- Your Targets – That’s the first word that pops into your mind when you hear ‘Sales’ and sure it is the first thing that you are fed with once you are ‘Sales – ready’. It all starts from this one most dreaded word. This is one number that constantly hovers around your mind most of the time. And after 20th of every month, this number starts intruding your sleep and can give the ghosts in your nightmares a run for their money. Suddenly you will recite this holy number even when you are deep asleep. Suddenly you will realise you remember this number more than your best friends birthday.
- Your Product – Before being sales ready, you are given a bible of sorts about the product you are going to sell. Trust me it is the best sleep inducer. You try to read the alien language and repeatedly fail after the 3rd page and promise yourself – “Next time, I am gonna read it full No matter what”. And thus you give birth to a fine art which is overused ruthlessly & repeatedly – ‘Procrastination’. You master it as time passes. But thankfully this stops much later when you start answering the customer with “Sir, I will get back to you on this”. This is when you will go back to the biblical product book and will read all those words with so much enthusiasm like never before. You will suddenly see your product everywhere while previously you never knew this product even existed. The very sight of it make you go “hey I sell them!” with a glee. You get possessive about your product and donot like a single word against it. This is when you know about your product like never before. Its like an arranged marriage of sorts, you don’t have a choice but to love your product.
- Your Boss – Usually a guy who had started like you. Do not presume he doesn’t know the ground realities. Don’t make false stories of why something didn’t happen. You will be caught and bowled. He will be behind you all the time like a thermo-sensing missile, like a Hutch Pug – ‘where ever you go our network follows’. He will ensure that your life is a pressure cooker. The more heat on your bum, the more you whistle. At times he will show you your real worth, will prove how a big mistake was it to recruit you, how useless you are and the list of insults goes on. At the beginning you take it to heart and his words keep banging your head all the time. Later you get accustomed to it. Moral of the story : Don’t take your bosses brickbats very seriously learn to shut off when he starts his blah, but take his praises more than seriously (you will get to hear it very rarely)
- Your Life – If you are someone who has never lived out of your home, things are going to be really different for you. Suddenly you will get to learn a lot of things which you thought were by default your Bai’s. You learn to wash your clothes by your own hand, you broom, clean your utensils. You get to know the prices of groceries & vegetables; even names of some you never knew. You will work on Saturdays; your Sundays will seem longer. You will find yourself watching every stupid movies releasing on friday. Your laptop is full of stuffs like ______ (Fill in the blanks as per your own interests). Facebook is where you meet your friends. You will start calling people whom you used to ignore just to hear someone talking. You will feel happy to see your home location in movies, in my case ‘Mumbai’ - which is seen in every second movie. You will stare people speaking your mother tongue as if you seen a UFO full of Martians. You suddenly start liking the “The customer is on another call” message, because you feel like home when you hear it in Marathi. Maggi is your saviour when the cook bunks work. You start learning how to use different weapons in kitchen. You will search for holidays to book tickets to your hometown. When you reach home, you tell mom to cook all those things you generally complained about for having every second day. Your 2 days in your home-city = 1 month in your job location.
Despite all odds, I believe the learning is immense. You are enlightened by the fact that not everything Philip Kotler said was true. All those presentations, projects, assignments, case-studies etc will seem fake and will fall flat on your face. You learn what really works and what not. This is truly the first step for all Marketing Aspirants. You get to evolve as a person. You become Independent and start becoming more responsible. You get to meet new people, see new places and learn new things. I was hesitant and apprehensive at the beginning to take up this assignment. Now when I look back I feel,I would have missed a great deal had I declined it.
