SUNDAY LEARNINGS
12th May 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Amit Kumar
I asked Mr. Amit Kumar, ex- ED of IBM, How do you differentiate yourself from competition in sales?
He replied I think the simplest thing to do, is not worry about what you are selling but worry about the customer’s business. There is enough domain information available, either in the public domain or in places like LinkedIn, etc. So from the supplier’s supplier to the customer’s customer, you have to understand the customer’s domain and build expertise there.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
5th May 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Sanjay Vakharia (CEO – Spykar)
Mr. Sanjay Vakharia (CEO – Spykar) has seen cycles in the fashion industry so when asked how selling has changed from the 90’s; he replied I don’t think selling has changed, but the environment around it has changed so much that you have to model accordingly. And I would like to talk about the clothing industry as I have been part of this industry since early days and have really seen this industry and especially the sales and the markets evolve very significantly.
In earlier times we had multibrand outlets only, and they were owner driven. We call them the mom-and-pop stores. Earlier they nearly had a monopolistic market for themselves with absence of large format department stores or even the exclusive brand outlets. The brands and the sales people were treated with utmost disdain, and with no respect, which has changed now considerable, with emergence of many other organized channels of sales.
Today, there are a million and more ways to reach out to the customers, and hence no one in the chain takes the other person casually. Even they way the end consumer is attended has changed.while the customer themselves have eveolved and is a lot more in the know so its no more selling but attending to him. Every one in the chain has become more consumer centric and realizes that a customer in your store is worth his weight in gold so ensure that he stays with you and frequents you.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
28th Apr 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Sanjay Vakharia (CEO – Spykar)
Mr. Sanjay Vakharia (CEO – Spykar) is one of the passionate CEO I interviewed in my book. I asked for his advice to salespeople who want to make a career in fashion industry. He replied Most important is, one should not really look down on sales as a function. Of late, I have seen a lot of people not wanting to be part of sales. They probably just want to chase the ladder up and move to marketing or various other functions, while skipping the sales function. mostly because it is hard work., and you really have to wear your shoes off and take to the streets withstanding the vagaries of elements.
For any person to be successful, and any business to be successful, I think you really need to know what your markets are, and that is not possible at all unless and until they are in the field and doing the hard work and trying to figure out where your customers are, what they need, and how much your products or services are appreciated.
So I think, Sales as a function need to be embraced with utmost sincerity and dedication. One has to see how you can add value to your customers life, thereby making your proposition more relevant to him.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
21st Apr 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Manoj Adlakha, CEO of American Express
I asked Mr. Manoj Adlakha – CEO of American Express What does it take to be successful in B2B and B2C credit card selling? He replied I have had the privilege of running both B2B and B2C business for many year and now in my current role, I oversee them. In my opinion, a salesperson to be successful, should have strong fundamental knowledge, should be competent, right attitude and be result oriented.
One difference that I can point out is that B2B has to be more of a consultative selling as our clients there are CXOs – the CEOs and the CFOs. They are the ones taking the final decision, hence it is imperative to have strong knowledge about cash flows. At the same time, one needs to be more patient, as the gestation period in a B2B transaction can be fairly longer compared to that in B2C.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
14th Apr 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Manoj Adlakha – CEO of American Express
I asked him How do you earn trust and loyalty from your clients?
He replied Trust, Security and Service are three key pillars that we focus on to build strong relationship with our customers. For us a sale of a card is not just a mere transaction, it is the starting point of a relationship. There after we ensure that every interaction with our customers exceeds their expectations and we are able to think a step ahead and anticipate their needs.
We keep our customers interests as a top priority in all our actions and are always there for them when they need us. We have also built capabilities and features such as emergency card replacement, zero loss liability, 24/7 customer service and best in class Membership Rewards program which further reinforce our customer commitment. This has also earned us the title of India’s most trusted credit card brand for the third year in a row.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
7th Apr 24
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Mathew Job - 2
I asked Mr. Mathew Job, CEO – Crompton Greaves, how he approaches a situation when sales do not happen? He replied It is important is to understand what is working and what is not working at all times. Even when the results are good, we need to have clarity on what is leading to those results and what is not working. You might have implemented ten programs and even at the best of times, only eight of them might be delivering. It is important to learn which ones are not working and why.
When things get tougher then, you know exactly which areas you have to work harder on. Focus more on the ones that have been proven to work and implement corrective actions on the ones that have not worked.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
31st March 24
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Mathew Job - 1
I asked Mr. Mathew Job, CEO – Crompton Greaves, How have you built a long-term partnership with your trade partners? He replied with a detailed & practical answer. We have quite a few channel partners who have been partnering with the company for many generations. The most important thing is having a consistent and predictable policy so channel partners know what to expect and can rely on the company to deliver on their expectations.
The second thing that works is an engagement that goes beyond just business. We have trade partners meet in India or outside the country at least once a year and spend two or three days with them. It helps build a stronger personal bond as we spend significant time together with them and their families.
The third thing would be building a rapport with the company salespeople who handle them, and also giving them access to different levels of management of the company. Senior leaders in the company need to spend a significant amount of time meeting customers. That makes a big difference. Customers like engaging with the company at the highest levels.
Customer feedback must be acted on. You need to be able to go back to them and update them on the actions taken. It does not mean that all suggestions are acted upon. You need to be able to tell them what has been implemented and why some others were not implemented.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
24th March 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Devang Mody - 6
I learnt my biggest leadership trait from Mr. Devang Mody, CEO – Bajaj Finserv Health, that is, always give credit of success to team and say the failure is mine. when I requested him to share his thoughts on this, he said
It’s very simple. You are as good as your team’s performance. When you make them successful, you automatically win. About failure is mine, is also to make team successful. This creates a shield of security to fail with the team. That will make them “Try” more often. And without trying, you cannot succeed anyways.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
17th March 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Devang Mody - 5
I asked Mr. Devang Mody, CEO – Bajaj Finserv Health, How has leadership changed today compared to when you started your career?
He replied I think today’s leader is not an expert. He is adaptive, he wants to learn, and he also has to be jovial. The days of serious leaders are gone. Most leaders need to be inspirational. Inspirational doesn’t mean only extroverted. Inspirational means the people who are part of your team feel, “Yes, I can look up to this person for these things.”. It could be something operational,. If leaders are not inspirational, then people’s attention span will reduce. And people don’t respect authority. People today respect value addition.
People respect adaptiveness. People respect persistence, openness. I think today, it’s cool if your leader says, “I didn’t know that at all.” That shows, yes, my boss wants to learn. So I think it’s changed quite a bit, from authority to value addition. Also, I have observed that in today’s world you can create material difference only if you have breakthrough ideas. Such ideas have a chance of failure. A successful leader has to assume responsibility for all failure. I think it doesn’t happen too often. Most so-called leaders tell their subordinates, “If you have failed, you have failed,” but I think it doesn’t work like that. So, in that way leadership is changing quite rapidly.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
10th March 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Devang Mody - 4
Downcycles are part and parcel of any businessman or company’s life, so I asked Mr. Devang Mody, CEO – Bajaj Finserv Health, How have you handled the down cycles in business?
He replied I have a belief that if you don’t fail at all, that means you are not trying hard enough. So, you must have some failures, say a slump in sales or whatever. We hear words like market recession, industry failure, this not working, that is not working, competition etc from many leaders. Most important thing required to come out of failure is not to blame macro reasons to stakeholders as well as internal teams. You start that process by stopping to explain yourself that this bad patch is due to these things outside you. As when you blame macro, you are signaling that nothing can be done till those factors change. That way you feel that you are externalizing the blame. But in reality what you are doing is externalizing control. That way you will never come out.
You have to focus on what you as organization can do. Your people and your ecosystem will rise to occasion and bring you out of that problem . Someone someday is going to solve those problems. And key is you want to ensure that it is your team who is solving these problems most often. You focus your energy on what you can do. You will remit same to your teams. And most of them will try and solve that problems them selves rather than blaming the world. That’s what you want. And yoy will be able to come out of slump.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
3rd March 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Devang Mody - 3
Cross-selling and upselling are critical for any organization’s success, so I asked Mr. Devang Mody, CEO – Bajaj Finserv Health, how do you cross-sell in customer life cyle?
He replied, First, the key to cross-selling is knowing your customer well, how to use every touch point, to increase customer insight. Second, how do I translate that insight and my products to meet customer needs. That will automatically differentiate me to competition ( not having these insights). You will be able to cross sell / upsell successfully the next product for the same customer?
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
25th Feb 24
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Devang Mody - 2
I asked Mr Devang Mody, CEO – Bajaj Finserv Health, what are the 3 characteristics of successful salespeople? He replied First, you have to recognize that sales is your calling. If you don’t find a calling in sales, then however good the product is, however good the company is, you are not going to be happy.
Second, sales is slightly different from most of the other functions in any organization, and that difference stems from uncertainty. If you look at other functions – at operations in our business, at risk management, at marketing, at finance, at technology – there is an objective and you have to work to meet that objective, but 90 percent of the things are in your control. Sales is not like that. You have only 20 to 30 percent in your control, and the rest is dependent on need of that consumer and the power of your product and competitive position. Hence, you should be willing to venture into uncertainty. You should love the fact that there is a high possibility of sales not going through. It is not reflection of your effort, of your ability. A lot of the time it’s beyond you. So if you thrive in such situation, then sales is right for you.
The third is, the most important aspect of a salesperson is persistence. There is a chance of failure, and if you can remain “At it” forever, you will be a successful salesman.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
18th Feb 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Devang Mody
Mr. Devang Mody, CEO – Bajaj Finserv Health, has been my boss and guide in my professional life. Whatever I am today is because of the learnings I had working under him in GE Countrywide.
I took an opportunity to interview him in my book & share his wisdom with all readers. I asked him, How can we develop leaders in our organization? He eloquently replied People don’t do what you tell them to do. People do what you do. So, to groom people, you have to first practice what you want them to imitate. If you listen to your customers, your people will start listening. If you behave positively, then your people will start behaving positively. The method is simple: You start doing the behaviours you want to see, and that’s it.#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
11th Feb 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Kamal Nandi
Mr. Kamal Nandi has been leading organizations for a couple of decades so I got curious to understand his thoughts on Leadership now vs a couple of decades back, he said, It has changed quite a lot. I believe leaders now have moved to become more inclusive and encourage entrepreneurship than in those days.
About ten or twenty years ago, leader did the thinking and all the others worked on execution, but today it’s a lot more inclusive, more entrepreneurial. Everybody is expected to be a leader, to take their own decisions, to think on their own, contribute to the bigger picture. I think there has been a drastic change. The business strategy today is not created by a few in the organization; instead, it’s created by all the stakeholders, including your consumers and distributors. They all become part of strategy building.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
4th feb 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Kamal Nandi
Mr. Nandi would have trained thousands of salespeople in the B2B industry, including myself, so I asked him how a salesperson can build strong relationships with their distributors. He replied
I have always believed that sales is all about relationships because it is not about business to business or business to consumer, instead it is all about People to People. Therefore, maintaining a healthy relationship is an important aspect of any business. It drives many businesses, and to achieve this, the two critical things you must develop are trust and an attitude to serve. If you are able to genuinely display these, I think you will get very good at the people-to-people part of the business equation.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
28th Jan 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Kamal Nandi
Mr. Kamal Nandi has more than 3 decades of running a business so I asked him How do you approach slumps in business? He answered
Ups and downs are a part of the business cycle. We have seen many ups and downs in our industry, but I think it’s more important to work on some of the fundamentals of business.
First, you have to understand the business basics and then really focus on them because if you are working with clarity, the slumps in business will not impact you as much as they would otherwise.
Similarly, when the business is going well, you will attain the lead easily. So my suggestion or advice to people is to understand the fundamentals of your business and work accordingly. If not, you may not survive the meltdown phase of your business.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
21st Jan 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Kamal Nandi
Since Godrej Appliances Ltd has one of the largest distribution networks in the appliances industry, I asked Mr. Kamal Nandi, How do you build trust in your distributors? He replied
I think the biggest or the most common part to build trust is to “walk the talk.” If you say something, you must deliver that. Over a period of time as a person develops the confidence that whatever you say, you are actually delivering, trust gets built. Then, over a period of time, it strengthens. You have to show this with your actions.
Godrej has been able to build trust in its consumers because over 119 years we have delivered on our promises year on year, every time.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
14th Jan 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr. Kamal Nandi
In my 1st sales job in 1997, I had the opportunity to work with Mr. Kamal Nandi, Business Head, Godrej Appliances Ltd, and I must thank him for teaching me about the basics of Selling. Naturally, in the book interview, I asked him the 1st question, what is that one thing a salesperson should know to be successful in sales? He answered
For sales, the most important thing one needs to know is their customers and for that you need to do some real groundwork, that is, getting to know and understand who are your end users. Most salespeople don’t go to the users; they never really understand their customer. If you go to the customers and interact with them, you will have a better understanding of their buying habits and behaviours.
For example, in distribution, most of the people involved with sales don’t go to the retail level. Going to the shop floor and observing the customer and their interactions and reactions to the product will provide better insight on how to sell. If you don’t understand your customers, you will not be able to sell successfully.#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net
7th Jan 2024
Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Motilal Oswal
Mr Nitin Rakesh is one of the fittest CEOs I interviewed, so I asked him why a CEO/Leader should play sports? He answered, Two things come to mind: firstly playing a sport is a great way to stay fit, and most CEOs are competitive in nature, so these people like competitive sports, like squash or tennis or even golf. I think it keeps your mind engaged as well as your body fit.
Secondly playing a sport and not winning every time also keeps you humble, so it’s a great lesson in humility to play a sport which is competitive, because it is very easy to get on this track that I am the CEO, and I am better than others. But when you lose a game of squash you know it’s a lesson in humility and keeps you honest.
#salesbooster https://www.amazon.in/dp/1772046221 www.nimeshmehta.net