There is no shortage of theories. But what an executive needs is to be able to apply the theory to his specific context. For example, in sales management, the royal road is to be able to sniff out people with good selling ability and then hire them. Many travel on this road but not many have left behind a road map. This is what happened to me when I followed this road...
Is it not strange of the many who,
Traveled before us, the door of darkness through
None returns to tell us of the road
Which, to discover, we must travel too.
( Omar Khayyam)
I had just joined Eureka Forbes as the Head of Marketing in 1998. Our large sales force of over 4000 people - operating out of over 150 offices in 90 cities of the country - was considered to be a great tool of our marketing. And I was keen to learn how to improve it further. The annual “Silver Circle Club” for the elite 20% salesmen at Goa in 1999 was my first opportunity to observe them. I learnt an important lesson there about selling qualities among people.
In Eureka Forbes we always assigned a very high importance to our front line sellers. We never called them as salesmen and instead fondly called them as “EuroChamps”. In the annual “Silver Circle Club” the top EuroChamps were taken every year to an exotic tourist place in India and given a time of their life for 4 days. They were put up in five star hotels, had a non-stop party during this entire time, were treated like royalty in great style and all their bosses would be in attendance at that time to serve them and help them enjoy - including the CEO of the company. No expense or effort was spared. The entry to the club was by qualification only. The EuroChamps had to achieve special sales targets for 7 continuous months to qualify to come to the club.
The managers too loved the club. The club was a tool to get them to achieve a large part of their sales target. All they had to do was to drum up sufficient number of EuroChamps under them to enter the club. After that the aura of the club - built up over the years - worked its magic into the sales force. Being present in the club had assumed legendary proportions in the sales force because it was a sure way to hobnob with the managers and get known to them. Most promotions took place from among those who were regularly seen at the club. Not being in the club was a big let-down.
It was my first Silver Circle Club at Cidade de Goa in 1999. I had an idea of conducting a survey to capture the profile of these highly successful EuroChamps to see what drives them. I designed a simple questionnaire, put a serial number on each, distributed these among all the rooms and announced that a raffle will be held the next day based on the serial number. Most submitted their filled forms the next day. When we analyzed the data after coming back from Goa, there was a shock waiting for us. The elite of our sales force was less educated than the rest of them who were not so successful. Some of the best EuroChamps were not even graduates! Did it mean that less educated the person, the better he will be in selling? That is what the textbooks would have use believe.
I remember discussing this with Adil Bhesania - my colleague from HR who had just joined us from Coke – to make sense out of this seeming anti-correlation between education and selling ability. After many discussions we formed a working hypothesis – which I still believe is true – that our education system is largely based on mathematical, logical and linguistic ability, and does not impart, nor evaluate, the selling ability of a person. We both were excited because till that time we were short listing candidates for front line selling positions based on their educational qualifications. The simple survey showed that educational qualifications were not really the qualifications to look at for a front line selling job!
We were convinced by now that we were on to something big because we had a big problem of having widely varying recruitment standards because our 175 offices in 90 cities interviewed virtually every day. Very few of these offices could afford its own HR officer who could assist in interviewing process. In 90% of the offices the recruitment was done essentially by the executives from the sales operations function. Both Adil and I began looking for a “test” or a “scale” that could be administered to all aspirants uniformly in all locations. Our aim was to take more people into the sales force based on their selling ability and not based on their educational qualifications!
We did not believe him at first. Then Adil came out with a brilliant idea and - to our surprise Harish agreed to be subjected to our acid test. We told him we will buy the scale from him provided his test could sniff out best salesmen from a random group. We hired a hall and gave him and gave him a mixed group of 40 persons - 20 of them were Silver Circle Club members and 20 were not. And nobody knew who was who except us. Both of us were really amazed to discover that more than 80% of his choice - based on the test scores - was correct. His test could indeed distinguish top salespersons from those who were not.
It is another story of how we bought the scale from him and wanted to deploy it across the country. It was an interesting experience for us to practice our version of "scientific sales management". And it furthered my belief that a simple glimpse of insight, validated in your own context, is better than being lost in the temple of a comprehensive theoretical model.
This I know of the one true light
Kindle me to love, or wrath consume me quite;
One glimpse of it within the tavern caught,
is better than in the temple lost outright
( Omar Khayyam )
11 comments:
A fantastic take on behavioural patterns. The army employs a similar psychometric test profile to select officers. What Harish did was separate the High EQ guys from the IQ guys. In real life,persons with high EQ are more successful, and good salespersons as I have seen and experienced have a higher degree of tact and emotional intelligence.
A great blog. Give me More....
A fabulous take on behavioural science.
It proves that in real life, guys with high EQ go further than plain IQ. Most of the HR selectors go by GPA and academic achievements. Whereas, my experience of good sales persons is that they have a very high degree of emotional intelligence.
The armed forces also employ the psychometric tests to select officers. Since, they have to operate in a certain environ.Something similar to what Harish did.
A fantastic read...give us more Palekar Sir.
Col Neeraj Varshney
Well Sir your article is really great specially on the topic like selling which is one of the most important skill.I totally agree with Col Neeraj Varshney ji because the guys having higher EQ have good people skill than those who are having higher IQ and this skill is very important.
True.One needs to be able to aplly.But unfortunately no business school teaches how to apply.They also dont teach whether the theory is applicable to a certain situation or not. Over the last couple of days i have been wondering how good an idea is to give the students from different industries the same concepts which may not be applicable to them. And if there is no universal theory of marketing should we not just give them concepts/ frameworks alligned to their industry?If we need to succeed in imparting management education, we will need to be their consultants and not educators.
True.One needs to be able to aplly.But unfortunately no business school teaches how to apply.They also dont teach whether the theory is applicable to a certain situation or not. Over the last couple of days i have been wondering how good an idea is to give the students from different industries the same concepts which may not be applicable to them. And if there is no universal theory of marketing should we not just give them concepts/ frameworks alligned to their industry?If we need to succeed in imparting management education, we will need to be their consultants and not educators.
The difference is the "passion". Any activity is taken to a next level of performance if it is done with passion. This is the only differentiating factor between the best and an average salesman. This passion, I beleive, revolves around the individual character. Can the passion be created --- is the biggest question any Sales head should think all the time. The incident narrated by you rekindles several on-the-job thoughts which we come across as a daily routine. If we can sniff the right salesman from the lot, our day is made. We need to have a dependable test to siphon out the best guys from the crowd. Interesting narrative Sir....Jameel
Only "Passion can sell". Passion is the only medium which will take the performance to the next level. It is the greatest differentiator between the performer and the non-performer. It would be a greatest day in the life of a Sales Head when he is able to answer--- How do I create the passion in my sales team to sell my ware? I would wait for a day when I would have a test or a metric that would help me pickup the right sales guy from the crowd.
The intent to apply the learnings from the B school is always there. But will the application of the learnings yield the desired results is always a million dollar question. Never the less it was a great narrative and had the ability of rekindling such on-the-job thoughts which come as a routine while we seek answers why some salesmen are the best while a majority of them are average....
Very well said sir...
This blog goes to prove that life is indeed a much better educator than most of our colleges and schools as far as the doers are concerned...yet to recognise these doers from a larger group in a scientific manner, we still need people who have the analysing abilities and who can apply their people knowledge to develop metrices and measurement systems or methodologies.
So a high EQ is very good in doing and getting things done by or through others, but a high IQ is also equally important in getting it the due recognition in the society at large.
I would like to know more about the outcome of how this learning was used for further developments in the subsequent years..may be another blog..
I really like the informal, touch and feel way in which Dr. Palekar brings out his point.
It is indeed EQ and drive (described as passion by several of those who have commented). It is also 'healthy self concept', acute knowledge of how my product fits in their life and desire to help other people that make great sales people.
I am willing to take the same test that Harish passed with flying colors.
Dr. Palekar, we look forward to more such enjoyable and memorable blogs. You are , now, clearly where you truly belong, in the position of a 'coach'.
Good wishes.
Thank you sir for such a valuable practical learning example I really agree on your part that it is not necessary that a person having good academic will always be a good marketer but we can say that marketing skills are the inner ability of the person to attract someone towards his communication and for selling any product only bookish knowledge is not enough person must have practical experience of each and every thing.
I hope in future also you will share these kind of example with us for a practical learning.
Thanks
It is evident from the success of a less academically qualified Dhirubhai Ambani to a college dropout Bill Gates that the correlation between success and academics is random. I believe that the current education system somewhere reduces the "risk bearing capacity" of individuals, ties them to the prescribed paths and kills creativity. An MBA tries to "Excelise" the sales performance whereas the action lies on road. Through a rigorous statistical analysis, we find the sales target for a salesperson, not considering his ability, motivation and commitment.
The correlation between academic qualification may be stronger in selling high end financial services or the likes, where product requires customisation but in selling a pre-moulded product, its the skill that pre-dominates over "certificates". We have, unfortunately, learnt to equate education with "degrees and certificates" and ignored the skills in selecting sales force.
There are other aspects of personality that make a successful salesperson. It's the "sincere look", "assuring voice", "confidence", etc that add to selling abilities. These cannot be taught but can be imbibed to a certain extent.
Very thought-provoking blog....
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