Life in sales is said to be the most pressurized job under the sun. As the designation upgrades from Sales Manager to Sr. Sales Manager to Branch Manager to Area Manager and so on, the emails received in the month ends become tougher to respond. ARIAL 12/14/18, RED, BOLD, CAPITAL. Sales team works hard, forgets family, and doesn’t watch even 30th March Ind -Pak Semi Final. Does everything to achieve the numbers, but more often falls short by dawn-length.
Come the next month, team has to appear for Sales Review in presence of the respective reporting authority to answer the same old questions. While copying the sales figures from the portal to the standard ppt format poor guy starts weeping. But, soon he regains some confidence and starts thinking about the answers he could give to the same old questions. The most critical issue is how his hide-outs can become unique and convincing.
All this is what have seen closely but only till I was in Insurance Industry. Since last 8 months my mind is open even in month-ends. As a result, I watched almost all the World Cup 2011 matches including the Post Match Presentations. Ravi Shashtri on a presentation dais having guests besides him –> Introduction of each guest –> Short interview of losing captain and winning captain –> Prize giving to MOM followed by interview –> Thanking the crowd for the fantastic support – if at all anyone is left in the stadium by then. In this routine process, only interesting thing was how the losing captain would defend him and his team. After some days, I was so habituated to this that I could speak the words before the losing captain did.
Think about this – the losing captains while answering the post-match presentations are very close to those sales managers who have missed the targets and presenting their ‘achievements’ in sales review. Without doubt, if sales managers want to perform better in these reviews, take inspiration from losing captains. Here are some examples:
|
Losing Captain |
Under-performing Sales Manager |
| The boys played well, but the opposition played even better | The team did fantastic number of sales calls but the dealer had some valid justifications for not buying the stuff |
| Well, it rained and the D/L method came with an unrealistic target (said by South Africa Captain) | It rained throughout the month which slowed down the business. The organisation should think of target revision according to rain conditions |
| The IPL in last two months made the team very tired. So, blame it on BCCI, players can’t perform like machine. | During the much hyped sales scheme in the month before, my team members performed fantastically. Organisation cannot expect targets every month. |
| Sachin Tendulkar was unfit for this match which affected team performance | Kishor, who burdens most of the team load, was on sick-leave |
| Because there are more T-20s and One-dayers played these days, players were rested in the Test match. | As there are sales schemes almost every month, team works only when there are schemes. |
| The pitch had bounce and turn later on the day. So, it was difficult for us to score runs. | Recession |
As I write this, I have received a call from a Cricket Media Publisher. They are soon publishing a DVD of Post Match Presentations only. They have offered discounts to the readers who post positive comments.
Buy one. And hit Sales Reviews for a six!
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