"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn." replace the word experience with 'sales' and the maxim by CS Lewis rings truer than ever before. No other profession would dole out such profound life lessons in such a short time span.
Let me quote Kim Kardarshian's equally infamous husband to summarize what I am trying to say here;
a few months in sales makes us harder, better, faster, stronger.
Here is a summary of what sales teaches you that they could never teach you at any Business School :
1. Trickle down effect
Pressure has a unique way of percolating down the pecking order. The smallest trigger from the super boss regarding dhandha not happening makes the dominoes topple, triggering a chain of phone calls from the RSM to the ASM which leads to the heart pounding, the head throbbing, the brow sweating and the breath shortening . So basically the National Sales Head screws the Regional Manager's happiness, who in turn lashes out on you leading you to lambaste your FO's who in turn do danda to the salesmen to do more dhandha.
2. Number nahi to kuch bhi nahi
One month of doing 100% of your target and you are put on a pedestal. The euphoria, appreciation and glory is enough to give you a long lasting high and make you feel like a total sales stud.You bask in the warm glow of success that was not entirely your own( for 100% target completion requires a seamless amalgamation of numerous factors, most completely out of an ASM's control!). But the moment the table (or rather the season) turns, the bubble is burst and the dream turns into a nightmare. It is a simple law of sales that when the going is good you will not be asked any questions on other parameters like processes, new product launches or the gazillion other things that fall under an ASM's job description. Come a bad month and in the next review meet you will be shredded to minuscule little pieces and prodded on every conceivable parameter so much so that you would completely start doubting your preferred career stream and leadership capabilities. Once you have spent a few months in sales the whole process would become a little less painful for you will develop resistance to ignominy just like the much touted antibiotic resistance being developed by homo-sapiens.
3. Dene wala jab bhi deta deta chappad phaadke even leta chappad phaadke!
When the dhandha happens most other parameters automatically fall in place,all is hunky dory and the stars shine for you and will be all yellow. One bad month and if the ASM does not tighten the reins chaos reigns as agony mounts with each passing day.
4.Kindness not curiosity killed the cat
This is a lesson a lot of fresh baked B-Schooler ASMs learn the hard way. We the trusting lot who believe that every mortal will give his 100% to the work he has been assigned without someone holding a stick to their head will be proven tragically wrong. For in sales repeated pesky follow-ups make the world go round. Leave the team to their own device and your dhandha will nose-dive.
Oh and are you the tender hearted kind leader who believes in live and let live, the types who trust their teams and only see good in people? Well the time has come to discard those rose colored glasses and open your eyes to the stark reality that in sales you need to be a blood sucking vampire and doubt everyone if you need things to be done! An ASM needs to live by Dr. House's maxim of 'Everybody Lies' if he wants to survive. Also remember in sales everyone has an ulterior motive be it your field force, distributors or leaders,including you!
5. The buck must be passed on
If in youth you were taught to take ownership for your actions but have mistakenly landed in sales then it is time to unlearn all the idealistic ideas your teachers and parents fed you during your most impressionable years. In sales you need to learn the art of passing the buck on and blaming factors out of your control for your dismal performance. So next time your boss asks why the number did not happen you must try and give due importance to the role of the following factors for your dismal performance;
"season nahi tha; maal kat raha hai; salesman chutti pe tha; distributor bekar hai; salesman bimar ho gaya; distributor chutti pe hai; macchar nahi hai; thand hai log naha nahi rahe; credit bahut hai; market mein money rotation nahi ho raha; crop nahi uga; floating population chali gayi; logon ke pass paisa nahi hai; swach bharat abhyan se saare macchar mar gaye! (yes a shopkeeper actually said that!)..."
But at the same time when your performance is good you must take all the credit and ignore that the causes of your maladies have been turned to blessings by the hand of god!
6. Local dialects must be learnt
Do this for self defense and self preservation for if you don't you would never really know what your team members are saying in their mother tongue on your face. For if an ASM does not comprehend the local tongue the field force is spared the trouble of back bitching for they can bitch right on your face while you nod and smile ( when you have no clue about what is being said you resort to smiling and nodding as you do not want to come across as completely ignorant of their local bhasha)
7. Go DEEP!
The men comprising your field force are masters of deceit. They can rattle you with their excuses, reasons and prevarications. The only way to counter these disingenuous creatures is to go deep into the data and ask them questions that shake the very ground beneath their feet or else they will take you for a spin and leave you out cold and none of your maal will be sold.
8.Rules are meant to be broken
So you are a stickler for rules? Welcome to the world of Jugaad where rules are at best meant to be twisted or inferred as per once's whims if not to be flouted outright. A few months in sales and you would learn how to infer rules in a manner to suit your needs.Everyone out there is doing it, only the magnitude of twisting varies and I will deliberately not dwell on this last learning for some open secrets are best left undisclosed :P
