BE GENUINE AND SHOW INTEREST IN PEOPLE

Back in 2006 when I finished my final year exam I have decided to work in any organization till my results are out but I was keen on working in sales and marketing as I was thinking of doing an MBA. So I started working for one of the telecom companies in the sales dept for selling post-paid cards. My job was to do sales to small or medium corporate clients in the assigned region. Every single day I and our team use to make several cold calls to clients and try to close as many possible deals. During those days I have met, dealt with many clients with different personalities. Some deals were closed smoothly some took time and too much effort to convince a client for buying our company card.

One day during my cold call I visited a small company who were in medicine mfg. I met Mr. Dhanajay owner of the company who was in a rush so he gave me his residence add and gave me time and asked me to meet him at his residence. When I entered his place I was so impressed with the interior and home décor that the first word that came out of my mouth was “What a house it is”. With my reaction, Mr. Dhanajay offered me a walk around his home first and while walking through his house I observed 1 thing on each table, desk, or centerpiece there was a cigarette litter and all were looked expensive. Out of curiosity, I asked him about it, and thereafter we had around 60- 90 min discussion where he showed me his collection of lighter and sunglass and I was genuinely listening to him and showing interest in his collection and his talk. After all this discussion I started explaining to him all benefits and offering of our companies’ cards. He simply cut my sentence and said its ok you just tell me what all document required from my side and when can I get my connection I need a total of 8 connections. That’s it and I closed the deal for 8 cards.

Initially, I did not understand how the hell it happened as I had smooth deals earlier but without knowing our offering or any details no one has taken connection from me. Then I decided once his cards are ready I will visit him again and talk to him.

On my next visit, I upfront asked him that why he without getting into any details took connection from me. And his reply on this taught me the lesson of my life, he said “Son I run a small company and my experience is the same as that of your age and I can easily tell who is genuine and who is not” and he added further that the way I was showing genuine interest in his hobby and his area of interest he trusts that I can never cheat anyone and will not sell any wrong product to him or anyone in this world.

Lesson Learnt

“BE GENUINE AND ALWAYS SHOW GENUINE INTEREST IN PEOPLE”