Is Sales for you?

I did a TED Talk recently on the topic of "Serendipity"

And one of the points that I spoke of was, how I discovered something that was closer to my Ikigai at the age of 53. But till that point I was doing selling as a career. I adapted, coped, learnt and actually got reasonably good at it to a large extent. But I always knew this was something that I was not born to do.

During my mid career in sales, in an informal setting, say at an official party or dinner I used to end up feeling quite a bit out of place because I would not smoke tobacco nor drink alcohol. Sales colleagues would look at me quizzically and some of the peers / bosses would even say - "Kaisa salesman hai yeh?" (What kind of a salesman is he?)

The stereotype salesperson was this smartly turned out person - filled with boundless energy, confidence & ability to communicate and very likely a smoker and/or a drinker. The last two qualities I saw in ample measure around me when I was transferred to Delhi by my first employer - Godrej; not that they were falling short in the other attributes I described.

Boy! I really felt inadequate. Should I be in sales at all? This is something that I don't want to be doing. And if I did not do it then am I doomed to fail? What about the missed camaraderie with customers & partners during the smoking sessions in the basement? And the joie de vivre over a drinking binge followed by the close bonding over the subsequent hangover?

"Deals get made there man and if you are not with it you might as well get back to Accounting or Finance". Being a Tambram (Tamil Brahmin) it was an ominously implicit statement.

But I stuck with it, perhaps out of serendipity. Godrej was a good organization in the sense that it allowed me to slowly unfold into a salesperson along the lines of my personality. And times were also different, the markets kinder and there was the space to make mistakes and learn. I also discovered that what prospects and customers wanted was a trusted advisor and someone whom they could rely on. So if you were dependable and provided value it was not necessary to smoke and drink to build a relationship. It gave me hope.

But this bogey never did go away! At every stage in my career I was asked this question - how come you are in sales and don't drink or smoke?

Handling the Middle East as a territory had its advantages in a sense that alcohol is not as much a part of the meal as it would be say in a Europe or the US. And with alcohol being haram as per Islam, people like me were actually in the proud majority rather than in the cringing minority. However going to clubs, attending parties and generally being a part of the night life were things that you were expected to do because that's where the prospect or the client would also show up.

By this time, I was in a senior role, leading a team of senior sales managers and executives. The stakes were much higher and the expectation was to also do significantly large deals. And in such deals there are always different kinds of people involved - the prospect, consultant, OEM, Advisors, Analysts, Board Members, Investors......

And when it comes to lining up these stakeholders in your favor, it becomes necessary to be able to play in the playgrounds where they like to play. Having said this I am aware of many leaders who have been able to be successful and not have to succumb one bit. But do notice that I used the word "leaders". Leaders have the luxury of staffing their teams with individuals who will compensate for their "lack" as I ended up doing during my Middle East stint. But as an individual contributor in sales, this bogey may rear up in your face from time to time.

Much later in life when I started to do training and oversaw a program called AIM (Achievers In the Making) at Tech Mahindra, this topic did come up several times, more so amongst the young girls of the batch. I remember in one of the batches there was this girl by the name Ramya Somuri; a devout Christian and living her life by those principles. She was clearly one of the stars of the batch. But I somehow felt that she would not fit in into an IC sales role. Clearly my bias. I held her back from a sales role for a year and placed her under a strong mentor in marketing. At the end of one year both she and her mentor came back saying she was ready for the sales role. Did she change any of her standards in order to adapt? Absolutely Not! Did she make an impact in the account she was posted into? Absolutely YES!

Other girls who mentored / trained with me, like Shruti Mahapatra, Shobitha Shetty, Avisikta Mishra, Rashmi Akolia, Olga Mittal, Komal Takavale, Toshi Chaudhary, Anuradha Menon etc did extremely well as IC in sales and are seen as performers by their bosses. As much as the girls asked me about this typecasting of sales people, several boys had similar misgivings at the start - Avese Ahmed, Varun Deshpande, Mohammed Amer Pathan, Sakthi Charan, Vandit Dholakia. But all have made the adaptation possible, some with adjustments and others with original principles intact.

In an ideal world, when what you have to sell is unique & compelling and you as an individual are an expert in being able to provide solutions to the prospect's problems, there should be no need to invest efforts in building relationships at theatres other than the office. But the world is not ideal and competition very soon catches up and what will differentiate one from another is the depth of personal relationship one salesperson enjoys with the prospect or partner or stakeholder.

Though this is not a rule, but in B2B selling it does help. Sales pursuits are also a team play. It is therefore always possible to team up with those who are more comfortable with schmoozing and partying to be able to line up the stakeholders. But being aware helps. This is a reality or the proverbial elephant in the room that needs to be discussed and set aside.

Well towards the later part of my career I did change ever so slightly. I became Ok to sip a glass of wine or even beer on some occasions especially when I was with a customer or partner who is also having a drink. The fact that I had started to travel beyond the Middle East into Europe & the US also impacted this behavior change perhaps. But I never did smoke. Was all this necessary to do business? I don't think so.

Many youngsters drift into sales because it seems like the career to be in when one is younger. And then they just coast along, and cope with whatever they are doing & hope they will learn to enjoy it someday. Many do adapt and start to enjoy the thrill of the hunt and the satisfaction of a deal closure. But for everyone in selling, making the necessary adjustments in lifestyle to become successful in sales is one of the coping strategies. I too made adjustments to my lifestyle to be able to be better at building relationships. These included things like "never eat alone" or "invest time beyond work hours" etc. I found them to be quite effective and along with deeper preparation and empathy I was able to be effective.

But I was also fortunate in being able to discover a vocation that was closer to my ikigai much later in life. So here I am writing about my life experiences and coaching youngsters to become effective in selling.

And frankly there is really no need to compromise on your principles.

It will interesting to hear from you about your experiences in sales as a career. Did you have to adjust and adapt? What did you do to cope?

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