Master of Sales

Learn more about the guest - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangram-kumar-swain-58858b46/ 

The best  sales advice from around the world - to share stories and strategies that helped them grow from zero to 100. On each episode, host Mohit Ambani - Unotag Founder - proves a theory about how people have reached the status of master of sales while guests share how they grew and what skills helped them grow.  Master of sales is a Sales Podcast that does not sound like Sales Podcast.

On our third episode of the Master of Sales Podcast, we had the honour of hosting Sangram Kumar Swain. Sangram is the Business Head and Vice President of Sales at Pert.

Sangram is a business leader in the consumer electronics industry and is a seasoned sales coach.

In his younger days, Sangram was passionate about theatre and wanted to pursue a career in it but his family hoped that he would join the Defence Force or take up a government job.

He had different plans and dreams for himself and set out to create his own story.

He looked at the different things he could do and around 2003, he took up a job in the IT sector, which was booming then. In the companies where he worked, his colleagues noticed that he had great convincing skills as he was able to get a lot of people to sign up for their training programs. That’s when it dawned upon him that he could combine his technical expertise and his ability to convince people to become a good salesperson.

According to Sangram, he didn’t choose sales but sales chose him.

Sangram believes that it is the market that trains you.

He created a formula for success which has helped him and his team immensely.

Sangram calls it the ‘STUPID’ formula, where the letters stand for different factors that contribute to effective selling. They are :

S stands for ‘storytelling’. In sales, you have to be a great storyteller.

“The story makes your product extraordinary”

T represents the ‘technology’ involved in the product that you’re selling.

If technology doesn’t apply to your product, the letter T could refer to the ‘trust’ that you generate in your customers.

U stands for ‘usability’ or ‘utility’ of the product. This could include the benefits of the product.

P stands for the ‘price’ of the product. The letter ‘P’ could also mean ‘picturization’ of the product; where you picture how the product will solve a customer’s problem.

I denotes ‘interest generation’ where you draw the attention of your customers.

D stands for ‘demonstration’, where you show how the product or service works.

For closing deals, Sangram crafted another formula called FAN where:

F stands for ‘follow-ups’

A for ‘Act on your observation’

N for ‘Nurture it’

According to Sangram, it’s important for you to stay motivated to be able to help your team.

Sangram believes in leading by example. He believes in moving with his team and helping them close deals.

His team inspires him to work harder.

Learn more about the guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhilm/ 

The best  sales advice from around the world - to share stories and strategies that helped them grow from zero to 100. On each episode, host Mohit Ambani - Unotag Founder - proves a theory about how people have reached the status of master of sales while guests share how they grew and what skills helped them grow.  Master of sales is a Sales Podcast that does not sound like Sales Podcast.

For our maiden episode, we had the absolute pleasure of hosting Akhil Minocha, the ex-Vice President of Sales, Asia Pacific at Persistent Systems. Akhil was responsible for sales of Persistent system’s software products covering infrastructure software namely security, analytics, cloud, and API monetization.

Having begun his long-standing career back in the year 1997, Akhil is indeed a seasoned professional.

In the early stages of his career, he took on revenue roles which included business development, partnerships and alliances. He took on a prominent role in sales in the year 2012 and has never looked back.

Akhil has been in the industry for over 24 years and he vouches that a career in sales is one of the most interesting roles that anyone can take up.

Here are the main takeaways from our conversation.

Based on Akhil’s vast experience, he believes that these are the top 3 traits that sales reps need to possess:

This is one of the foremost attributes necessary in sales. Be persistent, look for the exceptions and find ways to convince your client and convert the opportunity into a deal.

Get into a conversation keeping your ego aside and not letting yourself feel insulted at any point in time. Instead, take the lead and drive the conversation.

“Keep your ego back at home… Be ready to have straightforward or straight-jacketed conversations”

Communication is one of the most important traits required in sales. Your lead will convert into an opportunity depending on the kind of message you put out. Give careful thought to your messaging especially if it is written communication.

Salespeople are expected to bring in business day after day and quarter after quarter; and if they fail, companies start losing confidence in them. On the contrary, Akhil believes that companies must treat sales reps as exceptional resources.

There are times when salespeople face rejection and failure. It’s important to analyze what went wrong in these situations, correct yourself and get back to building more opportunities.

Here are some tips from Akhil on how sales leaders can steer their teams to success:

The telecom, media and technology sectors have seen considerable change over the years. Akhil pointed out that there is a convergence of sorts now and they operate from a cohesive space.

Learn more about the guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jainsheetal/  

For our second episode of the Master of Sales Podcast, we had the great pleasure of hosting Sheetal Jain. Sheetal heads Signzy’s Sales and Business Development efforts in India and South East Asia.

She is an experienced leader in the FinTech space. Her career spans over 20 years during which she was instrumental in leading many successful GTM strategies and played a key role in building and mentoring many teams. She was an integral part of the leadership team that developed web-based platforms and enabled APIs for the BFSI market.

She says that her entry into sales was an accidental one. She spent the early years of her career in the corporate funding and research fields.

Her success story in sales stems from the fact that she loves identifying customer pain points and offering them solutions to solve their problems.

Sheetal believes that there is a misconception regarding sales — that salespeople are like snake charmers who entice people to buy products. However, that’s not the case. Salespeople are problem solvers and solution finders.

Sheetal cites that the transition is simple if you as a salesperson are convinced about a product.

” When you are trying to sell a product which you are not convinced about, it’s difficult to sell anything.”

It’s important for you to understand the product; and when you are convinced about a product, you are not just a salesperson but you transform into a problem solver for your client.

“You will not be able to sell if you don’t understand your product.”

Digitization has brought buyers and sellers closer. Today, you cannot sell something to a client and just walk away. The customer trusts you and you have to be there every step of the way.

Sheetal believes that when salespeople go to customers and understand for themselves what the customers’ pain points are, they then start believing in the product.

As a sales leader, you need to work alongside your team. By giving them the right answers to their questions, you will be able to convince them about the product.

You have to let them know that it’s good to have competition. Competition simply implies that your product is in demand and that is why multiple players are trying to sell the same product.

What matters is:

“Teams see the ownership that you take on the account and follow the leader ”

Salespeople live by each sales quarter. At the start of a quarter, you may be looking at how many leads you have in the pipeline. Halfway through the quarter, you realize that you have a lot of ground to cover and by the end of the quarter you give it your all to finish well and achieve sales goals.

Sheetal rightly points out that if you don’t enjoy the drill, you are not a salesperson, to begin with.