Author: S. Arun Kumar, Assistant Professor, SMOT School of Business, Chennai
As Dr Bones Mc Coy famously remarked
in the Star Trek prelude...SPACE...THE FINAL FRONTIER and from then on started
a roller coaster journey of a group of space adventurers who explore the
unknown black ink space.....
For me in the real world I would like
to tweak it to SALES...THE FINAL FRONTIER.....where every day thousands of
budding, naive, experienced salesmen meet their unknown customers wanting the
sale completed and conquering their careers...
After having been involved in Sales
more than Marketing, I am very comfortable to call myself a salesman many years
into my professional life.
It’s sad that in our minds we have
categorized a salesman as the lowest rung of the corporate ladder whereas
functionally his role remains unique and consistent from the bottom to the top.
To me Sales is the barbiturate of my
existence. It’s the adrenalin which gives me the excitement. It’s the diversion
that gives me the enjoyment. It’s the sustenance that gives me my living. So
for me Sales is everything. It’s an oft derided and suspicious profession as it
is perceived to cannibalise the innocent lambs that fall prey to its wily
tongue. But that is the whole point.....
“WITH A TONGUE GIVEN BY GOD IT WAS
MEANT FOR TALKING YOUR WAY THROUGH LIFE” – this proves that it was a salesman
in each of us which needs or needed to be nurtured.
From our infancy to the crypt, we are
forever selling in different forms-the formal and informal way. Whereas sales
is signified by the “gift of the gab”— it’s the whole package of the person who
makes the offering interesting. The communication, the personality, the
presence and the knowledge all go towards giving him the power – the power to command,
the power to lead, the power to change and the power to convince.
No other profession can give you a
badge of honour or put you in the doghouse in one single day-sales has that
unique capability. It can make you a king or a pauper and makes you forever
live on the edge of your capability...for people who love to get the thrill out
of a gladiatorial life, it’s indeed a great push to ones ego. The arrogance and
attitude, even though misplaced, stems from this fact that when one is able to
be recognised as the person who can change the fortunes of the stakeholders, it
becomes an alter ego of the persons personality. Indeed it’s a wrong approach
as sales is a great leveller.
But having said all this, the blood
rush and tingling sensation that runs through the body in seeing a sales order
being signed by a customer after convincing him to believe in me and my product
is indeed a feeling that cannot be equalled. It is this that makes it
interesting to seek the next one and the chain continues.
But unfortunately the generation of
today detests this activity because of the effort and toil that it requires. Man
is an enzymatic animal but technology has a limited part to play in his
thinking. The dependence on technology to replace the human element is winning
the race for now, but can’t be guaranteed for the future. Since in the brain
stem, enzymes that are activated to certain neuron impulse makes him act in the
most unpredictable way which no machine can equal. Now it’s this capriciousness
that makes one to always have a strategy which never remains static.
Just as every face of these 6.9
billion people are different through finely nuanced features, there is however
a violent change in the personalities within. So a salesman indeed needs to put
all his risks at play, read the customer instantly, play on his desires, stroke
his ego, gently guide him not overpowering him, convince him with a wide
knowledge base and increase his aspirations to seek a better quality for
himself. It’s not reserving this approach only for those who one perceives to
be the “PAYING PUBLIC” but for every one who walks into ones door whether he
buys or not. More often a great product remains unsold due to bad salesmanship
and an okay product gets a better value due to a good salesman.
One can never get tired of sales
since otherwise one is tired with life...the next man is the next kill.
For a good salesman it’s the most
refreshing and healthy way to a complete life...the interesting because of the
unknown elements and the healthy as it gives one physical and mental exercise the
work- life balance one seeks.
And finally as Jay
Berger says
"Every sale has five basic obstacles: no
need, no money, no hurry, no desire and no trust."
Acknowledging this, the person who can
convert these obstacles into miracles owns this world.
And Steve Jobs owned it briefly......why don’t
you also, but forever?????
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