back I was also sitting like this in
some of the seminars in my college and I
used to think that I will do a high fund
a job i will go to RND NASA I will
develop this thing and that thing I
never thought of doing sales and when
somebody used to ask me you do like to
have a sales job I said no never in my
life and today I am here to tell you
about my sales experiences to you so
what is fails since is understanding
customer requirement and solving the
problem of a customer that to profitably
profitable for the customer as well as
the company no company can survive
without saints even the best of the
product in the word if not sold cannot
see the light of the day you know about
Thomas Alva Edison a great inventor who
has thousands of patents on his name but
do you know he was a great marketing
genius he started his carrier with and
he learned from his mistakes he has made
a vote counting machine it failed
miserably because no legislature wanted
it so what he said I won’t invest
anything i will not invent anything
which is not sellable anything which is
selling is good for utility and if
anything which is utility has given T
will always sell so I would like to tell
you certain stories how I started my
career from those days now I will take
you in 1991 when I started my job as a
service engineer and a medical equipment
company just 10 days after joining the
company I was sent for a service called
to a government hospital ICU in the ice
cube there are monitors and a cesium
machine ventilators so many people
nurses
I was a new guy just out of engineering
and they send me to a hospital I just
reach within 30 minutes so that nurse
asked me were you here in the hospital
only I said no I just came from my
office okay i have seen the monitor it
was dead so i just seen that somebody
pulled the plug and I just tightened the
connection is started working so i was
very happy that service is a very very
easy job very happy with that as the
time passed you can get the difficult
customers I got a very difficult
customer I was posted out of Jaipur aldi
and there was a customer who has sent us
a letter a legal letter you take back
your machine your machine has
intermittent problems you have already
changed twice this machine but this
machine is not workable refund my money
and they sent me to this customer this
customer was in ganga nagar i went to
this customer he’s a big surgeon I kept
waiting since morning I was waiting for
eight hours 10 hours I don’t know how
many hours then he called me in the
evening you are a young guy I don’t want
to dishearten you but you are not going
to correct this machine just go back
accept your mistake that you can’t make
the machines and refund my money with
this much of penalty I said please allow
me to see the machine I have seen the
Machine and I could see that there is
some problem again I took my screwdriver
I connected all the loose connections
machine was working he said that every
time when engineer comes he does
something machines start working after
that you guys go I know that this
machine is not going to work so i asked
him ok sir i will show you the operation
ground and you can check later on also
but i just want to know how you use this
machine he said I go to different cities
across and I take this machine along
with me and whenever I go there it
doesn’t work so I said that how you are
transporting this machine he said this
in this suitcase and he used to carry
that machine in a vertical format
and when the jerks were there so this
machine always has some loose connection
and it will not work eventually whenever
it will go to any place it will not work
and then he will call us and fire us so
now I told him sir I think that the
method of transportation is not correct
and if you just do one thing that you
can transport it horizontally rather
than on vertically so the connection
will not get loose and hope that this
will sort your problem and finally to my
surprise that problem got sorted out so
one should try to go a little deeper
whenever we are trying to sort any
problem that whether the problem is in
the machine or how they are using it of
what so basically I could see from my
experience and service that 80 or fifty
percent of the problem so more than
fifty percent of the problems were loose
connections and in life also the fifty
percent or more than fifty percent of
the problems are because of loose
connections we don’t talk to each other
so that’s also the biggest problem now
I’ll tell you some story how I come to
sales and the first sales which I did I
still remember vividly my company
transferred me to a very difficult
location from jpod to changing her
because the sales guys were not
performing there they said okay you go
there and you do everything sales
service application whatever Under the
Sun you have to do that I should find
it’s okay with me I went there I’ll
coming back for a first sales meeting
after 56 days of joining I thought I’m
from Pawnee parks so from chandigarh to
Delhi when i was coming i stopped at
Pawnee perth and in the night I thought
of meeting a customer which was near my
house I went to him i said that i have
recently joined this company and this is
my card in case you require anything let
me know he said ok you were from this
place good I want this electro surgical
unit this monitor can you sell me these
things I said yes sir I had the price
book i opened the price book gave him
the price these are the prices serve
immediately he gave me a check of 10,000
rupees under order I went back to my
meeting and I told them that I got the
order they were very surprised and her
p and my boss my regional manager he
gave that a great job and he gave me a
taxi and along with that the material he
said that while going back you deliver
the equipment install those equipment
and take the money balance amount so the
first sales was very easy again
sometimes luck would happen you get very
easily those things then I not tell you
about certain stories which were
difficult customers this is about dr.
Shalini Sri she was a very tough
customer in dehradun this customer
wanted to buy a CT scanner so I propose
her the CT scan and she was having the
earlier machine which was axial CT so
now she wanted to have a new machine so
I proposed 16 slices scanner there are
many slices of CT scanners as you go
higher so I propose that machine to her
and she said ok I can take a look at the
machine she has seen the presentation
she has seen the machine I have
demonstrated everything and she has seen
the competition machines also she was
not happy at the price so she said no no
I cannot give this much of price and we
stuck on the price because whatever
negotiation we had to do we did that
negotiation but not coming to any
confusion because of the price so I told
her a very small story which I
remembered in my class 5th I said that
there was a shepherd he got a stone and
he does not know the value of the stone
so he put it into the thread and put it
across the sheep and he was roaming
around and one goldsmith he has located
him he has seen this guy and he asked
him can you sell me this stone he said
yes you can take the stone no problem so
he said what will you give me for this
he said I will give you 10 rupees so the
guy Shefford was very happy he has given
10 rupees and bought that gemstone from
the guy now the gemstone got very angry
he said that this guy was not knowing
what is my value and this goldsmith
knows my value and he is valuing me at
ten rupees so the gold this gemstone
bust into the hand of that so I talked
to dr. that you understand the value of
my machine and if i give you at the
price
of the competition this machine will
bust because definitely does a more
value so you have to value for my
machine she understood my message and
finally we could close at some good
point and there are sometimes the
customers where lot of confusion can be
there so I tell you a story of dr. robin
sharma here we sold one CT scanner which
was a very high and 64 sly CT scanner
and our CT scanner was one crowd higher
as compared to the competition price we
have shown him the machine we have taken
the order we had the order we imported
the machine also but in the end
competition has confused him completely
don’t take this machine the tube will go
there will be a lot of problems and this
is the first of its kind machine here so
don’t buy this because this doesn’t make
any sense and financial viability is
also not there so he can sense the order
so I was very confused hard to how to
tell him that and I told him that you
have already ordered it you cannot
cancel but anyway he canceled the order
he said I cannot take this machine now
so again there was some mind so
immediately a story came to my mind of a
priest this priest has gone for a puja
performing a puja in a house so he
performed a puja after this puja he gets
a goat from the owner of the house the
goat he puts on his shoulders and trying
to take it to the home there were three
terms they have seen this guy taking
this goat they wanted to take it from
him and they wanted to put some trick
what they did one of the tux told him
that why are you carrying a donkey on
your head he puts down the goat and sees
this is a dog not a donkey then he goes
on again one kilometer two kilometers so
the next truck camps and tells why are
you carrying a monkey on your head he is
very confused now he again puts it down
and sees is not a monkey and he goes
again third guy tells him why are you
carrying a cat on your head you know
very confused he thinks this is a ghost
he leaves that thing and he runs away he
said I am NOT going to carry this
because there is some problem
somebody saying monkey Dunkey catch
anything dog so he just leaves that and
runs away so I told the doctor that
whether you want to get confused by
these ideas or you want to go for your
conscious so he finally decided that
definitely I will go for this machine so
these are the stories which came to my
mind when I am sales and there were many
many times when we have failures and we
have learned from our failures more than
what we learn from our successes I tell
you an example of this doctor dr. Mookie
and he was in ruining in Delhi so this
doctor is a very good doctor he was
using the competition machines earlier
so now he was using a competition
machines so we thought that we should
not go to him well anyway he’s already
using he will take for his new center he
will take the similar machines but I
thought let me have a friendship with
him we will go will present so as the
talks were progressing we were talking
to him we’re meeting him again and again
we’ve demonstrated our machines he liked
our machines he liked our prize
everything but in the end he said that
my relationship with other company is
very strong so sorry i cannot buy your
machines I said fine sir it’s your
decision it’s okay sometimes it happens
and sometimes you lose sometimes you win
it’s life no problem who I went back
though he felt a little bad that you
have done a lot of hard work but still
you lose so some days 15-20 days back
right he called me he said that I want
to give you a lead one of the guys
nearby who is it opening a charitable
Hospital he wants to buy a CT scanner
why don’t you go and meet him and one
thing I want to tell you about that guy
he decides very fast so give the price
very fast and give the configuration you
want to finalize and within one or two
days he will finalize so this
information was in my head so I went to
him without even knowing about
competition could know about it I closed
the order and done everything so why the
time competition could come into some
kind of action the things were done and
he has helped me a lot so even if you
lose or you win don’t lose your heart
because if you have done your work
properly that guy is going to help you
in some way or the
this is what my learning from this story
was and there are many other stories
which are the stories will be lost the
second story i will tell you about the
biology action hospital this was also a
competition account and i thought of
fighting it out so I used to tell my
team and myself both that it’s like a
gita gurgaon you have to do your work
and forget about the result because
result will anyway come it is your
Karma’s so don’t worry about the butt
hole of the management and the team used
to discourage us that you don’t have
anything else to follow why you were
following these guys so regular
rigorously you’re wasting your time and
my CEO was also troubled by this because
he has to visit many times to this
account so every quarter i used to say
that this order will come in q1 we have
a quarterly targets so i used to say
this this quarter this will come it
never came in q1 then quarter to quarter
3 gone quarter for gone next year
started quarter one gone two gone three
gone so my CEO got very angry he said
shake her you are wasting your time as
well as mine time I think you are being
used by this customer and you are just
wasting your time and my time again and
again and don’t talk to my about this
customer take it out of your prospect
list immediately take it out I said okay
I was also very much disheartened
because i made the 5200 times i made
this customer at least 100 times and I
was also liked very much and happy now
that even my management is not happy and
here the customer is not giving the
order so I so into this thing that now
what to do at this point in time nothing
was coming to my mind so I just drove
down to the md and the chairman of the
hospital who is a big businessman he is
having more than thousand two thousand
crowed business and this guy is very big
guy so I went to him and I asked him
very politely sir are you serious about
us or you are just using me I told him
the same vs or you’re using me to get a
better price from the other comes
company he got too annoyed with me he
said how can you ask me this question
I said no no sir just because like we
were following you up you’re doing so
much things whatever you asking we are
doing you are asking about the payment
terms you are asking about the products
you are asking about demonstrations
everything we did but we are not getting
it we got too angry he has written a
mail to my boss that mr. Sibal has
insulted me by asking this question that
whether i am using him it’s a very big
statement he has given it’s a very
loaded statement he has given very
unhappy with me so i also thought that
now order has gone or something like
that then he called me that i want to
visit your head office with you and i
want to finalize you come prepared with
all your data and everything whatever
you want to keep and i will decide for
the best machine whichever is the best
machine which is the best combination i
will decide for that I said okay we got
the tickets done everything for five
guys we flown to Bangalore our head
office was at bangalore with my boss my
CEO and he was still in the mode that
they will not place the order with you
don’t worry that they’re just taking you
for a ride I said finds her let us see
so I took them layer and finally the
luck would have it they place the order
with us and we supplied the machines
finally we supplied the machines and he
has then sent me a message that I was
not using you so this was a result of
our presence that we were after him
whatever management thought whatever
everybody is thought but we were having
a faith in a sense that yes we are going
to win so there can be lot of things
which can happen things can go negative
but don’t have a never said you should
have an attitude of never say die so
that kind of attitude is sales is very
very important and I say that in life
also it is very very important so there
are many other stories like that recent
example is the max deal where we lost
that deal it was a pax order is a very
big order what we did is this there was
a pax order we have to demonstrate our
packs to the management and we goofed up
hours people hooked up along with me and
the we could not demonstrate on the d
day that we have the demonstration of
all the companies were there we could
not demonstrate the product properly so
they said you are not in the picture
okay so we are not consider
and the company which was having earlier
packs installation they have considered
that company and an Indian company they
have considered so I but okay I said
okay quick no problem I told my sales
team please keep on going and meeting
them again and again so the captain
meeting again the head of department
changed so new head of department
thought that you should have a new demo
so he has taken a demo and again he has
put us in so we were inside the race
again we were also there we were very
happy that we are actually at least we
are inside then we had made a very
unique solution for the customer which
is a pay-per-use basis solution where
they did not have to invest anything so
we have made that solution for them it
was wonderfully done and the agreement
was to be signed between us and them
final agreement was where they have
sentenced the draft of the agreement
there were certain terms and conditions
which we could not take we could not
assign those conditions because of
various reasons penalty clauses and all
so we said that we want these changes so
I was thinking that somehow we will
agree on certain things they will agree
on certain things so balance will happen
and finally we will come to an agreement
but luck would have it our service
manager he left the job our pack sales
head he left the job and they are CIU
the chief information officer also left
the job so the new guys came in from our
side as well as their side and there was
a lot of confusion that we could not
understand what he was saying because we
were thinking that order is in our hands
because we had an agreement to sign and
he wanted something else our guys wanted
something else so in between we fought
with each other and we parted and the
order has gone to other company finally
so we lost this order and that too we
were fighting for more than two years
two to three years we were in out in out
and then finally we were out so we were
very happy that we are out luck would
have it after 3-4 months they have
called us for another big order of
digitalization for all their 12 hospital
max hospitals they said that okay we
could not give you that order at that
point in time but the new order is there
for you for
the for imager for crs and for this so
hopefully this time you will not do any
goof up and our misunderstanding will
not be there so we also accepted their
order and we installed so I would like
to tell you that life is full of ups and
downs and the sales is also like a life
and we don’t have to get disheartened
never-say-die attitude is the most
important attitude number one passion
for your job this is also a very very
important thing whether you win loose
does not matter honesty and the hard
work these pays in the last anyone who
is honest and hardworking people see
that you have worked very hard they
cannot give you that order or that time
you will not win it is ok but definitely
the result will come in some other form
or they will help you so never lose
heart and be positive about everything
thank you very much thanks [Applause]