SIMPLY … FROM THE GUT! (PART VIII)

The first year of transitioning into Sales role turned out to be wildly successful beyond anything I had imagined. Looking back, I would attribute it to the collective efforts of the 19-member team we put together spread across three cities. The significance of this team was that all of us were new to Sales or Pre-Sales support role. We were fearless and internally motivated with a common goal. I will never forget one deal which exemplified the never-say-die attitude of the team. We were brainstorming a pursuit where the prospect had given a feedback that we were behind the top two market leaders in their evaluation. I asked the team “Did we put our best efforts on this and still came behind?” The consensus was that given another chance for a benchmark we could correct the situation. This time, the leader of the Pre-Sales team, @Vinay Moorthy volunteered to do the benchmark. We carried the Workstation along with a 21” monitor to the client location in the outskirts of the city. We had challenged the customer to give us their most complex engineering problem and made an audacious promise to provide a solution within three hours! With client team breathing down his shoulders, the ever-smiling, mild mannered Vinay with a scholarly look, started working on the complex problem. One could feel the transformation in the client’s behavior as Vinay worked on the model, performed a few analyses and came up with a solution. It was a great day of celebration for us a few days later when we learned that we won the deal- one of the 27 new customers we acquired in that year! I’m glad to know that Vinay & most of this team are currently in some leadership roles and very successful in their career.

 If Vinay was setting an example by leading from the front. I soon realized many gaps in my selling skills. Concluding a transaction with a channel partner in Bangalore, I headed to the airport thinking about the meeting where I was clearly out- maneuvered, bought “Advanced Selling Strategies” book at the airport and made a note to request the Management for Sales training. The Management accepted my request immediately and soon I was at the Tata Management Training Centre for a week. Great organizations are built to last forever, and this is just one example of how employees were respected and treated at Tata. We had no fear of reprisal- as mistakes were allowed and even encouraged so that we could constantly step out of our comfort zones. All you need to do was to demonstrate passion, integrity and an open mind to learn.  

 A complete belief in your product along with a fearless approach and faith in your team besides management support- key ingredients for success and lessons I learned from this story.