People in Sales — Week #3

Being human or being a sales person? What would you put first during a sales call?

The most difficult deal I had was with an NGO that takes care of cancer patients. A helpdesk would do wonders for their organisation. I made them realise the benefits and they were convinced. But, unfortunately, they weren’t able to afford the product and wanted a cut. The salesman in me knew that the price cut wasn’t doable. But the human in me knew I’ll never be able to live with myself if they walked out without the product. But I was able to pull some strings and finally got them a discount we normally don’t give to anybody. 3–4 months later they sent me a thank-you note saying how that gesture made their operations much easier. I’m glad I put purpose before the sale when I ought to have!

— Pranav Balasubramanian, Freshdesk.

Back in the 1980s, when I was in my early 30s, I realised that if I knocked on 100 doors and had 10 people buy from me and made 50$ from each sale, I’d be able to make a really good living. That concept of managing numbers was astounding to me. We had a meeting every morning for sales reps and daily goals were set — say 4–5 policies have to be sold. Somedays I achieved the target. Somedays I couldn’t. This one particular day, I had a flat tire and lost a good chunk of my day in fixing it and was able to sell only 2. That day I gave it as an excuse and I had my manager tell me “We only care about your results and not your struggle.” It stunned me because everything I said before the 2 policies were me making an excuse for what I perceived to be my failure. That evening we went out for drinks and we sat down to do the math. The number of presentations for each sale, the number of sales to survive, it’s all math. If you need 10 phone calls to make an appointment and 10 appointments to make 2 sales, then you have to make 100 phone calls. If I learn the system, and trust the system and follow it, I’d always make good money. So, it’s always math. And the day is not over till the math for the day works out.

— Lloyd Lofton, American Eagle Consultants

These transcripts are from an interview series run by PipeCandy called People in Sales.