Cut to the present, though, and the flywheel is tottering—for Byju’s and all the edtechs that followed suit. Hit by repeated complaints, court cases, and a political debate that refuses to die down, Byju’s announced last week that it was shifting to “virtual-only” sales. AKA, no in-person sales calls. (View Highlight)
In an online sale, the “counselling session”, if it gets to that point, has to be on Zoom. Byju’s now gives its agents three hours of talk time per day to use up, and tracks how many hours they’ve spent on Zoom convincing clients. The script, says the agent, hasn’t changed much from offline. But the impact on customers is markedly different. (View Highlight)
Ads→Aakash coaching centre + Byju’s tuition centres→counselling→close
No pesky calls. No pushy messages. No demo classes needed. Aakash, the test-prep mammoth that Byju’s acquired in 2021, doesn’t really need to apply a ‘push’ sales strategy. Its physical coaching centres, because of its brand, pull in the students. (View Highlight)
(View Highlight)