Interestingly, with the meeting with a client fixed for Wednesday, I still haven't got the time to make presentations, ideally, I would have preferred the traditional approach, make some presentations, carry brochures, costing and pricing details and a proposal template to clinch the deal on the spot. Normally, an approach to the client involves talking to the client and his colleagues, and often enough, there is not enough time to convince them on the product quality. The talk centres around the Product Pricing, most clients are so price specific that they will not deviate even 5% from the target in mind. So my approach is to present the product and then have four or five pricing themes ready. I think, I have become very Chinese in my approach.
Friend of mine from Darjeeling, a state of India very close to China,
Prasanna Subba, taught me to be cool under pressure, we were working together for Dell International Services then and the work pressure was immense, from taking calls, to calling back, updating the specifications mentally and then handling the tension that the Area Sales Manager would dump on us.
Prasanna would sit on his workstation at least 15 minutes before the shift started, he would seem to be working, but mostly he would be on Opera Mini, the mini browser from Opera, that would bypass the security set up by the administrator, talking on Facebook and browsing the net. I believe the Network Administrator had left that open so that he could himself browse the net and then the word got around and Prasanna, the networker that he was, got around to using it.
"Hi ! good morning, how are you doing ?" I said to him as I passed his workstation.
"Too you to, sir." with a pleasant face that never changed.
"Did you get my message that I was going to be late ?" I asked him, knowing he would feign ignorance as he had probably forgotten to tell Vikram, the Manager about me coming in late.
"No," he said predictably with the same poker face. Sometimes I felt like punching that face, but I was in love with this guy of Chinese antecedents. He made my day, with the perfect smile and composure, spoke in hushed tones to everyone and evoked in me the same thought process. While Prasanna was around I never lost my cool or spoke in a high tone voice, we were probably people with similar mindsets who valued their peace of mind more than anything else. In 2007, Dell was our office in Gurgaon and we had started to work together, certainly friends and two people who admired each other.
This morning too, Vikram was throwing a tantrum, "You guys have no integrity with respect to time, no value for my words and total disregard for authority."
"Vikram, the cab was late," I spoke to him coolly, knowing that the detached approach always worked better with him.
"You should have told me, there is nobody on the floor and the clients are screaming hell, you are my best man and I expect some more responsibility from you," he shouted back.
Immediately, I remembered the last time I had asked him for a sick leave and how agitated he had become, as if to fall ill was a cardinal sin. Prasanna had come to my aid with this thought then, "Stay home, don't call him, let him call you." Well, I certainly wasn't going to call him and disturb my ride in the cab, and I just messaged Prasanna who had conveniently forgotten about it. His Chinese antecedents were more than a match for anyone, he would take it easy, but his mind would be in full swing. Even when we would talk to the clients he was always thinking of making one big sale, all the talk would go into convincing the client into buying that one big item that would make his numbers and bonuses. Going for the big one was in his blood and he would stop at nothing achieving it.
Though I lost touch with Prasanna after I left Dell, I believe I inherited some of his sales acumen then. So, if today the presentations aren't ready, it doesn't scare me, for I have the gift of the gab apart from all possible documentation ready on the Notepad, my preferred writing device on the laptop. Its like each Notepad file is an item for my storyboard, one on Inverters, another on PV Panels, another on Batteries, everything in bits and pieces distributed in a folder called Solar. I wish for a program that would allow me to port Notepad files into a presentation, sought of batch process, then my life would be a lot easier. People often ask me why I use Notepad and not Microsoft Word or even Wordpad, they think it is a little primitive writing in Notepad. But I kind of like the stickiness of a Notepad, and the so called primitive interface is simplicity divine. There is no formatting to worry about except "Word Wrap" and it is fast and slick program that can be opened in a small window while taking notes and items from websites or other documents.
My product pricing, which as I explained is so critical for any business meeting is simple, the model being a USA based one, the pricing totally Indian. Compare a Rs 108/watt USA based pricing to a Rs 40/watt Indian counterpart. This would imply that a 1kW PV array System that would cost approximately $11,090 in the USA could be got at approximately 2/3s the price in India. There was a time in India that the pricing was at Rs 225/watt but over a period of 4 years there has been a sharp drop in the prices of cells and manufacturing costs have come down as well. So my Costing Notepad says, Indians are better than the US panels in pricing, however interesting there is still no talk of product quality. Since the specifications have not been adequately supplied, it seems fairly difficult to understand what product quality is preferred. Therefore my Notepad has three prices, Grade A, B and C. Take your pick, I will supply you with the one best suited for your budget.
Ever since I got into Sales I have realised that my job is talk about the product and keep it entertaining while at the same time while keeping it efficient as well. I don't worry about the Sales Pitch, as much as I worry about keeping the minds of all concerned in a state of constant thought. There is precious little that can be achieved if we don't have positivity. All the talk and game will keep the persons engaged and will give me time and space to think. So dream up some nice game and integrate it within the presentation. Last, I remember in one of my research presentations I had built in a golf game as a model. The presentation had all gone too well, till one of the clients potted a hole-in-one.
Its game time folks, let the ball roll.
Prasanna would sit on his workstation at least 15 minutes before the shift started, he would seem to be working, but mostly he would be on Opera Mini, the mini browser from Opera, that would bypass the security set up by the administrator, talking on Facebook and browsing the net. I believe the Network Administrator had left that open so that he could himself browse the net and then the word got around and Prasanna, the networker that he was, got around to using it.
"Hi ! good morning, how are you doing ?" I said to him as I passed his workstation.
"Too you to, sir." with a pleasant face that never changed.
"Did you get my message that I was going to be late ?" I asked him, knowing he would feign ignorance as he had probably forgotten to tell Vikram, the Manager about me coming in late.
"No," he said predictably with the same poker face. Sometimes I felt like punching that face, but I was in love with this guy of Chinese antecedents. He made my day, with the perfect smile and composure, spoke in hushed tones to everyone and evoked in me the same thought process. While Prasanna was around I never lost my cool or spoke in a high tone voice, we were probably people with similar mindsets who valued their peace of mind more than anything else. In 2007, Dell was our office in Gurgaon and we had started to work together, certainly friends and two people who admired each other.
This morning too, Vikram was throwing a tantrum, "You guys have no integrity with respect to time, no value for my words and total disregard for authority."
"Vikram, the cab was late," I spoke to him coolly, knowing that the detached approach always worked better with him.
"You should have told me, there is nobody on the floor and the clients are screaming hell, you are my best man and I expect some more responsibility from you," he shouted back.
Immediately, I remembered the last time I had asked him for a sick leave and how agitated he had become, as if to fall ill was a cardinal sin. Prasanna had come to my aid with this thought then, "Stay home, don't call him, let him call you." Well, I certainly wasn't going to call him and disturb my ride in the cab, and I just messaged Prasanna who had conveniently forgotten about it. His Chinese antecedents were more than a match for anyone, he would take it easy, but his mind would be in full swing. Even when we would talk to the clients he was always thinking of making one big sale, all the talk would go into convincing the client into buying that one big item that would make his numbers and bonuses. Going for the big one was in his blood and he would stop at nothing achieving it.
Though I lost touch with Prasanna after I left Dell, I believe I inherited some of his sales acumen then. So, if today the presentations aren't ready, it doesn't scare me, for I have the gift of the gab apart from all possible documentation ready on the Notepad, my preferred writing device on the laptop. Its like each Notepad file is an item for my storyboard, one on Inverters, another on PV Panels, another on Batteries, everything in bits and pieces distributed in a folder called Solar. I wish for a program that would allow me to port Notepad files into a presentation, sought of batch process, then my life would be a lot easier. People often ask me why I use Notepad and not Microsoft Word or even Wordpad, they think it is a little primitive writing in Notepad. But I kind of like the stickiness of a Notepad, and the so called primitive interface is simplicity divine. There is no formatting to worry about except "Word Wrap" and it is fast and slick program that can be opened in a small window while taking notes and items from websites or other documents.
My product pricing, which as I explained is so critical for any business meeting is simple, the model being a USA based one, the pricing totally Indian. Compare a Rs 108/watt USA based pricing to a Rs 40/watt Indian counterpart. This would imply that a 1kW PV array System that would cost approximately $11,090 in the USA could be got at approximately 2/3s the price in India. There was a time in India that the pricing was at Rs 225/watt but over a period of 4 years there has been a sharp drop in the prices of cells and manufacturing costs have come down as well. So my Costing Notepad says, Indians are better than the US panels in pricing, however interesting there is still no talk of product quality. Since the specifications have not been adequately supplied, it seems fairly difficult to understand what product quality is preferred. Therefore my Notepad has three prices, Grade A, B and C. Take your pick, I will supply you with the one best suited for your budget.
Ever since I got into Sales I have realised that my job is talk about the product and keep it entertaining while at the same time while keeping it efficient as well. I don't worry about the Sales Pitch, as much as I worry about keeping the minds of all concerned in a state of constant thought. There is precious little that can be achieved if we don't have positivity. All the talk and game will keep the persons engaged and will give me time and space to think. So dream up some nice game and integrate it within the presentation. Last, I remember in one of my research presentations I had built in a golf game as a model. The presentation had all gone too well, till one of the clients potted a hole-in-one.
Its game time folks, let the ball roll.
