The I-Zero Salesman

 Once upon a time, in a company not so far away, I had the pleasure (or perhaps the misfortune) of working for a brief period. The promoter, bless his heart, was a classic "jack of all trades, master of none." This guy fancied himself a human lie detector, but instead of reading micro-expressions, he relied on one thing: the almighty DISC test. For the uninitiated, DISC is a personality assessment tool where D stands for Dominance, I for Influence, S for Stability, and C for Compliance. And let me tell you, this promoter swore by it like it was the secret to eternal youth.

Now, if there’s one thing every good salesperson knows, it’s that a high "C" (Compliance) is about as useful as a chocolate teapot in a sales role. Seriously, can you imagine a salesman who follows all the rules? That’s like expecting a cat to fetch your slippers. I was fresh off my stint at Byju’s, where I’d practically thrown every rulebook out the window to close deals. In the world of sales, when the numbers are climbing, no one cares if you’re coloring outside the lines. But back to the story—when I was handed the DISC test, I knew my C score was going to be as low as a limbo champion. My D (Dominance) and I (Influence) were going to be through the roof. But since this gig was a management-level role, I had to pull a fast one. I decided to tweak my results, aiming for a high C, even if it meant sacrificing some D and I.

Being a doctorate in AI with a specialization in neural schematics (fancy, right?), manipulating this test was child’s play. I got the results I needed, landed the job, and then the fun began. The promoter, bless his misguided soul, couldn’t help but poke fun at my "lack of influence and dominance." He even suggested I take courses to improve my "I" and "D." If only he knew the truth! Meanwhile, I was quietly setting the sales world on fire. In just three months, I matched the company’s entire previous year’s sales. How? By breaking more rules than a rock star in a hotel room. I tweaked marketing campaigns—sometimes with permission, sometimes with a wink and a nod. Even the Digital Marketing agency had no idea what hit them. I rode every lazy salesperson like a rodeo cowboy, ensuring they hit their targets. I empowered the pre-sales team, turning them into a lean, mean, lead-generating machine.

The result? Sales figures that shattered records and left everyone wondering if I’d sold my soul to the devil. But as with all good things, my time there was short-lived. After three months, I decided I’d had enough of the promoter’s silly antics. Two reasons: one, he never paid me my well-deserved incentives (seriously, who does that?), and two, his decision-making was veering into “should be studied by psychologists” territory. I left on a high note, having done the impossible—selling a ₹2 crore product on a virtual call and setting up record-breaking meetings with a 20% conversion rate.

After I left, the exodus began. Almost everyone with a brain at that company followed me to my new venture, including the CEO, who even invested in it. So, this "I-Zero" salesman, who was supposedly low on influence, ended up influencing the entire company to follow him. The legend of the I-Zero Salesman grew so much that even after I left, employees kept calling me for advice and career guidance. The void I left is still gaping, and the sales records I set remain unbroken.

The moral of the story? Never, and I mean never, evaluate a salesperson using DISC scores. Salespeople are too crafty for that nonsense. Respect the salesperson for the results they deliver. A good salesperson is like a rebellious teenager—sensitive inside, reckless outside, and that’s what makes them great at sales. No test can measure a salesperson’s true value; only the sales numbers at the end of the quarter can do that. So, stop wasting time with DISC tests and start judging salespeople by their performance—they’re way too smart for your silly little personality tests.

Intellectual Masturbation: Why It Should Be Avoided

We've all been there—sitting in a boardroom, surrounded by colleagues, staring at yet another PowerPoint presentation filled with charts, graphs, and endless data points. As the meeting drags on, you start to wonder if anyone actually remembers what we were here to solve. Welcome to the world of intellectual masturbation—where thinking replaces action, and companies waste countless hours brooding over spreadsheets rather than rolling up their sleeves and getting things done.

Picture this: your sales are dipping faster than a cookie in hot coffee, yet instead of mobilizing the troops, your team spends hours debating the finer points of a "Go to Market" strategy. By the time they agree on something, the market has already shifted, leaving you chasing shadows. It's like planning a beach holiday during a snowstorm—utterly pointless and painfully slow. While you're busy perfecting that pitch deck, your competitors are out there making sales and winning customers.

Let’s face it, no amount of number crunching or paper trading will ever replicate the messiness and unpredictability of the real world. Remember that time your projections looked perfect on paper, only to fall flat when actual sales rolled in? It’s like betting on a sure thing at the racetrack only to watch your horse trot in last. Real-world numbers don’t care about your perfectly formatted Excel sheets; they demand action, adaptation, and a bit of good old-fashioned hustle.

Speaking of endless discussions, how about those companies that spend more time meeting different consultants and agencies than actually solving their problems? It’s a classic case of analysis paralysis. You meet one consultant after another, each presenting a dazzling array of solutions. But then comes the endless debate—“Is the budget too high? Is the solution convincing? What if there’s a better option?” Meanwhile, the problem festers and grows, morphing into something far more menacing. It’s like hiring an interior decorator to discuss color palettes while your house is on fire.

Here's a funny anecdote: imagine a group of chefs in a kitchen, meticulously planning the menu for a grand banquet. They spend hours debating flavors, drawing up elaborate recipes, and arguing over the perfect garnishes. Meanwhile, the guests are in the dining room, starving and impatient. By the time the chefs decide on the first course, the guests have raided the kitchen for snacks and left a Yelp review that reads like a horror story. Moral of the story? In business, as in cooking, timing is everything. Don’t let your competitors steal your customers while you're still perfecting the recipe.

In conclusion, intellectual masturbation might feel satisfying in the moment, but it’s a dangerous trap for any business. Action trumps deliberation every time. So, next time you find yourself in a never-ending meeting, remember this: get out there, make decisions, take risks, and learn from the real-world outcomes. Because while you’re busy thinking, the world is busy moving.

The Essential Battle: Why Departments Must Clash for Sales Success

 There are multiple departments at work to push sales forward. In any sales-driven organization, you always have the Marketing team generating leads via digital and non-digital campaigns. The Pre-Sales team typically warms up the call, qualifies the lead, and then passes it on to the Sales team, which further engages the lead and converts it into an actual customer. Depending on the company or process, this lead may further go to a CRM or Delivery team to ensure services or products are delivered to the client.

Why is it important for any organization that these departments always challenge each other to boost sales? The reason is simple: if all these departments become hand in glove and do not fight—mind you, I don’t mean they should literally punch each other—if there are no arguments on outcomes, productivity, and targets for each department, it's grossly harmful for the business. These departments are interdependent for target achievement, so without healthy friction, arguments, competition, or challenges between them, the business won’t move forward.

In my experience with multiple companies, I’ve found one thing in common: if these departments are all hand in glove and don’t challenge each other, the company’s sales figures don’t meet industry averages. There’s always something wrong when I evaluate the sales. On the other hand, where all these departments continuously challenge each other and have healthy fights over performance and numbers—as everyone’s output impacts the performance of others—I’ve seen those organizations have healthy sales, and their processes are well optimized, pushing sales forward.

It’s the management's job to always ensure that each department’s KPIs impact the KPIs of others in the chain. This ensures that each department keeps challenging the others on which it depends for optimization and better output. Successful organizations do this by incorporating incentives divided into two halves: one for individual performance and another for overall sales achievement. This ensures that each department has a sufficient interest in the output of others.

For example, the Pre-Sales team that qualifies leads should get an incentive for the number of leads they qualify from the leads received—that’s their individual KPI. They should also get an incentive for the sales, ensuring that the Pre-Sales team will continuously monitor the lead progress and keep the Sales team on its toes. Similarly, once the Sales team converts a lead into a customer, they should get an incentive. They should also be incentivized once the product or service is delivered to the customer on time by the CRM team, ensuring that the CRM team is also in check. This kind of incentive strategy always ensures that each department in Sales challenges each other, promoting growth in sales numbers.

Now, imagine a scenario where all these departments have no complaints against each other and are conveniently working towards protecting each other, shifting the blame for underperformance on external factors. In such an environment, the management or the company is the loser. In professionally driven companies, data is shared openly with all stakeholders, questioning is allowed by appropriate persons at appropriate forums to bring accountability, performance is key, and hence in such organizations, sales thrive. 

Picture this: A sales department where everyone gets along like a harmonious choir. Sounds ideal, right? But wait, have you ever seen a choir sell a million-dollar product? Exactly. You need a bit of rock and roll, a touch of jazz, and maybe even some country twang to get those sales numbers singing. When departments challenge each other, it’s like a good jam session—everyone’s playing their part, and the result is music to the ears of the shareholders.

So, the next time your marketing team and sales team are at each other’s throats over lead quality, just remember, it’s not a disaster—it’s a duet. And who doesn’t love a good duet?

Greed, Trust, and Bad Marriages: Sales of Investment Products via Insurance Agents

"Marriages are made in heaven and executed on earth." Well said.

Just like any street-smart young man eyeing a bride who is successful and has assets that make him feel secure about their future, businesses often fall into the trap of eyeing lucrative partnerships. Throughout my career as a consultant, I’ve encountered numerous businesses with investment products like equity, PMS, investment-grade real estate, and fractional real estate investments, that get attracted to insurance agents. "Come on, Dr. Praveen, let’s team up with the insurance agents, the billion-dollar club agents, or other networks of insurance agents and push our products," they often say. The common rationale is that insurance agents earn less on insurance products, so they would be keen to promote higher-commission investment products.

While this narrative sounds fantastic, it often ends in disaster. The reason lies in the fundamental misunderstanding of such partnerships. Investment product companies, whether financial or real estate, tend to eye the network of these brokers without understanding two crucial aspects:

1. Consultative Sales and Risk-Free Nature: Insurance sales are consultative, largely risk-free, and rely heavily on the relationship between the agent and their customer. Insurance, by nature, is a risk-free product and not an investment product. The objective of buying insurance is fundamentally different.

2. Risk and Mindset Differences: Investment-grade products, whether financial or fractional real estate, are inherently risky. They require a different mindset and approach when negotiating sales with customers. The customer buys insurance products based on trust, and the entire network of an insurance agent is built on referrals and a closed network of selling.

What happens if an investment product sold by an insurance agent fails? The insurance agent’s reputation and primary business suffer. This has happened in the past with many equity and real estate products that insurance agents sold, leading to numerous case studies often titled "Failed Marriages in Business."

It’s like marrying someone who seems attractive and valuable, but whose strengths and nature are not compatible, leading to a failed marriage. Despite this, why do insurance broker networks or aggregators still push such products? The answer is simple: Greed. Companies offering these tie-ups promise fancy commissions to everyone involved. Some agents take the bait and suffer, becoming case studies themselves, while most experienced agents know better and steer clear, understanding that greed is dangerous.

I have witnessed the failure of partnerships between insurance agents and companies offering investment products on three separate occasions. Based on my experience, I can confidently say that these attempts are recipes for disaster.

On the other hand, I have found success in selling investment products through people or companies engaged in distributing such products. For instance, I recently collaborated with Hbits, one of the leading commercial fractional real estate investment platforms. We strategically tapped into mutual fund distributor networks, equity market consultants, and broker networks. The results were astounding: over 30 Cr of fractional real estate sales in 25 days with just a five-member inside sales team with PMS backgrounds.

Why did this work? Simple. Investment inherently involves risk, and in the equity market, a 12% return is considered good. However, with fractional real estate or REITs, the customer may get a return of 9-12%, but the risk is lower than in equity markets. For the partners, this was advantageous because they don’t earn much from distributing mutual funds or advising on equity. Hence, this partnership had better chances of success and indeed succeeded.

So, to all business and sales managers or corporate strategists considering such partnerships, beware of the consequences. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.

The Worst Question a Salesperson Could Ever Ask

 

The Worst Question a Salesperson Could Ever Ask

 

As a salesman who has sold anything and everything, I can lay my hands on for over 20 years, I have been in situation where I am interacting with customers or salesman or promoters on how to sell a particular product or service, I have read several hundred books and untold numbers of articles on selling. One thing that frustrates me is how often BAD advice is passed along that hurts the prospect more than it helps. I recently was associated with a company in real-estate, I witnessed a situation where where the promoter was trying educate the sales rep on the importance of better understanding the prospect need while involving their spouses in their buying process, before even initiating the sales conversation. 

What in fact is more important, in my opinion, is qualifying a prospective client thoroughly enough to have determined that there "is" a viable sales opportunity? Before probing the spouse’s interest. A lead who is enquiring about your product or services is primary target who needs convincing before he takes it to others for qualifying his decision, In high value sales the focus should be on understanding the prospect and the steps involved in their buying process. We must learn, however, to ask questions regarding their buying process without alienating the very people we are trying to build a trust-based relationship with.

 The promoter of the real-estate company went further with his training and said "Here's a question we should always ask the customer. Is anyone else besides yourself who will be involved with this purchasing decision?" That may work great in a book or a training seminar, but it doesn't cut it in real life. I've seen so many sales rep making this mistake, they get to the point where they ask, "Who's the final decision maker?" The problem is that a question such as this sets your potential client on the defensive. Their response usually is, "I'm the only person you need to worry about." We might as well have said, "You are not powerful enough to make this decision yourself. So, who am I supposed to talk to who matters?"

Over the years, I have developed quite a pet peeve about the use of the term "decision maker." Any time you deal with multiple people who are involved in a buying process, they all seem to think (or perhaps they need to think) that whatever portion of the overall buying process they are responsible for is THE decision. The technical approver is making the technical decision. The financial decider is making the financial decision. The purchasing agent is making the buying decision. Or so they must think. Whether the individual you are interacting with is, in fact, the last decider, or they're merely a recommender (i.e., making a preliminary selection to recommend to his or her superior) they almost always think that they are making THE decision We should let whoever we work with feel they are the decision maker. But do learn what has to occur throughout the rest of the buying process as well.

 An improved question for your client is, "Once you make your decision. What happens then?" If they say, "I'm the final decision maker." Respond with, "Excellent! What else will have to occur before you decide?" Once you have a grasp on their process, then inquire, "When you decide what happens then?" That last question usually discloses who and what else is entailed.

 Everyone who is a part of your customer's buying process holds importance. Any one of them could mean the difference between closing the deal or not. Try to understand the different people who play a part in the process and try to meet, or at least speak on the phone with, as many players as possible. But make sure to ask your 'who' and 'what' questions in such a way that you show due respect to the role of each individual and their contribution to the overall decision-making process.

 

Learn How Not to Sell, to Actually Sell the Right Way

 To thrive, every organization needs one crucial element: customers. Whether through digital outreach, traditional sales channels, or direct interactions, it's the customers who drive the organization forward.

To sell products or services effectively, an organization needs two key components: a customer who trusts the product/service and a salesperson who believes in the organization or brand and pushes the product to the end user. When it comes to digital sales, there are many factors to consider. Sales is an art executed scientifically, backed by data and marketing.

What does it take to sell effectively? Success hinges on four critical factors, which I call the 4Fs: a strong Product, a compelling Brand, skilled Salespeople, and effective Marketing. Over my 18-year career, whether I was selling condoms or condos, I've learned that each product requires a unique strategy. For instance, selling high-end real estate demands a focus on personalized service and trust-building, whereas selling consumer goods like condoms relies on brand recognition and accessibility.

In today's market, especially in a country like India, where customers are neither fully digital nor completely traditional, achieving the perfect balance of these factors can feel like a nightmare. Yet, once that balance is achieved, sales can take off like a rocket.

Many companies believe that having a unique product or service that solves problems should naturally drive sales. Is that approach right? Some companies focus solely on marketing, pushing customers towards DIY journeys that lead to sales. Is that approach right? Others build extensive sales teams or go fully digital. Is that approach right? And then there are those who rely on partnerships, leveraging others' strengths and sharing the benefits. Is that approach right?

Oh well, here's my simple answer: they're all wrong. The 4Fs, or as I like to call them, the 4 Fuckups, must be perfectly balanced for any product to sell. In today's world, where customer loyalty is as mythical as a unicorn, if you don’t get these 4Fs just right, sales will never take the path you desire. They'll be sluggish, occasionally flaring up depending on your marketing budget, and eventually flattening out.

Branding is another myth. Branding today is customer perception. It doesn't need vintage in most cases, except in traditional businesses like gold and real estate where legacy matters to some extent. If branding were bound by vintage, we wouldn’t have unicorns appearing within three years of operation or those that have never seen the light of profit.

Most companies make the common mistake of focusing on things that may work while crafting their sales strategy instead of finding the winning combination of the 4Fs. In today's economy, where customers are always looking for alternatives, it's tough to win the sales battle without a comprehensive strategy addressing Product, Branding, Sales, and Marketing. Find the perfect balance of the 4Fs, and bingo—you’re on a sales rocket.

There’s a lot of noise about digital sales and DIY strategies. I’m thankful to all the digital gurus out there with no knowledge of sales. If you throw a stone in any market crowd, there's a 7 out of 10 chance it'll hit a digital marketer. Contrary to popular belief, digital sales can be more challenging than traditional sales. The lack of face-to-face interaction means you must be even more precise and strategic in guiding customers through their digital journey. And don't forget, digital sales require burning cash and a product that allows crazy customer acquisition costs to fuel your digital sales spree. In every review meeting, you’ll see confusing presentations from digital marketers about how CPC and CPL have dropped. But when you do the math, you'll realize your customer acquisition cost has gone rogue.

Digital sales are undoubtedly the future, but our customers' mindset will remain hybrid for the next decade. They’ll look at a brand’s digital footprint but won’t trust it completely. They’ll follow influencers but might not buy. They’ll listen to a telecaller but won’t commit without reassurance. They might be charmed by a smart salesperson but won’t buy without checking the digital presence. It's the customer's dilemma. They have options, they have learnings—as if Google wasn’t enough, now they have ChatGPT too. In today’s information age, where information itself is sometimes a product of imagination, how do you sell? The answer is a perfect balance of the 4Fs.

So, the next time you plan your sales strategy, remember the 4Fs and get them right to hit the jackpot. And if all else fails, just remember that selling condoms and condos have one thing in common: they both need to be done with utmost care and precision!