The selling experience...

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!!

Moving from Constructive destruction to Destructive construction??

2nd of July 2009 was marked as the first Railway budget from the newly formed UPA government in India. I was not aware of it until I went and sat in front of the idiot box during my lunch time at office. There stood Madam Mamata with her list of offerings for the railway department of the nation for the new financial year. The first statement she made too the whole enthusiasm out of my mind! "Railways is not only for economic benefits. It should also appeal for the society." With this being plain English words, this is an ideal scenario. But if one can look deep into the thought process that would have gone while conveying this, it is devastating...

During the time of our Laloo Prasad Yadav, Indian railways recorded the highest profits in its lifetime! Thousands of crores of profit was recorded! More than 40% of it went into the develpment processes of the nation. All Laloo did were simple things. Nothing great, no technological advancements happened overnights. Implementation of simple ideas here and there was what led to the amazing turn over. This took Laloo to places like IIMs to deliver lecures on management! Though people might argue that he is very currupt and a few hundreds of crores has gone into his pocket, I still support Laloo. Why?? Here it goes... All of you will agree to the fact that the Indian goverment and all government related activities are surrounded by corruption. This is the way things work in India. I agree that it has to change so that the common man is not affected very much. But, this cannot happen overnight. It is very simple. Say you are following a ritual since your birth. Suddenly after 50 years somebody comes and asks you to go against it, the natural tendency is for you to resist the change even though there might be enormous amount of benefits by you not following the ritual. This has a lot to do with psychology and mind games people play. Okay... coming back to Laloo's kaarnama... He might have taken bribe, but dont forget, this has yielded for 1000s of crores being invested in the development of India.

This is what I term as Constructive destruction. You destroy an existing way of doing things to come out with amazing (though small) ideas to make things better. If you feel Laloo was destroying the money of the public, then he was doing so to get a return of an amount which no Indian could think of! This is the display of constructive destruction!

Coming back to where I started from; the budget is good to the public. But I don't see returns in the way it had in the previous term. All Mamata wanted to prove is that she has the capability to win hearts and not pockets (which she did eventually! Hats off to her for that...) and thus to disprove Laloo and show him that she is better than him (egoism plays a very major role in politics. Infact it is the base for politics to occur.) But, considering the economic downturn which happened very recently, it makes sense to concentrate more on the pockets. The hearts will be there for many more generations to come... She tried to constructively destroy what ever was done. Hopefully a few of her ideas will work out (I doubt though).

This is where I began thinking, will the railway budget be in a position to provide India with the same ROI which it did the last time? Was the roughness between Laloo and the UPA affect the growth of our nation? Where is India heading towards; Constructive destruction or Destructive construction??? Looking forward for the Budget today...

PS: Please note the big picture here without spending much energy on the intricacies of politics of India (If you feel anything is wrong, it is your thought process and I respect it completely...)

Board Room Delusions

It was 30th of June 2009, after two years and ten months into my professional life, it was the day when I was supposed to deliver a high profile presentation to a client who was completely unaware of the existence of we as a company. Prior to it, I had spent three days thinking about what to put and what not. I basically didn't want us to to lose business due to some small mistakes which might be politically wrong. I read, read, read and again read through the presentation as though it was the only thing I had in life. I forgot the weekend. I forgot my usual work. Used to have head aches almost daily in this period... Well... it was not because of the pressure... but just that I wanted to make it RIGHT and be opportunistic.

It was supposed to be a high level presentation and a forum for discussions about what is good and what is BAD. Well well... the later part actually scared the shit out of me. It was my first presentation in front of a CEO who is expecting to click a business deal (probably) from the client. The morning of Jun 30th went very well. The CEO reviewed the presentation and had a mock session where the CEO made clear on his thought process about the presentation and the importance of it etc. With some minor changes in our approach, we were done with the mock! To my surprise, there were not many changes. So I spent the the rest 2 hours modifying it a bit and preparing for it...

It was 1:40 and I was in the board room checking the presentation if everything was in place. Suddenly one of senior fellows calls me and informs that the client will be there in 5 mins. Well, that is what I call punctuality! ;) (15 mins early to the meeting...). I had left my blazer at the third floor and I rushed to get that. Eventually I arrived 5 mins late to the meeting. I enter the board room to see the client, my CEO and a few more fellows sitting there. I was like "SHIT! WHY TODAY??" Nevertheless, the discussions started with the CEO trying to sell the organizational values to the client. This was the point of time when I remembered my B2B professor! His famous statement of "Bahut drama hota hai sir ek room ke andar" was running in my mind ;). The selling continued with one of the senior folks continuing the talks after the CEO. It was then the turn for me to pitch in. By that time, all the really good values and a few existing problems were identified.

I started the presentation... the second slide and it was high level for the client! She was also new to the client organization and thus didn't have much of an idea of the operations. The CEO had to pitch in at this time and give a high level picture wrt the client organization. After a 15 minute session, I knew that I had to change the way I was presenting and had to thus skip a few slides which were probably irrelevant to the client. Then came the opportunity for me to sell. I sold with great passion by highlighting all the really nice parts of the business that we had done to bring down the operational expenses of the client. The client was happy and so was the CEO. Then started the real DRAMA! We had a few issues with the client organization and I was not really sure as to how to put it across since I hardly knew the client and she hardly knew us. But with the initial interactions, I was at least clear that she was pretty straight forward and meant business. I went around in a really diplomatic way in saying "U can be better so that the business will be better and we can offer more reliable and formidable solutions" (well not so bluntly though...). The hour long session finally ended with a lot of discussions and disagreements (at times) etc. Thanks to my CEO, he covered it up soooo very well! And at the end of it the client gave me a title of a "POLITICIAN" and the CEO and the senior folks said that I was good! Well... frankly speaking I didn't know how I made the difference but if they say I was good, then they should have had some points in the mind. I accepted it and moved on...

It was a really different world which I saw inside the board room. No cinema, no theater can beat it! ;) LOL... But then, that is how it is. That is how businesses work! That is how clients are got! It was a first direct experience for me. That is when I realized that an MBA will not make a difference. All it can do is just give a few guides here and there (esp to create high profile PPTs overnight ;)...). This is where I remembered my MBA mates who had told this to me on the Day 1 of my PG :)... But yes, probably if it was not for my MBA, I wouldn't have been in the meeting at all. So, there are pros and cons of everything... Makes sense to take only the pros :)

Hope to have more of such experiences in the near future...

Of Baristas n Scrabbles

I am one of this this weird persons who don't mind having lunch at Barista! Yes you read it right, Barista :D... It was one such (ab)normal afternoon for me. Went in there with two of my not so normal friends... LOL... As usual, ordered some stuffs to drink and eat. But today wasn't normal. One of my friends got a scrabble from nowhere. As a kid, I had always wanted to play it. Never got a chance though. Nevertheless was playing it now for the first time in 24 years! I was explained all the rules and regulations and made aware of a few strategies as and when i was playing. It was a combined effort that made me win the first ever game of scrabble I played! :D...

After that day, the visit to Barista became very frequent. Playing scrabble became very addictive. It became so addictive that I got one for myself as well! ;) ... Letters started floating in front of my eyes... words started dancing... mom involved, then dad, then sis... hmm... It has got a very high influencing power! ;)...

Nowadays it has become so that we visit Barista to play scrabble. Eating and drinking has become secondary! Was just thinking how many more might be there like us. What an amazing idea did they come up with! Hats off to them!! n hats off to ppl like us who make it worth the thought ;) LOL...

INDIA Votes…

The elections are fast approaching and here I am sitting at the corner of my house and penning down my recent experiences about the biggest democracy of the world! India has one of the most complicated structures when it comes to conducting elections majorly due to the wide variety of culture and people residing here. It is a very gigantic task to make sure that things happen in a proper way. Especially when it comes to the elections, it is the sole responsibility of the Election Commission (EC) to make sure of fair elections to happen.

In the last few days I had an opportunity to meet a few people who help out the EC with its job of smooth execution of the polls. I met people ranging from the ‘chaprasi’ to the PResiding Officer (PRO) (the one responsible for end-end transactions in a polling booth). I here realized the actual way things are executed at the ground level. Initially the people are selected on a random basis and are given the responsibility of handling different activities held at the polling booth. There are a lot of procedures to be completed before the actual voting day (clearing the voting machine, writing a few reports and some memos etc) to make sure of a smooth processing of elections. During the process of voting the PRO has the responsibility of handling people, avoid malpractices, handle challenge votes, convince people about voting etc. Once the voting is done, it is again the responsibility of the PRO to make sure of the proper and safe delivery of the voting machines and all the other documents into the right hands.

After giving you guys a brief about what exactly happens during the poll day, let me directly come to the point of me writing all this. The responsibilities defined above are absolutely fool proof if they are executed in the right way and by the right people. But as a matter of fact, I am afraid to say that this is not the case with most of the polling booths. Many of the polling booths have immatured inexperienced workers on job. They neither have the experience required to handle people nor do they have the expertise to do so. I do not know how exactly the work is allocated. But due to my technical background, I was able to guess to some extent that it’s a random series generation. To put it in layman language, a few people out of a lot are picked for this highly responsible job of a PRO. To substantiate by findings, please answer one question. Does it make sense to make a person who was a PRO/APRO at the previous elections to be asked to take up a task like putting the ink on the voter’s hand? To look at the other end of it, a person who has never taking responsibility in his/her life is made the PRO. A person who is a pune somewhere; a graduate who has just passed out with less than an year’s experience as a government employee and many more such people are made the PROs. I do not understand from what angle the EC gets an idea like this. (Though PROs are Gazetted officers in many cases, there also exist people who belong to the above mentioned category. Also please note that they are trained for 2 days...)

I perfectly understand the amount of pressure the EC will be during the time of elections. But with such high level of technological advancements, I don’t think it will hardly take more than a month’s time to develop a software which can do all this. All they need is a database of people who were previously involved and who can be added on this year, where are the resources available etc. If you counter attack on this asking for the money spent on development and maintenance of this software, then I am sure that all of you will agree to the fact that this will not even be a penny when compared to the amount spent on campaigning by the various political parties.

Let me now take your attention to another issue which caught my eyes – Involvement of women in the whole program. There is no consideration given to the gender of the people involved in this process. Even women are given equal amount of rights and authority. But the gray part of it is the fact that they are ruthlessly treated! This incident happened to a lady during the previous elections. She was asked to stay back till late night after which a transport was promised. As the famous saying goes, “Promises are meant to be broken”, she was asked to get down in a deserted area 5 KM away from her place at the mid night…

The arrangements this year are no good. No transport facility is provided. There is no guarantee of food and even water. The polling booths don’t have proper sanitation. There is no fixed plan of action and time frame for working. Due to the inexperienced PRO, they are not sure of the time at which polling process ends. Above all of these infrastructural problems, the ladies are being put into remote areas for taking the responsibility of polling. To add to it, there are incidents of pregnant ladies being put for polling duty. It’s a mere display of callousness and a taken for granted attitude by the EC. A proper involvement and brainstorming of the staff responsible for planning the activities could have solved all these problems and ensured a free and fair election in all senses.

Apart from these logistics problem, there is a bigger problem due to which the percentage of voting in India is at a very disappointing rate. This is driven by the IT culture which came into existence a few years back. Due to the IT boom in many major cities, a large part of the population started to migrate to the cities which promised a very good growth and career. Due to this, the concept of locals voting for choosing their leaders does not exist any more. When you are no more attached with the locality, there is no point of voting for the locality. Just look at the bigger picture. The whole country is there at your stake. You are ultimately voting for the nation. The locals are just representatives. This idea stuck me during a conversation with a friend. Can we have a centralized system which allows us to vote from anywhere in India (extensible to world as well) having proper security arrangements. Ofcourse through initiatives like www.jagoree.com, it’s no more a dream to achieve such a setup. But still I see a lot of people not making use of this facility. It’s high time that we and the government realize the importance of all the issues mentioned above. Hope to see the vital decision making day planned and handled in a better manner going forward. Guys we are speaking about INDIA and not any other minuscule culture or nation!

Through this small write-up I seek the help of fellow individuals to make people aware of the responsibilities they have which can make a difference to more than 1bn people!

Bullied away!!

It was a routine for me to browse through the sites for some news here and there. Just came across this headline which demanded my attention towards it! “16 students beaten by teacher in Dera Bassi” Well… this has been a regular news off late. The display of brutality from the teachers to impose some silly things which they feel is the most important thing in a students’ life!

Many people whom I have come across have this long running issue in their minds about the Indian education system which is in a way is bullied away by the teachers' view points. It’s not all though. We also encounter teachers who are gems! There are a few who really encourage to go beyond the boundaries to think about what, why and how do things happen in the way they happen and not make one restricted to textbook thinking. On a contrary, there are a LOT more of them who think they are GODS (imaginary supreme person) and according to who textbooks and the predefined methodologies are the ultimate way for knowledge acquisition! This article is dedicated to such wonderful creatures!

As children, we always have a quest for learning and a quest to acquire as much knowledge^# as we can. Even biologically, that’s the period when an individual’s grasping power is at the highest. Kids will be more experimental and will want a reason for anything and everything they do. “Why?” appears to be their favorite word! In the due course of answering their questions, few of them tend to go beyond boundaries and will think out of the box. When they do it the response they get is, "YOU ARE WRONG!" and why this response... because the syllabus doesn't allow u to do it! It’s not there in that thing called TEXTBOOK! You can't choose what you want to do... You can’t be in the way you are... You are not allowed to be creative... Most of all, you are not supposed to go against what your so called leading lights (in the form of teachers) guide you to! And why is this? Because they wouldn’t have done it in that way and it is out of scope of their thought process! They can't think in that way and hence you can't! And what is the result of it… the student gets demotivated and thinks that his thought process is wrong and hence he will never dare to do it again! Why... because he is not supposed to think on his own!

They say that teachers are the ones who lead people to what they'll become in the future! It's very true! But if we get such great individuals as teachers, then I am sorry... but it’s better to be illiterate! You will atleast preserve the values embedded by your own families! Please do not get me wrong here by assuming that I am self-centered. It’s just a humble attempt to express the dishonesty currently happening in the country. The whole point is that, there will definitely be a lot of learning involved when you come across people… when you meet wonderful teachers… even among the peer group for that matter; but as teachers they should realize the responsibility on their shoulders! You go wrong at times... that’s when teachers come into picture! Not that they can think better than you, but they would have had the right experience to guide you in a better way. This is the real teacher! You, at any stage should feel confident about doing anything and everything coz you always have a backup in the form of your teacher! The one who encourages the student to reach higher than where he/she really stands is the real teacher! That’s the spirit required for the New age India! They should realize the entire nation’s future is in their hands!

Instead, if the same situation continues... then I am sorry to say… but, India is going to remain in docks forever! When the world has reached a stage where countries like China are committed for a R&D spending growth of 21% per annum, if things like these happen on a regular basis, then the day is not far when the other third world countries will easily push us back! Only a few people sitting at the top and stressing on innovation will not help in any way! Each and every individual should have this embedded as a moral responsibility! That is the way where the whole nation can work towards one particular vision! That’s when the dream of our own ex-President, Abdul Khalam, will come true! This is the kind of bigger picture that one should be providing to the kids! That’s when they will grow to become individuals who can drive the entire nation to success!

^#Knowledge is not restricted to science, math or any subject related. It’s referred here in a generic manner.

The power of value perception!

"The value of water is more than diamond in a desert!" This one small statement changed the whole way I looked at things. I was exposed to this concept of "Value perception" when I for the first time in my life came across this wonderful subject called ECONOMICS!

This concept of value perception has influenced me in a very huge way! The whole building block for any business in this world, Rate of Return or more popularly known as ROI, is based on this factor. The ROI of your business is basically the value perceptions you feel is there for your products or services in your consumer's or client's eyes! Whatever you pay for the goods you purchase is basically because you value the good so much. You see the ROI in it. Here again I feel the words "Value perception" and "ROI" are interchangeable. Each of them are conceptually derived from each other! Few years back, had anyone imagined paying 100 bucks for a single cup of a coffee! (I am basically referring to the CCDs n Baristas we have today...) This is the paradigm shift in the perception of the customer which has created wonders!

This whole concept of value perception leads us to a new era of costing and accounting! At the end of the day, while pricing a particular product or a service, the first and foremost factor is to meet the break even! All extra you get is technically termed as profit. Now your profit depends on the way the customers/consumers value your product/service...

Since I have explored a bit on the Psychology also, let me not constraint myself to just business and accounting. If you see a relationship, the whole point of having or not having a relationship with a person is based on the way you see the value out of it! The amount of importance you give to a relationship is in direct correlation with the way you perceive it and hence the amount of value you derive out of it. You might want to term it as love, hatred, anger etc etc... But all these again are an output of human values! :)

If I correlate all of these factors, I will end-up with a summary to explain what I call it as "The power of value perception!" It just is an amazing matter of fact that all our lives, work, relationships, anything and everything you can relate yourself to, is definitely someway or the other related to the three evergreen letters "ROI"...