Door: Knock Knock !!
Who is there?
I am “xyz” company sales person; may I have 10 minutes of your time to demo our product?
That is how we are introduced to sales profile while growing up. There is usually a friend whose father in pharma sales or insurance sales profile is either travelling or carrying a big bag of products with him.
That is what we all know traditionally of “Sales”. Even I did, till I started doing it myself.
There is no defined qualification for “Sales” as a profession except for coaches giving us traits and techniques that a good sales person should acquire, case studies of successful and big firms, briefs about CEOs and their big mantras. But there isn’t a formal education as such that tells what “Sales” means.
Also, our conventional education system doesn’t allow us to look up to or aspire this profile. I intend to share and explore what Sales is all about and how this profile starts in an individual’s profession.
What inspired me to take a note of how important and key role a founder’s passion and belief play was the technology giant, ‘Apple Inc.’ They launched every Mac product with a lot of media gung-ho and a style statement with a sleek and crisp message by Steve Jobs. The man and his iconic style made him become the biggest brand ambassador for Apple. Be it his dress code; blue denim and the turtle neck T-shirt that changed the trend of corporate world or a simple marketing trick of carrying the MacBook air in an envelope on its launch, every move was a calculated marketing masterstroke. However, the real genius of the man comes to the fore when you look below the layer of all the Apple products he has sold to us so far. His technology vision and innovation has brought the company where they are but he has always been in the front to sell the products.
Entrepreneurship is one journey that makes you see professional life through different lenses of departments and roles that one has to play and allocate with initial limitations in hand. An idea or a product that you create as a start-up, has to be conveyed to your target audience with the same passion that you had while creating it. Otherwise it becomes difficult to take your venture to the next level. In all key operational areas “sales” comes out to be the key.
Same goes for the smallest of start-ups. What you create and what you believe can only be conveyed to your clients, stake holders, investors in best way by you when you get up and introduce your company to any one is “sales”. “Sales” role for start-up is never a special division but a focused key role that needs to be played with utmost care and thirst