Search Results

Merry Christmas, Salestors! After the Bollywood list, here I look at 5 Hollywood flicks that will charge, or recharge the Salestor within you. Wolf of Wall Street Available on amazon prime video. A story that breathes sales in and out. The protagonist Jordan Belfort is a Salestor at heart, and at mind. A zillion things that a Salestor can pick up from here, top three being an undying thirst for brighter opportunities, having the right people by your side and, of course, self-confidence that takes you higher and higher. The Founder Available on both Netflix and amazon prime video. From the despicable chicken-and-eggs pitch to ruthless crosses-and-flags speech, Ray Kroc showed some aggressive never-say-die spirit that got him the success he was dying for. A must watch for Salestors! The Pursuit of Happyness Available on amazon prime video. I have watched, re-watched, and re-watched this masterpiece again and again not just for the highly inspiring true life story of Chris Gardner, but also for Will Smith. He reasserts the significance of motivation in achieving your goals. A fight for survival till the end can be really rewarding. Catch Me If You Can Available on amazon prime video. An all time favourite. What can you not achieve through sheer confidence and presence of mind. I don’t mean a Salestor can learn how to dupe, but to communicate effectively and turn any situation around to our benefit. Love and Other Drugs Available on amazon prime video. Good acting, good direction and good storyline. This entertainer is centred around the life of a shrewd Pharmaceutical Salestor, Jake Randall. Watch out for the steady rise in his life along with bucket load of entertainment over this long weekend. There are a few more masterpieces like Glengarry Glen Ross and Promised Land that are pure sales flicks and definitely worth watching, available on amazon.com. Watch out for a list of best series for us Salestors. Coming soon on your screens! Have a great weekend! Also read: A Salestor's Holiday Movie List - I

The holiday season is upon us and it happens to be a time of mixed feelings for a Salestor. For those who achieved their targets for the year, or till Q3, kudos! You can spend the Christmas and New Year’s eve sans follow up calls from you boss. For those who struggled, I thought of publishing a list of movies that serve an all-time inspiration and rekindle the resilience that you had in the beginning of the year. So let’s start with the Made in India flicks first! Guru Available on Netflix. This is another master piece which shows the never-say-die spirit of Guru Bhai. A Gujju business man at heart, he teaches more than just undeterred focus and self-confidence to us Salestors. And of course, if you keep your eyes and ears open, you can find an opportunity and turn it into a golden one any time! Rocket Singh Available on amazon prime video. This is a pure sales saga, with the graph literally growing upwards, beginning with extreme failures. A story which shows that you can be brutally honest as a Salestor and create wonders. All that matters is resilience, conviction and honesty (at least with your staff and clients!). Band Baaja Baraat Available on amazon prime video. Keeping the love story apart, the flick had some interesting anecdotes for us Salestors. Self-confidence and right connections is the key! Also, you must know that you are at times dependant on others for success. Special 26 Available on Netflix. No, I don’t mean we Salestors can learn how to dupe, but we surely can learn how to be confident and a great planner in everything that we do! And of course, deep market knowledge never fails you! Badmaash Company Available on amazon prime video (in case you care!). Yeah, I included a commercial disaster in the list too! There are certain points that we can capture from this flick. Your approach needs to change with every new client, every new situation. There is always a way to turn around a failure (the changing colour of the blue shirt incident). And, whatever happens, it is ultimately your connections that save the day! Watch out for the list of Hollywood flicks for us Salestors in the next piece! Stay tuned! Have some more suggestions for such inspirational movies? Please share in the comments below! And show some ❤️, people!

Did you know women have been in sales for more than 300 years? They have defied the odds and proved their mettle in a world that belonged, and still does, to men. Here’s a panoramic view of the evolution of women in sales over the three centuries gone by. The Pocahontas of Sales Born in 1700 in Georgia, Mary Musgrove spoke Creek Indian and English and hence started working as an interpreter for a trader. Her boss soon realised Mary’s potential as a Salestor and hired her for $500 per annum. She was known to be a shrewd negotiator, a successful trader and a woman with one of strongest networks in the nation. How to Bis-sell Your Product Anna Bissell and her husband developed an innovative carpet sweeper to combat the dust settling on carpets in their crockery and china shop. They got it patented and started selling in 1876. In 1889, when her husband died, Anna picked up the reigns of their company and thus became world’s first woman CEO! Under her leadership, Bissell became the largest organisation of its kind in the world. By 1919, she had become the Chair Person and the first woman Salestor on the Board of a company. A-von Idea! David McConnell was a travelling book salesperson. He soon realised that women bought from him only because of the perfume samples that came along as free gifts with purchases. They were his most loyal customers who weren’t afraid to talk to other people about the products. One loyal woman customer brought in her own clique and that expanded McConnell’s customer base. Thus, he started hiring women as Salestors in 1886, thirty-four years before they were given the right to vote. His company California Perfume Company was later branded as Avon Cosmetics. Un-Weill-ing True Artists Berthe Weill was a French Art Dealer who got recognition after death when Pablo Picasso painted her portrait, which was declared a National Treasure. An ambitious woman, Weill utilised her dowry money of 4000 Francs for opening an art gallery in Paris in 1901. She is today reminisced as a brilliant Salestor who not only gave their first breaks to emerging artists like Pablo Picasso and Henry Matisse, but also sold their pieces when they were unknown to the world. When women were still struggling to come out of households, Weill unveiled female artists like Valadon, Charmy and Marval. She was the first and the last person to display and sell Amedeo Modigliani’s nude paintings in her art gallery, which got her in a duel with the police. Breeding Sales Sarah Breedlove started her own hair care product line in 1905 after facing massive hair loss for years. Being black herself, she targeted the black women first to sell her products. After initial success, she expanded her business and employed a massive salesforce of 3000 African-American women, all carefully selected, trained and employed by her on a commission basis. Netflix Original Series Self Made is a worthy tribute to her contribution as a Salestor. The Wise Salestor Brownie Wise started her career with Stanley Home Products before stumbling upon Tupperware. She came up with the idea of home parties where women demonstrated and sold Tupperware products. It’s massive success caught the attention of Earl Tupper, inventor of Tupperware, and he asked Brownie to join him as Vice President for Tupperware Home Parties in 1951. She headed their Sales and recruited thousands of women as Salestors. She was the first woman to feature on the cover of Business Week in 1954. The Estée Lauder Era New York–born Josephine Esther Mentzer married Joseph Lauder and officially launched Estée Lauder Inc in 1946. Her Youth Dew launched in 1953 sold 50,000 units in the first year and by 1984, it was selling 150 million units every year. She is lauded for being the mother of traditional selling ideas like giving free trial samples before buying and “Gift with Purchase” techniques. Some of her selling mantras were: “Telephone. Telegraph. Tell a woman.” “I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard." She was always present for every new store launch to train the staff in selling techniques. She knew how to understand the pulse of her customers and was always crossing boundaries to meet with potential clients. Gradually, they expanded to develop brands like MAC and Clinique. Mary Kay Ash Mary Kathlyn Wagner started her career as a Salestor with Stanley Home Products in 1939. She was so good at selling that she was spotted and hired by World Gifts in 1952. After a decade with the company, she was passed on for promotion by a male trainee working under her for twice the salary. Irked to the core, she quit. Against all odds, she started her business of skin lotions for an investment of $5,000 in 1963, at the age of 45. Mary Kay Inc earned profit in its first year and sold about $1 million dollar worth products in its second year. She sold her products through events like at-home parties and hired Sales Reps on a commission basis. She did not divide the regions into territories for them, so the whole country was each Salestor’s playground. She was named the Most Outstanding Woman in business in the 20th century by Lifetime Television. Anneke Seley A graduate in Human Biology from Stanford, her life took a different path when she was offered a job as the twelfth employee of Oracle by Larry Ellison. Today, she is known to be the founder of Oracles Inside Sales Operations, OracleDirect, and taking it to new heights. After a decade with Oracle, Anneke launched a series of her own businesses. She’s the author of Sales 2.0 and currently runs her own company Reality Works. Oprah Winfrey This self-made blockbuster-of-a-woman is known to be the richest African-American of the 20th century. By 2007, she was touted as world’s most powerful woman! She worked up the ladder and made great sales in the entertainment and lifestyle industries. Here’s what we Salestors can learn from her: “Turn your wounds into wisdom.”. “Go ahead. Fall down. The world looks different from the ground.” “Your gut is your inner compass. Whenever you have to consult with other people for an answer, you’re headed in the wrong direction.” “I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity.” “The big secret in life is that there’s no big secret. Whatever your aim, you will get there if you’re willing to work.” *** Also Read The Evolution of a Salestor Liked the post? Share some ❤️

Both are revenue related profiles. One generates it, the other manages it. Here are some real life scenarios we come across in our corporate lives. Salestor: Hi! Can you share our company’s GST Reg? I need to share it with the client for the onboarding process. Financer: Please check your email. I shared it with you for every client the previous four times. *** Financer: Why do you need to give gifts worth Rs 2000 to each client for Diwali? Past records show no change in sales led by the expensive gifting. Salestor: Because that is a list of the premium clients who give us an annual business of Rs 10 million each. And moreover, everyone expects gifts on Diwali. Oh that reminds me! Are we receiving a bonus this Diwali? *** Salestor: Hey! I guess there is some discrepancy in the commission I received for the previous quarter. Financer: Oh, that’s weird. Did you achieve your targets? Salestor: Of course! I achieved 70% of the targets. Financer: Well, that’s not achieving your targets now, is it? Salestor: Yes, it is. Because, I am eligible to earn commission on achievement of 50% and 70% targets too. Financer: Oh okay. Sure, I will take a look. Salestor: Please. And before the cheques are printed. *** How many times have you had one of these conversations with your finance person? A Salestor’s job is getting clients on board and, in some organisations, retaining them as well. Once a client has been onboarded, the Salestor (or the Key Account Manager) tries to keep him engaged through small tokens of gratitude every now and then, like company printed merchandise, Diwali gifts and even dinner and cocktails. That is where the finance guy comes into the picture and tries to understand why such lavish expenses are needed. For a Finance guy, on the other hand, the priority is profitability and hence every penny counts. That is why it becomes important to scrutinise every expense termed as an investment by the Salestor. While the finance guy should understand a Salestor’s psyche behind spending on client retention, here are some measures we Salestors can take in order to ensure a less-frustrating discussion with the finance team. Having Set Procedures, or SOPs: This is the ideal scenario and differs from organisation to organisation. Having set procedures helps make the tasks of both the departments easier and manage expectations and communication better. Maintaining Own Records: Highly mundane for a Salestor, but comes to save the day on more occasions than one. For me, keeping personal records of the daily movement in Sales, influx or efflux of monthly invoicing/payment from a critical client, or expiry date of a service agreement always came to the rescue whenever needed. Personal records help especially when you want to be doubly sure of the incentives, want to avoid any discussion turning awkward without proper information, or simply want to save the number of trips (or calls) to the Finance. In case you happen to have a strong CRM platform to keep these records, it is an icing on the cake! Keep everything Documented: This one is borrowed from my article Sales vs Legal. Non-verbal communication is an essential part of corporate life, but doesn’t help much when it comes to liaison, both internal and external. Keeping things like to-do’s, requests, client expectations that need to be fulfilled by the organisation, documents shared, et al. need to be documented. Negotiation: Obvious. The profile of Sales demands negotiating with internal and external customers all the time. Be it a budgeting activity, negotiating the services agreement with client, or simply getting the invoices earlier than SOP timeline, everything comes down to negotiating a better deal with finance. Every profile has its own quirks and hence communication and expectations need to be managed effectively for smooth functioning of the organisation. However, the fact remains that there always are ways to manage the priorities of different profiles and find a middle ground for smooth co-existence. I would love to know what you thought of this article! Please share your comments below and show some love ❤️

Both the profiles are starkly different to each other. One is about following the law, while the other about getting the client or revenue in, mostly irrespective of the means. In a corporate setup, there are times when the two do not agree. And rightfully so. A Salestor nurtures a deal with blood and sweat and brings it to the agreement-signing stage. That is when the Legal gets involved and finds that it is just another proof of the Salestor doing everything in his/her power to get closer to the target. However, both the profiles work in best interests of the organisation. So, if you belong to an organisation which demands legal intervention before closing a deal, read on. If not, read on anyway 😇. Striking a Balance Different industries have varying Sales Cycles and gestation periods. Since so much blood and sweat goes into getting a client on board, Salestors are known to be aggressive. Similarly, an in-house counsel or lawyer’s primary job is risk assessment and mitigation for the organisation. So every time a Salestor brings in a deal for agreement signing, the lawyer does his job of looking at the risks associated with the services promised to the client. Clashing of the two profiles becomes a tricky situation for the client-oriented management too. While the lawyer needs to consider the psyche of the Salestor in getting the deal to agreement-signing stage, here is a five-point checklist of what we Salestors can do to strike a balance legally. Be aware of the laws and regulations pertaining to the product and industry: It comes handy just in case a customer happens to know more about it than us, or asks something regarding the same. It also speeds up the process when we take the deal to the legal for agreement signing. Do a risk assessment before promising the world to the client: Risk assessment involves taking into consideration the view point of other teams who are going to help us serve the client once on-boarding is complete. Now, this is a very tricky situation as we Salestors often find ourselves stuck in the middle of a storm trying to figure out what is a priority: on-boarding the client to move closer to our targets, or hard negotiating that might drive the client away, but will save us from facing certain flak later on. Keep the respective departments apprised of any extra services you promise: This is not about being honest internally and with the client. It is rather about saving yourself the pain of trying to convince the client that you cannot give what you promised because your team won’t do it. In such a case, you jeopardise the relationship that just began, land the risk of earning a bad repute for the company, and usually end up in a difficult position internally. Keep everything documented: Besides verbal promises, it is important to keep all internal and external communication documented. Though it may put more pressure on us Salestors to abide by the promises, it more frequently comes to save the day when things go wrong. All promises, whether internal or external, need to be documented to avoid any confusion. This comes handy especially when dealing with the legal. List the Pros and Cons of the Deal: If the structure of the deal involves stepping out of company’s SOPs, we should have the list of pros and cons ready before approaching the legal and the management. Every profile has its own expectations and quirks. It is interesting to see how they blend. I’ll be back very soon with more relationships between different profiles at work. Stay tuned!

Pausing the Mental Harassment series for a while, which is a more serious topic, I thought of picking up a rather quirky subject for a break. Your Dish Says it All The food you eat and the way you eat it says a lot about your personality. I learnt this mantra during the first few years of my corporate life. I have seen people ordering lentil soup and brown rice during a Business Meeting, and then switching over to eating dal chawal with their bare hands at home. I too have evolved from filling my plate with every dish on the buffet to ordering just soup and salad :-D As you grow up the corporate ladder, your thinking and lifestyle gradually evolve. Irrespective, for many, it is the realisation of being in a high-end place that makes one conscious. But here, I am not going to touch upon the do’s and don’ts and the etiquettes, rather the peculiar behaviour people portray in a business environment and elsewhere. I look at some quirks of being a foodie, even though a socially-conscious one. The Art of Food Ordering Business Meal Sessions like a Luncheon or Dinner haven’t been a part of our lives for more than 6 months now and don’t seem to be returning anytime soon. But they have been a part of our corporate lives since ever and will return. Since food choices offer a sneak peek into personalities, I have heard many stories about the dormant snob in people waking up at the time of ordering. Maybe that’s why even the ‘cool, casual and contemporary’ guys, who might be wearing casuals all five-days of the working week, like to order a butter croissant with cappuccino instead of bun-maska with cutting chai in a high-end restaurant. The same bosses who host chai-samosa parties for employees on awesome-weather days, turn to the best restaurants to treat their senior management and board members. Although I agree that different audience demand different treatments, but it is interesting to see the different facets of people when it comes to food for business. There are people who advocate flat hierarchies and the culture of first-name based communication, but keep separate tables and designated waiting staff allotted for their lunch in the employee cafeteria. But then there are those who like peculiar dishes too. In another incident, one of my friends took his client to a restaurant in Bengaluru which served Jain Chicken (without onion or garlic) as one of its best sellers! The more sophisticated the dish, the cooler the guy! One of the practices I have seen is related to the rank of the person. The more sophisticated the profile, more complicated their food choices seem to be. Have you ever seen (and not understood) the people who order sushi? I have nothing against the dish or its admirers, but I do judge those vegetarians who claim to like a myth called Vegetarian Sushi. Business Lunch = Free Food! Yes, as a fresh Salestor, that was my mantra. And now that I know a lot of people who loved Business Lunches for the same reason, I am not ashamed to admit it 😊. As a fresher in the corporate world, I am sure most of you would have looked forward to the business parties for the free good food and, in many cases, booze. Business Dinners are a tad less formal than a lunch as the day has ended, people are more relaxed and hence liquor is also included. One of my best friends and his friend had spent one ‘Business Dinner’ finishing off the hotel’s quota of Gulab Jamuns. When Boss Takes You to a Five Star Hotel… …you expect nothing less than mutton biryani or its equivalent, right? How would you feel if you get baingan bharta instead? True story! And being a new entrant in the company, very few people can ask for what they want. So when hesitation takes over the hunger, you end up ordering an all-season dish like a club sandwich. How many of you have ended up dropping half the vegetables while eating that God forsaken dish? As an intern, a friend of mine had ordered Chai in a high-end hotel with the bosses, while the bosses ordered variants of green tea. Everyone received their cups and saucers, while this junior-most guy on the table received the complete tea service with kettle, creamer, and sugar bowl! The Swankiest Restaurant for the Board! In such cases, I have seen people usually listening to their minds over hearts to order something that sounds fancier and looks lavish. Barring personal likes and dislikes, I have hardly seen or heard of a Delhi guy ordering Chhole Bhature, a Tamilian ordering Puran Poli, a Gujarati ordering Undhiyu, or a Rajasthani ordering Daal-Baati-Churma for their Board Meeting. Somehow, the dish you will order without blinking an eyelid outside workplace, ranks lowest on the charts in front of the corporate audience. To serve the big guys, you need to call the swankiest restaurant in town. Higher the Rank, More Expensive the Restaurant That’s a given, right? You don’t expect the CEO to take you out for a cup of tea to a chai-tapri. Even though you like that Rs 15 tea much more than a Rs 250 cup in a 5 star hotel. Friday Eve Team Outings = Great Music and Greater Booze! Each one of you will have stories to tell from your Friday evening team outing. Here’s one from my closet. So the whole office decided to go out on a Friday evening to a pub nearby. It was a great pub with great music and awesome food. The boss, much to our horror, ordered broccoli in white sauce along with the drinks. Talk about creating a balanced diet. Be Indian, Buy Indian Food in Business is not a problem, rather just a human behaviour/practice that produces interesting anecdotes. Hence, I am not looking for solutions, rather just some more quirky thoughts. This is the era of becoming Atma Nirbhar and Being Indian, Buying Indian. If we are looking for Indian substitutes for apps, electronics and everything else, why not food? Hence, I look at some dishes that are usually a part of a business meal over breakfast, lunch or dinner, and their equally good and quite ignored Indian counterparts. Plain or Butter Croissant: A desi patty, butter toast or bun maska Danish pastries or pancakes: Maal puye or meetha cheela Bruschetta: A typical Mumbai masala sandwich or vegetable toast Pasta or lasagne: The traditional Indian Poha, upma (semolina) or vermicelli Salads (for when you want to keep it light): Until you want to have a strictly green diet, try the traditional south Indian curd rice or lemon rice. It is filling yet light at the same time and low on calories too. The Green Revolution: Methi paranthas cooked in little or no oil, palak ka saag, dhaniye/pudina chutney are some Indian offerings for the go-green folks. The business of food is very peculiar. Personal choices change regularly based on various experiences and factors. What does not change is the fact how food shapes our personality and, in turn, our thinking influences our food choices. I would love to hear your stories on the food for business! Please login to share your comments below! And show some love! ❤️

The Law In this series, I have tried to cover some areas that affect the mental well-being of an employee at workplace. Most of the times, we look for laws and regulations pertaining to certain instances of discomfort. In the US and Europe, Mental Harassment is touted as equivalent to Sexual Harassment and has laws and policies in place for identification and treatment. In India, there are laws in place against Sexual Harassment, but no specific Law or Policy against Mental Harassment. However, there is a landmark judgement of Hon’ble High Court of Andhra Pradesh in L. Nagaraju vs Syndicate Bank and Ors. on Mental Harassment at workplace on December 18, 2013. It recognised the problem as: “Harassment is an unwanted conduct, deliberate or otherwise, related to the equality grounds previously outlined, which has the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, or of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for employees. This can include unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct. Such behaviour is unacceptable where: (i) It is an unwanted, unreasonable and offensive to the recipient. (ii) It is used as the basis for an employment decision. (iii) It creates a hostile working environment." The High Court went on to give a judgement, part of which reads: “Harassment detracts from a productive working environment and can affect the health, confidence, morale and performance of those affected by it, including anyone who witnesses or knows about the unwanted behaviour.” The complete judgment is one of its kind and has covered a lot of scenarios that may lead to mental discomfort at workplace. A country with one of the largest percentage of working class in the world needs to cover all areas of discomfort, especially mental. Quitting and firing cannot be the primary solution to solving such problems, especially in a job market that is bleeding profusely right now. If ILO can roll out guidelines so early into the pandemic, India can surely work on the lines. International Labour Organisation – Guidelines for Making WFH Less Troublesome In these unprecedented times, the ILO released An Employer’s Guide on working from home in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. It states, “In the absence of face-to-face contact, the traditional “command and control” style of management becomes less relevant and managers may struggle to find other ways to make sure that workers are getting their work done during WFH….. the effective management of WFH requires a results-based management approach. This involves identifying objectives, tasks and milestones, and then monitoring and discussing progress without overly burdensome reporting requirements.” ILO has also recognised the significance of mutual trust and communication in having an effective and productive WFH life. “Employers should build mutual trust and establish shared responsibilities with workers through open and transparent discussions about expectations and outputs, including: when workers will be available and be responsive; how they will keep in touch, such as online and telephone contact; how work-life balance will be managed, for instance through regular breaks and switching off from work at the end of the day; how performance and reporting will be managed, taking into consideration worker’s circumstances where necessary; who workers should contact if they have any work-related issue; who workers should contact if they have an emergency type situation. ” ILO has also recognised the cons of WFH era as employees globally face blurred lines between official and personal time. Ultimately, the one solution prescribed by ILO to deal with difficult WFH life is effective communication between the employer and the employee. The Corporate Pandemic fatigue is a very unfortunate by-product of the WFH era that has caused physical and mental discomfort to professionals worldwide. Taking cognizance of the changing times, many companies rolled out guidelines, policies and laws to make lives easier for those working from home. Notable multinationals and start-ups in India and the rest of the world have brought about radical changes in their work from home guidelines to make lives easier for their employees. An online gaming app introduced No Meeting Thursdays and extended their lunch hours from 60 minutes to 90 minutes daily. A payment gateway start up introduced a No Meetings Day every second Wednesday of the month. It also restricted the meeting hours to 10 am–7 pm only. Internet, consultancy and FMCG multinational giants declared official holidays to create long weekends and give their employees time to unwind from the hectic wfh schedules. An IT Consultancy multinational rolled out the guideline for no conferences after 5 pm in its Northwest US offices. Besides, NASSCOM has been working on looking at effective WFH solutions before the pandemic hit. Taking cognizance of the recommendations given by the IT-BPM industry, about 3 months back, it submitted certain recommendations to the Ministry of Finance considering WFH scenario in the long run. Although the recommendations are about making taxation and reimbursements easier for employees, I say, it is a start. Conclusion India still has a long way to go when it comes to managing Mental Harassment at Workplace. Although the movement has begun, the general perception still remains that no employee is indispensable and hence, mental well-being can be overlooked. This pandemic has brought in unprecedented scenarios that need unprecedented measures. Many European countries like Germany, France and Spain have rolled out, or are in the process of rolling out employees’ rights during WFH. As India Inc. continues to make strides in every sphere, let mental well-being be one of the priorities, especially in the times of forced-WFH. Everyone is here to work and earn a living, after all.

Next in the series on Mental Harassment is the issue of difficult or unreasonable expectations. Desperate times call for desperate measures, but those measures become troublesome when they force you to choose between work and other pressing responsibilities time and again. Mismatching of expectations is very subjective. Expectations could be offset from both the sides, the employer and the employee. If the employee puts up unreasonable demands, they are dealt with accordingly by the organisation, which remains the higher authority always. There are times when employees are expected to step out of their profiles to get work done at the time of need. Problem arises when that happens on a regular basis without any acknowledgement for the employee’s efforts. For instance, many organisations in western economies call working post office hours as overtime, we call it hard work. Here I again look at some true stories that bear the tag of difficult or unreasonable expectations faced by some employees. Scenario 1 Reporting Manager: Hey! I heard you have finalised the date for your wife’s C-Sec? Employee: Yes sir. It is next week. Reporting Manager: Yeah, about that. Can you postpone the delivery date to the week after? It is clashing with our planning. Scenario 2 You being a professor have been taking online classes for 6 months now. Unfortunately, your residential area has been declared a containment zone due to increasing number of COVID-19 positive cases. After Unlock 3.0, the management is forcing you to report to the institute physically to take online classes. You are also facing pay cuts despite students paying full fees to the institute. Scenario 3 In Pre-WFH Times: You completed your work and booked a cab. It has arrived. You pick up your bag and bid goodbye to your boss who sits right behind you. S/he stops you asking if you sent him/her the report in the new excel sheet format designed earlier that day. You: “Oh, I am sorry. I sent that information in an email format to you instead of an excel. If you want the excel sheet, can I send it first thing tomorrow morning?” Reporting Manager: “No, I am travelling tomorrow and won’t get the time to look at it. Please send it right away.” You cancel the cab, complete the excel and email it to your boss. When you inform him/her: Reporting Manager: “Okay, thanks. I will check it tomorrow afternoon on my way to Bangalore.” Now, you are stuck waiting for another cab and it takes an hour for the other cab to arrive due to peak hour traffic. *** Above stated scenarios are some examples of unreasonable expectations. I know there are cases the other way round, but these days, we are getting to see more scenarios of employees facing the wrath. Drooping economies have brought in the fear of losing one’s job, or facing salary cuts. Dealing with Unreasonable Demands or Expectations Having dealt with unreasonable expectations myself, I can say there are measures to make life easier. The trick is to tackle one problem at a time. Once it has been established that the demands put up are unreasonable, below mentioned four steps should come to the rescue: Know your limits: No matter what level of the hierarchy you are at, knowing your own breaking points tell you what you can and cannot do for the company. It helps inculcate a healthy relationship between the employer and the employee too as expectations can be set on day one. Be Honest: Both with yourself and the company. Your work should speak for itself in order to earn some well-deserved time-off. This way, the discussion has a better chance of survival and going in your favour. Have Reasonable Expectations & Find a Middle Ground: The situation of unreasonable demands arises when both the employer and the employee have contrasting expectations. If neither party wishes to reach the extreme situation of quitting or firing, it is important to reset your expectations and communicate well to reach a middle ground. Effective communication here demands negotiating with the reporting manager as well. Most of us have faced the situation wherein every other report is needed “RIGHT NOW!”, but prioritising and negotiating makes the situation more manageable. Be Vocal at the Right Time: When you see you are being subdued and for all the wrong reasons, it is time to be vocal. Be firm in taking a stand and cite the what, the why and the how. What you think of the expectation, Why does it bother you and How do you think it can be resolved. Communication is the first step in making your life easier. It might not always seem doable for various reasons, but not doing anything does not make your life better either. Most of the times, the reason behind staying silent is a variant of fear. Every employer was once an employee and understands the struggles associated, whether or not they are openly communicated. At times, work pressure makes lives of both the employer and the employee despicable, but a middle ground needs to be reached. Expectations have the power to make or break any situation based on the communication that flows, or the absence of it. I would love to read your thoughts on this article. Please login to share! Thanks! And do show some love ❤️😊

Mental Harassment has always existed but not gained enough mileage to be talked about officially, especially in India. I am sure, each one of us would have faced difficult circumstances at work place. Most of the organisations today have policies in place to make their culture more inclusive and flexible, and hierarchies flat, but at times employing them in every corner becomes a challenge. For this article, I connected with a lot of people in my network who shared stories, instances and anecdotes that may cause mental discomfort at workplace. The problem is very real and worth being written about. However, Mental Harassment is a very subjective topic. What might be harassment to someone, could be pushing your limits at the time of need to the other. Usually, if the employee isn’t competent enough, s/he may feel getting pushed to perform is mental harassment. The company is not at fault if the employee is unable to do the job s/he was hired for, or cope with a high pressure job. However, there are times when well performing employees feel mental discomfort due to a stressful environment. It started out as an article but converted to a series as I realised the problem is too vast and deep. By the means of this series, I intend to look at some true stories and some possible solutions to make lives easier. Micromanagement Scenario 1: 10 am: PAN India call with Country Head to discuss daily individual numbers 10:45 am – 8 pm: Call every 30-45 minutes with the reporting manager to discuss updates on various clients and performance for the day 9 pm: Call with reporting manager to discuss if the CRM is being updated on a daily basis as the management relies on it for regular updates on various employee activities. Scenario 2 Reporting Manager: “Can you please keep your screen shared with me throughout the day? We have got new guidelines for monitoring employee activities that we need to abide by.” Scenario 3 In Pre-WFH times: Reporting Manager: *Follows Regional Manager to the Wash Room* “Hey! I was searching for you and thought I might find you here. Can you please give an update on Client A, B and C?” The What Micromanagement seems to be the #1 cause for mental discomfort to employees. It is a management style wherein the manager closely monitors, or controls, every action of the employees. It has always been part of manager’s job to know how their team is utilising their time. However, it becomes problematic when the line between being aware and stalking gets blurred. The Why I did some research to understand why leaders micromanage and came up with following reasons: The employee is new to the job The project is new and has never been handled before Evidences of performance lapses or low productivity Repeated customer complaints against an employee or a department Organisational crises In his book, My Way or the Highway: The Micromanagement Survival Guide, author H. E. Chambers mentions three causes behind the need to micromanage: fear, confusion or comfort of the leader. Some other causes highlighted by him are low self-confidence, no or low recognition, or threat due to competition. This list might seem partial, but gives a good insight into the minds of micromanagers. Trying to control every action implies that the organisation does not believe in the competence of the employee. No one likes to be told how to do their job, especially if they have been doing it for a considerable while. These days, many organisations have become more cautious of how their employees are utilising their time away from the pruning eyes of the supervisors. As is mostly being seen, it is becoming an issue for employees. The How - Dealing with Micromanagement One can call micromanagers a breed of perfectionists, or more casually, control freaks. They like to know everything that is happening around them. In a corporate environment, one cannot stomp their feet and yell “Leave me alone!” when someone tries to control them. Hence, a middle ground has to be reached. If one does not have the option of walking out of the door right away, one of these solutions might come in handy. It takes some extra effort to sail through micromanagement, but makes life a bit easier. Understand your manager’s psyche: Micromanagers need all the answers all the time to keep things under their control. While it is difficult to live up to their standards, one can try to have the data ready before the micromanager asks for it. I have worked under micromanagers and one thing that helped me keep my sanity intact was being prepared. It took me a while to understand the requirements of the manager, but once I did, I always tried to keep one step ahead. It did make my life a tad easier. Prioritise & Negotiate: When I couldn’t gather all the answers, or when I had multiple questions to deal with, I used logical reasoning to prioritise. Most micromanagers accept the absence of some lesser important answers if they get the burning questions solved right away. Then you have to negotiate to convince the micromanager that you will get answers to the lesser important questions too. Proactively keep your Micromanager Updated: Call him/her with the answers before s/he calls you with the questions. When I started calling my micromanager more than s/he called me, I started seeing days without getting a single call filled with questions. I understand it sounds like a continuous Tom & Jerry chase, but that is what the micromanager does too. From my experience, it feels better to be Tom here rather than Jerry with nowhere else to run. Be Vocal: If you feel suffocated, speak up. But you must have facts by your side to prove your competence. Else, topic of the discussion shifts to the number of tasks left to be done by you despite multiple reminders by the micromanager. If things become unbearable, highlight it to the management. Have Reasonable Expectations: If you start doing everything by the book and achieving numbers, there is a chance that the micromanager will not have much to point out. But that might not mean a golden star for you. If you feel the need to be appreciated for your efforts regularly, working under a micromanager might not be the right place for you. This is just the tip of the iceberg. In the past few days, I have come across issues that cause real mental discomfort to employees and I plan to address them in my forthcoming articles. I would love to hear what you thought of this article. Please share your comments below. Thanks!

Working in a corporate has its highs and lows. And if you are a part of the revenue generating department, it takes more than just thick-skin to overcome the blows. These times when work-from-home feels forced, I came across a lot of people who are facing major crises on a daily basis. A search for a solution took me back to the times when I had created a mental reference list for myself. Trust me when I say that I have never been a gyaan guru, but this list helped me sail through tough times like the lean period and various other storms we face in a corporate life. However, keeping the current scenario in mind, I now feel it might be useful to people other than Salestors as well. Resilience “You have achieved only 30% of your targets in first four months of joining? Well, sorry to say, we have seen better.” “Sorry, deadline for the project you had been working on for the past five months has been preponed. Instead of two months later, it is due next week now. We're sure you can do it! 😊” “So you are supposed to sell this product for INR 100,000 plus taxes. And yes, we know it is available for free in the market. If you cannot do it, please let us know!” Resilience is needed on a daily basis in general. In these times of work from home, I have felt the need of an extra dose on an hourly basis. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to develop resilience. One can say resilience means thick-skin, which is developed over time. I can say from personal experience that it is a combination of thick-skin and self-motivation. And surely, the latter is as hard to achieve and sustain. Self-Motivation Q3 Targets have been announced and now you have a backlog to clear before you start planning for the next quarter. The economy, markets and client businesses are drooping, but your targets are the only thing aiming higher and higher by the day. You are trying to hold on to the last iota of strength and self-motivation here, but unfortunately drowning fast! Your venting/gossip sessions with your favourite colleague in the same boat do no good once you put the phone down. No need for gyaan here. We all know what self-motivation is, but how to achieve that? Team Outings to the best pub in town every Friyay! evening are out of bounds now, so no one has access to liquid courage in a musical environment anymore. It took me a while to accept what I already knew; that the primary prerequisite for self-motivation is a peaceful mind. While this topic deserves another article, let me try and be succinct here. Mini breaks! To those who are struggling between a yelling boss and a howling toddler, kudos to you. So for you, mini breaks could be 5 minutes long, maybe stolen once a day on bad days and more than once on good days. But if spent doing something that you like, other than social media, you will feel the difference soon. Read Surviving Prolonged Working Hours… At Home! For those who can afford more than 5 minute breaks, try inculcating an activity that doesn’t take long. In my case, I can steal 15 minutes in scattered breaks throughout the day. I use that at times to do Pranayam (a yoga technique) and the other times to read few pages of a book I like, coupled with a cup of green tea. While none of these can help you survive that Q2 appraisal, it will give you the most needed peace of mind when you feel on the edge. I ensured taking a mini break at least once after the most hectic call of the day. Be it the longest call, or the not-so-pleasant discussion with a furious client. It helped me sail through the rest of the day. Liking the article so far? Hit ❤️ at the end of the article! Agility It might come as a surprise to many Salestors, but agility does not mean being forever absent in office, rather always being present at the right place, at the right time. When no matter how many doors you knock, none opens, it is time to make a list of more doors to knock! Keep yourself moving. If one client is taking forever to close the deal, having a back-up helps in the long run. Not only is it a proof of the efforts put in by you in varied fields, but also gives you more opportunities for closure. I have been in situations when this seems to be just another empty guideline. It might seem easier said than done, but the ultimate goal is to have more opportunities for closure that take you closer to your target. An agile mind always finds the way, even in a lean period. Being Proactive Keeping your eyes and ears open all the time is part of a Salestor’s job, especially when you are trying to survive a lean period. Different industries demand different levels of proactivity. For instance, in the aviation industry, the job demanded that the Salestors know what all shipments are available in the market at a time and how to divert those to their airline. The Business Advisory corporate, that I worked with, needed me to know about every corporate CXO who can manage to pay the forum subscription fee. Digital Rewards industry demanded updates on competitors and clients alike. In every industry, a couple of techniques remained common for staying proactive: 1. Staying up-to-date via the news 2. Staying in regular touch with the current and previous clients 3. Networking with your peers from companies new and old. 4. Social media, especially professional networking websites like LinkedIn. Ultimately, being proactive is necessary for a Salestor to have the answers when you need them (like morning 10 am calls with the Country Head). Prudence It is another skill that makes or breaks deals for a Salestor. Prudence is wisdom and good judgment combined and is required at every step of closing a deal. One thing that I always experienced in every industry was that your genuine efforts matter. They might not always be acknowledged but they are seen. So if you have given your 100% genuinely to the deal, or task at hand, and kept your seniors apprised every step of the way, your work will be visible. You might not always get a golden star at the end of the day, but the company will value your presence. If that does not happen despite your best and consistently proven efforts, it might lead to mental discomfort at workplace, which is a topic I am preparing to touch upon very soon. Conclusively, I can say every profile sees good days and bad, and there are things you can do to make your life a tad easier when the storm hits.

A Salestor, or a Sales Creator. Because the term Salesmen feels incomplete (for obvious reasons in my case!). If Sales is majorly the art of convincing, then most of us are Salestors. If you have ever struck a deal with your parents to buy that bike, or a PS3, or even a doll house, you have a dormant (or maybe an active) Salestor within you. I believe the art of selling emerged millennia ago with the people who introduced the concept of barter before money was coined. Those who were successfully able to convince another person to engage in a barter were the first Salestors. Sales became more prominent with the introduction of money and onset of trade. However, it wasn’t until the 18th century that Salestors were officially hired in the corporate setup. In any case, it is interesting to see how the domain of Sales has evolved over the past few decades. The word no more brings to mind just the picture of a salesman at your door. It has evolved to become the focus of businesses as it is the primary revenue generating profile. However, I have personally seen a lot of organisational offices with ‘Salesmen not allowed’ notice pasted on the main door. Fortunately, I was selling B2B and was, well still am, a woman. But seeing this notice more than once on the doors of different companies didn’t deter me from entering, just made me wonder how long the journey for Sales will be before Salestors start being seen as more than just someone who rings your doorbell to sell a fake product that you don’t need. And that pushed me to see when exactly did Sales emerge. Quite Believably, With the Era of the Insurance! While Sales has been with us for centuries, it became a corporate profession in the 19th century with Benjamin Franklin introducing Insurance Sales in America, and effectively the world. It was the first time Sales Reps were hired to visit homes of their prospects and pitch. If they closed the deal, they would visit your home regularly for monthly payment collections. But as the company and its customers grew, it became increasingly difficult for them to manage the numbers and customers and hence the situation asked for a solution. This is when role specialisation and differentiation were introduced and the terms Hunting and Farming were coined. (And all this time I believed these to be new terms for acquisition and retention, when they are clearly more than 150 years old!) The Emergence of Chinese Snake Oil Sales Next came the time of the Snake Oil Merchants. In the second half of the 19th century till early 1880’s, America witnessed a massive influx of the Chinese immigrants due to the growing demand for labour. Following this, in the 1900’s, Clark Stanley started selling a fake medicine under the brand name of Chinese Snake Oil, a herbal medicine for various ailments. In 1917, people uncovered his deceit and he was fined. But this incident tarnished the image of Salestors. They were being seen as a deceptive lot who sold fake products and the profession was deemed for unethical and unprofessional people. A ray of hope was brought by Thomas J. Watson Sr, a great Salestor himself, who recognised the positive side of Sales and decided to build his own Sales Force for his new venture called International Business Machines. No, it wasn’t yet The IBM then. The Birth of IBM Thomas introduced a couple of mantras that we follow till date, and hopefully will always. They were: A strong sales force gives you the advantage needed in a highly competitive market scenario. ‘Educated`, professional and well trained’ sales force gives you a competitive edge. Thomas Watson’s IBM infused a new life and image for Sales and Salestors. Between 1925 and 1936, a lot of corporates had started recognising the significance of having a Sales team and had begun investing in their hiring and training. Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People contributed a lot. He coined the term AIDCA — Attention, Interest, Desire, Conviction, and Action. This was a list of actions to be induced by the Salestor in a customer. Grab their attention, peak their interest in the product, induce desire to own the product, and finally convince them to take action. In their paper ‘A Brief History of the Sales Environment’, the authors Micah Strader, Allen Wysocki, Derek Farnsworth, and Jennifer L. Clark discuss how the significance of Salestors increased over time. After the Industrial Revolution, supply was more than demand and hence the need for Salestors arose. Since the concept of hiring Salestors was still new, they were not being given due importance. Companies hiring them on contract basis did not take their advice seriously and hence the Salestors, in return, did not become loyal to their hirers. However, things started changing by the end of 1970’s. The Horizontal Expansion of Sales In his book The Changing Nature of Sales Work, Prof Asaf Darr draws a comparison between sales then and now in the emerging technology markets. He says that the Managerial ranks were introduced to the corporate world by Engineers and they used to grow vertically in the organisation. But in the past 3 decades, this story has changed a lot to encompass horizontal growth accepted by everyone in an organisation. He talks about how sales has grown from being the most non-coveted profile to something that even engineers have started being expected to know about. Employees from different domains are chosen to be trained in the art of selling. In the 1980’s, as companies started adopting Just-In-Time method of production, Salestors gained more mileage in their companies. Being the only touchpoints with customers, they were required to understand the customers’ viewpoints and provide them to the company on time. A combination of both just-in-time and customers’ feedback was essential for complete success. The topic of Sales in the 1980’s will remain incomplete without talking about Neil Rackham’s Spin Selling model. After a struggle of 12 years and 35,000 sales calls, he had coined the concept that eventually became one of the most sought after Sales techniques of all time called SPIN Selling. This technique focuses on the questions that a Salestor needs to ask his or her client in order to have an effective conversation. The questions are based on the current Situation of the prospect, the Problem faced by the prospect, understand the Implications of their situation and problems and finally making the prospect realise the benefits of buying your product through Need-Payoff questions. And then began the New Millennium! The 2000’s brought with them a lot of changes in not only the image of Sales and Salestors, but also the kind of work each Salestor was supposed to do. In 2011, Aaron Ross, a Salesforce staff, identified a gap in Sales profiling system and divided the role of Sales Development Reps into Lead Generators, Customer Acquirers and Key Account Managers. (Finally, voila!) And yes, Women have been Selling too! The selling models of Avon, Tupperware, and Mary Kay brought employment, solidarity and the opportunity to be independent to thousands of women worldwide. Avon gave the right to an independent livelihood to women much before they were given the right to vote. So women have been into Corporate Sales for more than 130 years! But contrary to what I thought earlier, this topic is so vast and fascinating that it requires, and deserves, a separate article. So keep reading!

How many times have you felt the need to meet your client face to face, but in person instead of a screen? How many times has your boss asked if you were able to get an in-person meeting with your client ever since the un-lockdown kicked in? Been there, done that. Well, face-to-face meetings through the screen are the new normal, but they weren’t invented yesterday. Corporates have been doing them with clients sitting miles away on a different continent or country for ages. But with Covid-19 forcing everyone to take the digital route to meet people, Salestors world over are forced to accept the new normal and mend their ways. While I agree that conversations are better when you are sitting in front of the person. Body language, facial expressions, voice modulation and ultimately reading between the lines are facilitated when you can see the person without the screen in the middle. But, having said that, the new normal is the current reality that needs to be accepted. So, we Salestors need to amend our ways of communicating with the client. Here are some things to be kept in mind while having a business communication over the screen. A Stable Screen: It has to be a stable platform. For many, video conferencing over a laptop might bring more stability than a mobile. Ultimately, it is about having a stable screen where you put the device in front of you and not move around carrying it. A shaking image can distract the person on the other side of the business call. Background Check: Imagine sitting for a video conference with a prospective client and pictures of your college hangover party, or a pile of dirty laundry in the background, drifting the client’s attention away from you. Be wary of the things present in the background. A blank wall is an ideal background as there is nothing to take the attention away from you. In any case, try and avoid having business video calls in the kitchen or the bedroom until you happen to have a separate study table placed in there. And if you happen to use online meeting apps like Zoom, don’t use one of the images as the background just because you think they make for a decent halo. I can guarantee that your audience will be peeping over your head a couple of times throughout the meeting. Ladies, should you still be ditching make-up?: Maybe. Maybe not. Don’t overdo it just because you will be on-screen, but a little touch up will go a long way in giving you that confidence to shine your brightest during that client meeting. A little mascara combined with a not-too-bright dash of lipstick will do. In any case, choose the lip colour wisely. You don’t want all the attention on your lips 😊. Either way, be sure to find the right balance as too little or too much on camera can break it for you. You may want to test your makeup on your mobile camera before going live. Lighting: Well, that is the obvious next step. After all that goes into prepping yourself for the video conferencing, you don’t want to goof up the lighting that holds the power to showcase your best self. But remember to have the lighting source in front of you and not just at your back or right overhead. Sitting under or against the only source of light in the room will make your image appear dark on screen. Similarly, sitting with your back to the window is not a good idea either. It will act as the source of lighting working against you. Though the best sitting positions in the room are opposite to the source of brightest light in the room, if not possible then lights on your either side would work just fine too if they bring the bling to your face. Power Dressing: Yes, it still exists. Many of us would be wearing shorts with that crisp white shirt and tie as, of course, no one would see. But there is more to power dressing on screen than meets the eye. Although the definition of power dressing differs from company to company, there are some companies who mandate formals while the start-up guys might be seen wearing smart casuals even during multi-billion dollar deals. In either case, be wary of the contrasting and merging colours with background wall like a bright red shirt in front of a blue wall. It is advised to wear pastel and solid colour apparel and sit against a background with soft colours like white or beige, which work as the perfect background and make you stand out. Bright wall colours like red or orange, or even blue in many cases take the attention away from you. Also, another thing to bear in mind is avoiding patterns on your clothing. Thin stripes and too many patterns can be distracting for the viewer. Positioning the Camera: Ideally, it should be slightly above or at your eye level, but that seldom happens for those of us doing Video Conferences over laptop or mobile phone. The only doable hack here is to avoid peeping at yourself repeatedly at the small window at the bottom of the screen and trying to sustain eye contact with the camera instead since that is actually where your audience is. Lock the Door, maybe?: For those of us with kids, and those who do not want a Robert Kelly like BBC interview (watch the remote interview goof up here), locking the door and informing your family about your video calls might be a good idea. Making Notes: Needless to say, you need a notepad and a paper to make notes during the video conferencing. Sticky notes come in very handy as you can even stick them on your laptop screen for a quick reference. Check the Deck: If you need you share a deck (or a PPT, in layman terms), you should check, and recheck, it before the meeting begins. Obviously, most of the times with a client meeting, you get only one chance. Make it count! These may look like a lot of don’ts, but we can always do our best to the extent possible to make the meetings worthwhile. Covid-19 has made the world a small place. Digital meetings are here to stay and so is remotely working from home. Hence, each one of us who needs to conduct business communication regularly might have to consider many of these suggestions that I listed in this article. We could consider creating a video conferencing corner in our homes which checks a lot of boxes for a successful video calling experience for us. So all the best for the next VC experience!