One feature that makes Asian markets different from others is the importance of local differentiation. From outside (and please, do not misunderstood me) all countries may seem “equal”, but it gains special relevance the Country brand above the Asian brand (as I could study in the coursera course “International Marketing in Asia”) when we talk about to introduce a new company in the market.
By making our first research of mongolian companies, one that caught our attention was the startup CallPro. First, because it is a Mongolian startup with a strong presence in the local market (50% of mongolian banks use their services), and second, because of we wanted to talk to “the Zendesk of Mongolia” just as they were defined by Tech in Asia.
During the days we were in UlaanBaatar we had the opportunity to talk to Ider-Od Onech, Co-Founder of the startup CallPro, in their offices. I have to say that I really love to find a big twitter logo at the entrance 🙂
Marketing does not just sales products, marketing + customer services sales
When in 2009 a lot of Mongolian banks started needing call centers, CallPro entered in the market providing call center solutions to banks and big financial organizations. Later on they realized that more types of companies need this kind of services (currently they serve 60 companies of different sizes), and what it is more important, they realize that costs are important, so they pivot from local call centers, which needs infrastructure for each branch and more in an extensive country as Mongolia, to cloud-based call center.
Mongolian market it is not just a small market. One feature to be taken into account is that companies in Mongolia like to talk in person with customers more than based their only communication through digital infraestructure. With this premise on mind, the startup CallPro has started to diversify its services with two complementary partnerships: Twitter for business and digital advertising advisory, and Zoom, a Silicon Valley startup make high quality video conferencing and virtual meetings.
As a startup, customer conversion is a good indicator of growth, but it is more important that your system is being used for your customers. This is the advice that Ider-od wants to give us for future entrepreneurs and we do not could be more agree with this advice. Because you can have three or three thousand register users, but that means nothing if no-one use your product or service.
I really like the evangelist figure they have with their clients, supporting them in understand the importance of measure the impact of marketing campaigns. That its is why the track marketing effects on call centers as their first standing point, but they have also in mind to expand their offer in the future. Who knows, maybe in some years we will be talking with them about Social CRM and CRM Analytics. 😉
Companies will be much carefull with their sales, and those who increase their sales capabilities will be the winners.
Of course, we do not want to finish this post without thanks Ider-od and CallPro for their time. We spent a great afternoon talking with the CallPro team about Data Analysis, new trends and Mongolia’s challenges for the near future.
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