Soldiers of Sales

Soldiers of Sales

BY

MURALI MURTHY

Selling is part of our daily life, all of us are always into selling, either consciously or subconsciously.

Teachers and Parents selling the idea of righteousness, morality to children, politicians selling their ideology to general public, Spiritual leaders and Godmen selling their idea of philosophy to masses looking for spiritual getaway, Candidates during interviews selling their skills, prospective grooms and brides selling their best behaviour to each other, people during their courtship selling their best looks and best self.

When it comes to Corporate world, the definition of Sales is very specific - to generate revenue to the Organization.

Though for the convenience and to match the scale of the company, the Sales, Marketing and Business Development roles have been split and has become a tradition to keep it that way.

Whatever role we Entrepreneurs play in our companies, we sell every day - Products to customers, vision, hope and numbers to investors, trust and promise of growth to Employees, belief and hope to ourselves.

Heard at some motivational speach "Do not Start a company/business, if you are not a good salesman". Can't agree more with it!

Gone are those days where people followed a debatable approach "Convince or Confuse". Believers in such approach are lucky if they are still finding idiots to be confused in this era of information intelligence. I rather believe we don't have a second choice at all, but to Convince.

Selling the company's product is no more the job of the Founders or Sales team alone. Like it or not, every Employee in the organization, irrespective of your domain, skill or role, all are part of Selling.

Just doing your job efficiently and if the output is as expected, half the Selling is already done by you without your knowledge.

Selling is not just about the initial Sales closure and signing of Contract. Selling happens everyday during the Contract period to retain the customer and renew the Contracts.

The closure of a deal, signing the contract is a long drawn process that depends on lot more than the Sales Pitch. But that initial Sales Pitch or approach by the Salesman (I am not referring to a role/position here, but anyone whose job is to increase revenue of the Company), leaves good enough impact for remaining process to go smooth, or atleast give the company a good chance for closure.

Some studies say the first impression is made within 7 seconds of your opening Pitch. I am not really sure if thats true.

There is nothing called as First Impression when it comes to the Sales Pitch. Yes it might make some sense during the initial lead generation stage until you get a time from the prospective customer.

But once you have the audience, the floor is yours. It's up to the Salesmen to make the best pitch.

What is a good Pitch? What do you sell? Is it the product, people, strengths, self, brand?

The formula of a good sales pitch or overall sales approach is subjective and self found/self learnt skill.

It also depends on the scale of the company you represent. 

If you are the pioneer and a multimillion dollar company with proven track record, the Salesmen need not waste time introducing the company, brand, expertise or the product.

The Sales might happen at different levels and it will become a game to win the race between two biggies trying to win a contract.

On the contrary, a Startup, a small to mid sized company  will have lot more to prove and Sell, naturally.

Each Salesmen takes an approach that suits them, that has worked for them, and there is no one single approach that works for everyone, though everyone might be selling the same Product.

Some believe in being submissive, docile and letting the people on the other side of the table dictate how to serve them, and ask for their guidance on the proceedings.

Some believe in building personal relation, being pally, and getting their work done by doing some personal favours.

Some trust on their product, company and technically being aggressive to convince.

When you are especially representing a small to mid sized company and when you are competing with biggies, having one or two USP will not help you sail through.

One thing we need to understand is you are being called to present them your case, because the customer believes we are experts in what we do and wants to understand if you have the ability to serve them efficiently and not hurt their Business.

I believe in demonstrating that I am the expert, and giving an impression that I can efficiently deliver for them, by showing how competent the team/ product is. The Confidence, know-how on the requirement, hold on the subject, and making it abundantly evident that I exactly know what I am saying and delivering.

Other subtle things include the way you present yourself, apt attire, confidence you show with the way you walk, shake hands and address the audience by name.

It is extremely important to have command on the language and good communication skills. I have written another blog on the importance of Communication skills Humano-Nexum .

A good salesmen is one for whom selling comes naturally. You cannot prepare for a Meeting, even if you are stopped in the middle of the road or woken up in the middle of the night and asked to make a sales pitch, it should still be delivered effectively even without any materials, PPTs.

When you walk out of the meeting after the sales pitch, the impression you should leave behind is the trust without a doubt that you are the right person to deliver and that you are the expert.

After all, for the customers, you are the face of the company and you represent the company/product.

As I have mentioned before, what works for you might not work for me. It's self learnt skill and truth.

One cannot learn Selling, it can surely be improvised and finetuned with experience.

The whys of Kashmiriyat

THE WHYS OF KASHMIRIYAT!?

BY

MURALI MURTHY

What made me go and watch the movie?

The hype around the movie, politicization, constant promotions by actors and the Director on TV Channels and claims / reviews that said it depicts "exactly" what happened to Hindus in Kashmir and truths unearthed which was never told before. I also wanted to prove I am not an "anti-national" as many Politicians and Devotees said those who dont watch the movie are anti-nationals.

How did I find the Movie?

Leaving the feelings (emotions, hindu pride, nationalism) aside, as a pure 3 hours Movie experience, it was extremely slow, couldn't engage the audience all 3 hours.

For me, the stand out performances were from Pallavi Joshi as Prof Radhika and Darshan Kumar as Krishna Pandit.

Now that I have proved I am not an anti-Hindu, anti-national by watching the Movie, am I still obligated to say I loved the Movie?

What did the Movie convey to me?

It's a Movie telling the story of one family's sufferings during the ethnic cleansing by "freedom fighters" in 1989-90. The systematic failure, willingly turning a blind eye by State and Central Govts  is evident. The aspirations, desire for an independent, Islamic State by majority Kashmiris made them take extreme, inhuman and murderous means to achieve their objective. Ofcourse, Pakistan was always there to meddle and fuel the fire.

Did they target Hindus and kicked them out of their own homes?

Undoubtedly, all Kashmir Pandits were Forcefully evicted from not only their homes, but from Kashmir itself by the most cruel possible means.

As heard before and carefully observed in the movie, Kashmiris in the first place never identified themselves as part of India, they always believed India has forcefully, illegally holding and claiming Kashmir to be part of their own.

Their anger, rage was directed towards India and anything that represented India. 

They found targets in Hindus/ Kashmiri Pandits, and all the killings, torture and violence was done to hurt India and achieve a sense of freedom and thereby disconnecting from India.

Now that Hindus are not there, they are targeting Armymen and Military installations, as that's representation of India in Kashmir.

Was the Movie true representation of what happened then and unearths the untold story?

Most of us always knew the Exodus of Hindus in Kashmir happened. But the Movie emphasises that it was a Genocide where mass number of Hindus were massacred. The movie did reaffirm that the rage and cleansing is still happening, where as latest as 2003, Nandimarg Massacre was brutal and cruel.

It can be disputed if everything told in the movie is true or represents facts. End of the day, it's a story narrated to suit one side of the story.

There will always be two truths in a story, each truth is believed to be the absolute, gospel truth to the side believing in them.

For Ex: Though the entire world believes Russia is invading Ukraine and are massacring innocent people and being inhuman, Russia's side justifies the war and their side of truth makes them Right.

Is India right in claiming Kashmir to be part of India?

Ofcourse yes. As even mentioned in the Movie, Kashmir has always been a center of excellence, where great thinkers and philosophers like Shankaracharya and Madhwacharya came to Kashmir for research and learning.

Kashmir has always been part of cultural heritage since the days of Civilization.

Due to It's proximity to Islamic nations, it was invaded, ruled by Mughals for over 7 centuries! And in their trademark style, Mughals systematically converted the land they ruled and made it Islamist state.

By the time British even entered India, Kashmir had practically become an Islamic State and the minority Hindus were effectively living in foreign soil!

Is the Movie used for Propoganda?

Though I didn't find anything in the Movie to create a cultural divide or righting a historical wrong, the present dispensation is surely leaving no stones unturned by using it to push their agenda and pushing convenient narratives.

Exaggerating and drawing unparallel comparisons with Bengal and Kerala, just because they can't win an election there!

If they are genuinely concerned for Hindus and Kashmiri Pandits, instead of being Mum on this issue for 3 decades, they could take action on ground to correct the nation's failures.

Giving credit to the work done by BJP, abrogation of Article 370 is definitely step 1.

After all, the Movie was produced by Zee, which is owned by a BJP MP. They will use a sensitive issue to their advantage and push their hyper-nationalism agenda!

As one of my friends said "Instead of instilling nationalism, patriotism, you walk out depressed".

Corporate lessons from Modi

CORPORATE LESSONS FROM MODI

BY

MURALI MURTHY

The rise and fame of BJP under Modi is a lesson to be learnt by Entrepreneurs and corporates.

Modi and his style of working goes on to prove, a strong leader having complete control on his team is so critical in the success of an organization.

If having a strong leader is half the game won, the other half is the branding, marketing and sales pitch, and all these having centrally focussed narrative.

Their Lazer focus on their idea they strongly believed in, that got their success.

The success story revolves around execution of their vision, narrative and the strategy adapted.

Hindutva and hyper nationalism, both working in tandem to sell the idea of Hindu Rashtra. The majoritarianism was held by It's neck and extracted maximum juice. 

Be it raking up history, choking minorities, going all out to emotionally ignite Hindutva amongst Hindus.

When the narrative is effectively spread all around, the ecosystem also starts to work accordingly. Even the judiciary starts giving judgement in favour of Ram Temple, Hijab ban, and the Laws pushed such as Triple Talaq, CAA and alikes.

Though Hindustan was originally a Hindu Rashtra, Britishers colonized and left Christians here, Mughals rampaged and left Muslims here.

Eventually the nation evolved and started to live in harmony and adapted to be a secular nation.

As this ecosystem did not suit the Brand Modi, they smartly changed the market condition itself to sell their product. The high decibel, high voltage saffronization approach was well implemented to eradicate the idea of a Secular state. The fallout is a different thing that marginalized are demonized and have to keep proving their loyalty and patriotism every day.

The product delivery has been extremely efficient and to customer's satisfaction. The combination of Hindutva ideology, Hyper nationalism and targeted development. Usual military Ops are well marketed, rekindling with History, Govt promoting Movies suiting their agenda. Even the infrastructure development works are well targeted - Ayodhya, Varanasi, Roads in Kashmir, to answer those raising questions on Development works.

The success story of the Organization under an able leader, great oratory skills, amazing marketing strategy, presentation, brand building activity, with targeted implementations - are indeed lessons to be learnt! Kudos to Modi!

Even the non-consumers (NRIs) are in awe with the product being sold here in India, despite they having no impact on their lives nor pay taxes here.

The cross-selling and upselling of their highest selling brand is so well done via Branding done on all materials including Govt documents.

Has the success of the Organization and Leader ensured 100% market capture? Ofcourse not...mathematically speaking, if you take the pool of MPs, MLAs, MLCs - BJP only has 37% market capture across India. Still the branding is done in such an impressive manner that remaining 63% is made to look irrelevant.

A true brand ambassador of the Organization has dedicated himself for the growth of the Organization and It's vision, who goes all out in presenting himself well, conduct himself well, display of all emotions to keep the focus on him.

It's common that every organization bad mouths the competitors, but Modi so smartly criticises his competitors that even abuses and criticism is entertaining and becomes news for the day. That's the power of an influential man having wacky oratory skills as well.

MODI - A true leader with dedication, focus, target driven and a visionary leader!

Scream

SCREAM

Have you ever felt like screaming on top of your voice? Felt like screaming to take out your frustrations?

Many of us might many a times feel a need to go somewhere silent, or on top of the hill and scream loudly to take out pent up, suppressed pressure or stress caused by work, domestic, financial, health issues or abuses showered by a person or life itself.

Fresh from my Mantralaya Visit, I saw and felt people screaming silently. People find ways to scream.

With tears in their eyes and doing physically challenging sevas to seek solution to their problems.

Afterall Rayaru is known to perform miracles and solve problems! End of the the day, It's faith and belief.

Each time I visit Mantralaya, many friends and relatives send their donations and their prayers as well.

Reasons for visiting Mantralaya or such divine places could be very subjective and personal.

Experiencing divinity, for spiritual awakening would be the obvious reasons, in order to seek peace of mind and recharge ourselves to go back and fight out the life struggles.

After experiencing the divinity, the feeling I would get before heading back to life would be this inner strength that's fully recharged that has now the attitude - "I can be the light of my own path, I can rewrite my own destiny.". It's like literally saying Bring it on, I am ready!

The destiny is such a subjective feeling. Another person with folded hands standing right next to me could be feeling - "Nothing has changed, Nothing can change. I guess this is my fate and I will submit myself to it. I keep living life as I still stand with the same problems and pain."

The song both sing is same - "Its for you, because of you that I sing this song. I can conquer the world and solve my problems with your help. The path is shown by you, the act is done by you, you make me see dreams and give me energy to realize those."

While many with so much pain hardly get a glimpse, despite traveling from far and in extreme conditions, while the privileged few will not have less than 10 Darshans and complain if we are not allowed to stand in the front, for anything less than 5 minutes.

The pains and the bag of requests both - the one who got a glimpse and the ones standing for 10 minutes are similar, yet We all seek spiritual help to solve our real world problems.

One of my pal who is an atheist always tells me "It's fine if you visit temples and Mutts only to find peace of mind or for emotional solace. But don't waste too much time on it, as beliefs and philosophies which were written and created centuries ago cannot and can never be relevant in today's technology driven world".

It's his logical and practical thinking that makes him say that. Afterall, end of the day It's "Belief" that drives us all.

One needs something to lean on when We have no where else to go, when all you could do humanly are done, yet you seek help, some place you can go and silently "Scream".

In conclusion I sign off with this song and the message in it:

 "Deepavu Ninnadhe, Gaaliyu Ninnadhe..Aaradhirali Belaku.

Kadalu Ninnadhe, Hadagu Ninnadhe..Mulugadhirali Badhuku"

Monarchs . Aspirations . War

Monarchs | Aspirations | War

"Powerful leaders have the ability to blur the idea of a Nation and impose their own national narrative. An Individual Leader should not be allowed to grow beyond the Nation, who can eventually become a threat to the Nation and the World with the unopposed power"

Centuries ago, the Kings and Emperors built their empires and nations by conquering and controlling settlements.

The borders of the Empires those days was always fluid and kept growing.

Back in those days, growth of an empire was achieved by way of expansions, acquiring resources, talents, culture and treasures of other settlements.

It made sense then, as the aspiration of one Man, one King was the driving force.

The prosperity achieved, aspirations served were the motives for long battles and all killings in those battles were ticked off in the name of prosperity and growth of the nation.

Military muscle and size of the Army was directly proportional to the size of the Nation. Hence, it made sense for Kings those days to build and maintain a huge army.

In the present 21st century, growth and prosperity of a nation is determined by advancement in education, technology, businesses, revenue, GDP and stock market, what place does an Army have?

Why does Nations have Armies now when the geographical boundaries of each nation is clearly defined and the expansionary approach is no more relevant, practical or the need of the day!

Is it to protect our nation from being invaded by other nations? To ensure territorial integrity? Or to invade and regain lost territory as per their definition of borders?

The neighbouring countries also strongly believe the territory they hold is rightfully theirs, so what's the solution?

Is that why India also has such a imposing gallery of defense strength?

Forget India's territorial claims and threats, Maharashtra claims a piece of Karnataka, so does Kerala and Tamil Nadu. So, should Karnataka also have its own army to protect our State's integrity?

A country like India spends astronomical amount of money to maintain its defense. A whopping annual spend of Rs. 3 Lakhs Crores!! The worthiness of such a spend can always be argued.

Imagine this amount was used for betterment of country's economy, people and infrastructure!

A feku promise of giving 15 Lakhs to all citizens could have been achieved every year!! Haha..

I am not very sure if having an elaborate army has saved us from China, Pakistan invading us or the only reason it's stopping them taking the pieces of land which they claim to be theirs.

A debt ridden country like Pakistan that survives only on Grants and Loans by others Nations, can only think of getting Kashmir to generate some sort of tourism revenues. But what difference could it do to China or Russia by invading and getting some piece of land!

I also think it gives room for hyper nationalism, display of extreme patriotism built around Army men.

History stands as proof that having the military might, gives alter ego to the country heads, they feel powerful and ahead of others.

What will countries like US, Russia, China who spent Millions of Dollars and have a strong army do with it? Just to protect their borders?

With so much power, they can either fiddle with other country's affairs or keep invading just for the heck of it!

History again stands testimony that power in the hands of a greedy, ambitious man always proved disastrous.

Such Men are usually seen when the leader becomes larger than the Nation itself.

Be it Putin, Xi Jinging, Kim Jong-Un, NaMo and alikes, these men have grown beyond their own stature and have all the power to impose their own agenda and ideas. One commonality with these men is they fight and win Presidential election, though India was until 2014, a parliamentary democracy, has now unofficially become Presidential with country revolving around one Man.

Who is stopping these Men from using the military might to fulfil their own personal agendas and aspirations.

What's Putin doing in Ukraine is just invasion, the reason given sounds stupid that Ukraine adapting NATO is a threat to Russia...Joke! Infact, Russia will lose any possible opportunity to invade Ukraine if it becomes a NATO member.

The idea of NATO is simple - to collectively protect and defend the member states and provide military aid when attacked.

In these modern times, when education, technology, health, jobs, money power determines the goal, ambitions of individuals and nations, the idea of territorial land conflicts, religious fanaticism proves counter productive to any country and having the military power only makes any crazy idea execution easier!

On the contrary, a War pulls Nations decades back, it's impact on economy, world affairs is catastrophic and loss of lives and livelihood is usually irreparable.

Can this risk of a leader turning a maniac be stopped by making it a world policy to demilitarize all Nations?

It is possible! Google and check, there are 36 (though smaller) countries either never bothered to build a military or have given up military or have treaty with other countries to take care of their security.

Countries like Iceland, Costa Rica, Mauritius amongst the 36 list just do not have an Army at all, yet they have peacefully co-existed. Another coincidence is none of these countries are closer to the Nations lead by these "tall leaders" / "Presidents".

The fine line between a Leader, President and a Monarch, Dictator needs to be well understood.

Does territorial ambition still be relevant in this Digital age?

No Weapons, No Military, No War! I am such an unrealistic idealist!