Cont…..

The main aspect to excel comes from the aspect of committing oneself to excellence and this most often than not comes from people who have high expectations with what they do in every aspect of life and with that comes eventual success. The trait of the optimist is clearly on the aspect of the individuals ambitions and determination to become what they aspire to become and that again comes only from the pursuit of excellence and then committing to the same.

Ambition to most is the most single important aspect of expression that comes through with pure optimism, which therefore is the key quality that is required for success in sales. Most ambitious people have one remarkable quality in sales, they see themselves capable of being the best in the fields they are in most cases like I have always propagated that it is that 20% of sales people who bring in the 80% of revenues and these people know that they need to belong there. Remember when each one of the sales people in your team wants to be part of that 20% the growth could be exponential, potential is magnanimous simply because if all the 100% fire in equal proportion then the throughput of the organisation would be impeccable to say the least.

Therefore every sales person in a linear organisation should strive to be in the 20% of the elite group that contributes to the 80% of the revenues and then try be in the top 10 of the industry, everything else post that is a matter of time including the massive earnings that then gets visible.

Point to ponder - where and when does one begin. Think about it, like Brian Tracy says, every one in the top 10 today were once doing poorly and everyone in the top of your field were in the bottom too. So how does one get there? The answer is pretty simple - 1) get in line to begin with and then stay in the line

Finally - the turning point in life will normally be when as a sales person you realise how important it is a dividing line when you fail vis-a-vis succeed. The dividing line is when you dont make clear unequivocal decision that you are going to be the best and then back your decision with persistence and determination until you reach your final goal.

To be cont….

I recently completed a book by Brian Tracy and thought of one such subject that would be of help to most sales people aspiring for the best in their life. There are a lot more I have to blog on on this subject and I guess over the next several weeks it would around this topic of Sales Superstar.

Let us all look back at our lives and if you all were to answer a simple question on how many of you are in sales then you will unilaterally think about what you are doing and may not want to be part of this discussion that you may want to have with yourself simply because you dont believe you are in sales. But think about it and ask this question again to your self and suddenly you will realise that all of you are in sales because your entire life has been and will be a continuous process of communicating, persuading and influencing other people, which is nothing but sales. Right or wrong?

Now the fundamental question we all may want to answer is how good we are and that is a little tricky, right? Simply put, it is your ability to SELL to other on your ideas that will determine your success and career as much as any other. These are Brian’s words but honestly makes utmost sense to me. Doesn’t it?

I have always told my team, irrespective of, which org they belong to that end of day monetization is the key for an organisations growth, period! To that effect it is one or two small tweaks that one does in approach that determines how good or bad you could be. In other words, small differences in ability in key result areas normally leads to enormous difference int he final outcome or throughput of that individual in sales. I have experienced these in my life and trust me it has been those small tweaks that changed the outcome in total.

At NP the endeavor has always been to master the art of sales management and it could be anywhere in the SPANCO pyramid including monitoring the right prospect to making that persuasive presentation thus by over coming any objections to close a deal.

So our leaders are constantly hammering that aspect of perfection to the front liners, which sometimes goes down well and at times doesn’t but the truth of life is that these leaders in our organisation are only making those sales superstars and most of the time I am only glad to let people go (I rejoice when the bad ones leave) but when the good ones do want to take another plunge, I feel proud that they will add that enormous amount of learnings that actually is a great rub off for our brand.

Coming back to harnessing those important skills, it is pretty clear that only will drive you to success because it is that weakness alone that will determine your sales results and how much you earn. And honestly any single deficiency can hold you back from succeeding no matter how good you may be in every other area including inter personal skills

This one is going to be a long one just because Iam pumped to put some perspective into the minds of some people who in particular enjoy reading my blog Always remember that your strengths that has got you this far but your weakness will hold you from progressing from here. It might sound crazy but the truth is that and only that! I believe personally and many will vouch for that character in me, it is that sheer optimism that has brought me those successes in the past and I am sure that it will bring in the future as well. Look around you, you will see that the top sales people in most organisations are the ones who are far more optimistic than the average ones. What that does is it brings in tremendous amount amount of hunger to succeed, which then translates into high expectation for being successful. These are the people who normally make more calls and create far more prospects than that average sales guy, these are also the bunch of folks who who persist much longer, call back much often to begin a new discussion with client because they believe in what they do and honestly believe so much in their ability to succeed that they know it is a matter of time and nothing else before they eventually get there.

Also I have seen many a times that the highest paid employee in an organisation has the highest self esteem, I am sure some may want to argue it but I have come to this conclusion by looking back in time after reading Brian’s book. And Brian says something that is damn very correct, self esteem is defines as how much you like yourself. This to me is debatable because though I believe this in total I somewhat disagree on this bit simply because I like myself a lot but the percentages of self esteem is not equivalent in my case and I am sure it varies with a lot many sales people out there. But the more you like yourself, the far higher the chances of you succeeding.

To be continued……

As the saying goes incidents and accidents teach you a lot. I came across this touchy incident which has given me whole new perspective towards life and I am sure you will connect some were with your life’s too.
I was on a train between towns in Maharashtra and I saw an old man was sitting on the opposite berth with his son in late twenties. Train is about to leave station. All passengers are settling down in their seat. As train started young man was filled with lot of joy and curiosity. He was sitting on the window side. He put out one hand and feeling the passing air. He shouted, “Papa see all trees are going behind”. Old man smile and admired son’s feelings. Next to young man, one couple was also sitting and listening to all the conversion between father and son. They were little awkward at the attitude of old man son’s who was behaving like a small child.

Suddenly young man again shouted, “Papa see the pond and animals. Clouds are moving with train”. Couple was watching the young man “ what’s wrong with him”.

Now it started raining and some of water drops touched the young man’s hand. He filled with joy and he closed the eyes. He shouted again, Papa it’s raining, water is touching me, see papa”. Couple couldn’t help themselves and said to old man,” Why don’t you visit the Doctor and get treated your son.” Old man said,” Yes, We were coming from hospital only. Today only my son got the eyes first time in life”.

Moral of story: “Let us not come to any conclusion until we know all facts”.. how true is that ?

It was a usual weekday for me. Early morning waking up, managing my 11 months old baby before rushing off to office, handling stress for the targets, taking some important client meetings, and eventually heading to the gym at the dusk. It was almost towards the end of a usual hectic day.
Just at that moment…. there was a missed call from an unknown number on my phone. I called back and on the other side I hear a very familiar voice saying “ Hi Jeena!” I was embarrassed to ask back his identity but soon I realized it was none other than Sunil! I was happy to receive his call after long but though confused when he asked me to come down and meet him to discuss some opportunity for me to explore with Networkplay. Two days later very reluctantly though ( as I was confused), managed to walk down to office to meet him and there to my surprise I see Ram too :-). Well, coming back to the point had a very long and healthy discussion with Sunil and Ram which ended up with a mixed feeling.-should I be happy or should I not be happy - I was still not sure whether I should explore this long wished opportunity which was placed in a platter in front of me.
I reached home back in the evening. Not able to focus on or think of anything else but about our discussion in the office. Was running out of patience and was waiting for Amit to come back home. (I am sure Amit too must be in the same state of mind as mine ). The discussion started with Amit and it went on n on n on….. Ahhh! And finally I know now, what I want and hence I decided ummmmm!!! I am relaxed!
And the result of my decision is here… I am writing this blog as a part of Networkplay employee!!! And I will always be very grateful to the Networkplay team for offering me this opportunity.
Hence, the call I received on that usual hectic weekday of mine has proved to be “Blessing In Disguise” for me

Its been two days since we moved into our new off in Del but I have not been able to get out of the excitement.
It was such a high feeling on Mon night when I reached Del and found the interior cont giving final touches. The new office is spacious and a fun place to work. And the excitement was quite visible on every team members face.
More so becoz it was being built from our own reserves made over the last 7 quarters of hardwork. I very well know this is just the beginning and this rock solid
team will go a long way from here and make all our dreams a reality.

Let me take this opportunity to thank every member of Networkplay family who have helped us reach here and
no doubts they will continue supporting us to reach new highs.

My special thanks to our investors, Capital 18 for always believing in us. Thanks again..

Cheers

I have been seeing a lot of sales presentations over the years and several more advertising and marketing presentations including strategy, communication, sales forecasts, food for thoughts etc but several times I have seen that it is a that typical presentations with flows that are sometimes so very similar that the take outs are pretty much mundane.

Sales pitches have become very similar, you go into the market and you get to see same slides, similar one rather and it does not deliver any value to the purpose you have gotten into a meeting. Most of the times it has to do with showcasing or should I say show offing their organisation capabilities to grab the dollar that is there on the table.

While I respect the talent and the sales pressures most of our sales teams are in, in today’s world where at-least in India there is the growing story of the internet with little green attached to it keeping in mind the number of sales people on the digital business vis-a-vis the size of the market. Some of these have a head start in meeting simply because of the sheer share of the market in terms of size but there is this other lot, which is die hard in nature and works very hard to meet the company objectives. Now there is also this lot that is highly paid, so much so that with just a couple of years of experience in their hands they command a premium to their salary and most of us give in keeping in mind the dearth of talent. However what appalls me is the quality in this dearth as well. I remember times when I used to make a paltry 10K PM with the same experience 12yrs back though that is no comparison to this situation.

So coming back to the power point presentations that these sales people do, most of them get their business through their relationships so that they protect their so called high paying salaries keeping in mind the target numbers they need to achieve. But to think about it, the quality of time that is spent on these presentations are nothing short of being disastrous and I have been propagating to our team to build more substance through story telling than just wasted data points, which sometimes is not even worth listening to for a marketeer.

I have in recent times skipped several meetings for the first 20mins simply because these first 20mins are a waste of time for me to sit through, why? Because its the same shit that I get to hear, doesn’t interest me one bit. So to a person like me what would be of interest is when a sales person tells me how he or she has managed to turn around some aspect of a customer with whom they have worked. I dont need to go through case studies but an animated discussion that entices my time in a fashion that is stimulating is what I personally would want to indulge in.

So my advice to all sales forces in the digital business, lets put the presentation in such a fashion that will keep the meeting interesting, even if the business does not come through now, you would have left an impact in such a fashion that you would be thought of whenever the client is about to engage in the digital medium.

So lets tell stories than do a dumb PPT. Because story telling is more powerful than data points for god sake!!!

Had the opportunity to watch a Marathi film on Sunday. Harishchandrachi Factory. Traces the story of Dadasaheb Phalke (the father of Indian Cinema) and the release of the first Indian Motion Picture, ‘Raja Harishchandra’. Amazing movie. Movie buffs who understand Marathi should watch it. Movie buffs who do not understand it should hunt for a subtitled version and watch it. Non-movie buffs should make an exception and still watch it.

It shows how a non-descript and virtually bankrupt but maverick kind of a person, who had lost most of his money in a still photography business still continued to believe in what he did. This was in 1911, when even still photography was a new concept and people were very superstitious. Apparently, the still photography business also didn’t do well because of a rumour that the camera sucks out the soul of the person being photographed.

Despite living in such a time where mindsets were so primitive, he chanced upon a motion picture that was playing in his city under the British Raj and decided to make India’s first movie. He peddled away most of his belongings in spite of having a pregnant wife and two sons to feed, and in the face of ridicule persevered relelntlessly to research the art of film making, went temporarily blind, got taken to the Thane Mental Hospital, etc., just to chase his dream.

Since he was ahead of his times, most people he spoke to were aghast at the thought of making a film. Nothing or no one could deter the man from doing what he wished to. In all this, he was supported whole heartedly by his wife, who was an epitome of adjustment and co-operation and his two children.

He borrowed money, went to London to learn the art and buy the camera required for his endeavour. He came back and enlisted a bunch of people to act in his film, provide music, sing, direct, etc. Taught his wife how to operate the camera and develop the film. Tried to hire women to act in the film but failed, even with prostitutes, who considered movie making lower than their own profession. He ultimately hired men to enact women and made the film. On the first day of release, no one came to watch his movie and in order to attract people, he got two people to conduct roadshows on various streets, distributing pamphlets and creating drama around the movie.

Soon people started queuing up to watch the movie. His movie was very successful and he was invited by the English to settle down in London and make movies there luring him with more money. All that the man said was, ‘That will deprive my country of another industry’.

He then went on to make about 100 films and thus came into existence, the Indian Film Industry, which is the largest in the world.

Moral of the story: Believe in yourself and keep following your dream. If your dream is not foolhardy, which is also a judgement that you need to have, success will follow.

Firstly I will talk about the market dynamics and a need for such a product. Unlike the developed economies where there are few large players dominating and competing in the space of stock and other brokerage trading and providing services to its customers , India is all together a different story. It is not only the big players who are thriving on the huge market for the services, it is also a source of bread and butter for the unorganized trading community which thrives on the relationship build with the regional broker or sub broker. To give a perspective of the scenario in India there are 1100 brokers and 30000+ sub brokers which are currently handling a community of 55mn people who are currently active on the bourses.

The bigger challenge of such a widespread market dominated by regional players is the measurement of the consumer satisfaction i.e. there is no single Customer Satisfaction index in the industry describing the golden standards of service for the people trading , talking about accuracy of tips that are suggested by the brokers , etc.

The Biggest competitive advantage of the product is that it will provide the consumers to interact and share their experiences with the people whom they are interacting and on the business front would provide an opportunity for the broker to showcase and make itself visible on bigger platform. The bigger issue that the product addresses is the possibility of making the unorganized market more organized and consumer driven. It can ensure parity in information flow and also set benchmarks on the performance that is delivered by each broker, thus what is the additional penny u have earned on money invested would be comparable.
But one of the biggest challenge here is the marketability of such a product.

The product needs time to lot of resource to be fully functional and perform what is expected of it . This is entirely dependent on the outlook of its promoters where do they see this product in next 2 , 5 and 10 years.

A lot has been said about networking and its importance and we have multiple business lines thriving in the web space on this and there are serious efforts to bring this peer together however what is important is to get the CXO level peers together for some thought provoking discussions, which is what the India Chapter is trying to do through its recent launch under the auspices of dr. Bhaskar Das as its National President.

I would not hesitate to state how Dr. Bhatia has relentlessly worked towards the betterment of this community through a lot of innovative efforts and bring the community under one roof. We saw that at the launch of the chapter in Delhi where Alok Bharadwaj of Canon India took the initiative. It was an awesome evening 4weeks back and that is where recognition to the individuals and the industry was discussed.

5th week post that meeting we were in Singapore at Suntec and I was amazed to see the participation levels of everyone CXO level people from various categories of industries participate, it was awesome to see over 52countries participate and what an evening it was in Singapore on 23rd July 2010.

From Bhaskar Das to Amit Burman to heads of organisations of Nokia, Etisalat, Etihad, Oman Air, RIM, Maruti and over another 200 companies participated ranging from Honk Kong to Far East. It was awesome and hats off to this organisation for having built such credibility and participation in such a short time period.

To know more log on to www.cmoasia.org.

To me the moment of glory was when NetworkPlay was chosen for “Award in Brand Excellence - Internet Business” where 3 more large organisations with the likes of Canon India, ICICIDirect.com and Home Shop 18 were chosen.

Yahoo India was awarded for brand leadership and CEO of the year was Shiv Kumar Shiv of Nokia. There were over 200 awards and I cant put all of those in here, log onto the CMO Asia site and read on.

For me it is the single largest achievement till date for a 22 month organisation to be part of some of the world’s largest brands in an award ceremony rubbing shoulder to shoulder. Imagine the might of the organisations in our category and NetworkPlay was part of the same. Simply shows the wonderful work that my team has been doing over the last 20months.

Superb Stuff.

Came across an ad in today’s ET. Of India Infoline. With this tag line. And it resonated with me. Because tools don’t make a master out of an apprentice. You may have the best of equipment and the best of coaches and the best of intentions. But till you get on the field and get your hands dirty, where will the skill to use the tools come from? Where will the discernment to learn the nuances from the coach’s experience come from?

If you want to learn to play Hockey, no amount of reading and researching will help. No amount of instructions from an SRK like coach lecturing his team on ‘70 minutes’ will help. Jump into the pool to learn to swim.

The mantra for success, in short is not about getting the best tools. It is, in fact, in knowing how to use them.