Tough to Close

Hi all

This is about the time when I was working with Vodafone essar ltd in Orissa. I had a sales quota of 100 postpaid. As I was a new joinee I had a comparitibly less target to achieve but still then its difficult to achieve this target when you are the 7^th service provider in the state and as a matter of fact the postpaid is also new to the people and they have a huge fear regarding the bills.

One day, I met this gentle man named Mr. Jay, who was the owner of Harekrishna jewelers one of the  very reputed jewellery outlets in the city having two branches i.e. one at BBSR and the other at Balasore. He had come down to the Vodafone Store related to a problem of his Gujarat number. While my interaction I came to know about his business and approached him. My cold call got converted into a warm call when he was ready to give me an appointment. Then as per the time I proceeded for the meeting taking into account what all I can offer him like what plans, initial deposits, documents needed, or one can say all that was needed for me to know about my company and what I got to offer him. I had a thought he might ask for some premium number or a number that will be chargeable. So I took the necessary permissions from the concerned departments about the matter. My boss was kind enough to grant me the permission till the numbers costing me Rs 10,000. He also gave me the contact details of the concerned person regarding the availability of numbers and to have an idea of the premium numbers.

I met him and discussed about the all the plans. He had a lot of queries about the network stability, billing disputes, documentations and others. I had answered him with full honesty and avoided any kind of false commitments. I assured him about the 100% customer satisfaction and waited for his reply. He was planning to take around 30 connections which was again a huge number for me to start that month. He consulted all his employees and asked me come after 2 days and reply to the queries of the employees. I could now feel the hotness of the call. I went again and met all of them and answered every question of theirs. He now agreed to take the connections but as I expected he asked some special numbers for him and his partner Mr. Bijay. I was ready for it but he asked for a number which was more than Rs 10,000. I tried to convince him trying out many permutations and combinations and finally was successful.

I had to revisit their place to collect the documents and the cheque for the activation and also to deliver the sim cards. That was not the end of our relation; I offered him many other things later like blackberry and other higher plans to achieve my targets. I knew whenever I fell short of my target i tried him out and sold him. We are still in contact and my family enjoys the additional discount on shopping at their store.

I never knew what was I doing but now I know the sales process. Don't know how far I was in that process. U all can let me know. Give in Your comments and add to my knowledge.

Pruthiraj Pradhan