There is a salesperson behind everything you see and consume
In 2015-16, I was working in back office and earned ₹9000/- monthly. I wanted to pursue MBA and I was preparing for CAT. I scored 42 %tile in 2nd attempt. I made a wise decision to forget IIMs and settle for average college in Navi Mumbai. My objective of doing MBA was to earn above ₹30k per month.
I took admission in 2016. In 2017 summer, we had to do internship. Being a marketing student I got selected in fruit juice and jam company. It was sales profile and I had zero idea about sales. Nobody in my family has a business background and being an introvert, my performance was terrible. I couldn’t grasp the concept of sales. Each day of 4 months internship felt like hell. I was a loser in a group of 17 students.
I had to visit retailers and convince them to store our products. My weak communication skills created a lot of calculation errors while discussing margins. I just couldn’t sell more. Everyday my manager would scold me. I felt sick because of work pressure as well as peer pressure. My colleagues were performing as if it was their day to day activity. Yes, they came from business background.
I was later given my hometown area to work. Our area was so small that, I didn’t even felt I was working. My colleagues would upload sales figures at the end of the day on Whatsapp group. And I was a laggard texting small figures.
Finally after 4 months in August 2017, my internship was over. As expected, I scored least in the group. I felt like crying when I got the certificate.
Learnings
I remember Steve Jobs once said at an event at Reed College ‘Connecting the dots looking backwards’. It means that whatever events you went in the past; positive and negative, will help you somehow in next 2,3 or 10 years.
Sales was a bitter medicine I absolutely needed. It taught me that money can be made as per you sell number of things, to not to take client’s harsh behaviour personally, a rejection doens’t mean you are a loser..move on to the next, ask 100 people, atleast 1 will say yes. Ask those same 100 people next time, 10 will say yes. Don’t give up. All the millionaires and billionaires made their empire through sales.
I’m still an introvert, but I ain’t shy anymore. I see every person around me trying to sell something to someone. If the TV cable guy comes and makes false claims about the set-top-box needs to be changed, then I don’t get angry on him/her. I simply tell the person not to sale me, I’m from sales background. I will shared another interesting story in part 2.
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