Hi,
We are from Infoz Software Solution https://TheInfoz.com. We are in online product and mobile application development.
We are looking Sales and marketing executive or partners for our recent online education management system https://Tugain.com
Target Market : Education Sector , School, Colleges , coaching classes, corporate training and universities.
Responsibility:
understanding customers’ diverse, specific business needs and applying product knowledge to meet those needs
ensuring quality of service by developing a thorough and detailed knowledge of technical specifications and other features of employers’ systems and processes, and then documenting them
identifying and developing new business through networking and courtesy and follow-up calls
cold-calling in order to create interest in products and services, generate new business leads and arrange meetings
preparing and delivering customer presentations and demonstrations of the software, articulately and confidently
marketing and promoting a portfolio of products by writing and designing sales literature and through attending industry events
maintaining awareness and keeping abreast of constantly changing software and hardware systems and peripherals
developing effective sales plans using sales methodology
providing technical advice to customers on all aspects of the installation and use of computer systems and networks, both before and after the sale
advising on software features and how they can be applied to assist in a variety of contexts, such as accounting, manufacturing or other specialist areas
meeting sales targets set by managers and contributing to team targets
networking with existing customers in order to maintain links and promote additional products and upgrades
handling hardware or software problems and faults and referring on to specialist technical colleagues
responding to tender documents, writing proposals, reports and supporting literature
managing your own diary in order to organise and priorities daily and weekly goals
contributing to team or progress meetings to update and inform colleagues.
Fixed salary per resource: INR 20000 – INR 30000 / Month
Variable salary per resource: Up to 5-10% commission on each sale
Profile of the candidate in few lines: Any Graduate, MBA, good communication skill.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
NOPE.
No “PARTNERS” will help you sell.
You HAVE TO SELL YOURSELF
This is why:
When I was 17 years old, a real estate agent – M.M Goyal of Jaico Real Estates in Mumbai told me a Hindi dialog. He said, “Vyaapari woh, Jo Bechta bhala.”
Translated, it means, “The businessman who knows how to ‘Sell’ is truly successful.”
25 years later, I couldn’t agree with him more.
No matter which profession or job you are in, you have to know how to sell if you want an accelerated career.
Here are seven compelling reasons I have learnt personally:
1. Sales make you believe in yourself.
When I started an unheard concept of creating online contests (contests2win) in 1998, I couldn’t even explain the idea to people because the online world was alien to them.
In a famous meeting I had with Gunender Kapur (GK) of Hindustan Lever (that lasted for one hour), in which I pounded the idea of online promotions for the Annapurna Brand that he headed. He finally exclaimed, “I like you, I like the idea of ‘contesting’, but pray tell me what is ‘online?’ GK did not know what the Internet really was!
I did hundreds of meetings like those during 98-99, only to face rejection, doubts and outright bewilderment. But each meeting made me hone my skill of explaining my idea in more detail; it forced me to add so many more dimensions to my concept in more ways than I had even envisaged. It made me learn my business better and reinforced my conviction in it!
Thirteen years later, how much I thank those painful years for teaching me the hardest lesson that an Entrepreneur sometimes finds most difficult to learn – to continue to BELIEVE in her idea when the world says “Huh?”
Just the sheer passion in your eyes and speech will make people like you, notice you and even believe in you instantly. Even though they may not understand your idea.
2. Sales teaches you ‘Patience’.
A gentleman called Gareth Thomas who was a management trainee at Channel V in 1998 liked the concept of online contests.
Channel V had a popular ‘Viewers Choice’ awards on their channel and they were keen to convert the same into online contests.
The only problem was that Gareth liked calling me from my office in South Mumbai to meet his boss Vivek Paul usually at 2 pm to their Lakdawala office in Khar, and after making me wait till 5 pm, he would send a message via the receptionist (or come down himself) to tell me that Vivek could not meet me.
Both Vivek and he repeated this ‘ditch’ game three times with me. On my fifth visit, after the usual 3 hour wait, Vivek did finally meet me and gave me the business of hosting the Channel V Viewers’ Choice Awards on my website.
Despite the bitter anger and frustration of wasting time ‘waiting’, I learnt the hard lesson of being patient.
Sofas, secretaries and guards in offices became my best friends.
Waiting became my meditation.
Today, if I have to wait for a day, a month, a year or even a decade to achieve what I really want, it’s cool with me.
The religion of Sales has taught me that the fruit of penance is very sweet.
3. Sales makes you meet like minded people.
I met Rajiv Hiranadani (another ACE Salesman) when we used to both wait for 3 hours (minimum) to meet N.P. Thirukode of Shaw Wallace at Ballard Estate.
As salespeople, we clicked despite the fact that while sitting on that sofa we were arch competitors. Rajiv used to sell Yahoo and I used to represent MSN (Microsoft) as a sales partner.
By 2002, we had become good friends and I invited Rajiv to start up Mobile2win in India. By meeting him constantly, I understood what he was about.
More importantly, if he could wait with a smile for 3 hours to close a small deal, he was my clone. He was my kind of CEO.
Today, 10 years later Rajiv is still running that business. (Read this story of my exit from mobile2win)
When I last counted, I had 5199 visiting cards that I have collected as an online entrepreneur.
Each and every one of them has a Sales Contact.
You have to go out there, SELL and in the process meet the most interesting people in the world. For all you know, your business soul mate could be one of them!
4. Sales teaches you how to ‘read’ People.
My 2win founding team member Raj Menon (Ace salesman again) and I had gone to Sony India (in their Faridabad office) in June 2003 to pitch a brand new format of contesting that we had conceptualized in collaboration with Jet Airways.
At the Sony office, we met a gentleman called Dinesh Chandra.
I began presenting the pitch. It was a 12-slide deck. The pitch price was on slide 12.
Raj and I have trained each other to watch and observe the client as a pitch progresses. As I crossed slide 9. I saw Raj reach for his phone. That was a subtle signal for me. I slowly finished slide 10. Just as slide 11 came up, I saw Raj’s sms message on my phone. It said ‘Do not go to 12. End now’.
After slide 11, I declared that we had reached the end of the PPT and thanked Dinesh Chandra for listening.
Just then Raj pretended to get a phone call, and in a couple of minutes, Raj looked at Dinesh Chandra and asked him ‘Sir, do you mind if Alok and I step out? I have an urgent business matter to discuss with him’.
Dinesh said “Sure.”
Raj took me out and said ‘Alok, Dinesh loves it. I saw his expression. We have asked for 7.5 lacs on slide 12. He will pay 15 lacs’.
I came back and sat down. Dinesh asked me ‘So, what does the Jet proposal cost?
I gently said ‘Sir, it costs Rs. 15 lacs’.
Dinesh said “Done”. “Send me the purchase order.” That was the fastest sale I have ever done in my life.
Both Raj and I left stunned and ecstatic.
Only a week later did we find out who really read whom!
It turned out that Dinesh Chandra was launching the Sony WEGA range in India for the first time and an interactive contest in Jet Airways that collected a live database for him was the most effective marketing he could have achieved.
He had actually ‘read’ Raj and Alok better than we thought we had read him.
In retrospect, we think he could have paid 30 lacs if we had known what he was planning to use the campaign for.
Sales makes you understand people – it trains you to see their invisible smile even when they maintain a poker face, it shows you the twinkle in their eyes even though they may be wearing sunglasses.
5. VCs love SALES people!
I have been involved in raising Venture Capital (10+ transactions) for my own companies and for the companies I have mentored over the past 13 years. I have a fair idea of what VCs like in Entrepreneurs and their businesses.
One of the things they expect is the fact that the entrepreneur should be able to SELL.
And here I mean Sales that are not necessarily revenue centric but also the ability to sell the idea, the concept or the service to potential customers and clients as proof of validation of the business.
Take what happened to me for the first time when I raised venture capital for Contests2win.com.
In June of 1999, I walked into the Khaitan Bhavan offices of Acqauvit (what became E-Ventures in India) for the first time. There I met Neeraj Bhargava and Rajesh Jog.
The first question Neeraj asked me was “So, how many brands have used contests2win? What’s your proof of concept in the real world?”
Simply said, he was asking me, “Boss, have you sold this idea to real brands or is it a concept on paper?”
I answered and said, “Neeraj, seventy five of the Fortune 500 brands have already worked with us. Of them, fifteen have become repeat clients.”
Neeraj could not believe me. He was a McKinsey veteran and knew how difficult it was to get even a single Fortune 500 brand to sign on.
I showed him the roster of clients and the campaigns they had done.
In that conversation, I volunteered and said, “Neeraj, but you must know that all these brands have worked with me for free. I have not charged them anything.”
I still remember Neeraj’s reply so clearly. He said, “Alok, if you have got 75 brands to work with you, I will get them to pay. That’s the easy bit.”
E-Ventures funded me because I had shown proof of sales of a concept that did not exist in the world before – and none other than the biggest brands in the world being customers of that concept.
Today, when I sit in competitions in which real entrepreneurs compete for Money, I reflexively ask “So, who all have bought this?” Ever so often I have seen VCs politely asking entrepreneurs to come back to pitch to them AFTER they have had their first sale.
If you want to raise Capital, be sure you have proof of SALES in your pitch.
6. Sales teaches you the business models of the world.
I have sold over 2000 campaigns to over 1000 brands that belong to almost all the Fortune 500 companies in the world.
In the process, I have been exposed to the business models and insights of industries as diverse as telecom to trucks, airlines to antacids.
While selling my wares, I have been exposed to the sales problems of my partners, because after all, what they buy from me in terms of advertising solutions or games is only to help them sell better!
There is no MBA in the world that can teach you or expose you to live case studies, management issues, problems and solutions of the world’s biggest and best companies. Going into their offices to SELL them something is the best MBA program a person can attend.
Sales is the best education you get PAID to receive!
7. Sales helps you Sell ‘yourself’.
What happens in a Job Interview?
The candidate ‘sells’ his personality, abilities and his experience to a potential employer. A resume is the sales pitch in a word format, while the interview thereafter is a meeting to close that sales pitch.
In today’s hyper competitive world I see the best bred, most outstanding professionals fast becoming extinct in the corporate world – because they don’t know how to sell themselves.
Today, it’s not good enough to be very good at your job or to have an expertise in your domain – you have to know how to sell yourself.
Take Steve Jobs for instance. He was not just brilliant in his vision and execution. He was a superlative salesman too – every keynote of his is a salesman’s Bible. When he would go up on stage to present Apple products, the crowds would go crazy. He reinvented the concept of creating an explosive cocktail of emotion, innovation and sheer stage magic to capture the imagination of consumers; as if he was a rock star performing with his instruments, in front of his fans.
In the years to come, you will have to become a Rockstar yourself.
Think of what happens when people search for your name on google. What do they see? A list of linkedin, facebook and twitter links? I say that they need to see more. If you want to create an impact, you should be blogging, presenting a point of view, saying something compelling. They should be ‘pre-sold’ on you.
In February of 2010, Harvard Business School sent me an invite to speak to its students as part of an India Week. Their mail said, ‘We like what you write on rodinhood.com and wish you can present the ideas to our students’.
I think I had achieved a very rare and honorable ‘personal’ sale!
****
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
And if you are wondering HOW to sell, then read this:
Let us assume that the two of us are wannabe entrepreneurs and have invented a revolutionary ‘ice-making machine’. What’s revolutionary about it? Well, we still don’t know, but we have some fancy ‘concepts and ideas’. Above all, we desperately want to be entrepreneurs!
So, we get this once in a lifetime meeting with Vinod Khosla – the greatest VC in the Universe. How we got this meeting is a secret and cannot be revealed in public. Actually it can’t be revealed at all, because that (How to Get a meeting with Vinod Khosla) will be our next startup business anyway!
Vinod is very kind and patient; he gives us exactly half an elevator ride to pitch our idea to him. When have ridden to the 34th floor (he is going to the 68th floor), he smiles and tells us, “Guys, I like your passion. Go and sell your ice-making contraption to some real Eskimo – show me pictures plus their intent; and then maybe I can then give you a few hundred million dollars in angel funding….”
So Hum!! That’s the mission. You and I have to sell an Ice-Making Machine to some real Eskimos.
After weeks of begging and borrowing some money, we board a plane to Alaska on this mission!
Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that the toughest part of any startup is Sales. And boy, if you are selling something that has never been invented before, or been consumed by someone before, then selling that ‘thing’ is nearly impossible. Therefore, the mission of this exercise is to sell and figure out how to make the impossible possible!
Before reaching, I have done lots of homework for us. The first lesson in sales is to do thorough research about your customer, market, competitors and social sensitivities. I can tell you that selling an ice-making machine to Eskimos ain’t gonna be easy…
After reaching our cold Igloo hotel, a rush of nostalgia hits me. Many years back, when I had started an online contesting portal called contests2win.com, I had undertaken a very similar journey. I had flown to Bangalore, checked into a shady 2 star hotel and then using the Bangalore Telephone directory (no Google, ask me or LinkedIn around then) started calling random clients. Selling online contests in 1998 to Indian brand owners was akin to selling ice to Eskimos.
For this mission, I am going to lean on all the valuable sales lessons I have learnt in the past 15 years and prove to Vinod Khosla that real entrepreneurs can sell anything, to anyone!
Eskimos don’t really need Ice Machines. They are kind of surrounded by ice if you still didn’t figure! But then, real need has nothing to do with sales. As long as we can ‘create’ a need for our products in the minds of our consumers, they will buy. Consider for example the bookshelf in your house. Over half the books sitting there have probably never been read by you. But you bought them because you felt you needed them.
As my partner, you have agreed to let me take the lead in this sales drive and give me feedback post our meetings. Just remember to make adequate notes…!
Our first meeting is with Koda – A 35 year old Eskimo who has a wife and a young daughter. He invites us in his house for a demonstration of our machine. I have brought a baby pink machine with me, knowing very well that girls like pink! I can see his wife looking very lovingly at the machine…
Koda says, “Tunngasugit” (‘Welcome’ in Inuktitut)
I say, “Hello! It’s an honor meeting a real resident Eskimo. I really respect your way of life and the hardships you suffer.”
Koda acknowledges, and asks about the Ice Machine.
I say, “Koda, you are a successful man. You need to have this Ice Machine at home to make your wife happy and for your relatives to realize that you can afford to buy what they could never imagine. If you buy my machine, I promise I will not sell this machine to any of them.”
Koda smiles. I have just used the first and basic trick of sales: ‘Sell vanity & status, not the product. The image-hungry consumer will buy.’
Koda promises to call us back soon. We move on to our next meeting with Atka which means ‘Guardian Spirit’. Atka is in his early 50’s and lives with his extended tribe members.
I greet Atka with a researched phrase that goes as, “Inuusiqatsiaq”. It means “Good Health”. Atka smiles and greets us affectionately.
I have with me just a nice brochure of our Ice Machine that has complex charts of the safety aspects of the ice it makes vis-a-vis regular ice makers. With a strong and compelling voice, I tell Atka, “Sir, you are the guardian … as your name says… And this Ice Machine of ours makes sure that any crystal of ice your tribe eats, is safe and absolutely disease-free. A person like you will never take a chance when you know that a safer alternative is available. The tribe and its health comes before everything else…”
Atka has a serious look and nods at me. He promises to get back to us very soon. In his eyes I know that the second law of sales has worked – ‘If required, sell FEAR to sell your product.’
Our third meeting is with Hiti. He is a young man who has just started a restaurant and is very busy. It’s been difficult to arrange a meeting with him.
Inside his rather cold, blue colored restaurant called ‘Tihi’ (his name reversed), Hiti barely smiles and asks us to come straight to the point. I request for a glass of water and he beckons the bartender to serve us.
The moment I get my glass, I quickly slip my hand in my jacket and place what I have been carrying inside my pocket, safely, into the glass. These are real ice carvings, fashioned in the name ‘Tihi’. I had got the ‘Tihi’ name mould prepared before our trip and had frozen some ice in them before the meeting.
Hiti is stunned when he sees pretty delicate ice carvings, carrying the name of his restaurant, floating in our glasses. He smiles very reluctantly and says, “Interesting. I see this is not an ordinary Ice Machine. I will call you gentlemen soon.”
I know I have made a deep impact with not just my Ice Machine but also with my third mantra of sales:‘Sell innovation, innovation and innovation.’
Over the next few days we meet countless Eskimos and their families. I pitch colored ice cubes to housewives, animal & alphabet shaped ice cubes to school teachers, ice that just doesn’t melt to some ice cream shop owners and most interestingly, ‘ice-jewelry’ to local jewelry shops who seem fascinated by the concept!
On the last day of our trip, I take a count and figure that we have pitched our Ice Machine to over 25 individual Eskimos. This makes me feel satisfied that we have pavement pounded and carpet bombed the available market for selling what we have.
Just three hours remain for us to head back to the airport. As we go down to the lobby to clear our hotel bills and hire a cab, I notice a small crowd downstairs. There are over 10 of the Eskimos we have met! They quickly gather around us, shake our hands, smile and say, “Yes, we want to buy your machine…!!”
We have won. Our mission is accomplished. We take down their names, addresses and then take a group snap.
In the long flight back home, I smile and write this for you, “Always remember that sales is not a process or a science. It is an Art. It is a dedication, a meditation, and a journey that is unique every time you embark on it. When you really want to sell something, just dive into your buyers’ souls andthey will tell you how to sell to them….”
*****
Mahesh Chimankar
Thanks Alok for your time to suggest with a gr8 article
Mandar Joshi
Hi Mahesh, what Alok said is cent percent correct. You can not depend upon someone else for business development. It needs to be mastered by someone who is the founder of your venture. I can definitely give some pointers. Let’s connect and discuss you can reach me at 919890817339 anytime.