“Communication is one of the qualities that sets apart transactional managers from the transformational ones, achievers from visionaries and visionaries from missionaries. Everyone has to communicate constantly”.

These are the only lines which caught my attention in the boring business article I was reading while flying back from Mumbai to Delhi. I thought to myself, “Hey Sales is not much different as one has to constantly communicate and communicate effectively”. Sales is almost like Maths only the ones who know how to do it will love it and rest will hate it. My name is Vikas and I’m going to talk to you about Sales in Zomato. A job I do and a job I love doing.

What is Sales?
I often refer to a scene from the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” where in an epic scene :- Chris Gardner (Will Smith) runs from the police station for his interview dressed inappropriately and tries to defend himself. He starts by saying “I am a type of person, if you ask me a question and I don’t know the answer, I am going to tell you that I don’t know, but I bet I know how to find the answer and I will find the answer.” To what the Interviewer asks “Chris what would say if a guy walked into an interview without a shirt on? and I hired him, what would you say? ” Chris Gardner “He must have had some really nice pants on.” That’s it right there – A Sale. Wikipedia defines Sales as an act of selling products or services in return for compensation usually monetary. Selling just does not mean selling X product to Y Customer only. You can sell anything. And everyone does sales directly. They just don’t see it that way. You can sell your qualities to an Interviewer for a getting a job. You can sell the idea of “Bungee jumping not being crazy” to your parents. You can even try to sell a lie to your girlfriend “that she is the most beautiful girl you ever met” (My girlfriend is btw). We all keep selling our ideas, decisions, beliefs to other people on a day to day basis without even knowing it.

Selling can’t be taught but learned
Selling can never be taught but most definitely can be learned. If you think you have to study Master in Business Administration or do a major in Sales to become a top sales person you are sorely mistaken. The degree might help you to get a bigger picture of what the market is about and give you a better perspective of things, it might teach you 100 theories, scenarios, case-studies but it will never teach you how to sell. Sales is like “Acting”. You either have an aptitude to act or you can’t. This is the raw talent part. Those who think they can acquire the skills by going to some acting/sales school or just reading some books are fooling themselves into thinking pure method can bring them greatness. I strongly believe it’s something you either have or you don’t. You can learn the rules, the product details, the dos and don’ts but it is very important to be natural which is very vital both in Acting and Sales. There is actually no book of rule which teaches you all the guidelines as most of your learning is self-acquired and it comes naturally to you while dealing with real-time situations. Let me take another example. Clay Pottery. Everyone can be given the same amount of clay, told what to make in the exact right amounts, spin the right amount but it’s almost always impossible to tell someone what to make. The set of skills/pitch is up to the Potter or Salesman to mould into which shape/words to satisfy the client. Sales is not easy to do. Sales needs vision and sales needs you to be constantly on your toes.

The view on Sales
Sales, though, is not rocket science however which is beyond the reach of mere mortals. It cannot be taught, but it can be learned. Most of us can pick up on it. It’s all about perspective and how you view it. On the one hand it could be just talking, proving your point and getting your client to agree to your terms. On the other it means stealing lots of money from the other person’s pocket. Like a legal thief. You have a commission to go and convince the other guy to give you his money. I can name so many people who studied business & sales but cannot even sell to save their lives but some of the best sales people manage to sell their concepts on a day to day basis without studying a single word. You know who these people are? You see them on the road everyday. They are known as “Beggars” who sell their misery to us and most of us buy it, not because we are great human beings but because they are great salespeople. Radical isn’t it?

So how can I get good at sales?
Essential qualities needed to be a good salesman someone asked me once. I think there are quite a few.

Being many animals:- If I had to compare a perfect salesman to an animal I wouldn’t be able to. Thus I would like borrow certain characteristics of a few animals which I think is required to make a perfect Salesman, inspired by our article on Startups need Assasins. A perfect Salesman should be able to adapt or change his pitch as fast as the chameleon changes its colour. A Salesman’s persistency to cold-call, follow up, and to haunt the client for those promised cheques should be no less than a woodpecker who keeps hammering that tree over and over again. A Salesman should be as patient as a crocodile that waits for his prey to be vulnerable before going for the kill. A Perfect Salesman should always know how to switch between an aggressive Tiger and a calm Elephant depending on the demanding situation.

Being proficient in communication:- A Salesman has to be very proficient in whatever language he or she chooses to communicate in. He should also be a very good at presentation. Most people take you seriously only if your presentation is good. It reminds me of the fact of how a Salesman should also possess traits of a TV-Journalist as most of the times they themselves have no idea what they are talking about but it is the way they present it which is so intriguing that our minds end up believing them. Sales is not very different as most of the times Salesmen tends to overstate the quality of their product and creates a dream like image of their product, in the end it is really not the product which the client is interested in but the dream which the salesman puts in his head. That is exactly why I have always said that “Selling does not merely mean selling a product but a belief and the one who knows how to sell that can sell anything”

Listening always: –  One of the most important qualities a Salesman should possess, which most of  them lack including me, is a good pair of ears. A good salesman always gives the other party a chance to speak and put their point forward so they know what the client requires and what exactly to give him.

Being an optimist:- Last but not the least I think a salesman should be an “Uber Optimist” towards everything. Whenever a client says “Let me think about it” “I will get back to you” “Let me mull over it  “Send me a proposal” I personally take it very positively and feel half my job is done and consider them as potential deals. Nobody will tell you right away “Great I am doing it” “Oh Sure bring it On.”. The ones who will are probably having “fun” with you. There would be times when not one , not two but all five people you were planning to call will not pick up your calls one after the other and you will feel as if they were all sitting in one common room cracking jokes, laughing at you for calling them one after the other. There would be times when you will have the appointment and suddenly your client will “get stuck somewhere”. There will be times when you will be at the client’s doorstep to collect that cheque he has been promising you from 3 weeks and as soon as the big moment will arrive your client will make a stupid face and say “Oh yaar meri Cheque book hi ghar gayi, koi baat nai mein courier karwadoonga” to which you should always smile back and say “Oh hoo..koi baat nahi mein phir ajaunga lene aap batao kab ana hai ?” There will be times when clients will say “Yaar Vikas mein thoda late hojaunga traffic mein phasa hua hoon aap ko nikalna hai toh nikal jao “ to which you say “no problems buddy I have lots of friends in the area I am chilling around you tell me whenever you are here” .

In Conclusion It is very important to stay positive, stay focused and believe in yourself otherwise a job in sales could be very frustrating because even the best of salesmen are not going to crack a deal everyday. It’s a battle out there for almost everything whether it’s the first meeting, whether it’s about an agreement, whether it’s the prices or whether it is about collecting the payments. An average Salesman wakes up every morning to meet a complete stranger to argue and fight with him for no reason but to sell. Sales people have to prove themselves over and over again, quarter after quarter in order to earn that salary and the company’s revenue. Something which is not always a direct cause for concern in many other positions where if one learns the ropes, one can settle down and relax at some point but in sales it’s a perpetual demand for more , more and more. Know the three most important things about Sales:- 1. It is NOT a Sale until your cheque clears in the bank. 2. It is NOT a Sale until your cheque clears in the bank. 3. It is NOT a Sale until your cheque clears in the bank. Sales does NOT happen overnight and it is a long process of “from fixing up a meeting to meeting to convincing the client to signing the contract to collecting payments” The only key to achieve it is to never give up. Keep pushing it as much as you can without being disrespectful to the client and treat every meeting as your last meeting and give it the best you can.

Really in conclusion As Jim Rohn says “you don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour”. As you notice I am a salesman because I can’t seem to talk or write about sales so I’ll end with the most ignored truth about Sales. It is all about hard work and lots of luck! You have to be with the right person at the right time. I would say 50% counts for your effort and the rest 50% on your luck. If you are a good salesman you will always convert the 50% luck favouring you into a 100% sale with your smart work. Why don’t you excuse me now I have to make a call to my client! Thanks.