It feels really good start writing again!! Had gone out of it to gain an experience! Had the real life experience of selling... It was fun! Though I haven't got into it full time; this made my idea of MBA even more clear ;) ... For the ones who are following my blog it isn't new, but for the benefit of the ones who are not, here it goes.... "MBA is always just a facilitator! Its there to just give you a platform from where its upto u to launch forward or collapse..."
Yeah... Just thought of briefing about my experience in sales... It is a profession which is usually seen as a low profile thing in the society. When I say sales, all people will imagine is the sales person who either calls up and disturbs (or wakens u up ;)..) every now and then or the person who rings your doorbell!! These push marketing tactics have actually brought down the value of sales. The whole perception of sales in India has been hit due to these things. But just imagine a world without Sales 'n marketing. There would have been a huge barrier built between the demand and the suppply and would have led to an economic imbalance and created a lot of monopoly in the market. Only since marketing is existing is there a sense of utmost competition and thus an urge to succeed in the business world.
Getting into my experience, I got this small oppurtunity to sell an IT product to an age old sector in India which has a very strong background and covers the largest mass in the nation. The whole sales cycle inclusive of a sales call, meeting the higher officials, convincing them, making a concept selling, convince them about the product etc is so very well defined and it really works! You simply don't have to think twice before going ahead and executing this. BUT ... (that was huge but by the way :)... ), here comes the trickiest part. if it was so simple and st fwd, you might ask me the question as to y doesnt everyone click in this case? There is a lot of drama which needs to happen before and after selling. Lot of negotiations, hard talks, disagreements, rejections, retries and many more adjectives are involved.
Initially at the stage of conceptualization of any product or service, you should and must understand who is your target customers and the target market, thier psychology, the way they react to situations, the current, future and the historic trends, their future plans, the government involvement, the internation position etc etc. In short you should just know who you are talking to . Try doing an extensive research about the person and the organization you are planning to visit. Unless this is done, there is no point if you blindly go and meet. In case you happen to meet them just on the fly, be street smart to strike a deal. They will try to suck your blood and get the maximum in which case know what ur objectives are in the market and how will it affect if the deal is struck at a wong place and under wrong terms and this has to happen in a fraction of a second only because its a split second decision which you will have to take when you are in front of the client (prospective). You should know who is the decision making authority in the client organization. By hook or crook, get an entry to his chanber and sell with utmost passion as though you have nothing else from this and this is your life! These are just a few things which you need to know before hand (Guess now u know y everybody doesn't click :D)
I haven't got an oppurtunity to click a deal till now. Shall update the blog once I get the oppurtunity.
India is now going towards the after sales service part of it. Though it has been existing since years, the major chunk of the population is still isn't bother about the service quality and the after sales service. But if your end customers are organizations, then it is very important that you have an after sales service. Since the time of globalization, the organizations have realized the importance of after sales service. The individuals have now started realizing the importance of after sales service. The culture is fast growing in India now!
That was the experience as of now... Thanks for dropping in! Happy blogging!!
