IMPORTANCE OF BEING RESPONSIVE

Today’s business world is VUCA—volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. To thrive in this world, responsiveness is a very crucial quality needed in any master salesperson. The legendary Dale Carnegie defined luck as nothing but your alertness and agility to the opportunity passing by. This is pluck, which is a crucial dimension of responsiveness. It is a result of an alert, curious, and resourceful mind-set.

 There is a crucial distinction between responsiveness and reactiveness. The former is a result of a deliberate pause and thoughtout process of response to a situational event. In reactiveness, which is an animalistic behavior, there is an instant response without the due process of deliberation. This leads to hastiness or a kneejerk response, oftentimes leading to undesirable consequences. Reactiveness comes from insecurity and from a self-preservation and survival instinct.

The responsive behavior, on the other hand, emanates from a secure, controlled and progressive mindset. This is from a solutionoriented mindset and disposition. There is a sense of ownership and total responsibility in the person having this element of responsiveness in their personality. The responsiveness is always directed at a predetermined goal or result.

 The other quality of responsiveness is timely follow-up, with the right intensity, speed, and commitment. The responsive action has the quality of promptitude. It is prompt and laced with positive attitude. The mindset is that of win-win and wanting the responsive relationship with the person to be based on trust, mutual benefit, and mutual respect.

 The responsive behavior always strives for long-term relationships. The premise they follow is not win-win or no deal; it is win-win or next deal. The intention is that in case the deal is not beneficial to both parties, they would work together on the next deal that will be mutually beneficial.

 In a selling situation, the responsive quality is the most crucial. According to research done by the National Sales Executive Association, 48% of the salespeople never follow up after the first call. Twenty-five percent of the salespeople make a second followup and stop, and another 12% of the salespeople make only three follow-ups. Less than 10% of the salespeople make more than three follow-ups. On the reverse side, it was found that 80% of the successful sales happened after 5 to 12 contacts.

 The quality of follow-up is determined by the quality of the responsiveness trait of the salesperson. It is also said that the top five sales success principles are (1) Follow up, (2) follow up, (3) follow up, (4) follow up, and (5) follow up. It is believed that fortune always lies in the follow-up.

 If a salesperson develops the responsiveness trait in him, his follow-up quality and intensity would be of a high order, making him a successful salesperson.

 A salesperson’s true caliber is known through how he handles complaints and objections. Whenever a master salesperson encounters customer complaints, he responds to the same immediately. He would never try to blame others but would always take responsibility and respond. He empathizes with the customer’s experience and gets to the root cause of the complaint. His goal is to solve the complaint to the customer’s satisfaction by making him feel understood and validated. Customer complaints are akin to a fractured bone in the human body. When the fractured bone heals, actually the troubled spot gets extra calcified and that cracked space gets re-solidified and strengthened. Hence, when a salesperson responds and solves a customer complaint, the customer’s relationship deepens, turning him into a lifelong customer.

Similarly, while handling customer objections regarding product features and benefits or while negotiating the price and terms of sale, the responsiveness attributes of a salesperson comes to the fore. Calmness, composure, skill, knowledge, confidence, and assuredness enable the master salesperson to handle the dissatisfaction of the customers. This leads to a win-win transaction.

 The person who personifies this quality of responsiveness is my friend, Mr. Surendran Jayasekhar. He is the founder and CEO of Success Gyan, India’s largest organizer of international seminars and workshops. His vision is to bring the world’s best to India and take India’s best to the world. He has co-authored a book called Success Recipe with Brian Tracy, the world’s leading management guru.

 Suren was born into a lower middle-class family and lost his father when he was still in his teens. In spite of the adverse situation, Suren responded to the challenges with equanimity and courage. He took up odd jobs supporting his family and pursuing his studies simultaneously. One more remarkable means adopted by Suren was his pursuit to keep on learning and engaging in continuous personal development. He never shies away from attending personal empowerment seminars. In this pursuit for knowledge, he attended a training program by Mr. Brian Tracy in Mumbai, which was the turning point in his life.

 Another vision of Suren was to encourage entrepreneurship in our country and make the land golden once again. He often states that from the first century to the sixteenth century, India was the most prosperous country, with entrepreneurship flourishing in every nook and cranny. From his personal experience, he realized that the best way to inspire India was to expose entrepreneurs and the youth to the world’s leading thought leaders and their success principles, technology, ideas, strategies, and thought processes.

 In this pursuit, he started his company, Success Gyan, whose aim is to provide educational resources and workshops, and he collaborated with Success Resources, the number one seminar promoter in the world.

 Today thousands of entrepreneurs and youth who attend the National Achievers Conference and the educational seminar go back truly empowered, enabled, and educated to face the challenges of their personal and professional lives.

 Suren, in my opinion, is an embodiment of responsiveness and personifies what a person can achieve by practicing the success quality of responsiveness.

This article is taken from Dr. Arunaagiri's best selling book named 'The Sales Master' which reveals the 21 key elements to win the game of life & selling. The book is available on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046906/

Dr. Arunaagiri Mudaaliar is a best-selling author having authored several self-help books like 'Unleash your Potential', 'Being Customer Centric', 'Jogging for Life Success', 'Pathway to Sales Mastery', etc... He is also a passionate global trainer, an international sportsman and a sucessful industrialist. Know more about him here: www.arunagiri.co.in

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