll buy
Managing information channels is critical for online retailers as buyers often gather information from multiple sources before making a...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Sep 16, 2022
- 3 min
Markdowns or No markdowns for Luxury Retailers?
Luxury retailers in the west offer markdowns to push sales, banking on the Sales effect. However, while determining whether to offer...
102 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Sep 7, 2022
- 3 min
Should B2B Firms have Loyalty Programmes?
B2B companies are introducing loyalty programmes to improve customer retention. These programmes lead to higher sales when the frequency...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Sep 1, 2022
- 3 min
Shopping Companions Matter!
Shopping is often considered a social activity, so shopping companions often influence purchase choices. This is especially true for...
135 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Aug 22, 2022
- 3 min
Can push messaging boost loyalty programs?
Push messaging is highly popular among retailers, and it can be effective in increasing spending and redemption in loyalty programmes. It...
35 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Aug 16, 2022
- 3 min
Retailer-themed super saver events: Do they even work?
Retailers are using themed super saver events to counter the threat from hard discounters, and research shows that higher footfalls and...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Aug 7, 2022
- 4 min
How to encourage value-based selling
Value-based selling (VBS) is challenging but fruitful, so B2B companies are keen to implement it. To enable and motivate salespeople to...
26 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Aug 1, 2022
- 3 min
“Sold-out” signs: A double-edged sword
Both online and offline retailers present buyers with sold-out product options. Buyers assume that the products’ quality is responsible...
38 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jul 23, 2022
- 4 min
Increasing prices in B2B relationships: Perspectives from the ground
As prices of raw materials increase, an increase in prices is inevitable. For B2B companies, renegotiating prices without damaging...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jul 5, 2022
- 3 min
How to communicate cost-justified price increases?
Price increases, especially cost-justified increases, are inevitable. But in a price-sensitive market like India, rising prices can lower...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jun 29, 2022
- 3 min
Sweepstakes or Contests: the million dollar question?
Contests and sweepstakes are commonly used by marketers due to their ability to build awareness and cost-efficiency. New research...
33 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jun 20, 2022
- 3 min
Do Salespeople need Analytical Skills?
Analytical skills are increasingly becoming essential for B2B salespeople as they help improve sales performance. Analytical skills in...
26 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jun 16, 2022
- 4 min
Redemption to Resurgence
(In Oct 2021, Sreeram was approached by an ex-student for advice on a sales-related issue. Jointly written by the ex-student and Sreeram,...
53 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Jun 8, 2022
- 3 min
What to do with positive reviews?
Retailers often tend to focus more on negative reviews as such reviews can damage their business. However, it is equally important to...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- May 30, 2022
- 3 min
How to get customers to buy hedonic products?
Consumers have myriad options for payment. Formats with higher transparency (e.g., cash) come with higher pain of payment, so buyers...
42 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- May 23, 2022
- 4 min
Negative reviews: Is there a solution?
Reviews are an integral part of the online shopping experience, and negative reviews can impact buyer decision making as well as pricing...
19 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- May 9, 2022
- 3 min
Cashbacks: Benefit or Burden?
Cashbacks are highly popular for attracting customers. They can improve customer loyalty to the cashback program and induce repeat...
56 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- May 3, 2022
- 5 min
Is B2B e-commerce for everyone?
E-commerce portals are growing in popularity, but the move might backfire for some B2B companies. It can lead to disgruntled customers,...
73 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Apr 18, 2022
- 3 min
To Package or Not to Package?
Certain products are often displayed both with and without packaging. This decision is usually arbitrary. However, for naturally sourced...
28 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Apr 7, 2022
- 3 min
Should a Weak Brand Partner with a Stronger Brand?
Retailers often offer joint promotions between strong (also called carrier) and weak (rider) brands to benefit the weaker brand through...
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Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Mar 25, 2022
- 3 min
How to get salespeople to chase big-whale sales
Salespeople often don’t pursue big-whale (large deals) sales because of the uncertainty of conversion. They want to avoid spending...
77 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Mar 20, 2022
- 3 min
Calibrating Salesperson Emotions to Increase Sales
The impact of emotions on salesperson performance is undeniable. However, these emotions can be an asset to organisations when...
18 views0 comments
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan
- Mar 12, 2022
- 3 min
Migrant workers: The key to raising rural brand consumption
A significant portion of India’s population is rural, and their consumption of branded products is low. However, research has found that...
28 views0 comments
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