What Not to do on a First Date!

Now that I have your undivided attention, lets talk about "Conferences". In the corporate world a conference is the equivalent of a speed dating session. You meet a lot of people, usually the food is good and you have a good time. However, there are a few who make the most of this...just like the times in college when a few lucky jocks ruled roost. That said, now lets talk about a few do's and dont's for a conference:

• Dress Well: And you are wondering why I say that. Well its simple. There are a lot of conferences where I have seen people simply not dress well enough. People are trying to size you up in a conference. A good suit helps establish credibility. But then, there is no point being an empty suit. Which brings me to the next point.
  
• Prepare Well: Don't show up at a conference if you have no meetings fixed. Its a colossal waste of time. Every conference has a published agenda of speakers listed weeks in advance. Make calls, set up discussions and prepare for these meetings. If you are not doing this drill, you are goofing around in a conference.
  
• Listen Well: In all conferences, I have been to till date, this theme is common. People want to talk and talk more. Let them do that. Listen well to people around you, and if you are a good listener, you certainly save energy and charm to talk to people who matter.
  
• Converse Well: Ask yourself, "How do I end conversations with people who are not suspects?" (aka "possible prospect"). Chances are you drop them like a hot potato, chances are higher that you don't even exchange cards. What about the old adage "People connect People". Be courteous, end conversations well and drop a note later. You never know how things may change.
• Never Sell: "Do you propose on a first date?" Hopefully you don't. You charm, you thrill and you listen to your date. You don't say "Marry me!!!". Then why do you make a jackass of yourself and pitch "long term relationships" and "commitment" in a conference meeting? Make friends, exchange cards, tell stories and talk a little business. Never Sell! There is a time and place for everything.
  

I have made friends with some really good people at conferences. Many of them have let to follow on conversations and a few to some business. However, the best gain out of these speed dating sessions is I have become a better story teller and a better judge of people.

Happy Dating!!

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....

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....