Motivating a Salesman..

I am highly motivated to take a sales job but still there is a popular perception that sales job is never a motivating factor. For summer interns the three month sales experience can even kill their interest in marketing and sales. So as an employee you need to read a lot of books on how to get motivated about sales job. And there are lots as who can deny the contribution of network marketing companies like Amway in this field.

Well I have a three stage, simplistic model.

1. Give them more incentives (Cash).
2. If they are not motivated enough, give them some more incentives (Cash again).
3. Again if they are not motivated, give them some more (cash only).
4. If my model fails, then either kick them out or wait for them to leave your organization and let them become the pain in your competitor's neck.

That's it, nothing motivates like money.

Flash Back..

Today I am 24 year old first year PGDBM student of IFMR Chennai. One year before I was a B.E. student of SLIET, Longowal and apart from playing lawn tennis, my favorite activity was to read business magazines (Business today and Business line only) and dreaming about a career in investment banking. So IFMR was an obvious choice given the middlename is Finance. Well, after first trimester, I lost my interest in finance and discovered that I like every subject other than the finance related ones.

So the investment bankers dream was over. I was confused. HR and IT both sound promising but during those moments of confusion I saw a glimmer of hope in Marketing. It took only little time for me to discover (One person in my life whom I will never forget is Prof. Venugopal who changed my perception about the nitty and gritty of marketing) that this was the thing I wanted to do with my life. But then, in the bigger scheme of things, I think I missed out the smaller part of the picture. Marketing starts with sales and even the thought of sales can take the living daylights out of me. Well, rightly said by prof. that students in first year dream about CEO's job and by the time they become job ready they find out that the only job for them is to go out in market and work around the needs of the people.

Anyways, that was the story in brief. Now I have been picked up by Henkel India to work in their sales division for the next three months. I am not sure about the work profile but then I am dreaming about waking up at 6 in the morning, going around shop to shop and persuading them to keep the Henkel products side by side with the competitor's offerings. Well, I know that the only way I can get up early in the morning is actually by not sleeping at all. So that leaves me with sleepless nights.

Add this with zero knowledge of Tamil, Poor driving skills and Blistering summer hit of Chennai and you will know that what is waiting for me. But, then the big question looming is that "What is a life without a challenge?

I guess, "A BETTER LIFE" ofcourse. Let's see.