StartupTalky

Tag: sales and marketing

  • How to Start a Wholesale Business in India?

    A wholesale business is an enterprise that purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers and sells them in smaller quantities to retailers.

    The wholesale sector plays a crucial role in the Indian economy, serving as a vital link between manufacturers and retailers. It facilitates the efficient distribution of goods, ensuring that products reach consumers on time. By supporting various industries and contributing to employment, the wholesale business enhances economic growth and stability. It fosters competition and innovation, benefiting consumers through better prices and product availability.

    Types of Wholesale Businesses
    Steps to Start a Wholesale Business
    Legal Requirements and Permissions

    Types of Wholesale Businesses

    Traditional Wholesale Distributors

    Traditional wholesale distributors serve as intermediaries between manufacturers and retailers. This will enable easy maintenance of large inventories of goods in warehouses. They ease bulk purchasing, letting retailers to get products at lower prices. They also let them offer more services. These services can be anything from logistics and inventory management to streamline the supply chain.

    Online Wholesale Platforms 

    Online wholesale platforms have revolutionized the wholesale industry by enabling businesses to connect with suppliers and buyers through digital marketplaces. They Offer a wide range of products. The products have competitive pricing, and provide a lot of features. The products are chosen based on user reviews, secure payment options, and efficient shipping solutions. This makes it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to access wholesale goods.

    Niche Wholesale Markets

    Niche wholesale markets focus on specific product categories or industries. These cater to specialized consumer needs. Such markets often emphasize unique or hard-to-find items. Such a demand enables wholesalers to build strong relationships with buyers. Such markets increase the competition in the business

    Import/Export Wholesale Businesses

    Regional wholesale operations focus on serving a specific geographic area, catering to local retailers and businesses. These operations typically emphasize building strong relationships with clients within their region, allowing for tailored services and quicker response times to market demands, which can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

    Regional vs. National Wholesale Operations

    National wholesale operations, in contrast, operate on a broader scale, supplying goods to retailers across an entire country. These businesses often enjoy economies of scale, allowing them to negotiate better pricing with suppliers and offer competitive rates to their customers. They may also install advanced distribution networks to manage inventory and logistics effectively across diverse markets.

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    Steps to Start a Wholesale Business

    Retail market size across in India
    Retail market size across in India

    1. Market Research

    Start comprehensive market analysis to understand industry trends, customer preferences, and competitive landscape, ensuring informed decision-making for the wholesale business. Determine specific products to offer by evaluating market demand and sourcing reliable suppliers who can provide quality goods at competitive prices.  

    2. Business Plan

    Plan a detailed business plan that outlines the business model, marketing strategies, operational procedures, and long-term goals to guide the establishment and growth of the wholesale venture.  

    3. Location and Space

    • Find a location which is accessible to your market’s target.
    • Decide whether to buy or lease a retail space.
    • Plan the store layout for customer engagement and efficient operations.

    4. Financing

    • Calculate the amount of initial capital required.
    • Check out various funding options such as bank loans, personal savings, or investors.
    • To track expenses and income, set up accounting systems.
    • Explore various financing options, including loans, grants, and personal investments, while creating a budget that accounts for initial startup costs and ongoing operational expenses

    5. Set Up Logistics and Storage

    Efficient logistics and storage are crucial for a wholesale business. Ensure you have adequate warehouse space to store your inventory and a reliable transportation system to deliver products to customers.

    • Warehouse: Rent or purchase a warehouse that meets your storage needs. Consider criteria such as location, size, and security.
    • Transportation: Arrange for transportation services to ensure timely delivery of products. You can either hire a logistics company or invest in your own fleet of vehicles.

    6. Staffing

    • Hire staff that meet your business needs.
    • Provide comprehensive training for product knowledge and customer service.
    • Establish policies for staff management and operations.

    7. Marketing and Sales

    • Create a strong brand identity.
    • Develop a website and utilize social media.
    • Strategise advertising campaigns and promotions to drive customer traffic.
    • Focus on providing excellent customer service to retain customers.

    8. Set Up a Distribution and Sales 

    Building a strong sales and distribution network is essential for the success of your wholesale business. Identify potential retailers, businesses, and other customers who will buy your products.

    • Sales Team: Hire a competent sales team to reach out to potential customers and close deals.
    • Distribution Channels: Establish efficient distribution channels to ensure smooth delivery of products. This could include direct sales, online platforms, or third-party distributors.

    9. Launch and Evaluate

    • Consider a soft launch to test your operations before the official opening.
    • Plan a grand opening event to attract customers.
    • Collect customer feedback and make necessary adjustments to improve business operations.

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    Business Registration and Licensing 

    The establishment of a business necessitates proper registration and the acquisition of relevant licenses to operate legally within the jurisdiction.  

    Tax Registration (GST)

    It is essential to register for tax purposes, including obtaining a Goods and Services Tax (GST) registration, to ensure compliance with fiscal obligations.  

    Compliance With Local Regulations 

    Adherence to local regulations is critical, as businesses must align their operations with the laws and standards set forth by municipal and regional authorities.  

    Import/Export Permits (if applicable)

    For businesses engaged in international trade, securing import and export permits is mandatory to ease the lawful movement of goods across borders.  

    Other Necessary Certifications

    More certifications may be required depending on the nature of the business, which could include health, safety, or industry-specific qualifications to meet regulatory standards.  

    The wholesale business in India presents significant opportunities for growth and expansion. Such a growth is driven by the country’s vast consumer market. It is also dependent on the increasing demand for diverse products. The evolving landscape of retail, coupled with advancements in technology and logistics, has created a conducive environment for wholesale operations to sustain. As businesses adapt to changing consumer preferences and leverage digital platforms, the potential for profitability and market penetration in the wholesale sector becomes clear. Furthermore, government initiatives aimed at promoting ease of doing business and enhancing infrastructure will likely bolster the wholesale industry’s development, making it a promising avenue for entrepreneurs and investors alike.

    FAQ

    How can I start my own wholesale business?

    To start one’s own wholesale business one is required to do market research, business plan, location, financing, staffing, marketing and lastly distribution and sales.

    How can I get an FMCG license in India?

    FMCG license is required to have various kinds of licenses depending on the product, a food product must be licensed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

    What are the types of wholesalers?

    Wholesale businesses are of various kinds like traditional wholesale businesses, online wholesale businesses, niche wholesale businesses, import/export wholesale businesses etc.

    How to write a business plan on wholesale?

    To create a detailed business plan one must outline the business model, marketing strategies, operational procedures, and long-term goals to guide the establishment and growth of the wholesale venture.

  • 6sense: One-Stop Solution for Revenue Generation

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by 6sense.

    Both sales and marketing are significant pillars of every business as they act as a catalyst for generating revenue. While marketing involves building brand awareness among audiences, sales turn that viewership into profits by converting leads into actual customers.

    However, the marketing and sales team needs to understand consumer behavior through appropriate data and visibility. It is when 6sense comes into the picture. This company helps the revenue team to access relevant statistics with the help of advanced technology.

    In this article, know about 6sense, its business, founders, products, startup story, funding, and more.

    6sense – Company Highlights

    Company Name 6sense
    Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States
    Primary Industry SalesTech
    Founders Amanda Kahlow, Dustin Chang, Premal Shah, Shane Moriah, and Viral Bajaria
    Founded In 2013
    Website 6sense.com

    6sense – About
    6sense – Founders and Team
    6sense – Startup Story
    6sense – Mission and Vision
    6sense – Products and Services
    6sense – Business Model
    6sense – Funding and Investors
    6sense – Partners
    6sense – Merger and Acquisitions
    6sense – Growth
    6sense – Awards and Achievements
    6sense – Competitors

    6sense – About

    6sense is a San Francisco-based company that reinvents the way B2B organizations create, manage, and convert their pipeline to revenue. Its revenue AI eliminates guesswork and arms the organization’s revenue team with important data and visibility that is required to create and convert high-quality pipelines into revenue.

    Currently, Jason Zintak is the CEO and Viral Bajraj is the CTO of 6sense. The company is growing at a faster pace with 6 branches in the United States, the United Kingdom, and India. Moreover, it is ranked the 130 fastest-growing companies in North America on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500TM.

    6sense – Founders and Team

    6sense, Founders - Amanda Kahlow, Dustin Chang, Premal Shah, Shane Moriah, and Viral Bajaria
    6sense, Founders – Amanda Kahlow, Dustin Chang, Premal Shah, Shane Moriah, and Viral Bajaria

    Set up in 2013, 6sense was founded by Amanda Kahlow, Dustin Chang, Premal Shah, Shane Moriah, and Viral Bajaria.

    Amanda Kahlow

    Amanda Kahlov is a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder and is the founder and ex-CEO of 6sense. Moreover, she founded CI Insight Inc. and held the role of CEO. Presently, she is working as the director at MAHA global and an advisor at Brit + Co.

    Dustin Chang

    Co-founder of 6sense, Dustin Change has graduated from the University of Washington. He has co-founded Grepdata and is working as CTO of Stealth Startup.

    Premal Shah

    Earned a degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, Premal Shah is co-founder of 6sense. Moreover, he has also co-founded GrepData and worked in Livingly Media for almost 7 years.

    Shane Moriah

    Co-founder of 6sense, Shane Moriah has graduated from Stanford University and has a degree in BS, Computer Science. He has co-founded 6sense and GrepData and is now, working as Chief Technology Officer in Settle.

    Viral Bajaria

    Viral Bajaria graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in Computer Science before co-founding and working as CEO of 6sense.

    Talking about the company size, currently, it employs 1200 employees, ranging from data scientists and business leaders to engineers and mathematicians.

    6sense – Startup Story

    6sense was developed by Amanda Kahlow along with other co-founders in 2013 after consultation with Cisco- the technology company. It was launched as a tool for organizations running marketing and sales businesses by predicting the inclination of potential customers.

    In 2014, the company launched the world’s first B2B sales and marketing prediction intelligence platform. It achieved another milestone by receiving a patent for a machine learning method to predict the future of B2B sales and marketing in 2016.

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    Since then, there is no stopping as 6sense has been recognized as the leader by several renowned organizations.

    6sense – Mission and Vision

    The common goal of 6sense is to change B2B sales and marketing with predictive intelligence. It focuses on offering the best solutions to help marketers and sellers succeed.

    6sense – Products and Services

    The core platform comprises foundational features that the sales and marketing team needs for scaling their ABM programs. The solutions offered by the company are:

    • Account Identification
    • Data Enrichment and Management
    • Intent Data
    • Audience Building
    • Advertising
    • Predictive Analysis
    • Orchestration and Workflows
    • Pipeline Intelligence
    • Conversational E-mail
    • Sales Intelligence

    6sense – Business Model

    The account engagement platform of 6sense helps B2B organizations achieve predictable revenue growth by providing the access to AI, big data, and machine learning to every member of the revenue team. The company’s Revenue AI platform uncovers anonymous buying behavior, predicts the right accounts to target at the right time, and enables the sales and marketing team to engage buyers with multi-channel and multi-touch campaigns.

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    Its business model revolves around helping revenue teams know every necessary detail about their buyers so that they can generate more opportunities, increase deal size, and win over the competition.

    6sense – Funding and Investors

    6sense raised total funding of $426 million over 8 rounds. On 20 January 2020, the latest funding round was held and the company received $200 million in Series E Round. It is funded by 19 investors and some of these are SoftBank Vision Fund, B Capital Group, Harmony Partners, Industry Ventures, Venrock, Insight Partners, and Blue Owl.

    Date Round Number of Investors Money Raised Lead Investor
    January 20, 2020 Series E 10 $200 million Blue Owl, MSD Partners
    March 30, 2021 Series D 4 $125 million D1 Capital Partners
    January 15, 2020 Series C 1 $40 million Insight Partners
    April 16, 2019 Venture Round 6 $27 million Industry Ventures
    February 1, 2019 Seed Round 1 – –
    July 1, 2015 Series B 1 $2 million Salesforce Ventures
    February 19, 2015 Series B 3 $20 million Bain Capital Ventures
    May 20, 2014 Series A 4 $12 million Battery Ventures, Venrock

    6sense – Partners

    6sense believes in partnering with renowned firms to expand its horizons. It has collaborated with around 24 partners and some of these are:

    • Chatfunnels
    • Drift
    • Mediafy
    • Hero Digital
    • Ignitim
    • ROI-DNA
    • Adobe Target
    • Bombora
    • Hushly
    • Reactful

    6sense – Merger and Acquisitions

    Over years, the company has acquired a total of 4 companies. The list of companies acquired is:

    Company Year of Acquisition
    Granite Media Group Inc. 2022
    Slintel 2021
    Fortella 2021
    ZenIQ 2018

    6sense – Growth

    The estimated annual revenue of 6sense in 2022 is $245 million per year. And its current valuation stands at $5.2 billion (January 2022). In addition, the employee count has increased by 127% and the monthly rank growth of the website is 13.63%.

    6Sense in 6 Minutes

    6sense – Awards and Achievements

    6sense, the global platform is rewarded with several awards and achievements. It closed out 2022 with some of these awards and achievements:

    • Best Workplaces for Women
    • Best Company for Diversity
    • Best Company Culture
    • Best CEO
    • Best Company Compensation
    • Best Company Outlook
    • Recognized as a Leader in the December 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for ABM Platforms
    • Tech Cares Award by TrustRadius

    6sense – Competitors

    With 6sense offering solutions across different parts of the world, it faces cut-throat competition worldwide. Some of its competitors are:

    • Demandbase
    • ZoomInfo
    • HubSpot
    • Terminus
    • RollWorks
    • Marketo
    • Clearbit
    • Radius

    FAQs

    What is 6sense and how does it help sales teams?

    6sense is an AI-driven revenue intelligence platform that helps sales and marketing teams to identify and engage with high-value accounts more effectively.

    How does 6sense use AI and machine learning to improve revenue generation?

    6sense uses AI and machine learning to identify buying intent signals, providing real-time insights to sales teams for more effective engagement and improved revenue generation.

    What kind of businesses and industries can benefit from using 6sense?

    B2B businesses with longer sales cycles, high-value products/services, and complex sales teams can benefit from using 6sense’s revenue intelligence platform.

  • Success Story of Outplay: The New-Age Sales Outreach Platform to Help You Book More Meetings

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Outplay.

    The sales team plays a crucial role in any business. Increasing annual sales and profit is the core focus of any business. With the evolution of automation in business processes, the scope of the sales industry is continuously changing. Businesses are leveraging sales and marketing automation tools to quantify their marketing campaigns and workflows. Sales engagement platforms are one example of automating sales activities. A Sales engagement platform helps businesses in streamlining the communication of the sales team to their customers.

    Outplay is an Indian-American SaaS (Software as a Service) company headquartered in San Francisco, United States. The company offers a sales engagement platform that helps businesses to prospect efficiently and reach their revenue goals faster. Read to know about Outplay, its founders, the startup story, solutions it provides, funding, and more.

    Outplay – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Outplay
    Headquarters San Francisco, United States
    Industry Software
    Founders Ram Papineni and Laxman Papineni
    Founded 2019
    Total Funding Raised $9.3 Million
    Website outplayhq.com

    Outplay – About
    Outplay – Industry
    Outplay – Founders and Team
    Outplay – The Idea and Startup Story
    Outplay – Vision
    Outplay – Products
    Outplay – USP
    Outplay – Marketing Strategy
    Outplay – Funding
    Outplay – Growth
    Outplay – Competitors
    Outplay – Tools Used in the Company
    Outplay – Recognition and Achievements
    Outplay – Future Plans

    Outplay – About

    Outplay is a new-age sales engagement platform that combines multi-channel outreach and sales automation to help sales teams hit their revenue goals.

    The company’s core belief is to always deliver top-notch services to their customers, along with stellar support. It believes in providing meaningful opportunities for their employees to grow in, at all levels and takes pride in sharing all their wins, thoughts, and failures openly across the team. Its mission is to help salespeople achieve their dreams.

    Outplay – Industry

    Outplay is part of the Sales Software Industry. The company is rapidly expanding and bringing in more customers from the SMB market.

    Outplay – Founders and Team

    Outplay Founders
    Outplay Founders

    Brothers Ram and Laxman Papineni co-founded Outplay in the year 2019  in Wilmington, Delaware. Laxman is the CEO of the company while Ram serves as its CTO.

    Ram and Laxman have always been building things together. Ever since they were little boys, the idea of building something of their own fascinated them – anything that was creative, or would help people around them. Being brothers, both of them understood each other’s plus points early on. Ram was more interested in building platforms/tools, and Laxman was more inclined toward connecting with people and sharing stories. That’s how their current roles fit perfectly with their personalities and goals.

    Outplay currently has over 100 employees, and offers the most flexible work culture that helps in delivering a sense of belongingness to the employees and makes them create a proper work-life balance. Outplay sees its employees as the most important assets in the company, and does everything possible to make them feel comfortable and seen. They believe that it’s only when the employees’ needs are met, that they can continue building a world-class product.

    Coming to the hiring part, the company is able to bring in a lot of its employees through the simple means of referrals. Its existing employees – the Outplayers as they are commonly known, are always eager to share the openings within their network. And when they bring in someone, they’re rewarded for it. Apart from that, we’re also big on campus drives to hire college freshers, helping them start their professional journey with Outplay.

    Outplay – The Idea and Startup Story

    Outplay Logo
    Outplay Logo

    The whole idea of offering a Sales Engagement Platform began with blogging. Ram and Laxman’s first venture was a blogging network. That’s where Ram and Laxman learned about start-ups and what goes behind running one. They started their first startup called AppVirality – a referral marketing software that was backed by shoppingmode Microsoft Accelerator.

    During their first start-up stint, they realized the importance of sales and charted down how they could make it better for all the sales folks out there. They had 2-3 of their friends who left their jobs to join them at AppVirality first, which then morphed into Outplay. Together all of them sat through hours to build the right framework, get a few investors interested, and started pitching Outplay to people who were looking for a switch.

    Outplay – Vision

    Outplay’s short-term vision is to get good brand recognition and generate substantial revenue from the SMB market.

    Its long-term vision is to become a household name for large enterprises and expand fully to regions like ASEAN and APAC. Outplay aspires to become the No. 1 sales engagement platform in the world.

    Outplay – Products

    Outplay Product
    Outplay Product

    Outplay currently offers one product, which is a sales engagement platform that helps salespeople journey through their goals with ease, removing unnecessary clutter and providing top-class features to help enhance their outreach every step of the way. The product has a sleek UI that helps sales reps navigate between various tasks and sequences with ease, and also helps them hit their targets on time, with proper prioritization and automation.

    Outplay – USP

    Outplay’s USP includes multi-channel outreach which is a mix of channels like email, phone, SMS, social media, and magic chat – a webchat box that is launched when a prospective customer clicks on an email link. Apart from this, they also provide access to top-notch features such as multi-channel outreach, smart sales sequences, real-time sales insights, website, and email tracking, the ability to set activity triggers, and powerful analytics among others.

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    Outplay – Marketing Strategy

    Outplay launched an eBook as part of its marketing efforts and was able to create a lot of buzz in the market. The ebook is titled ‘30 Sales Teams Share Their Sales Sequences’ and contains a list of full-fledged sales sequences from top companies like Drift, Hubspot, Vidyard, etc. along with 30+ sales sequences from hyper-growth companies.

    Outplay – Funding

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    3rd March 2021 Seed funding $2 Million Sequoia Capital
    21st July 2021 Series A $7.3 Million Sequoia Capital

    Outplay’s series A funding which was in July 2021, helped the company successfully expand its operations, increase its workforce to 100+ employees, and work towards building features for its current and future customers, by understanding its current needs and issues.

    Outplay – Growth

    The company currently operates in the US and Indian markets. It has users spread over both regions.

    Outplay – Competitors

    Some of the top competitors of Outplay are:

    • Outreach
    • Salesloft
    • Klenty
    • Yesware
    • Reply.io
    • Mixmax
    • Mailshake
    • Lemlist

    Outplay – Tools Used in the Company

    Few tools that help accelerate the startup are:

    • Hubspot
    • Gong
    • Salesforce
    • Slintel
    • Sales Navigator
    • Seamless
    • Lusha

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    Outplay – Recognition and Achievements

    The company’s recent funding news made it to Times Square, New York – announcing how Outplay raised $7.2 Million, Series A. Apart from that, its podcast ‘The Hype is Real’ was added to Sequoia’s Surge Academy.

    Outplay – Future Plans

    Since artificial intelligence is the future, especially of SaaS platforms, Outplay is also infusing AI into its sales platform. This step will simplify the lives of sales reps even further.

    Its users already have access to a feature that can magically write their sales sequences with the power of AI, but the future will see them making the AI capabilities more stronger and robust. With the company’s sole focus being on the USA for now, it wishes to expand towards ASEAN and APAC countries in the near future.

    FAQs

    When was Outplay founded?

    Outplay was founded in 2019 in Wilmington, Delaware.

    Who are the founders of Outplay?

    Ram Papineni and Laxman Papineni are the founders of Outplay.

    Who are the top competitors of Outplay?

    Some of the top competitors of Outplay are:

    • Outreach
    • Salesloft
    • Klenty
    • Yesware
    • Reply.io
    • Mixmax
    • Mailshake
    • Lemlist

  • What is ADKAR MODEL? | Pros and Cons of the ADKAR Model

    In today’s competitive world your organization needs to constantly evolve and adapt to the rapidly changing environment. If you don’t change on time your organization will come to an end. Although, change is a very complicated process.

    No matter how good the change might be for you or your organization it is very difficult to adapt to new things. This is because our brains are hardwired to look for familiar and easy things.

    So, how do you change? The ADKAR model provides you with 5 steps that make change a reality. Read this article till the end to know what the ADKAR model is and how you can use it.

    What is the ADKAR Model?
    Awareness
    Desire
    Knowledge
    Ability
    Reinforcement
    Pros of the ADKAR Model
    Cons of the ADKAR Model

    What is the ADKAR Model?

    The ADKAR model was developed by author Jeff Hiatt, after analyzing the change patterns of more than 700 organizations. The model provides a 5 step framework that one needs to follow to make change possible. After a point of time, change becomes necessary for the growth of the organization to help evolve and stay in the competition. You can even use the ADKAR model at an individual level too.

    This framework can be followed in any sequence, although it is highly recommended to follow the ADKAR model in the sequence given below.

    The ADKAR Model
    The ADKAR Model
    • A: Awareness
    • D: Desire
    • K: Knowledge
    • A: Ability
    • R: Reinforcement

    Awareness

    In the first stage, you need to make sure that your employees are aware of the exact reason why they need to change. This step is very crucial because change is a complicated process.

    Sometimes, we are habituated to doing things in a certain way that even if someone comes up with a more efficient way to do that work we don’t take the initiative to change. This is why telling your employees the benefits of change is very important. Don’t keep the conversation one-directional. Ask them questions and build trust.

    Share real-life examples and tell different stories to help your employees understand the need for change. Don’t complicate things and break down all the steps in an easy-to-understand manner. Remember, you don’t want to scare your employees, rather encourage them to take the right steps for change.

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    Desire

    Understanding the need for change and having the desire to take the right steps to change are two different things. This is a very tricky phase because you cannot easily understand what others are feeling.

    If there is no desire, your decision for change might not go well with your employees and that may proceed to make things worse. That is why healthy company culture is required to excel. So, the desire for change is very necessary to achieve the wanted results.

    To foster desire tell your employees how the change will make their work easier or why they should be concerned about the change. For example, don’t tell your employees that they must use the new software launched by your company for sales and marketing. Instead, make them understand how easy it would be for the sales and marketing team to monitor reports and send details to different teams using the new software.

    Tell your employees that they would be able to manage more tasks in less time which would lead to more returns for the company and ultimately more salary for them. In this way, your employees will get the desire to learn and use the new software.

    Understand which things are creating resistance in the way of change. Do your employees fear that they don’t have the right skills to make the change happen? Are your employers finding the roadmap to change difficult? Find the root cause for resistance and give the required solutions to your employees.

    Knowledge

    In this phase, you tell your employees what responsibilities, skills, and tools they need to have in order to change. Give them clear guidance, break down the training part in detail and make sure your employees know what steps they need to take during the journey

    Don’t give your team generic training or steps, rather be specific. For example, if you want your employees to use the new software you need to give individual tasks to different teams. This means that you need to provide in-depth training to the sales and marketing team on how they should use the software. While other teams would only be concerned about how they can download and share reports.

    Remember too much change may demotivate your employees. Break down the change journey into small steps. Teach your employees using different mediums like PPTs, videos, interactive games, blogs, or a self-paced course.

    Ability

    In this stage, you are asking the question: Is the desired change achieved? Basically, you are applying what you have learned in the previous stages. You are demonstrating a change in reality.

    So, if we take the example of newly launched software again we are now testing how your employers are using the software for sales and marketing. Are your employers able to upload data and analyze it? Can your employees make reports and send them to other teammates? Now, how can we measure change?

    Here, are three effective ways to measure change effectively:

    Speed of Adoption

    Here, you measure how quickly your employees adapt to the change. For example, how much time are your employers taking to learn the functionalities of the new software?

    Ultimate Utilisation

    How much of the change has been adopted by the employees? Coming back to the previous example, you can check how many things your employees can do with the new software.

    Proficiency

    How well the person is performing the change? Basically, you are checking how efficiently your employers are using the new software. Can your employees manage multiple tasks and boost their productivity using the software?

    Although these are not hard and fast ways to measure change. You need to find the measures according to your change. To enhance ability, provide practical training, and monitor the performances. Allow your teams to test out their skills.

    Reinforcement

    Implementing a change for a few days doesn’t mean that your employees would continue following the new pattern.

    That’s why you need to continuously train your employees until the change becomes a habit. Evaluate the results of the change and if the results are positive celebrate the success. Correct mistakes if your employees fall back to the old habits.

    On the other hand, if your employees are adopting the change efficiently, praise them publicly. This would encourage other employees to adapt to the change. Take feedback and try to find the pain points. You might even want to consider providing more training to your employees if needed.

    Pros of the ADKAR Model

    • The ADKAR model can be used both in small and big companies. It can also be used on an individual level.
    • The model focuses on people’s needs and behavioural patterns.
    • At the same time, the model provides a practical approach that can be applied immediately.

    Cons of the ADKAR Model

    • Since the model is ready-made and can be applied instantly it doesn’t provide you with micro-level details. You are not able to get a deeper knowledge about change.
    • If you want a more complex change management system that is targeted to your organizational culture then the ADKAR model may not be suitable for you.

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    Conclusion

    As you can see if you use the ADKAR model effectively you will see a change in your employees. Although it is not mandatory to use only this change model. You can use other models as well according to your needs and organizational culture.

    You might even want to combine other models with the ADKAR model to build an effective change system for your organization. Remember, first you need to tell your employees why are the changes being implemented. Tell them the exact reason without complicating things.

    Then to build desire tell the benefits of the change. Find what is stopping your employers to make the change and address it with some effective solutions. Once you build desire in your employees define what skills, responsibilities, and steps they need to take in order to make the change possible. Make a roadmap and break down all the steps into small tasks.

    In the ability stage, you check how much your employees have changed. Measure the change, find pain points, provide solutions, take feedback and repeat the cycle.

    In the end, you will analyze how much change has been adapted. Praise your employers publicly if they have efficiently adapted to the change and provide training to the ones who are finding the change difficult.

    FAQs

    Who Developed the ADKAR Model?

    Jeff Hiatt, founder of Prosci developed the ADKAR model after analyzing the change patterns of more than 700 organizations.

    How Does ADKAR Change Model Work?

    Awareness and desire build the mindset for change. During the first two stages, you understand the reason and need for change. Knowledge provides you with a clear roadmap on how you change. In the fourth stage, you understand how much you have changed and what you can do to further improve. In the reinforcement stage, you take all the efforts to make the change a habit.

    Which of the Five ADKAR Steps Do You Think Would be Most Challenging?

    Building a desire for change is very difficult since most of us don’t want to change. This is because our brains are hardwired to look for familiar and easy things.