Face time with customers is drastically reducing: Pavan Shetty, Director, Porsche India
Having joined Porsche as its India Director in 2016, Pavan Shetty has played a critical role in Porsche’s India expansion.
Porsche recently celebrated its 70th anniversary globally. Though the journey in India has only been six years so far, the brand has gained quite a following in the country and sold more than 400 cars last year alone.
Having joined Porsche as its India Director in 2016, Pavan Shetty has played a critical role in Porsche’s India expansion. When asked about the best practices of engaging customers and influencing them during their purchase journey, Shetty said, “To look at the luxury space that we are occupying, things would not have been more interesting than today. If you look at the data, some years ago, customers would make five to six visits before they bought the car. Now they do less than two, which means that the face time with customers is drastically reducing. So where is the customer getting the information from? The answer is media. So what is the right way to influence the customer? For me the right way is to catch them during the various phases of the buying process. If you take any luxury product, it has a very high involvement category and decisions are not impulsive. Which means you have ample time to touch base on many levels to influence the customer. Moreover, over time, the importance of existing customers has also become significant. Imagine partnering with a customer in his entire commute that he does in his life-cycle. Not only is there a revenue source, but this is also a way to retain your customers.”
With the concept of Electric Vehicles gaining ground, Porsche India plans to launch its electric variants in the Indian market by 2020. The brand is all set to take on the challenge of disruption.
Speaking about the need for brands to be future ready Shetty added, “There is a big change happening and we are getting ‘amazonified’ for a reason because Amazon has given us more than what we need. The ways of reaching customers have changed and if you don’t recognise that today you will have to do it tomorrow, because disruption is the way of life. And there is a greater need to be part of that entire ecosystem where the customer will be operating. Nobody knows the future exactly, but we are anticipating and we are spending almost 6 billion euros for new product development and technology.”
For someone who started his career as a door-to-door salesman selling newspaper subscriptions, to being the top hire of a globally recognised brand, Shetty’s journey is a tale of the extraordinary. Self made in every way, asking him a thing or two about leadership and entrepreneurship would not be out of place with this young leader who has shown that true leadership is about thinking ahead and thinking fast.
Talking about making the most of opportunities and his entrepreneurial approach to work, Shetty said, “There is a lot of stress on entrepreneurship these days and a lot of people say why am I working and why I’m not rich. But entrepreneurship is just about doing your own business and it can be applied to every job. If you treat your job as business you are an entrepreneur. Talking about opportunities, there are a lot of them and India is a land of opportunities.”
Having joined Porsche as its India Director in 2016, Pavan Shetty has played a critical role in Porsche’s India expansion. When asked about the best practices of engaging customers and influencing them during their purchase journey, Shetty said, “To look at the luxury space that we are occupying, things would not have been more interesting than today. If you look at the data, some years ago, customers would make five to six visits before they bought the car. Now they do less than two, which means that the face time with customers is drastically reducing. So where is the customer getting the information from? The answer is media. So what is the right way to influence the customer? For me the right way is to catch them during the various phases of the buying process. If you take any luxury product, it has a very high involvement category and decisions are not impulsive. Which means you have ample time to touch base on many levels to influence the customer. Moreover, over time, the importance of existing customers has also become significant. Imagine partnering with a customer in his entire commute that he does in his life-cycle. Not only is there a revenue source, but this is also a way to retain your customers.”
With the concept of Electric Vehicles gaining ground, Porsche India plans to launch its electric variants in the Indian market by 2020. The brand is all set to take on the challenge of disruption.
Speaking about the need for brands to be future ready Shetty added, “There is a big change happening and we are getting ‘amazonified’ for a reason because Amazon has given us more than what we need. The ways of reaching customers have changed and if you don’t recognise that today you will have to do it tomorrow, because disruption is the way of life. And there is a greater need to be part of that entire ecosystem where the customer will be operating. Nobody knows the future exactly, but we are anticipating and we are spending almost 6 billion euros for new product development and technology.”
For someone who started his career as a door-to-door salesman selling newspaper subscriptions, to being the top hire of a globally recognised brand, Shetty’s journey is a tale of the extraordinary. Self made in every way, asking him a thing or two about leadership and entrepreneurship would not be out of place with this young leader who has shown that true leadership is about thinking ahead and thinking fast.
Talking about making the most of opportunities and his entrepreneurial approach to work, Shetty said, “There is a lot of stress on entrepreneurship these days and a lot of people say why am I working and why I’m not rich. But entrepreneurship is just about doing your own business and it can be applied to every job. If you treat your job as business you are an entrepreneur. Talking about opportunities, there are a lot of them and India is a land of opportunities.”
