Joy Of Sales

Of late I have been interacting with a lot of young management trainees/ graduates and one question I am frequently bombarded with is, what do you love about sales? Is it Numbers? Selling? Targets? Travelling? Well I am not sure if the “Joy of Sales” is about one of these, rather the joy of sales for me is a kaleidoscope of the 4 sales P's.

 Let me try and decode the 4P’s and why these “4” together create the perfect sales symphony.

The 1st P # People: I have worked across length and breadth of India, I have come to a conclusion that one of the biggest joy of sales is “Meeting different kinds of people and at a regular frequency “. A sales person may not say this, but subconsciously a big “Kick” and “joy” for him is meeting people. What’s interesting are the varied type of people he/she meets.

Let me explain this with an example with a routine day of a front line sales rep in a typical FMCG organization in India.

Sales person Raj {who is from Delhi working in Tamil Nadu} starts his day meeting his channel partner { a tough bully who bargains hard with Raj and at the end of the bargain both of them together have their first cup of tea, now discussing state politics.} Raj over the day meets a Small Pan shop owner {bullies him a bit and gets his share of Joy both bullying and selling him his products}, then meeting one big retailer { who makes him wait for an hour before meeting Raj, but at the end Raj manages to sell his products to him…Another win and lots of joy }. Raj ends his day with his sales reps, giving them “Gyan/Knowledge”, and beaming with joy seeing them grow and perform under his tutelage.

The above “joy of meeting and working with” different kinds of people is true across sales levels e.g. for a senior sales leader, working with his varied and different sales managers and getting them to work on a common goal is a sheer joy in itself.

To summarize – Sales people love working with “People” and a good sales person will always be a good at managing people.

The 2nd P # Places {Travelling}: I always remember my first official train journey {a group of 20 odd management trainees}, travelling from Mumbai to Delhi. The group was a mix of sales, finance and HR trainees, and during this journey is when I realized the demarcation of sales vs rest of the people.

The sales lot was super excited about the 20 odd hour journey, getting out on every station, running to buy food from the platform vendors, playing cards, discussing the moving landscape, essentially enjoying every bit of the journey. Shift to the non-sales lot {True for most of them}, reading a book, sleeping and yes a bit grumpy about the long train journey.

This is when I realized that most of the sales people love travelling. They love exploring places and yes sense of pride too about the number of places they get to visit & see. Ask a sales person: Hey you look busy these days? The most likely answer with a gleam of pride will be: Yes I have been busy travelling.

And yes the 2nd P i.e. Place, gives the sales person an increased 1st P i.e. meeting new and different people.

The 3rd P # Performance: “Targets” &” Achievements” is an absolute adrenal rush for a sales person {Irrespective of hierarchy, years in sales, organization, age, religion, country, state etc. etc.}. Achieving ones monthly targets is no less than a batsman hitting a century and achieving the annual targets is like hitting a century in a world cup final { oh yes and the last 3 days of the month is similar to being in the nervous 90’s}.

Take “Numbers” out of a Sales Person and he is like fish without water. His absolute joy and moment of pride are hitting his numbers. {One very senior leader in my organization jokingly told me, when numbers are happening for you, the world around you becomes just a bit nicer. You wife is nicer to you, your food always tastes better, your dog wags his tail a bit more and yes you get more green lights and less traffic on your way to work }

The 3rd “P” both rewards and recognizes a sales person, which leads to the 4th and final “P”

The 4th P # Pat on the Back {Recognition}. Sales people are like kids, wanting attention and seeking their –Moment of Glory-. They just love “Getting a Pat on their back”. The absolute joy when their boss writes a mail to the entire organization or puts that one liner on the WhatsApp group saying “Mr. /Ms. XYZ -fantastic performance, you are one hell of a sales person”. The statement has the same value as “You getting the best students award during the college annual day”.

Recognition, competition, the drive to be the best and getting recognized is what a sales person {Across levels and sales hierarchy} aspires for and yes the ultimate joy of being recognized amongst his peers as being the best.

Yes I love Sales and having spent 5+ Years in Sales, I can say with a fair degree of confidence that the 4P’s of Sales are what drives almost every one in Sales……

And now I miss this a lot as I hardly get similar kick in any other professional work..

Once a sales person ,Always a sales person