If you listen to the customer, sales is not a dirty job!

Several of the first batch of PROTON students may end up in sales jobs. In this slow employment market, these jobs are the easiest to find. I am recounting a few stories below because perhaps they will help these students in their jobs.

*****

The first story is around two Max New York Life salespeople.

When Ekagra was born, we paid LifeCell to store the stem cells from the umblical cord. The chances of needing these stem cells are slim and the cost is high, so few people choose to do this.

To chase this juicy market segment (worriers with some money), Max New York Life has tied up with LifeCell, and two Max salespeople found their way to my apartment last weekend.

I opened the door to find these two gentlemen. Let's call them Mr. A and Mr. B. Mr. A was dressed in a suit and tie, had smart looking glasses and a firm handshake. Mr. B was dressed in a dull windcheater and wasn't particularly impressive to look at. He seemed quite invisible. I thought he was the assistant.

They came in and Mr. A started talking, while Mr. B stayed silent. First, Mr. A gave me the LifeCell papers with a big flourish, not disclosing that he and his friend were from Max. Then he tried to make senseless talk to look like an expert on stem cell storage. His knowledge was very poor and his style was quite shady. He gave me a small "gift" (a small Rs. 100 thing) and made a big show about it. Everything about him seemed insincere. I had already seen his Max bag and knew what was coming, but kept quiet.

Finally he came to the point which I had been waiting for.

"I would also like to discuss some more things. We would like to offer you some financial plans for your child. For example, some plans from Max." Then Mr. A felt that he had exposed the Max connection and wanted to hide it again. "But not necessarily Max. In fact, from anywhere, because we only care about what fits you." He looked over-eager, under-prepared, untrustworthy, very bad at what he was doing.

I said I was not interested, and said half-truthfully that HSBC does my financial planning. At this Mr. A seemed very disappointed and again tried to push me hard. "You have to plan for so many things now. Your life has changed with this child," he said. He did not realize that I would not have spent Rs. 75k on the stem cell storage if I had not been doing some planning of my own. "Can I just show you some of our plans?" he pleaded. He seemed desperate.

I said, "You can show me your plans but I must tell you I am probably not going to invest in them." I was partly trying to test him, and I was shocked when he just sighed and acted as though the meeting was over. He was not going to take the trouble if there was no guarantee of success. So he did not have patience either.

Meanwhile, I had noticed that as I was speaking, Mr. B had been nodding. I began to admire his style of listening. And then he spoke, softly and pleasantly.

"We are in fact from Max. We have a partnership with LifeCell. I'm glad you are already doing your financial planning with HSBC. HSBC offers very good financial planning. They have some software that allows you to customize your investment planning. You are in safe hands." And that was it. I waited for the bit about how Max was better than HSBC but it did not come.

I found myself falling into the classic sales trap. "HSBC is not that good either," I said. "They push too hard. For example, they have my father invested all wrong." And Mr. B and I got into a nice, fairly smart, discussion.

It turned out that Mr. B was in fact by far the senior salesperson, although of the same age. He was in charge of the entire LifeCell relationship and was based at Chennai. He had just come along to see how the sales calls were taking place. We talked for quite a bit. I asked him about his background. He also told me about how LifeCell and Max had partnered. When I complimented Max on the high average quality of salespeople, he told me a bit about the Max sales training processes ("we have nearly 900 trainers for 15,000 people"). I told him about the very impressive young Max salesperson who had earlier sold me some medical insurance (he had been so impressive that I almost offered him a job!) I talked about PROTON, Mr. B talked about his engineering background and MBA. We connected as human beings.

When they left, I found myself offering Mr. B my email address. "Keep in touch," I said, "I might have some liquidity in the future and I might change my mind."

*****

I am not an expert in sales, but I really admire those who can sell well. I thought Mr. B was a great salesperson. I tried to figure out why.

Mostly it was because he was listening to what I was saying. He had understood where I stood in life and had changed his approach accordingly. You can't sell high-end financial instruments to an educated and experienced person as though you are a hakim selling magic potions on the roadside.

And he also seemed like a complete human being, with ideas and opinions.

And he did not seem desperate.

*****

Something similar happened when I went to a store recently and asked for a hot air blower one could hang on a wall. "Aisa to kuchh abhi tak to nahin aaya," said the elderly shopkeeper. "Aap next week check kar lena, naya saamaan aa rahaa hai." This was fairly standard.

"Aur agar aap bataa dein aapko yeh kyon chaahiye, shaayad mai aapki madad kar sakta hoon." I told him that I needed it for a bathroom where I did not want to take the risk of contact with water.

I expected him to somehow scoff at my logic. Most people immediately try to sell you something else instead. Instead he surprised me. "Achchha achchhaa," he said, "phir to shaayad mai help nahin kar paaoon." Then he kept quiet.

After a good one minute, in which time my defences had come down, he said, "Perhaps you can try one of these oil heaters, they are safer than the hot air blowers and might fit your need" and he had my full attention.

*****

I almost unwittingly did the same thing recently at one manufacturing fair at Dusseldorf on behalf of Nagarro. A senior IT manager of Michelin (the French tire company) was passing by our stand when one of our salespersons caught hold of him. Though Mr. Michelin was speaking patiently and courteously - he was after all French! - I could see he was eager to move on.

"Maybe you can tell us your IT priorities" I said, "so that we can see if we can help you or not". He named some things, quite defensively and warily. As it turned out, Nagarro does not do those things.

So I said simply, "Then perhaps we can't help you!"

That shocked him! I could see him stop for a full second and digest that. He had gotten so used to being sold pushily that he loved this.

"So what CAN you help me with?" he asked warmly. And then I began.

After a few seconds he said, "Can we sit down?" We had made a connection as human beings, not as the desperate hunter and hunted.

Keep this in mind if you are ever selling!