Conversation with Merlin [email protected] · Sun Jan 07 2024

Business Growth Strategy for FIITJEE

Slide-1:

Key Highlights of presentation: • Building an Organic Growth for increasing the admissions and WOM publicity. • Creating a new value proposition through Product Optimization & Hybrid learning • Building a sales funnel through Online classes to promote growth in offline admissions. • Building a FIITJEE Alumni Network for career guidance in the present confused world.

Overall, Creating an ECOSYSTEM of FIITJEE offerings that would propel growth for the next 10 years.

Slide-2:

Who am I?

Slide – 3:

The present JEE & NEET Coaching industry is slowly transitioning from Growth stage to Maturity stage – So, its going to be Price War ahead.

How can we increase the sales in the present market, where the threat from competitors such as local institutes & ed-tech players is rapidly increasing.

Slide – 4:

Smartphone Mobile Industry – Apple is still the Market Leader

Reason: Apple has built an Ecosystem, where other players have built product features.

Slide – 5:

Step – 1:

Improvising on Sales Funnel. To my knowledge, our Sales Funnel starts from Registrations to FTRE, Big Bang Edge, and 360 diagnostic test etc, where we attract students by offering scholarships to them.

I believe we can attract students & parents with one step even further ahead.

We can Conduct FIITJEE Competitive exams for School students (6-10th) across Tamilnadu and reward the students on State ranks & District Ranks.

The competitive exams can be

  • Maths Marathon
  • Curious Mind Carnival
  • Cosmic Discovery Carnival

The prizes for the Winners will be

  • A shield of FIITJEE Brand
  • A Household Item for Usage
  • Access to 1 or 2 modules of FIITJEE Video classes.

The purpose served by these activities:

  • FIITJEE Brand promotion in every district & Village
  • Identifying top talent across Tamilnadu
  • Nurturing Students & Parents from early stage
  • Giving a taste of Quality of FIITJEE Lectures
  • With access to the Mobile numbers of all participants, we can further promote FIITJEE products & FIITJEE Success stories through Digital Marketing.
  • A Targeted customers base is prepared.

Overall Result: FIITJEE Brand will get more closer to the Customers and We would be attracting more & more Pull sales rather than Push Sales.

A Rough Calculation is follows:

At a District Headquarters, Expenses: Classroom rent per day: Rs 20,000 (Strength of 50 students) Invigilators: Rs. 1500 Question Papers: Rs: 50*10 = 500 Miscellaneous: 20,000

Income: Exam Fee: 50*500 = Rs. 25,000 Returns: 50 Sales Leads and direct access to toppers in the district.

Out of 50 leads generated, we can convert atleast 5-6 into Pinnacle admissions and sell Online products for another 10-15.

FIITJEE Brand will penetrate into district levels and we will attract more Pull Sales than Push sales.

Market understanding in each district for prospective of opening up new centres across Tamil Nadu.

Inspiration behind this idea: I got district -1st in School level competitive exams and I come from rural area. Also, in MBA colleges, big corporates does not come directly but rather conduct case challenges to access the students and give perks like priority interview opportunity etc.

Step – 2:

Product Optimization

Present Product Offerings: - Classroom learning, CPPs, Doubt clearing sessions, Weekly Tests, Counselling sessions, Mock & Grand Test series etc – all these are being offered by almost every other institute in the market in one mode or other mode.

Parents now regard these as Quality standards for all institutes.

How can we differentiate from other institutes? Parents are now expecting more than this?

Quality study materials and top-quality faculty are no longer Unique Selling value proposition. Parents are perceiving that the top faculty are only for top students and my child is an average student. Top faculty will not give personalized attention for my child.

In fact, local institutes are using this point as their USP to attract admissions. We are a small & local institute and thus Personalized attention will be given to each & every student unlike big corporates. We also have the top level faculty, who have taught in Big corporates like FIITJEE, Allen, Akash etc. Study materials on par with the Big corporates.

So, how can we differentiate our product offerings in this competitive environment?

FIITJEE USP is – Pattern proof teaching methodologies.

Let’s extend this to further level – Improvisation on Student’s learning Ability and Customization of results.

At the end, education is meant to improve the student’s learning capabilities rather than only for cracking exams.

Parents are looking for education which is catered to their child’s level – the trend is changing from olden days of education model, where the students are expected to catch upto the level of teacher.

Thus, let’s bring in a customized result analysis on Student’s learning capabilities and not just limit the result analysis only to a particular question paper.

Presently, the result analysis is centered around diagnosing student’s ability to answer Easy, Medium & difficult questions and to an extent identifying strength & weak topic areas.

Let’s Optimize this result analysis to the next level – Segregating Errors into Capabilities & Attitude mistakes rather than into difficulty levels.

  • Conceptual Mistakes
  • Mathematical Mistakes
  • Confusion in theory
  • Mistakes due to incorrectly understanding questions
  • Over-confidence mistakes.
  • Mistakes due to lack of Time Management.

We can achieve this by using the latest Machine Learning algorithms and Data Visualization tools – My present working project.

This can be achieved by using the OMR answer scripts itself and can be further extended to Mypat.

Through this product optimization – We can build confidence in Parent’s mind that FIITJEE, as an institute is focused on improving the student’s capabilities and not just only on content delivery unlike other institutes.

Step – 3:

Bundling of Offline & Online products

As many students would like to have Hybrid learning opportunities, we can bundle Offline & Online products as follows:

  • Offline classroom coaching with Online concept clearing sessions
  • Virtual classroom with Offline doubts clarifications – Building a Hub & Spoke model with Main Centre as Hub of content delivery and remote study centres as spokes for doubt clearing sessions.

Advantage: Cost optimization in operations and Wider reach of students.

Example: Mint Subscriptions

Step – 4:

Building Sales channel through Online classes for Offline Admissions – Upselling

Selling the course content in modular format rather than as a full package.

Biggest problem of present students is missing concepts and not able to cover them up. Of course, there is a lot of free content is available in YouTube & other platforms, but not supplemented with CPPs, followed by tests. This also gave rise to after-class tuitions.

In modular format, we can package a module with course content, relevant CPPs & tests, doubt clearing sessions (Online & offline) and offer it to students. Once students get habituated to FIITJEE modules, then it will create a Virtuous cycle of buying more modules from FIITJEE Platform.

If he/she is a student of 9th class – Can be easily motivated to take Admissions for Pinnacle program in Class 11

If he/she is a student of 11th & 12th Class – Can be easily motivated to take admissions in “One-year extended classroom program”.

Step – 5:

Building FIITJEE Alumni Network

Presently the world is changing rapidly with a lot of opportunities opening up and many students are trying to figure out what they want to be – Not just in school and during every phase of life.

As your net worth is decided by your network, Lets build an Alumni network for all FIITJEE students, where past students from every sphere can stay connected even after they completed their studies from FIITJEE.

This will help students for career guidance and will formulate an ecosystem of FIITJEE Brand.

I believe, through these 5 steps, we can create a Value chain from beginning to end and beyond. This will position FIITJEE as an Ecosystem of educational offerings with multiple entry points. If once student enters into ecosystem, then automatically he will be sent on a virtuous loop of buying other products.

As majority of customers of FIITJEE comprises of Upper Middle class to Upper class segment in Income levels, they will be ready to pay the premium price for the Value chain offered by FIITJEE, thus keeping FIITJEE out of Price war in the market.

My Strengths & Unique Skill set:

  • My experience as a Physics faculty & Program co-ordinator for over 7 years in JEE & NEET preparation.
  • Grassroot level connection & understanding of Customer aspirations
  • Business Knowledge with training in Latest technologies tools such as Data Analytics, Machine Learning
  • Experience of writing all major competitive exams in India such as JEE & NEET, BITSAT, UPSC, GATE, SSC-CGLE, GMAT, CAT etc and understanding of student’s mindset while going through this competitive exam phase.

Above all, My Vision, Mission, Passion and Commitment.

Create content for Business presentation to pitch for my chairman with the above mentioned plan & ideas. Our company is FIITJEE Ltd, which provide JEE Advanced & NEET exam coaching all over India. My presentation should be centric to FIITJEE Tamilnadu Center.

Presentation Content:

Title Slide:

  • Slide Title: "Transforming FIITJEE: Business Growth Strategy for the Next Decade" Subtitle: "A Comprehensive Plan for FIITJEE Tamil Nadu Center"

Slide 1: Key Highlights

  • Highlighting the need organic growth to increase admissions and word-of-mouth publicity.
  • Emphasizing the creation of a new value proposition through product optimization and hybrid learning- Outlining the strategy for a sales funnel through online classes to promote growth in offline admissions.
  • Introducing the concept of building a FIITJEE Alumni Network for career guidance in the present industry landscape.
  • Expressing the goal of creating an ecosystem of FIITJEE offerings for sustained growth over the next 10 yearsSlide 2: Introduction
  • This slide introduces the presenter, highlighting their expertise and experience in the field of competitive exam preparation and education.

3: Market Transition

  • Acknowledging the transition of the JEE and NEET coaching industry from a growth stage to a maturity stage, accompanied by the impending price war.
  • Addressing the challenge of increasing sales amidst growing competition from local institutes and ed-tech players.

Slide 4: Learnings from Apple

  • Drawing parallels with the smartphone industry, the success of Apple in building an ecosystem, setting the stage for differentiated product features.

Slide 5: Business Growth Strategy – Steps 1-5

  • Step 1: Improvising on Sales Funnel
    • Introduction of FIITJEE competitive exams for school students (6-10th) across Tamil Nadu and the associated rewards.
    • Outline of the purpose served by these activities and their potential impact on brand promotion and customer base expansion.
    • Detailed calculation of expenses, income, and expected returns from these competitive exams, along with the insight on market understanding.

Slide 6: Business Growth Strategy – Steps 1-5 (Continued) Step 2: Product Optimization

  • Evaluation of the current product offerings and differentiation from other institutes to address parent.
  • Introduction of FIITJEE's USP and extension to focus on improving student learning ability and customization of results.
  • Explanation of proposed customized result analysis utilizing machine learning algorithms and data visualization tools.

Slide 7: Business Growth Strategy – Steps 1-5 (Contin)

  • Step 3: Bundling of Offline & Online Products
    • Introduction of hybrid learning opportunities through bundling offline and online products - Comparison with successful subscription models like Mint to highlight potential advantages and cost optimization.

Slide 8: Business Growth Strategy – Steps 1-5 (ued)

  • Step 4: Building Sales Channel Through Online Classes for Offline Admissions – Upselling
    • Proposal to sell course content in modular format to address student needs and promote a virtuous cycle of buying more modules within FIITJEE platform.

Slide 9: Growth Strategy – Steps 1-5 (Continued) Step 5: Building FIITJEE Alumni Network

  • Proposal to establish an alumni network to provide career guidance and create a long-term ecosystem of FIITJEE brand.

Slide : Strengths & Unique Skill Set

  • Highlighting the presenter's strengths, unique skill set, and relevant experience contributing to the proposed business growth strategy.

Slide 11: Conclusion

  • Summarizing the comprehensive chain created through the 5-step strategy to position FIITJEE as an of educational offerings.
  • Highlighting the value of targeting upper-middle-class to upper-class segments and avoiding the price war by offering premium value chains.

Slide 12: Vision, Mission, and Commitment

  • A slide highlighting the presenter's vision, mission, passion, and commitment, emphasizing the dedication to the proposed growth strategy and the future of FIITJEE.

This presentation aims to effectively communicate the proactive steps and strategic vision for the growth of FIITJEE Tamil Nadu Center in the competitive educational landscape.

Write the slides content as per the above mentioned theme

Slide 1: Key Highlights Title: Building a Sustainable Growth Ecosystem for FIITJEE Tamil Nadu

Key Highlights of presentation: • Building Organic Growth for increased admissions and Word-Of-Mouth (WOM) publicity. • Creating a new value proposition through Product Optimization & Hybrid Learning • Establishing a sales funnel through Online classes to drive growth in offline admissions. • Constructing a FIITJEE Alumni Network for career guidance in a rapidly changing world.

Overall, Creating an ECOSYSTEM of FIITJEE offerings to propel growth for the next 10 years.

Slide 2: Introduction Title: Who am I?

Slide 3: Transitioning Industry and Sales Strategy Title: Navigating the Transitioning JEE & NEET Coaching Industry

The present JEE & NEET Coaching industry is transitioning from the Growth stage to the Maturity stage, signaling an impending Price War. Our Strategy: How to increase sales in the evolving landscape amidst growing competition from local institutes & ed-tech players.

Slide 4: Market Leadership Lessons Title: Drawing Inspiration from the Mobile Industry

Drawing parallels with the Smartphone Mobile Industry, where Apple's ecosystem approach has cemented its market leadership, while other players compete based on product features.

Slide 5: Step 1 - Improvising on Sales Funnel Title: Innovating the Sales Funnel for Growth

Proposed Initiative: Conduct FIITJEE Competitive exams for School students (6-10th) across Tamil Nadu to identify and reward top talent through events like Maths Marathon, Curious Mind Carnival, and Cosmic Discovery Carnival.

Purpose:

  • Promote FIITJEE Brand in every district and village.
  • Identify and nurture talent at an early stage.
  • Provide a taste of FIITJEE quality.
  • Access a targeted customer base for digital marketing.

Potential Impact:

  • Generate 50 sales leads and direct access to district toppers.
  • Penetrate district levels for potential new center openings across Tamil Nadu.
  • Establish a framework for more Pull Sales.

Slide 6: Step 2 - Product Optimization Title: Rethinking Product Offerings for Differentiation

Challenges:

  • Present offerings are becoming industry standards.
  • Perception that top faculty cater only to exceptional students.

Proposed Differentiation:

  • Focus on pattern-proof teaching methodologies.
  • Incorporate Machine Learning algorithms for customized result analysis, emphasizing improvement of student’s learning capabilities.

Impact:

  • Build confidence in parents that FIITJEE focuses on improving student capabilities rather than content delivery.
  • Differentiate from local institutes emphasizing personalized attention.

Slide 7: Step 3 - Bundling Offline & Online Products Title: Embracing Hybrid Learning Models

Proposed Approach:

  • Bundle Offline & Online products to provide Hybrid learning opportunities, for example, offline coaching with online concept clearing sessions.

Advantages:

  • Cost optimization in operations.
  • Wider reach of students through virtual classrooms.

Example:

  • Drawing inspiration from subscription services like Mint, offering flexible learning options.

Slide 8: Step 4 - Building Online Sales Channels Title: Modular Upselling Strategy for Offline Admissions

Approach:

  • Sell course content in modular format to create a virtuous cycle of buying.
  • Create motivation for students across different academic stages to join FIITJEE programs.

Impact:

  • Address the need for concept coverage and after-class tuitions.
  • Create a seamless transition to higher-level programs.

Slide 9: Step 5 - Building FIITJEE Alumni Network Title: Fostering Lifelong Connections and Career Guidance Opportunities

Objective:

  • Establish an Alumni network for ongoing career guidance and networking opportunities.

Impact:

  • Empower students to navigate career opportunities.
  • Cultivate an ecosystem around the FIITJEE brand.

Slide 10: Unique Skill Set & Vision Title: Leveraging Expertise and Vision for Success

Leveraging my unique skill set, including:

  • Experience as a Physics faculty & Program coordinator
  • Grassroot level understanding of customer aspirations
  • Business knowledge and expertise in latest technologies
  • First-hand experience of major competitive exams in India.

Our vision, mission, passion, and commitment drive the development of a robust growth strategy.

End of Presentation

This presentation is designed to showcase a comprehensive and innovative growth strategy for FIITJEE Tamil Nadu, centered around differentiation, hybrid learning, and creating a lasting ecosystem around the FIITJEE brand.

Strategy details for increasing sales

To increase sales, the strategy encompasses several key initiatives:

  1. Improvising on Sales Funnel:

    • Conducting FIITJEE exams for School students (6-10th) across Tamil Nadu to identify and top talent.
    • Purpose: Promote the FIITJEE brand, identify and nurture talent, and access a targeted customer base for digital marketing.
    • Potential Impact: Generating sales leads, penetrating levels for potential new center openings, and establishing a framework for more Pull Sales.
  2. Product Optimization:

    • Focusing on-proof teaching methodologies and incorporating machine learning algorithms for customized result analysis to improve student learning capabilities.
  • Purpose: Differentiating FIITJEE from local institutes and building confidence in parents regarding its commitment to student improvement rather than just content delivery3. Bundling of Offline & Online Products:
    • Bundling offline and online products to provide hybrid learning opportunities, such as offline coaching with online concept clearing sessions.
    • Advantage: Cost optimization in operations and wider reach of students through virtual classrooms.
  1. Building Online Channels:

    • Selling course content in modular format to create a virtuous cycle of buying and motivate students across different academic stages to join FIITJEE programs.
    • Purpose: Addressing the need for concept coverage and after-class tuitions while promoting seamless transition to-level programs.
  2. Building FIITJEE Alumni Network:

    • Establishing an alumni network for ongoing career guidance and networking opportunities.
    • Impact: Empowering students to navigate career opportunities and cultivating an ecosystem around the FIITJEE brand.

Overall, the strategy emphasizes creating value propositions, utilizing technology, and building long-term relationships to drive sales growth for FIITJEE.