Stories from Sales - CC1

Sales Waale Mein Toh Jaan Honi Chahiye

?A 24-year-old north Indian lands in Chennai to start his career in sales and marketing. As a management trainee you rotate through various functions. You are sent as a learner in the field and must do stints as Territory Sales in charge, Sales officer to understand the working of the sales hierarchy and dynamics. Looking back on those days a daily allowance of Rs. 125 for upcountry and Rs 200 for main cities seemed a pittance but one willingly went through the rigamarole. It made you empathetic to the travelling life of your frontline guys and how they managed their lives frugally, collaboratively and still managed to show up for work with a smile. These were insightful periods of my sales training. As an understudy, to some of the experienced Sales officers, across TN, Karnataka and AP- stalwarts who had spent upwards of 15- 20 years in the field, you represented a threat to their aspirations. A young greenhorn MBA fresh from college put in charge of a large territory. My philosophy was to go as a curious learner and follow the lead and do whatever was told, made 40- 60 calls a day on any beat whenever I visited the market, keeping my eyes and ears open, marking my observations in the head. End of year 1, the day of the reckoning – Confirmation time- my regional Head again a tenured person who has risen from the frontline called me and told me “You are very diligent and hardworking, have had excellent feedback from the team. However, in my view you are soft and am not sure you will be able to lead these seasoned Sales team”. I was a bit hurt, curious on what fetched that reaction and reflected on this. It was probably to do with my silent non boisterous persona. I only spoke when spoken to and was not keen to be chatty all the time.

My first assignment was South Tamil Nadu- A lion’s market share in a territory where distributors and associates published your firm’s name on any personal or professional occasion. Such was the stature of the brand. Anyways, took the challenge head on to see how one could make an impact in the territory. A whirlwind visit to all territories showcased the dependance on one brand. Most of the times we were experiencing shortages and range selling was an issue. I had to manage and lead a team with an average age of 44. One of the first feedback given to me was about my tongue and how easily expletives rolled out of it. Immediately course corrected and brought in temperance of language. Learnt a smattering of phrases – good morning, show me a packet from below, is the vehicle coming regularly, etc. My efforts at trying to learn the language and engage were rewarded with big smiles in the Annachi territory. Long story short I worked very hard on the order management system and range selling, reduced the burden for distributors for month end selling (brought it down from 40% to less than 15%), the noise around shortages started abating, for the first time in many years instead of single digit growth rates we experienced double digital growth rates which were 3X/4X of earlier years. We decided to call our sales operation head and regional head to the half yearly review at Kodai. An intense day of deliberation, congratulating the team and then close to dinner time the RH witnessed 44 years old dancing to Daler Mehndi around a youngster who had 2 left feet.

Just prior to the dinner I was called aside. The regional head whispered in my ear “I am sorry, I was too quick to judge, you will make a fine sales leader”. It lifted my spirits, and my day was made. Many life lessons learnt

·???????As a leader have the courage to admit when you are wrong and give the right encouragement

·???????Good sales guy necessarily need not be a “Hi-Five”, “Ra-Ra” kind of person. As long as the authentic effort is to grow the distribution and walk the talk, you will have results

·???????Sales and distribution is also as much about grey matter as it is about relationships and people skill, which is seldom taught in MBA schools.

·???????Growth opportunities always exist for those who look for them.

#Stereotypes #SalesCareers #FirstJob

P.S You might enjoy reading my views on how the sales job has changed over time https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/new-school-meets-old-sales-success-gaurav-suri