Be a Multilingual - earn more!

I have spent most of my life in Hyderabad and many times I came across people and students who claim that they don’t know a word of Telugu inspite of spending so much time in Hyderabad

Telugu is the 2nd most spoken language in India and their skill set would have increased if they had working knowledge of the language.

We have to remember IAS officers posted in a new state are given 90 days to master the new language. They will have to read, write and speak the local language. Then only would they be called the "Public servants". What use is the public servant if he can’t speak the lingo of the masses?

T. N. Ravi Kumar, my friend who works in the ABN Amro bank is a prime example of the opposite. Ravi’s mother is Telugu and his father is a Tamilian . So he picked up Telugu and Tamil. He was born in Karnataka and studied in a central school. So he picked up Kannada, Hindi and English. That is not the end, Ravi married a Malayali lady. So he picked up Malayalam. He worked in Mumbai and picked up Marathi.And when he worked in  Bank of Madurai at Surat he picked up Gujarati.

So the count of languages that Ravi knows read, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi and English. A jaw dropping 9 languages. It is amazing to see Ravi switch seamlessly from one language to another. Later Ravi was posted in Singapore. May be he picked up a smattering of Mandarin Chinese too. Way to go Ravi.

Being multi lingual broadens the mind and enhances skill   set  and makes one more employable. You can talk the language of your customer and immediately there is a connect and a bondage between you and your customer. Learn more languages and earn more.

25 years (Silver Jubilee) of working

It was on the 7^th of December 1987 exactly 25 years ago that I started working. I  along  with  an Electrical engineer called Akbar were selected by a company called Indian Communications Network Limited (ICNL). We joined as Sales Executives for a princely salary of 1450/- rupees per month. We were paid a transport allowance of 300/- rupees per month.

I still remember that day very clearly. I and Akbar reported to the RSM (Regional Sales Manager) Mr. Ravindranath. Ravindranath welcomed us and asked us to report to Mr. Paramjit Singh, the FM (Field Manager). Network was the market leader in the field of electronic typewriters.

There are many things that I learned from Network and it was a memorable working experience. Many of my colleagues are still in touch (thanks to mobiles and Facebook). Ranganath, ASM (Area Sales Manager – Sales), Sudhir Rao ASM (Area Sales Manager – Customer Support and Service), T. N. Ravi Kumar, TM (Territory Manager), Raghunandan CS (Customer Support), Sakethnath CS (Customer Support). All moved on in life and have become successful in their own fields.

The things that I remember very well are the training that was imparted to the sales staff on Saturdays and the crib sessions organized by our RSM, Ravindranath. Ravindranath encouraged the staff to come out with at least one crib or complaint. Ajay Nadir once said that it was more than a month since we had a party. Much to our delight Ravindranath immediately arranged for an office party.

Dealing with discounts - The Network Experience

Ask any salesman as to what is the most difficult thing to handle in a sales process he would promptly say objections. The best sales professionals are of the opinion that objections are curtains behind which opportunities for a sale are hiding, waiting to pop out. Open the curtain and the sale will pop out.

The one issue that crops up very frequently is discounts. Discounts are reductions on basic price of goods or services. Customers love discounts. Discounts offered by the salesman are not as attractive as those that are forcefully wrung out from the salesman.

So how to deal with discount? Let me cite an example from the company where I worked “Indian communications Network Limited”. Let us take the case of Pavan the salesman. Pavan has almost closed an order. Then comes the dreaded question “how much discount can you offer?” Pavan argues that the company does not offer any discount. But to no avail.  The customer wrings out 5% discount from the desperate for an order Pavan.

The customer is not satisfied. He tasted blood and wants more. He demands that Pavan offer him more discount. Pavan refuses. At this juncture the customer demands that he be allowed to meet Pavan’s boss. Pavan boss is the ASM (Area Sales Manager).

The customer meets the ASM and pulls the same stunt “How much more discount can you give?” This is where the ASM has to play the cards close to his chest. If he says no the sale might be lost. If the ASM is willing to negotiate more discount Pavan’s credibility as a salesman will be lost.

The ASM looks at the customer straight in the eye and says “We as a company have a policy not to offer any discount. Has Pavan offered you any discount?” The customer would be forced to accept that Pavan did offer him 5% discount. The ASM is shocked “Pavan should not have offered you the discount. I am afraid that we will have to reconsider the order”. The ASM is playing a very subtle mind game. In 9 out of 10 cases the customer is sold on the idea of the product and he would back track. The customer would plead with the ASM to let the 5% discount stay and retreat back to Pavan.

The ASM has delivered a very nice lesson of accountability and credibility to the customer. If more discount is given Pavan would carry less weight with the customer. By not offering any further discount and by saying that even 5% discount is not allowed the ASM is making the salesman have more value in the eyes of the customer. The customer would maintain healthy relationship and do business only with Pavan and not with the ASM. Any professional ASM would like the same – that the customer maintains a good relationship with the Salesman servicing the client or the territory. 

Excellence in Customer service - A Network Experience - Part II

“That’s a problem! Can you push it to 14 days? I have some urgent work”. I promised to try and followed it with the head office. It was an uneven fortnight and the SP promptly called on the 13^th day which was a Wednesday. Luckily the machine had arrived. I told him that we would deliver and install the machine on Friday. “As you know sir tomorrow is Deepavali and it is a off for us”. “That is right” he said.

“But it would be nice if you can install it tomorrow itself as I have to make a presentation to the District Collector. Try your best. I know it is not possible, but that’s my need” Saying this he dropped the phone. By his voice I could make that he was annoyed and upset. But he was too much of a gentleman to shout at me.

I went to my RM (regional manager) and explained the situation. My RM could understand my predicament. We loved the customer at Network and we wanted to serve him at all times. My RM was helpless. Deepavali was the biggest festival of India and there was no person who was willing to work on a festival day. The problem was that the district was 250 kilometers away and that meant that the entire day would be spent in delivering and coming back to Hyderabad.

I volunteered to take care of the training. Electronic typewriters were considered to be technically advanced and all customers were trained in the usage of the typewriters.  I went to the service deportment and explained the situation. A service engineer Durga Prasad accepted the challenge and volunteered to take care of the installation.

On Deepavali we started out at 6 in the morning, took a train and travelled till 11. Finally we reached the destination. A royal reception was waiting for us. There was a police jeep waiting for us.

Our day was very eventful. The SP of Police was delighted by our gesture to install the typewriter on Deepavali. We were given royal treatment. It was customarily to eat only vegetarian food on Deepavali. Otherwise I was very sure that we would have been treated with the tastiest non vegetarian dishes!

We installed the machine, trained the typist, and showed him how to make good presentations. The SP was overjoyed. We were dropped off at the railway station. It was almost 10 in the night when we reached Hyderabad. The bursting of the crackers (the highlight of Deepavali) had already ended.

Yes that Deepavali had become a normal working day for me and Durga Prasad. But we had achieved something that will last for a life time. We had succeeded in delighting the customer who will remember us and Network for a life time. Yes we were the company that sacrificed our Deepavali so that our customer’s day would be lit up like the Deepavali night. 

Excellence in Customer service - A Network Experience - Part I

The year was 1988 and I was a sales executive with Indian Communications network Limited. Network was the market leader in the Electronic Typewriter Industry and it was famed for its ace sales people. Way back in 1988 we were marketing successfully typewriters worth more than Rs 50,000/-.  Even our cheapest typewriter was over Rs 10,000/- rupees.

On that eventful day I was the office sales executive. Office sales executive is the backup sales executive. The city had many sales executives and the office sales person takes the place of the sales executive who is on leave or if all the sales executives are present then he is stationed in the office to take care of the walk in prospects (walk in prospects are customers who might walk into the office to buy a product).

At around 1600 hours a prospect did walk in. He was a strapping man who had ripping muscles. He appeared to be quite knowledgeable. He asked us many intelligent questions. It was crystal clear that he not a window shopper. We had to tread more carefully. May be this man meant business!

The prospect asked for a demonstration. I along with our stores in charge R.C.Raju demonstrated the typewriter. We were still very skeptical. In those days a sale could not be transacted so very easily. We had to struggle and make many sales calls and slog for many months before we could get the dream document - the purchase order.

We had come to know that by that time that our prospect was a Superintendent of Police (SP) from a district in Andhra Pradesh. He was fond of technology and wanted a electronic typewriter to make his correspondence more professional and appealing. The SP quietly watched the demonstration and said “I will take it. How much does it cost?”

My heart skipped a beat. It was like struggling to see Sachin Tendulkar for a second and suddenly coming to know that Sachin would be staying in your house for a week. We have been struggling to get order and here was a prospect who was dropping a order literally into my lap.

I gave out the financials and he quietly listened. He never asked for any discount. We watched with a open mouth as he took out the entire amount in cash (usually customers paid us 10% in advance and the rest 90% after lot of persuasion). We quickly made out a purchase order and got it signed by him. We gave him a receipt.

Things took an interesting turn. Our customer asked us as when we could deliver the electronic typewriter. “Minimum 21 days are needed” I added. Why 21 days?” I had to explain to him that the AP sales tax was 13.77% and the central sales tax was 4%. All our orders were booked directly to our factory at Noida.  The machines were delivered directly from our Noida factory to the customers. Of course the consignment was taken by us (with authorization from the customers) from the airport and delivered to the customer. 

Consumer Behaviour - Way to bag large orders - Solution marketing

Sanjeev Duggal

 

Modi Xerox Machines

My senior batch of marketing students just popped in and asked for an extra class of Consumer behavior. That set off a train of thought process? What is consumer behavior? Is it something that is locked in the mind of the consumer and which can’t be explained, even by the consumer himself? It is something that the marketer can forcefully extract out of the consumer black box and get his or her proverbial pile of fortune! 

Savior this, why is that we are lees hungry when we are at the place of work and become hungry and ravenous at home. We are conditioned by the sounds and cues of cooking and we become hungry. This is the reason that explains the smell and sounds that the eateries make to make us feel very hungry. At the same time eating five star food however tasty and colorful becomes a pain after 1 or 2 days. We don’t tire of homemade food even after eating it for decades! Homemade food has got a word for itself. It is called comfort food. That is what makes consumer behavior so challenging. No one can accurately predict it. Some one’s food is somebody else’s poison.

I had in the past worked in the extremely competitive Office Automation company, NETWORK, and we used to market electronic typewriters costing between 50,000/- rupees to 1,00,000/- rupees way back in the late eighties. Our nearest generic competitor was Modi Xerox. NETWORK and Modi Xerox were famed for their extremely competent and innovative sales people. 

This incident that I recite is that of Sanjeev Duggal an ace sales professional from Modi Xerox. It was said that the company had set a very stiff target of selling over 100 Xerox machines for a quarter. That was the tine even selling even one in a month was extremely difficult. Good sales men used average at a maximum of 9-10 a quarter (3 months).

Sanjeev pulled off the impossible and achieved the target. He got a massive incentive and others were curious as how he could pull of such a big order. Sanjeev went on to explain” I knew that selling 100 Xerox machines is a herculean task. No individual buyer could buy that many. So I concentrated on MAJA (Major Sales) and LAM (Large Accounts). Only organizations that buy in bulk can afford to buy so many. I concentrated on government accounts”.

Sanjeev in his research found out that there were many police stations in his territory. He at that was working in western India. He went and observed the working conditions in the police stations. One of the things that he observed was that police stations have to take an inventory of all the belongings of the suspects who have to be kept in the police lock up. This meant lot of work for the police writer. The writer has to spend long time in inventorying the small and petty things that the criminals had in their pocket.

Sanjeev came out with a very bright idea. Why not simply deposit all and sundry belongings of the suspects that have be kept in the lock up in the Xerox machine and take a copy of it. This way time can be saved and the photo copy of the belonging can be kept as a proof and any accusation of pilferage of belongings can be avoided. Luckily for Sanjeev this idea was accepted by the police and the concerned authorities and Sanjeev got a large order of Xerox machines.

Sanjeev proved the point that when things get tough the tough get going. Way to go Sanjeev. 

The holy grail of selling - Product demonstration

Product demonstration:  The proof of the pudding is in the eating. I worked as a sales executive in Indian Communication Network Limited in the late eighties. Network as it was popularly make and marketed high quality typewriters. It was grilled into me that product demonstration is a very important aspect of selling a product.

As a salesman electronic typewriters and it was imperative that I demonstrate the electronic typewriter dramatically and effectively. Most of the products that the customers are thinking of buying are alien. There is lot of skepticism and fear. Skepticism that the product would not work and fear of ridicule that if a wrong purchase is made that they will become laughing stock. If a sales person is struggling with the product it leaves a very bad impression. The prospective customer would think “my god the trained sales himself is finding it so difficult to use the product, what would be my fate if I were to buy it?” The product demonstration must be so smooth that the customer should think that using the product is easy and convenient.

A effective product demonstration will ally the fear and will make the customers more receptive to the product and make them seriously consider procuring the product.

The typists (our final customers) would watch with bated breath as the paper automatically rolled into the machine. They would wonder at the auto justifications that the machine would accomplish. They would squeal in delight when I showed them the auto correct facility. Auto correct is a feature where the typing mistake can be corrected by making the machine move backward and the mis spelt words can be corrected by using the correction fluid.

The product demonstration was so effective that we could effectively sell the concept of daisy wheels (a circular wheel that facilitated a change of font). The daisy wheel appeared to be very fragile and all the sales executives were told to throw the daisy wheel to the wall or drop it from to the floor. Needless to say whether it is thrown at the wall or dropped to the floor the daisy wheel would never got damaged.

Two of the best product demonstration that I can think are the making of the Indian rumali roti  (rumal in urdu  means a handkerchief) and that of the making of the pizza base. The Indian rumali roti is very big flat bread. The dough is rolled on a platform and then the chef would throw the dough into the air. The dough would spin circularly in the air and it would be get bigger and bigger all the time. It is magical. I can never get tired of watching!.

Same is the case with the Pizza base which is thrown in the air. Indian street foods sellers  have mastered the art of product demonstration of products like the pani poori, and the samosa. The product demonstration is so good that even causal passersbys stop to have a tuck in. More speed to effective product demonstration.

oh MAN!

I had worked as a Sales Executive in a company called Indian communication Network Limited. Indian communication Network Limited was a market leader in the field of electronic typewriters. Network as it was called was a very sales driven organizations and the entire sales team was full of beans and vigor. In the evening as the sales team was returning from the field they would have to face this quip from our Regional Sales manager “Have you met the MAN today?” Let me clarify. MAN is not gender specific. Our RSM is refering to Money, Authority and Need. It is quite impossible to find a single person who has all the three qualities to be termed as a MAN. It is very rare and almost miraculous to find a single individual who can play all the three roles seamlessly.

The sales executives at Network would target the typists (NEED) in the organization. The sales person would convince the typist that procuring the electronic typewriter would make his/her life easier. Once the typist is convinced the sales executive would zero in on the typist’s boss (AUTHORITY). The boss would be told about the obvious advantages of the electronic typewriter and how it would enhance the office productivity. Once the boss gives an affirmative, the purchase order is procured from the commercial department (MONEY). The entire sequence of activities is a proof to show that sales as a profession is a series of planned activities that have to be executed with meticulous planning.

It is often seen that many sales executives make lots of sales calls but the end result is a big zero. They are effective communicators, possess adequate product knowledge and are good at product demonstration. Sales call analysis show that the concerned sales people are not making effective sales calls. It is a catch 22 situation. They are calling on people in the organization who are easily approachable and accessible. In 99 out 100 cases the most easily accessible people in the organization are the least powerful as far as decision making is concerned. In most cases the most accessible person is probably the gate keeper. He is put in that position to act as a filter. The gate keeper restricts the flow of sales people to the decision maker or the MAN.

The challenge that is faced by the sales person: how to approach and convince the person who is the most inaccessible. This is where a smart sales person comes in. He needs to have all his wits and resources in seeing that he breaks the defense of the MAN and see that his case is at least heard. I know of many sales people who have waited at the car parking area and got the break through when the decision maker was getting out of the car. I also know the case of a persistent sales person who almost way laid the decision maker when he was relieving himself in the rest room to fix up an appointment!