Why RSS fails to inspire/motivate better?

Let me start with disclaimer, this is my blog and my opinion. I do not want to hurt anyone's feelings.

From a layman perspective, the whole premise of RSS existence is to re-brand and morph the history. And the only way they do it is to re-interpret the already known evidence/history. They have never tried to bring in some of the lost or ignored history in to light. When they claim to call themselves committed to service to "Hindu" and "India" why do they not dig into and bring out history of Cholas, Pallavas, Chalukyas, Hoysalas, Rastrakutas or the North East Hindu empires? Why do they have to always speak about the Rana Prataps or Shivaji's? Not because the later achieved anything better in comparison of above dynasties. Some like Raja Raja Chola has founded a multi-country empire and had a sea-faring army/ businesses. How can they ignore such a great king? The only reason is that none of these dynasties can give them a plank to bring the communal divisions. Most of them never fought a Muslim king and even if they did, not much history is written on them. So they do not want to dwell deep but rather talk superficially and live re-interpreting already known history.

This is the biggest reason why RSS cannot inspire intellectuals and true rationalists to join them. They always want to play it politically (in spite of denying being a political organization). After all it really requires guts to explore the unexplored territories and dig out the truth.

Product and Services pricing

It is very intriguing to observe the play of pricing with a product and a service. Though this is not a very complex economic theory, my habit of observing economics at work in real life brings unique examples.

The other day I was reading on how Maruti Suzuki has brought down the manufacturing costs thanks to growing demand of their goods. The more people are buying the cars, the lesser is the cost of production. With more demand the production line costs which include costs of parts, assembling automation, testing, personnel costs everything has come down. They are able to pass of this benefit. It is called "Economics of scale".

The same day I took a Uber cab. Being a residential area the demand for cabs in my area is high. As the demand is high, Uber increased the price of cab to 1.7. The "Surge pricing" is just a function of demand. So in case of services, as demand increases the price increases. This is true for artists, musicians and every other "performer" or "doer".

The demand price function thus applies inversely to product or service.  

Is a democratic government better than a dictatorship government?

In democracy you choose a powerful man and make him sit silent or make him corrupt. The whole philosophy of democracy is that the majority decides what should be done. Sometime the majority can be completely wrong. (Remember the right/wrong definition is very contextual). The minority might be right. So now what does the minority do to correct the wrong? It either resorts to corruption or bullying. When the minority does that, the only institute to check this is the Government. So they either correct the wrong (and earn the wrath of majority) or stay silent (and be non-corrupt) or select the wrong (and earn a lot of black money). So in no way the Democratic government is like / better a Dictatorship government. In Dictatorship government, they decide the meaning of right and wrong and impresses the same on the citizens. Then they implement what is needed as per their thought.

Analysing a few Indian movements

In my previous post I have discussed on the anatomy of revolutions. As a next step, let me analyze a few movements based on these elements. I have taken three popular movements: Indian Freedom Struggle, Telangana movement and Anna Hazare.

Anatomy of Revolutions

I recently finished the book “The Power of Habits” by Charles Dhigg. You can read my review here (http://www.amazon.com/review/R25DJDTI7RGZO4 ). One aspect which the author touches is about the Civil Liberties movement in USA in the 60s. He impresses that the situation was made perfectly, giving the right ingredients for a successful movement. Any movement has three ingredients:

1.       Trigger Event

2.       Build on the social ties to gain critical mass

3.       Slowly induce new habits/routines which replace the old ones and make the movement come to full-life

Initiation Stage: A trigger event is something which incites the fire. While there can be multiple events which seem like a trigger, there can be one good event which invokes the step-2. It is hard to predict the trigger event.

Growth Stage: Once this trigger happens, the second step is building on the “victim’s” close social ties. (Victim is a loosely used word here and indicates any person who is a part of the movement).  His social ties, immediate friends and family, expanded network who are willing to vouch for this person. These individuals stand as the pillars of the movement. They bring the multiplier effect in the initial days by doing the ground-work. By this ground work, they gather some more steam, in terms of weak-ties of social network. Through these weak ties which generally influence through peer-pressure or general societal principles which are considered virtuous or good or guiding influencers who press upon participation in the movement for stand it takes on the cause, all bring the bigger multiplier effect into picture. Hence a leader of the movement should actually have good social stature in his network and be able to influence the close-ties. While the cause will ensure influencing on the weak-ties. In most cases the victim and the leader will be different individuals. This is because a victim not necessarily will have an optimal social standing. Then in that case the leader (who emerges as the prime-pillar of standing) will take over the movement on his shoulders. He is responsible for the close-ties and weaker-ties influences.

Sustenance Stage: Now the next and the most long-driven part is the Induction of new routines/habits. This is where a successful leader stands. Through his influence or speeches or live-as-an-example, he induces the masses to do what is needed to sustain the movement. Sometimes these new acts may directly support the cause or sometimes they might become figurative for supporting the cause. This sustenance is what differentiates a successful movement from an unsuccessful one. This sustenance should exist till the actual change occurs or till thoughts of change has been sowed in the other party. It should not fizzle too early or not drag too late. The skill of the Leader lies in making him an acceptable leader, devising and giving the followers a path-breaking routine, imbibing these routines into acts of the followers.

When all three of these occur then the movement will be a successful one.

My way of Cold-reach-outs

This post is in continuation my previous post here.

 

1.       Identify the company: Figure out the vertical/domain/technology. Based on this shortlist I use the database to get the names of company

2.       Identify the person: I use Linked-in premium to figure out the persons who meet my criteria for reach out.

3.       Identify the contact ID: Here is where Steps 3 & 4  of previous post come handy. And as mentioned earlier these days I prefer step 5 (refer previous post) which gives results in a jiffy

4.       Reach out on Mail: Use the email campaign execution tool to write to them

5.       Follow-ups: Follow-ups are necessary and not an options. The mode of follow-up depends on the industry/target audience. Sometimes it is emails and in other cases it is telephonic. Here’s where Skype credits come handy.

6.       Schedule a Intro call: Ask for a mutually convenient date/time for an intro call and schedule a conference event using Goto Meeting

7.       Maintain History: From my experience I realized sales happen to you over a period of time. You might forget the prospects but they remember you and reach out. At that time, past recorded history from CRM tools come handy.

Happy Selling!!

My list of Digital Tools for Selling

As every other list, each individual has his own preferences. This is my list of tools which help in aiding sales.

1.       Database: List of companies which use the technology or which are in domain you are targeting. I hate databases like Hoover’s, D&B, Zoom Info, which charge a bomb but still vague. For me Builtwith is the best. True, it just gives the name of the company and not the person details. But the later is for the other tools to figure out. Sometimes specific domain data lists like IRCE for ecommerce, tech crunch for funded start-ups are better.

2.     Linked-in Premium: Yes the free will take you somewhere. But with time breathing on your neck and a big target, you know you need to chase decisively and big. So cannot manage with limited search options, limited in-mails and limited transparency into network

3.     Email Permutator: This is a freely available email permutation provider. You can download one here.

4.      Rapportive: Firstly this helps me understand the person: where is he from, his time zone, what’s his education background, what his work profile. Second I also use this to check which randomly generated email id is the right email ID. (More in point 4)

5.       Salesloft: This is the newest addition to my list. This can combine and execute the job of 3 & 4 and give results in a jiffy.

6.      Email Campaign execution tools: A lot of tools are available, but I prefer lead squared. Lead squared gives a beautiful way of checking the prospect effectiveness by way of a weighted score.

7.       Track Clicks: I have been using lead-squared to track the click rates. Again these clicks are tracked and added to score of prospect effectiveness.

8.       CRM: At small numbers, leads can be managed on excel. But this will become cumbersome within a week. I like using Zoho CRM.

9.       Skype Credits: If I am calling outside my geography, calling sometimes might be expensive. Here Skype credits come handy

10.   Conference Bridge: I am comfortable using Go ToMeeting. But I believe webex or any other conference event organizer is fine. If I am on budget I use a combo of Skype and Join.me

Happy Selling!!

What happens when you read a lot of history books?

I have completed "Gray Mountain" by John Grisham. Though I have been an ardent fan of John Grisham and his legal background novels, its been more than three years since I read his books. In fact its just not John Grisham, but for last six years my interest fiction has declined. I am not sure if this changing preference is because of the way the book is written or I am seriously bored of fiction. That's the debate for now.

So when I started on this novel after long, my expectation on the book were very high. I wanted a joy ride of emotions: suspense, happiness, tragedy, heart wrenching drama, some heroism and a happy ending. But the book let me down. The plot seems to hold me at the seat edge occasionally but then it left the grip too early before I can soak in the suspense. Similarly some drama and some tragedy were involved but it did not match my expectations. All this means only one of the following three:
1. The plot is not great
2. The story was not told properly
3. My expectations were high.

Given the reviews and the plot seems to be pretty good. The story telling style for a veteran like John Grisham must be a seasoned one. So my belief is that my expectations from this was high. And pondering on the reasons of such high expectations, I sense that my previous few books based on political and natural history, had set the bar high. The journey through centuries on how things unfold (even though you know the end-result) has probably made my cravings for drama, suspense high. So my opinion for now is that, if one is involved in history, he can never go back to fiction with same interest. And did you say you did not like history at school because it was a drag and dull?

Book Link: http://www.amazon.in/Gray-Mountain-John-Grisham-ebook/dp/B00LM9S7H6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

What to plan as interiors in Living Room?

I have just been through a bout of planning interiors for my new home. So here I put my wisdom about things to go in living areas. Its more like a checklist of things to consider. Here we go:

1. Book Shelf (a very big one if you are a voracious reader like me)
2. Place to dump our sacks as soon as we come back from office
3. Display shelf for mementos and show pieces
4. Drawer to keep bills, petty documents and other knick-knacks
5. Drawer to keep some domestic hardware including hammer, pliers, screw drivers, insulation tapes and all
6. Shelves to stack up used newspaper. Plan atleast for two months stack, lest you end up running to Radhi-wala every month
7. Shoe stand, drawers for shoe polish, brush and other accessories.
8. Wifi Modem point
9. TV Unit with provisions for Set-top box, DVD players, Music systems, DVD storage
10. Wall to hang-up family photos, religious depictions and art work
11. Easy access place for note books, diaries, pens, markers, calendars
12. Place to hang keys

Please add for anything got missed

Review of Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond

When I first heard the title of the book, for me it is a very unlikely name for a history book. At end of the read, I am now fully convinced about the importance of these to civilization's natural history. This is one of the best books on natural history. Most history books are on political history and some ( like the Empires of Indus) touch natural history tangently while speaking about political history. The amount of research the author did is quite evident from the book. But it's just not research, giving a scientific approach in reducing conclusions from the facts is what makes the author differ from other. The presentation style is also pretty interesting. In most history books,  there are two parameters to be discussed: Timeline and place (and sometime different personalities). I have read books which go back and forth to cover both timeline activities and place activities. Else they will not be able to give a complete picture. However Jared has taken a unique way of circumventing this problem. (and prob that made the read more interesting!!). First he dwells upon the timeline activities. He speaks about people's early movements, evolution of farming, evolution of germs, evolution of technology and so on. Once he has traversed the timeline path (comparing different regions), he then dwelt upon the region-specific activities. The last few chapters cover the summary of different regions. This is the best solution for the conundrum of writing easier history books. 

Here is the summary of the book giving a quick insight (without being a spoil sport). The book highlights on the early movements of man-kind. The humans after evolving in Africa has spread across the land-masses of the globe by 40,000 BC. After the Ice-Age, the different continents evolved different eco-systems which acted as a catalyst for evolution of different cultures/habits/perspectives/technology. Food production almost evolved across different continents independently (except Australia) by choosing and cultivating plants from wild forests. This has slowly started inculcating farming as a practice. For making farming easy, they need more muscle power. Also once farming was established, societies got settled. This also called for alternate food source as they no longer were nomadic hunters and warriors. This led to domestication of wild animals for farming and for alternate food source. (except for dog which was domesticated way back in stone age all other domestic animals like cow, goat, hen, pig were domesticated in this age). Both these were the root cause of all our illnesses (literally). They brought in germs. Over centuries, some groups started developing immunity over these germs. As farming progressed and domestication improved, people had spare food and spare time (they were no longer roaming). So other inventions like tools, technology, arts came into existence. This include farming tools and techniques, musical instruments, writing, using copper, bronze and iron. Iron/steel led to creation of better armory. Then as people started living in groups and growing, they formed bigger societies. Some societies which started as bands moved to tribes which meta-morphed to chieftain and then to states at different points of time. The farming, technology and germs moved easily across Eurasia because of longer spread and almost similar climate. The societies which were isolated to these developments include Americas, Africa and Australia. Though some of the societies have independently developed a few of these , they did not mature as it did in Eurasia because of the lack of conducive factors. (like North to South climatic differences, or geographical restrictions including deserts, mountains, islands). All these factors gave an edge for the Eurasian societies to have an upper hand over other societies. And they have ended up occupying most parts of the world.

Book Link: http://www.amazon.in/Guns-Germs-And-Steel-Everbody-ebook/dp/B00DQ8GDV8/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

Negotiation or Bad Qualification?

 Most people claim a sale as badly qualified, but works behind the scenes is something entirely different. From what I have seen, in retrospection it is easy to say the failure is because of improper qualification/quantification. Except for few out-liers, most people will never disclose the budget and so the sales person has to go with guesstimates or gut-feel numbers. There is no way to get a number to qualify/quantify. This makes it look improper qualification in hindsight where-as it will not appear so in day-to-day scenarios. With no knowledge on numbers and mounted with pressure to close the deal, the only window left is to show the money-advantage to customer. I would believe that if a sales person is negotiating then it shows the product is not highly rated by the customer and alternatives are available for customer. If the product is the best, any sales person would stick to his stance on price and would not start negotiation.

Difference between Marketing and Sales

Time and again, I get this questions. So thought will create a blog post around it.

Marketing is a “Pull”. It helps in reaching out to prospects, showcasing the product/service, capturing his attention and bringing him to an Interaction Point (Outlet, Incoming Inquiry platform including website, call center, email). Some alternate goals of marketing include brand awareness, increasing brand/product recognition, educating the customer of the new product/service. 

Sales is a “Push”. The Sales function starts when the prospect comes to an interaction point. The prospect can come either from Marketing or by a Sales person digging out a hidden prospect (through networking, references, cold-calling). Sales functions include: understanding the customer needs, mapping the product/service features to his needs, agree on format of delivery, timeline and price, close deal by signing agreement or getting Work Order. Sometimes additional functions might include: keeping customer in good humor post sale (for references/positive feedback), seeking references/feedback, ensuring delivery of goods/services in agreed terms, payment collections.

Solo-Travels ..

I have done a lot of trips travelling alone. Most of the times, because the situation demanded and sometimes out of choice. At end of all those travels, the most frequent question I encountered was " How can I travel alone? If I were you I could never do that". But as mentioned earlier, most of the times, the situation demanded that I travel alone (you always have those friends who desert you in last minute), so I better enjoy and learn from it than keep cribbing. Though enjoyment is something which I cannot quantify, So I like to note down a few learnings from the solo-travels:

 

1. You trust your self more than you usually do. If you have to drive for six hours, you need to trust yourself that you will not sleep behind that steering. If you have to make a choice on where to stop on way, you trust your decision making capabilities.

2. You start trusting strangers: In one of these travels, I was feeling quite bored and needed company. I gave a ride to a hitch-hiker. On way I got to know that he had something very pressing to attend and was thankful for the ride. When I picked him up, I had no clue on who he was and what harm he can cause to me. But just went along trusting him and felt happy. The other time I had to leave my baggage with a waiter, and though I was initially scared, I had to do it but never regretted for it.

3. Introspection makes you understand your self: In a busy mechanical city life, we do not get time to introspect. Most of the solo trips give ample time for this.

4. Enough time for serious musings: Every once in a while, we need time for some serious musings on careers, life paths, relationships, finances. The long trips help giving ample time for them.

5. Make better aware of surroundings: Without someone to care or discuss, we become better aware of the surroundings. We have our antenna up for scares, threats, humor and romance.

 

And finally for catching up with friends on phone: Those old friends whom I was supposed to call, but never got time for that phone call in my busy life. Your solo-trip, will give those coveted hours to call all those buddies.

 

Now after marriage, I do not know how many more solo-trips I will do, but definitely want to go whenever my heart feels.

Gaining Wisdom ..

In my view there are only four ways one can gain wisdom:

 

1. Live by the age: Grey hair indicates that a person has lived his life through different ages, situations, ups and downs. Living by the age will anyways make someone definitely wise

2. Travel far and wide: Travelling shakes one from his/her comfort zone. One is exposed to new situations, uncertainties, fears, cultures, thinking. Also one learns to trust one self more, trust strangers, understand unsaid rules, open eyes to new processes, mind-set, views. These make one think out of box, open to understanding the innate drivers, tolerant towards different cultures/people and provision for newness. With this one is bound to become wise (even without living the age).

3. Talking to different people: Talking to different people again opens our mind to diff mind-set, alternate thinking, make us tolerant to different ways of conducting things and helps us understand humanness in a different way. (without travelling or living by the age)

4. Reading more: I will sum this with one statement, a punchline from crossword book-store chain.. " You do not open a book, you open your mind."

 

In my view the last one surpasses all other forms because it comes with least limitations. One can buy/borrow a book at a economical price unlike where one needs to spend a lot for travelling. Similarly one need to not live by the age to gain wisdom nor one needs to have the luxury of time to talk with a lot of people.

I am smiling!!!!

Miracles happen.. and they happen at the least expected hour. One does not know the reason why everything is going in one's favor but the very fact it is happening brings smiles. And when such a rush of things happen, one knows there is someone/something which is making these happen. Savor these unexpected turn of events in April last week and early May:

1. The tatkal tickets got booked so easily as though it was normal booking. Summer time is peak vacation season and IRCTC is notorious for crashing all the while during tatkal hours.

2. Its 6:15pm the train and we are still 12kms away from the Tirupati station. The Narayanadri departs at 6:20pm and there is no way we can make it to the station for the train. We do the next best option, go in the cab to the next station and hope to catch it there. We go at 6:50pm to Renigunta, when the expected departure is 6:45pm. But Voila!! the train is yet to arrive when we reach Renigunta though it started on time at Tirupati. Another 15mins before it arrives.

3. Registering the apartment and going around the Registrar office is a painful ordeal. I still have to adjust for almost Rs.5L for the payments to builder and the Registration process. So with all the glim prospects I go to the apartment builder for negotiating a deferred payment but yet get the apartment registered. Voila!! He agrees with any discussion. The next thing when I go to bank, is that they let me know I can use another 1.75 Lakhs for registration. This blessing came even without asking anyone for help. Next is the date for registration. SBI is notorious for a long drawn processes. Upon request for registering the apartment, I was given a date one week from hence. And I do not have that kind of a luxury. I will be on a honeymoon trip subsequent week and then reporting to office grinding the piled up work. So by only bet was the next day. With a bit of persuasion, the officials accept for getting the apartment registered the next day with a small work around. The registration process itself happens in two hours, and when did Govt. offices become so efficient?

4. When things are looking good, they turn sour a bit, just to indicate that we need to appreciate the Miracles. I get back to Hyderabad (from Bangalore after successful registration of my apartment). The next day I am leaving for Hongkong for the honeymoon trip. Previous day, I kept all the passports, tickets, Android Tablet in my laptop bag which is like a second skin to me. But the morning I arrive in Hyderabad, two hours after reaching home, I realize I forgot my bag in train. Never in a decade of train travel, did I lose a thing. (not even a water bottle). But that day with all the other luggage, I forgot about my shoulder bag. It contained Laptop, Passports, Wallet with driving license and PAN card, Android Tablet, mobile phone. Losing passport means, my honey moon got cancelled, all my bookings are already paid for and more of disappointment. In gist its like losing almost three lakhs worth and  also around three months of running around across govt. offices. In my mad rush I started back to the Kacheguda railway station hoping I have been lucky till date and I need that luck more than anytime now. The moment I reach, the AC coach attender, says he saw the bag but then he lost it again. He connected me to the train bed-roll supervisor, Deepak. After persuading for half an hour, they fetch me the lost bag. Voila!!  Half an hour back, I was thinking my honey moon got cancelled leaving me disappointed, I lost three lakhs in all the bookings, Losing fav gadgets/laptops meant loss of important personal data and now I am planning when I need to book a cab to go to airport. Can this happen in real life?

5. My flight to HKG got delayed by three hours. Now it starts at 4:20am and arrives in HKG at 12:10pm. Earlier when I planned the flight bookings, it was expected to arrive at 9:30am. That would give me enough time to take the visa on arrival, collect baggage, navigate through a new city to go to the cruise terminal. But now by the time I arrive at the HKG airport, the cruise boarding would have already started. The last boarding call for cruise was 2pm. So I have 1hr 50 mins to get visa, collect baggage, buy MTR tickets and reach Kowloon and take a taxi to the cruise terminal. So I was not sure if we will be able to make it to the cruise in time. I gave up the cruise vacation and started planning for the alternatives through the five hour flight journey.We finished all this and also got time to pick a tourist SIM card for mobile and reached cruise terminal by 1:40pm, good 20mins before the final boarding call.

6. When I was telling my newly-wedded wife about the series of miracles that happened after the wedding, she was skeptical about the occurrence. But I being confident of it told her to test it out. She said if the wedding was trigger of miracles, then even our wishes should be granted. And one of my previous small wishes was to spot another ship from the cruise we were on. Given the vastness of the oceans, distance from any land/harbours, the pitch dark night with all the fog around, I had no hope of spotting. Breaking our discussion there we went to grab some drinks and snacks. After half an hour, we returned to the view point on the deck just to have one last glimpse of the black ocean before we retire to our room. Voila!! We can count at least six ships in different directions. Given all above factors even the impossible seems to occur, to prove my point.

7. After the other small "lucky" occurrences, we were finally boarding the flight back to Hyderabad. Both of us were visibly disappointed from the morning as the Honeymoon was coming to an end and after a great time we need to be back at work from next day. The series of miracles, though happened, looked very scary, as they put me to the edge. (I wanted miracles but not when I was at the edge of the seat.). With the mundane life starting the next day, I expected no more miracles to occur. Just at the boarding gate, the hostess tore our tickets and announced she is changing our seats. I got mad, I have done a web check-in the previous day, so that I can get the preferred seats. And here she is announcing change of seats without my permission. I raised my voice and said she cannot do that as we already opted the seats we wanted. And her response... Voila!! She declared, we are being upgraded to Premium Economy. Now that meant a welcome glass of champagne, choice of food, complete privacy and bigger seats and leg space. Now what more can I ask for than that signature sign off to those memorable days?

 

I don't know if it is the luck that the new-lady-of-my-life brought-in or the good wishes and blessings showered on us by the elders or just coincidental. Whatever be it, it brought good times and smiles.  I will cherish these for life-time, while you can debate what made these miracles possible. :)

My List of Excuses to Avoid Stairs

Just like any other 'fat guy', even I need to motivate myself to climb stairs everyday. But sometimes 'laziness' takes priority over 'motivation'. And here are the excuses I use to reason out my laziness:

1. I climbed in morning, so let me avoid now.

2. I need to accompany my friend in elevator, else he will feel bad.

3. I am running out of time, need to be there on 6th floor immediately. So no stairs

4. These leather shoes will be folded and the marks dont go away

5. The lift is waiting here. Should not disappoint it.

6. I will compensate by taking  stairs in the evening, now I will take the elevator.

7. I am not that Fat!!!

My List of 7 Essentials while conducting a Sales Process

1.In-time replies – quick turn around

2.Acknowledging what is possible and what is not possible during the initial meetings – This will set expectations right

3.All rebuttals should have a valid sales arguments (rather than statements/claims)

4.Empathize client’s situation/needs

5.Be Assertive and not aggressive

6.Do not over-commit and under-deliver

7.Get payments at right time

Bottled-Water Economics in Train

During MBA, there was a popular case study in the macro-economics class on how poverty is a vicious circle. The case study demonstrates on how the poor are forced to stay poor. It takes a lot of Government intervention (as regulator and financier), opportunities and luck for someone to break the shackles of poverty and come out of it. The case study demonstrates the fact through an example of calculating the rate of interest/debt pay-back someone had to pay depending on the social class. Mukesh Ambani, because of all his wealth, can get a Rs. 10 lakh loan for a petty interest rate like 10%. (going by the basic interest rate, but actually he might end up getting for a rate less than that.). For him paying this debt back, does not make much of a difference. But a road-side vendor takes a credit (in form of vegetable stock) worth Rs.300 and ends up paying Rs.700 every day. That’s a shocking rate of interest (130%) which he ends up paying because he has no collaterals or wealth.  This Is the reason poor always are forced to stay poor until the government or other institutions intervene to regulate or finance.

In my long list of train journeys, I have seen a very shocking portrayal of this fact in real life. To my surprise I never thought that this big lesson would come from a simple life example of bottled water. A month back, I was travelling in AC 2-tier. It was around 10pm in night, I finished dinner, and needed a bottle of water. When a purveyor was going around I have asked him for two bottles of water. He said he can give me one bottle. I paid him Rs. 15 (printed rate) but immediately I saw that his case has more bottles. I raised my voice and exerted my right that he should sell one more to me. He said that if he will sell more bottles to me, he will lose business. ('Opportunity cost'). I was now curious and asked him to explain. He said he is going to the general-coaches (unreserved coaches) where he will sell the bottle for Rs.30. My first reaction was of shock I wondered how he could sell it at a higher price in a lower economy class. My next reaction was of skepticism, wondering who will buy his over-priced inventory. As though he read my face over the reaction, he began to explain, in General coaches which are cheaper (which most of lower social class people prefer), there is no allocation of seat and people cling to their seats/space which they occupy whenever they get. There is a lot of competition for the seat/space and hence no one would get up from seat to buy a water bottle from en-route stations (even if they were comfortable, buying from stations is difficult, as the train stops for a few mins and sometimes these shops on platforms are not near. Sometime the stations themselves are deserted or worse there are no stations for hours together). They have no option than to depend on the purveyors and buy at the price they sell. Though this cleared my skepticism, but made me furious that this guy is cheating on a poor man. My only consolation at that time was that even the purveyor is poor and he is cheating another poor man to make his living. However it still makes my blood boil that someone buys a general-class ticket to save money but the eco-system does not let him do that. He is always looted to keep him poor.

In this context, the Rs.10 drinking water scheme started by Jayalalita in Tamil Nadu is a welcome move. Many commuters now get access to cheap drinking water at all transit points. Hats Off to you Fat Madam!!

Selling to Clients Outside your Geography

I had a skeptical boss from one of my previous organizations, who never believed selling any-where outside the city we work out of. I had a tough time to convince him to at least start doing so. So I gave up… I gave up not only the idea of convincing him, but also gave up my job with him. Today again, I had a new-joinee who was skeptical about selling in US while sitting in India. Let me say that it is not only possible to build a business but also can build a thriving business on this basis. In fact not just in US, today most countries accept the idea of selling remotely. I go a leap ahead and say it is possible even in India. At my current organization, we have mastered the art of remote selling. (And I am talking about enterprise customers.) These are a few things which I learnt the hard-way which will ensure successful remote selling:

1.       Act, as if he is near you: A customer needs positive validation at all decision points. He wants to understand you, your organization and its processes. So all his small requests (however small) are to be taken as utmost important. Just like someone sitting next to you, you dare not forget his requests (lest you should take-in his sneers, stares and scolds).

2.       Be at his beck and call: No business-contact in this busy world likes to call you just for the fun of it. So if he calls, it becomes obligatory that you talk to him or at least reach out in a meaningful delayed time. That gives him a lot more confidence.

3.       Collaterals are to be speck-less: I keep meeting people who say ‘let’s fill crap in case studies, ppts’. They argument is that no-one looks into them. Mind you in this world of outsourcing, a prospect is just looking for a reason to strike you down. And if your collaterals do not have proper sentences, tone, connotations, images, content, specifications; trust me he will not be impressed by your organization. For him each artifact (whether it’s a website, case studies, docs, ppts) are all his decision-points to make decisions on your process, meticulous nature and the team. If you are not in proper order, trust me you lose the order.

4.       Collaterals are to be relevant: They need to be your extensions of sales arguments. They should understand that you know what you are talking about. Sending irrelevant collaterals just for heck of it, will cast a negative impression. Be choosy in sending artifact.

5.       Every conversation, every resource, every person is important: You might be an excellent orator, a tough sales guy, a near-perfectionist, but if your team is not up to the mark and the conversation involves someone from your team who do not match the client’s expectations, then please strike down the lead immediately after the call.

6.       Meet deadlines: Always meet the commitments or deadlines. I have lost quite a good number of deals just because we could not meet the time line. The moment you don’t match up to the timeline commitments, a client will always perceive it as the time zone difference coming into play (for clients in other time zones) or the remote connect lackadaisical nature coming into play. Both are dangerous for your business.

7.       Keep calling all your clients once in a while: Remote connectivity might turn out dangerous, if you happen to be away from your client’s voice-mails/emails/social-media. He will perceive that you are hiding behind the veil of remote connectivity. The reason will be presumed that you do not want him to see you. Just like you happen to run into a person in office, you also need to ‘happen to run’ into your clients communication channels. A seasoned sales guy knows the importance of this in building long term relationships/businesses.

8.       Access the breadth of the organization on both sides: Try to build relationship across the breadth of the organization. This will help in two ways: a. Help with other opportunities/leads b. Help with getting a second line of contacts, in case the first line moves out. Similarly let your client do the same. That way he will have more confidence on your organization. This is quite common in face to face relationships, then why should it be different in a remote connectivity relation?

9.       References/Testimonials from same geography: Every client needs positive assurances. More so for a remote connectivity client, who does not have the luxury of visiting your office or meeting your team? Sometime even after visiting your premises some customers, like to know how your past clients felt signing you. So references and testimonials from same geography will always help to overcome the mind blocks.

10.   Escalation matrix: A remote client wants to know what if you go absconding on the right time or if you purposefully don’t respond to his communication. So this is one more argument to present your case that you are trustworthy and though he does not sit close to your city, he can reach out to someone higher-up for issues.

11.   Process Driven: Organizations when dealing with unknown entities prefer dealing with a process-driven approach than ad-hoc personal basis. This will give an assurance to the client, that the vendor company has-been-there, done-that, analyzed-the-outcomes and established processes. So project your company as process driven than a free-lancer or a cheap sweatshop. It showcases how the company has matured from past executions.

12.   Virtual Infrastructure: Unfortunately, clients sitting outside your city cannot have a look at your infrastructure or take a call on the organization’s ability. But it is important for a client to get a feel-factor. Here virtual infrastructure like Project Management tools, deployment tools, ticketing systems come handy. Creation of virtual infrastructure needs investment (both effort and time), it surely pays off at the end (just like real infrastructure). The bigger (and better ) the infrastructure created, the more are the brownie points earned. Once created, a sales person should insist that the client goes through this infrastructure. (Just like you show-around your office space to a visiting client).

13.   Transparency: Last and most important is the transparency factor. In (all) long distance relationships, this plays a very important role in creation of mutual trust. If you do not have resources, tell them openly that you do not have, but can recruit. Rather if you say you have resources and then delay the project start for lack of them, it immediately makes clients lose trust.

Happy Selling!!!

Best sales people in the world never sold a thing ..

So goes a popular tenet in the sales circles. While misinterpretations can be many, I like to view it only from the positive perspective which it was meant to be viewed. :)

The day people try to push something very hard, then it is transactional. It will be one off thing, which will not sustain long relationship. And being a sales person, your clients are for relationships for long term, multiple selling and not transactions. So it is better to get in customer's shoes and view things as he wants and advise him as he needs. That is a better way to build ever-lasting relationships than doing one transaction.