Medici Effect for Sales Innovation....

I received a lot of feedback to my blog on “Know Thy Customer”. Specially noteworthy was the Dunkin Donuts example. One of my friends and blogger Rishi (http://rooshi.blogspot.com/) brought out an interesting point though. Do I always need the same cup of coffee and sandwich? What if I was thinking of a latte and a donut? Or may be I didn’t need a coffee at all?

In larger context, from a sales relationship standpoint it raises the following very pertinent questions:

1. Are you able to innovate and bring services that delight the client?

2. How do you drive innovation in a borderless world?

Bottom line “Are you feeding the clients the same menu or able to take them on a thrill ride of innovation?”

I will try to answer this question through a very interesting phenomenon called the “Medici Effect”. Frans Johansson coined this term. In my own words, Medici effect can be defined as “ When a very diverse group of human beings are put together for a common task, the environment produced can be an intersection for ground breaking innovation”.

I recently attended a webinar given by Frans and I must tell you it was an hour very well spent. He brings to the table some really interesting examples of intersections. For eg:

1. How a nest of termites and largest building in Harare have a common intersection for innovation!

2. How a 24 year old chef went onto become the youngest 3 star chef in New York city (in case you don’t know the restaurant scene in NYC, this is the equivalent of becoming the CEO of Fortune 500 company by 24)!!

3. How the latest Router from a leading telecom company and a trail of ants are principally the same!!!

If you are intrigued, I suggest you pick a copy of this all time best seller. The Medici family was one of the most influential families that controlled Florence in 1700’s. This family like all power centres does not have a really clean track record. However what they did was to provide an environment where in artists and thinkers of a very diverse background got together under one roof to work together. Way back then they would assemble teams from China, Siberia and all kinds of remote places to bring out some amazing works of art. Some of the prodigies that came out of this set up include the likes of Leonardo Da Vinci…

Frans took inspiration from this and went onto discover how diversity led to innovation. Some other amazing examples he covers are:

1. How do spiders and goatmilk come together for human diseases?
2. Why is HP’s quantum lab the most innovative place on the planet for HP?
3. What do MLK jr. and rock music have in common?
4. How the ipod mini’s and old transistor radio’s of 60’s essentially the same?

So taking inspiration from Frans, I have decided to embark on a journey of exploring how diversity can yield the most innovative sales solutions for my clients.

For starters a few ideas:

1. In my current solution pitch I am bringing in a really diverse team of software developers, architects and project managers from India and US.

2. In the next year, I will bring into my team a few people from engineering (guys who have been in industries like metals and cement) to work with a software engineering team.

Dream wish:

Get a team consisting of poets, microbiologists, software engineers and building architects to build the next generation complaint resolution system.

Hope this has been good food for thought.

Let me know how the reading on Medici Effect goes for you….

Cheers

Uday

5 skills for a “Sales guy To be or Not to be”

Over the past few years, I have met a lot of friends, acquaintances, peers who have asked me “What is it that you actually do?”, “What does it mean to chase a quota?”, “What is all this thing about managing relationships?”. Some of these discussions ended with an enigmatic awe, some were quite informative for me, and well some ended making me feel if I made a really dumb mistake by taking this up….

In this blog, I want to give a quick run down of quintessential check list that will give you a snap shot of what this job demands. This is by no means comprehensive or a classical list that a career counselor will give you. However, this will definitely give you a taste of the real thing, and in some ways might also turn you off.

However, before taking a crack at a sales job it might be a good idea to run through this list, talk to a couple of guys already doing the deed (buy them a drink, you will get better information) and then listen to your heart.

Quality #1: Do you believe in the fact that work and life need to be kept in two water tight containers?
Well if you answered “ Yes” to this one, then kudos to you! You should definitely try and become a Project Manager, or even better an accountant. I think the best would be become a primary school teacher. Don’t even think of sales.

I don’t want to be critical here, but let me share an incident with you. I was in the Marriot Marquios of New York city. Jack Welsh was doing a book reading of “Winning”.

He was asked a question “Jack, don’t you think we are getting too short term focused by focusing on qtr to qtr growth”

The answer was classical Jack “ Any stupid can work on managing the long term or the short term. The key is to eat and drink at the same time”.

Same thing applies to sales. You will be managing a territory with about 50-60 accounts and chasing a target of millions of dollars that will be tracked on a weekly basis. You will win some, lose some all the time while competitors are at your heels.

Are you telling me that you will have a great year, spend long vacations and drive a BMW by compartmentalizing your mind?

I don’t mean to say mix things up. I am pretty good at work life balance my self. I meditate everyday, spend quality time with my wife, give time for hobbies and still mix things up….

So be clear, it’s a 24X7 mindset in this job of sales.

• Quality #2: You plan to go for a movie, then your friend says lets golf first, and you wife comes along to say that you need to do groceries as well, and at the end of the day, you end up cleaning and watching a DVD as some unexpected friends came by. Did this turn you off?

Long question short: Does ambiguity threaten you?

In case it does, then one thing is clear “Steer way clear of sales”. Ambiguity is the sales guys shadow. That’s the whole reason why a sales job is like hunting. A “pre-meditated” sport. In a deal the number of unknowns directly affect the outcome.

Let me give you some intangible real-life unknowns that have affected my deals:

• “The client doesn’t want to try us because we haven’t been tried before” – well then how will we ever start!!
• “I like their office and would like to spend time there”
• “Their technical engineer smelt as if he came from a football game and didn’t shower for two days” (The client told me this over a drink)
• “Funding was diverted to another strategic project”
• “Our delivery team sent a document that had references of work we do for a competitor!!”
• “I thought the client was a tactical buyer, but he just came back from a strategy workshop”

If you like your day to be something where you plan on a checklist, execute serially and end of the day assess progress, become an analyst or even better a landscape manager. Don’t bother with a sales job where for better or worse, ambiguity reigns supreme.

• Quality #3: Are you brutal with yourself?

There is nothing like “trying hard and putting in a lot of effort” but missing the quota. Sales is a digital approach. Either you meet the quota or we will get some one else who will…Its that simple.

Leading companies in the US let go of sales guys who miss the quota for 3 qtrs in a row. The highs are high and the lows are low.

After all your performance is what will ensure that the thousands of developers and technologists in your company get a project to work on.

• Quality #4: No means yes. Always

After losing 3 deals in a row to a client will you bid the fourth with more zeal and value than ever before? Lets take something closer to life.

You had a really bad argument with your neighbor, but right now you need the toolset he has to fix some of your stuff in the garage.

Will you give him a call?

Broader question “ Can you put your ego aside and use it for better stuff?”

Remember a client who says “NO” is saying so because he said “YES” to someone else.

• Quality #4: You are at a crowded bookstore on human anatomy and psychiatry. Can you small talk with the people around you and engage them for just enough to leave a memory behind? Even better, can you pick up a phone and make a credit card sales call to someone you don’t know?

If people intimidate you and you need time, a lot of time to break free, please become a researcher or an analyst or something else. In Sales you need to be able to reach out to other human beings as a genial person with an affable demeanor. If that gives you the wriggles, may be you should wriggle out!

• Quality #5: You are leading a team on a hike. It’s a team of 8 people. The team needs to cook on the way, make camp in time, plan for next days resources and also have fun.

Can you get all this done with least air time?

If it takes you more than 1 sentence to describe the goal to your team, you should be in marketing or corporate communications. A sales guy’s time is real money. You might have great English, excellent speaking skills, but if your audience doesn’t get the clarity it needs to execute then you will run the risk of losing the sale.

“Communication is the art of speaking just enough and knowing when to keep your mouth shut!”

I hope you liked this list. I hope it gives you the fire to don the sales hat. In case you think this doesn’t make any sense, well you wouldn’t be the first….

3 Top Websites for Sales Research and Networking

Information access is the key to unlocking the dynamics of the sale. The more you are informed about the clients pain points, organization hierarchy, business drivers and decision makers more effective will be the sales cycle. In an existing client relationship its easier to lay your hands on this critical data. You can leverage your team at the client location to help you with some information like org charts, time slots etc. In addition to this, an existing relationship also gives you the license to walk the corridors. This way, its relatively easier to understand the organizational politics, budgets and most importantly get opportunities to get in front of the client.

However, imagine a contrary scenario where you are the sales guy(generic term used and no sexism intended) for a leading technology consulting firm and you specifically focusing on say Telecom and Networking. Your wish list will invariably have the names of companies like Cisco, Nortel, Alcatel, Verisign, AT&T and the list goes on. For the sake of simplicity, lets take the case that your aim is to get a break into Cisco. Essentially the goal here is to get in front of your buyer and present the capabilities of your firm. What would be an ideal modus operandi to make the inroad? How can you crack the sales quota by landing yourself in front of a decision maker in least amount of time? Cold calling will help, but I have some ideas that can make your call warmer.

Over the past four years, I have worked on a research technique that has helped me get into the offices of Fortune 500 Companies and also CEO offices of start-ups. The tools that I have leveraged in this process are a mix of networking at exhibitions (which i will cover in a separate blog), research websites and sales tools. There is a prescribed flow that I use before I make the first call. Its a good mix of research, pre-meditated approaches and a slice of luck (something on which i dont have much control). However, in this blog, i want to speak more on the resources. I am sure most of you know these already, but as I always say, the idea is not to do different things, but to do things differently.

The three resources, I found to be the most effective are:

• www.linkedin.com : Linked in is a professional networking website. Through this website, you can upload your profile and also send invitations to people whom you know and also connect with already existing members. I have been a member of linked in for the past 4 years. Recently, I have seen a huge spurt in activity in the amount of people joining in and also leveraging the tool. This is indicative of the rise of social networking websites and also an clear indication of harnessing collective intelligence. For starters, I ran a search in linked in with the company name Cisco and title Director. My network showed that there were 500 people whom I was connected with who were in someway or the other associated with Cisco in a Director position. Can you have a better way to have a more distilled and focussed list? I will let you onto one more secret. People today use linked in for HR and Networking. However, I tell you that it is the most attractive database for a sales guy to tap into! try it and let me know your thoughts.
  
• Couple of other websites that do a similar job are zoominfo.com and ryze.com

• www.hoovers.com: This is the mother of all websites for Corporate information. For starters its a paid subscription for the really cool features like org. charts and people searches. However, hoovers is a database that you simply cant ignore if you are really serious about getting some new clients. It has the most detailed industry structure along with the most detailed org. hierarchy. The updates are latest, they have great Bio's on senior management and what's more you can actually do a search that can be as focussed as "show me the list of CIO's of companies which are listed with revenues more than 200MUSD, in the Biotech market in the Northeast". Not only will you get this list, you can save the query, edit it for say manufacturing, and run the whole damn search again....If your company doesnt have Hoovers, get them to buy it, or move to a place that has it....

• Google Alerts: This less known utility of Google can be a real ace up your sleeve when you are prospecting a specific company or a specific vertical. For example, If you are prospecting Cisco, AT&T, Alcatel and Nortel. What do you think is the most effective way of staying up to date on all the latest that is happening in these companies? When I say on top, I mean really on top of things. For example, how do you know where the R&D leader is speaking at this month? How was the latest investor presentation session at Bear Sterns? How did the latest charity event for Breast Cancer support go? One way could be that you can read the websites regularly. But lets be honest. You have a quota to meet, relationships to manage, pipeline to focus on, and on top of all this you have a life! Setting an expectation that you will read the websites is at best a fallacy. So the silver bullet is use Google Alerts.
  
• Search Cisco in Google.
  
• Go to News link and select the news alerts
• Set up the frequency at which you want the alerts. I usually use once a week.
  

Now you are all set. Every week, you will get an e-mail alert from Google that will give you a list of URL's that will show all the places the word Cisco was plotted on the world wide web!Check it out and then tell me if you have some thing that can beat this...

Happy Hunting!!!

PS: I owe the new look to my blog to a really smart Usability Engineer Rajnish Dureja. To know more about him check out: http://rajnishdureja.designmaze.com/

The Fear of Acceptance

Ever wondered what prevents you from making the killer sale? There are a lot of reasons that can provide factual reasoning to failure. "The client doesn't have budget", "The client doesn't like us", " The client does not see value", or one of my favorites " The competition is priced way below, and our finance guys just don't get it". I have used these from time to time and some time it cuts ice, and some times at the end of the day you simply know that you simply didn't give it all what you could have...

However in your same group, you will find some sales guys who just seem to crack the puzzle each time. Seven out of ten times they win the deal. The rest of the times, they ensure that the competition is actually having to buy the deal. I was talking to one such sales guy sometime back, and he shared with me a story. This story, made me understand the very epicenter of failure and also about how we need to have a level of acceptance, so that we don't lose the lesson in the process. The story goes something like this...

In a village in the heartland of India, there was a river. The only way to cross the river was to use the services of the local ferry man. Although this might sound like a monopoly, the ferry service was a duty than a business for the family that was doing it. Once there was this rich businessman who needed to cross the river. He came over and noticed that the ferry was being chartered by a young girl who was barely in her teens. The businessman was surprised to see this.

At the same time he also saw an opportunity to throw some weight around and get off with a lesser fee. He got into the ferry and exuded a haughty attitude, which made the girl wonder about how the ride would go by.

As the ride went on, the businessman asked this girl "Girl, where's your father? Isn't he supposed to be doing this, rather than having a girl like you work at it?".

The girl was silent and somberly replied "Sir, last month in the hurricane night my father went fishing and never returned".
The businessman was slightly taken aback. He also felt sad for the young girl who had to do this to make both ends meet.
As the ride went on, he asked, "So girl, who else is in your family".

The girl replied " well sir its me, my mother and my younger brother".
The man asked "what about others? your grandfather, or your dad's brothers?".

The girl replied "Sir, my uncle drowned in the lake, and my granddad also met with the same fate".

The man asked " Girl, dont you feel afraid of doing something which killed the whole of your family?"

The girl smiled and kept rowing. The man was perplexed at the calm of the girl.

After sometime, the girl asked "Sir, how did your father die?"

The man answered "He died peacefully sleeping in his bed"

The girl asked "and his father?"

The man replied " well he also passed away in his bed after a good day of business"

The girl quietly asked " well sir, then are you not afraid of sleeping in the bed"?

The man quietly handed the girl her fee and a tip, and moved on to his destination.

In the world of sales, the analogy is very similar to a situation, where we encounter a tough client situation, we accept the consequences, keep true to the basics and do a good job on it...
and as they say, the rest is history....

Till next time happy sailing....

"Know Thy Customer"

In follow up to the discussion that I started of with on Sales Principles, I wanted to share with you another key aspect in the world of sales. This mantra when implemented is a great asset and differentiator: "Know Thy Customer". Understanding of the customer needs and addressing it through an effective product and an accompanying service is something that we all know about. However, the key lies in the way it is executed. As a learned man once said " Winners don't do different things, they do things differently". In the same way, "Master Sales guys don’t sell different offerings, they in fact sell the same offering differently", and in this process also ensure that what they end up with a relationship that acts as an anchor for the next generation of growth to ride on.

In this context I want to share with you two examples of selling the same stuff in different ways. Mid Town Manhattan, between the 25th and the 45th streets is the Garment District. This is a commercial area where the predominant concentration is of firms in the fashion, garment and clothing industry. There are of course exceptions in terms of the sprawling CSFB Building, the advertising agencies on Madison Avenue and of course the foodie district of Lexington. However, typically, on a weekday, this area of Manhattan is not a place where you will bump into a millionaire banker or the typical fashion aficionado. I usually take the train to the station at 33rd and Broadway. This is the Korean street. A walk down a couple of blocks on the corner of 32nd and Madison is an innocuous looking "Dunkin Donuts".

I would recommend you to check out this place some time at 8:30am in the morning on a weekday. There are a couple of other places here close by that serve smoothies and bagels, but what will differentiates this place is the line of customers which is usually bursting at seams. The line typically extends to outside the shop. The first time that I visited this place was about two years back. The place is manned by an energetic team of young Chinese boys and girls. I ordered the #4 on the menu. This is a Croissant with egg and cheese and a Turbo Hot coffee (1 shot espresso with coffee). A couple of days later, I visited this place again, and the young lady who served me took my order and I noticed that she was making a mental note of my purchase. After a couple of days, I returned to the same place and stood in the line that was being catered to by the young lady. The moment I reached the Point of Sale, the lady read aloud my order for "a breakfast sandwich egg and cheese croissant and a small Turbo hot coffee". I was extremely impressed!

Here is a lady at a Dunkins outlet that probably serves about 2000 customers in the early morning rush hour remember my order. Over the last two years, I have religiously visited the place at least once in a week. Each time, I see that the staff here remembers the orders of their customers who are regular. I see the regulars standing in line, and by the time they reach the POS, the order is already taken, ready to be served and all they need to do is pay. This is also one of the few Dunkins, where they pre-pack the salt, pepper and the ketchup to ensure that the clients don’t waste time in picking this up!! Its New York after all...I was talking about this experience of mine some time back to my HR colleague, and she mentioned that over the last one year, that was the only place where she bought her coffee, and the only motivation was the special attention she was given and the fact that the staff knows her order!!

Moral: "Clients like responsive sales guys. However, the sales guys who become business advisors are the ones who are able to comprehend the predictable needs of the client and ensure a timely delivery of product ". I really hope to provide my clients with the same degree of delight, but what is needed for this is the ability to observe, process and deliver the knowledge into a tangible service.

I want to share with you yet another experience, which was a revelation to me in terms of client prospecting and assessing client potential. This incident happened on the other side of the globe in the coastal city of Chennai in India. Chennai is one of the four metros in India and in the new age India, Chennai is the hub for automotive manufacturing. It is also one of the major centers for IT offshore services. I was here on a vacation to spend some time with my spiritual Master. During some time out, I stepped out to the beach along with my dad and my wife. The local beach is called, as the "Marina Beach" is one of the popular spots for locals to have fun on the weekends. We were on the beach on a Monday afternoon. The weather was quite pleasant, and we were taking a walk along the shore. It was not difficult to make out that we were not locals, and obviously we attracted a lot of attention from the vendors. We were being sold everything from cola and water to fresh corals and octopus caught from the sea!!

In the midst of this, we were enjoying our walk along the shore and the cold waves helped relax some of the fatigue. As we were talking and catching up on old times, a vendor selling roasted peanuts approached us. There was something starkly different about this guy. He approached us with a big smile and a very affable demeanor. These was quite contrary to the others who were rather reserved in trying to connect with us, but were aggressive in making the sale. In the matter of seconds, he put his basket down, and was passing us some nice well-roasted peanuts. These freebies were something that we expected in the least, and he caught us completely off guard. My dad who was by far the most experienced in these situations was getting the least attention by the vendor while he was passing on the freebies.

We had not even chewed upon the nuts, while he started packing us each a small packet of nuts. My dad tried to resist, but the fact that we had already bitten on the freebies ensured that we bought the nuts and enjoy them while the vendor moved one to the next client. The whole episode lasted not even a full minute. However a successful sale was done!

Now when I reflect back on the incident, I realize, that the vendor spotted us from a distance. He allowed the initial lot of vendors to wither away. He ensured that we were in a relaxed mode and that we had shed our guard. He caught us unawares and established eye contact. He offered freebies and locked us in. He made a sale and I am sure we were sold at a price higher than what locals pay.

Moral: " In a commodity mode of selling, timing and understanding is the landscape is the key. Sales is a very pre-meditated approach, just like hunting. You span out the area, target the client, get to a vantage point and make the kill. To sum it up all Know Thy Customer".

Till next time, Happy Hunting.....

Integrity - The Core Differentiator of a Sales Guy

Over the next series of articles, I want to share with you my take on what differentiates a sales guy from the crowd. The differentiation is not only in terms of exceeding the yearly quota but in terms of how successful has been the transformation from a Sales Person to a Business Manager.

This transformation is something that I came across while reading the legendary sales book "Selling to VITO (Very Important Top Officer)". If you want to build a long lasting rewarding relationship with your client then you need to stop selling your services and instead become a problem solver. This fundamental change in mindset is a paradigm shift that a sales guy has to make to earn the coveted role of business adviser to VITO. There are some examples of problem solving that I can share with, however, at this point of time, I find it both a digression and little to early to ponder on this item.

In this article, I want to talk about the core differentiator of Integrity. In my words, I define Integrity as " The ability to exercise one's total freedom and capacity to ensure that you are true to the goal". In more tangible terms, this translates to rock solid commitment of a sales person to his profession. I can assure you that this intangible trait is the most obviously observed quality that a prospect first notices in the sales person. However its also something that a sales guy is not conscious of. This is because its a fundamental value system and is an involuntary reaction to a situation. I would like to relate you an interesting learning that I was party to.

As the Manager for Sales, I continuously work on the arcane channel of alliance driven sales to affect quantum growth. I have had my share of success and learnings in this route. During one such incident, I was supposed to meet a sales manager from a company that was helping in providing some compliance software products. The sales manager was a very diligent and organised individual. He sent me and my VP regular updates and follow-up notes. His approach was professional and the sales discipline appreciable.

We called him over for a meeting after several reschedules because of some unavoidable circumstances. Also it was not on the top of our priority list, but I and my VP were curious to meet this gentleman(lets call him "Tom"). Tom had already made an impact on us with his methodical approach!

The meeting was on an afternoon and Tom came in well in time. We exchanged cards and the discussion was progressing pretty well. Tom had a pleasant demeanor and was talking about the company and the products that they offer. However, my inquisitive and curious eye was looking for some signals to understand his true passion for the role.

I noticed some slight aberrations. Tom's tie button was open. His shirt also was not the perfectly starched shirt I expected from a sales hungry manager in a start-up. Then something interesting happened. The discussion moved on from the company offerings to Tom's sales experience. My VP obviously wanted to size him up and see if he was a fit for our organization. Tom's credentials sounded good, and he presented his experience very well. He also mentioned that he had interviewed for us a long time back. He infact knew a common friend of my VP. This eased conversations to a more informal note. There was some small talk about the common friend and things were going great in the meeting.

This was when, my VP in inadvertently (I hope), popped the question to check if Tom was still interested in working with us. I was expecting that Tom would divert this question. However, something unbelievable happened. Tom immediately acknowledged. He was in fact very enthusiastic about it. He also went on to speak about where else he was interviewing, how some of the interviews went and how close he was to latching up another job. I was hoping that he would stop but Tom went on. He went on say, how the current company was not structured well, and how their decision making was flawed.

I must tell you, sitting on the other side of the table, I was so uncomfortable. The meeting ended with some follow up items. As soon as Tom left, my VP said, " What a way to blow up all your credibility". Not only was Tom written off, I can assure you we might also not do any business with his company!

It was a great learning. Your integrity is what prospects notice first. It is your integrity that gives you the passion to sell against all odds, and leaves you as the last man standing. Always keep in mind that its the profession of sales first and everything at work comes next. This is the only way you can give your best to your client and build a great relationship on the foundation of mutual respect.

Till next time happy selling....

My introduction to Sales..

When I was a student in school in India, I was an avid reader of comics. There was a publication called "Indrajal Comics"( http://www.indrajal-comics.blogspot.com) . They had great titles for characters like "Phantom-The Ghost Who Walks", "Mandrake the magician", Garth, Flash Gordon etc. The new copies would be quite expensive. However, during our weekend trips to the town, I would scavenge some of the old book shops accompanied by my dad or mom, and pick up some copies. One day during a trip to the local deli called "Variety Stores", I managed to locate a huge bunch of Indrajal comics. Each was priced at about probably 200% lower price. My dad bought the whole bunch for me. I was ecstatic. During the course of the next few months, I had finished reading through all of these. I realized that there were more publications on the shop that I could now pickup. I started selling the older copies to students and friends in school. This helped me make some money for new ones. I was also pretty good at art. I started making some greeting cards and sell it to my friends. This was my first rendezvous with the wonderful experience of selling.

To me, Selling is a very intimate process of building trust and investing in a relationship that will identify the risks and opportunities thrown open by change and building systems that will deliver the promise of those opportunities.

The end result of a deal, which from my standpoint is not the greatest achievement. Although a rational assessment digitally would place a win as the ultimate qualifier . I am a student of sales and want to use this forum to essentially share my experiences that this wonderful profession provides me with. During the course of my job, which is predominantly focused on information technology services I meet a wide spectrum of clients, vendors and team members. From each of these stake holders, I gain insights into the sales process, which I hope to manifest into intelligence and over a period of time distill it into wisdom.

During school there were a lot more such instances when I indulged in opportunities where I could exercise my interest in selling. However, the turning point in sales was when I was in Engineering. During my engineering school days, I had a lot of friends who were from a business community. I used to hang around with them and an evening cup of tea at their place, would expose me to raw business acumen. These sessions would be end of the day discussions in a family, where the men would discuss complex areas like pricing, relationship management, risk management in the simplest possible way. One of my mentors, who had a profound impact on me was an entrepreneur, who built is success in starting as a accountant and ending up as the owner of a publicly traded paper industry. During my next series of write-ups, I will discuss more about the impact his methodology of thinking had on me. However, one key learning from his association was in decision making. He told me that "when you are at a point of making decisions where you are making a choice in the short term that impacts the long term picture, steer clear of this decision". Over a period of time, when I have put my decisions through this filter, I have realized the profound impact of this advice.

With support from my mentor, me and a very close friend of mine started a venture in Engg. School. Considering the cultural background that I belong to, it was not appropriate for students to focus on any other activity other than studies. Needless to mention that my friends shared the constructive rebel that was driving us. At that point of time, the idea that was driving up against the wall was a silver bullet to handle the menace of plastic pollution. We decided to set up a unit that would manufacture paper bags much similar to the ones that you see in retail stores today.

The market we were operating in was central India, and I tell you this was a venture in which I donned the hat of the Sales guy and my friend was the technical master behind the design and manufacture of the product. It was an amazing journey. I have innumerable memories of this, but my greatest lesson in this process was mainly, understanding the value of perseverance, hard work and the fine line between skilled sale and unethical sales practices.

I would like to share with you this story on sales ethics. During the manufacturing of the paper bags, we would order a huge roll of paper from the mill owned by our mentor. Mind you the only advantage we were given was access to the mill, other than that he treated us as pure business customers to ensure that we learned our lessons right. Once we received the roll, the requirement was to get this roll sheeted into the desired size. Once it happened that we were required to sheet this paper and the regular place where we got this done was closed. There was another mill close by which could do this job for us. However, the day being a Thursday, the place was closed for regular business. I knew the guy who owned the place. Let me re-phrase, I knew the name of the guy who owned the place. I also knew that he had a younger brother, who was about our age and was in the same city we were living in. We also happened to know some common friends. I went into the factory along with my friend and introduced myself to the Super who was in-charge. I introduced myself as the friend of the owner and told him that we needed to get the paper sheeted. I also told him that this being an off-day, not to bother with disturbing the owner. The kind of confidence and control, I and my friend exuded, was that of total conviction. The Super himself loaded the paper, got the sheeting done, called for a pickup truck and escorted out. This was the biggest con I had ever pulled off. I was ecstatic. My friend was also amazed at our luck. You could call this the start-up die hard spirit or categorize it was juvenile short sightedness. However over a period of time, guilt caught-up with us. We were also worried for the innocent Super who believed us. After about a couple of months, me and my friend visited the place again, and this time we met the guy who owned the place. It was a great meeting. Not only did we become good friends, but he thanked us for exposing a vulnerability in his enterprise.

However, the lesson for me was clear. In sales, "A quick sale is a great temptation. However, the right sale is what differentiates the Men from the boys....."
Till next time, happy selling....