Dear Friends and Students
I stay in
Visakhapatnam. Every day I cross at least 3 Signals to reach my workplace.
Couple of weeks back I stopped at a traffic signal. I was closely watching a
traffic signal vendor. He was selling a glass wiper. He was able to
complete the entire sales cycle in 30 seconds! Amazing right? Maybe he
doesn’t understand the sales cycle process- Finding the leads, Connecting,
Qualifying the Leads, Present the product, feedback, close the deal and nurture
again!! This is a typical sales cycle process.
If I map all these 7
steps with this traffic signal vendor, he did it in 30 sec! The brutal truth is
he only gets 30 seconds for every deal! Red light means business, amber
means finish the deal if it is still pending, green means pack up and get ready
for the next cycle!! Definitely it is an interesting case study, right!!
I was going through
Quora on this topic. I found an interesting math and law of probability theory.
Author assumed the vendor works for 4 hours per day. Periodicity of red
light is 3 minutes every 10 minutes. No chances to sell are 6 chances per hour,
24 chances in 4 hours. Average no of vehicles contacted per red light in 3
minutes =15. Hit Ratio to sell every time the street seller meets 15 vehicle
owners in 3 minutes= 3 clients. Total earnings per client made =Rs 5. Total
earning per chance taken = 3X, Total no of chances taken in a day = 24, Total
earning in a day working (4hours) = 24 * 3X. Assume x=5 rupees. Hence total
earning per day is 24*15=Rs 360. Assuming he works for 25 days, total earnings
per month would be 9000. When they are selling, generally their whole family
works in the same region, assuming 3 of them are potential sales people in
their family, their family income is around 27000 per month! Mind there is no
input cost, no rentals, no tax and zero infrastructural/warehouse costs. Profit
margin is highest among any known commerce. If the working hours increased
to 8, earnings per family goes to 54,000 and family yearly package goes to
6.24L! Mind, there is no educational cost, hence return on investment is
100%.
Can any MBA teach this
negotiation skill? They didn’t write any entrance exam nor trained for deal negotiation.
Look at their expressions! True, most of them close the deal with expressions!
Usually, they come from different states. Hence there is a language barrier!
However, sometimes they smile, sometimes they plead, sometimes they attract
with half baked vernacular language, sometimes hard to negotiate and demand and
these expressions are uncountable. They change the track based on the buyer’s
reaction. Who taught them? The true answer is “Hunger”.
Hungry stomach, Empty
Pocket, Broken Heart are the three best teachers in anybody’s life. Everyone should
experience it. Even if you are blessed materially, try meeting these 3 teachers.
Hope you know this story of Hari Krishna Exports’ Scion, Hitarth Dholakia,
lived the 'Aam Aadmi Life' in Hyderabad. Hitarth Dholakia, son of Ghanshyam
Dholakia, one of the Founders of Hari Krishna Exports Pvt. Ltd., a Rs. 6,000
crore-diamond firm that has its presence in 71 countries, was in the
Hyderabad as a part of an age-old family tradition that required him to live in
a city unknown to him, without the family tag or even a mobile phone, to find a
job on his own and moreover, and to keep finding new jobs every week
(prnewswire.com).
Why is their family
following this tradition? This is the best way to teach 100 qualities in a 3 months crash course!
Sales, Humility, Living in Odds, you name any quality, everything is
experienced!
While I am preaching
this, if you ask me whether you will allow your son to live this way? The bold
answer is Yes! However, I will not force him as times have changed. They can be
exploited as well. If he wants to do it at his mature age, I
encourage. If you ask me whether I did something similar in my past? Partly
Yes! It was not for a job, but for a post graduation seat. I was on my own
journey for more than 15 days with minimal amount, without any communication
with the family & friends, in unknown states, without much
proficiency in language, negotiating with multiple professors to
recommend or refer a seat for me (in some universities there is no
entrance but referral works in those days). I experienced life without railway
reservations, food on the streets, staying in waiting rooms, luggage in cloak
rooms and many great experiences! Today I can go back to that life easily if
God dictates.
Life without family
support, job without friend’s reference, sanction without God's blessings,
journey is not on bed of roses rather on thrones of roses. It was true in the
past and it remains true today!!
Dear Students,
Happy for what you
have today! Be grateful to the support you received till date and don’t exploit
it to the core! Try to live on your own feet when you are deserved and matured!
If I hurt anyone’s
sentiments, my sincere apologies.
Ravi Saripalle
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