Modi-fying Sales
Sales is like Pandora’s box. It seems so easy from outside, but as they say if anything seems that easy then possibly you aren’t exploring its depth. So instead of throwing a stone in the well to check its depth, I threw myself in. And O’ God, the way I emerged. I emerged like Alice in the Wonderland. I emerged like the first ray of sunshine in the morning. I emerged like the ‘Salary Credited’ pop-up message on the phone. Know the feeling? If I could have captured myself while starting my journey fresh out of college to one of the leading start-ups in the country, it would’ve been like this —
Sales means so many things in one word that I always think of running a petition to change its name to something significant and complex. But I have to remind myself that I’m Modi and not Yogi. Darn it. Anyway, to understand Sales better, imagine yourself traveling in a train — which possibly you’d be doing often if you are in sales. Know the feeling while entering a dark tunnel? The black box. The feeling of sheer hunger and rush to go to the other corner to stab the white light. That’s the precise nature of sales. Now don’t argue with me if you travel in flight, I can’t set-up two long look-a-like towers here in India to give you that rush. But I know most of you don’t like words, & hence, in the next photo let me show you how my heart rate is in sales. Sigh.
Anyway, I’m not here to write a book on Sales. There are better people out there who are more suitable for the job. I don’t even wish to try as it would be harsh on him if Mr. Kotler lost his job during these grieving times. I’m here to tell you a story. A story of mystical lands, colorful clouds, and chocolate fountains. And I do need a salesperson to sell them, reach out to me should you be interested.
Tell me have you heard about Bootstrap Paradox? Example — Mr. Damodar is just a teacher at a high school. One fine day, a portal opens up and his future self pops out and hands him a book about time-travel and with that book Mr. Damodar invents a time machine ten years later. Go through it again, take your time to comprehend the endless loop. When I joined OfBusiness, my first day in the Ahmedabad office was a plain shock. I started wondering this is just a room-cum-office and was I wise enough to join here leaving behind a new fledgling consulting job. In that moment, I think I met my future self who asked me to stick to it and you will have it big. In a year, we bought a new fancy office which is a statement for what all we have achieved in that short span of time. I will happily be a part of this endless loop to tell my past-self to stick to it.
This story is intertwined into the webs of time and of chaos. There is no end, no beginning. But tell me first, do you believe in fate? Were you destined to do what you have been doing today? Impact. Join me to do a small activity? I call it the 10-sec Flashback method — close your eyes for 10 secs, and go through your entire life till date. The important events will pop up that have defined your life to what it is today. Is it vague and cloudy, or does it bring a smile, it speaks volume. Mine always starts with failing in Mathematics in standard 6th. Setback. And there is a good upswing. And yet multiple setbacks. I do take pride in my work — quite a decent sales person. But is it all that I want to be? Maybe not. No. I always like to be in my head, and talking to myself verbosely. During my IIM stint, my room was my palace of illusion but it goes back to childhood where my toy-train was my greatest friend. Wonder how an introvert can be a sales person? Ambition.
A good few seconds of my 10 sec flashback consists of my last two years at my workplace. I smile innocently. I saw here the talent of people, and also the people of talent and in that moment, I had to make a note — it won’t be enough to just achieve your targets but they are the eligibility criteria for other things to come. And thus began the journey to contribute my best to Gujarat’s 100+ CR book; pioneering the secured portfolio in the West; securing the top position for Infranity Stoners in the North and West OPL; and ensuring to travel hooks and nooks of all cities across Gujarat and then parts of MP and Maharashtra. My timeline in Google Maps has been chaotic for the last two years. Versatility. Today, I am one of the Editors of our monthly newsletter and the creator for TMT — The Monthly Tadka. Lockdown period offered me and a few colleagues to start a wonderful and insightful webinar named O’FAQ! Iceberg Right Ahead. I doubt if I know it all but whatever I know, I entrust myself to pass it on to the new blood. That led me to create a comic series — Be Like Tony, and now formally we have launched a learning program named TRP — The Rockstar Program for the MTs. You must know, when you learn through these programmes, I learn along with you. Last but not least, I believe we don’t have a ‘Management’ at OfBusiness, instead we have ‘Mentors’. Many who also supported my work on an Instagram comic series — Butt_Sir.
All these, and yet I’m not content. Point is I don’t ever want to be content. In between the process, Kit-Kats are okay but a fevicol isn’t. Don’t worry, Mr. Kotler has no threat yet. I need more and I should get more and that’s the Mantra I want to base my story on. I don’t want to be the brightest star in the sky — the North Star. No, I don’t. Have you ever glanced at the weakest blinking star at the corner of the sky? They aren’t weak, they are simply far — far from all the noise and all the crowd. How about that?
So I ask myself where am I? Where do I stand? Am I a butterfly dreaming of a person’s life, or just a person dreaming to be a butterfly? You wouldn’t get it as it is intertwined in the web of time and chaos. But trust me, when I say it that it is all worth it. It is beautiful. It is blissful. I am at a place that has endless dreams, endless possibilities. I am at Ofbusiness.
So come and tell me if you are ready to open your Pandora’s Box of Sales. Come again and tell me your mystical story about it. Come, come again and tell me if you ever believed in your fate, and if so then how to go beyond it.