If you’re an MBA student or aspirant, or even an engineering student for that matter, the last career option you’d consider is sales. Most people don’t choose a sales role, they just get selected for it. Quite a few of them prefer to call it Business Development. But at the end of the day, sales is a function that makes the world work, isn’t it?! In this video, we speak to Amit Agarwal, self-minted Salespreneur, Author of the book “The Ultimate Sales Accelerator,” IIM A & IIT Bhu Alum, and currently Senior VP, Sales and Business Development at Manthan, about his long and rich sales career. If you want to know what attitude it takes to succeed in your chosen profession, Amit’s talk will prove insightful and enriching.
This is part 1 of Amit’s full interview. Stay tuned for more!
You can watch Part 2 here:
How Coronavirus Is Shaping The Future Of Sales Ft. Amit Agarwal, IIM Ahmedabad
Part 3 is here:
IIM Taught Me To Thrive In High Pressure, High Risk Situations Ft. Amit Agrawal, IIM A, IIT BHU
What's This?
This is a new series of talks that we are doing amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the lockdowns and the curfews, we are making all the efforts to ensure that you keep getting insightful and relevant content. So sit back and make the most of your social distancing with this episode of ‘Konversations in Quarantine'!
Summary
In this first part of the conversation, Amit talks about the mindset of a successful salesperson. He shares why sales is a cool career to get into. Amit talks about what makes sales the most important aspect of an economy. Questioning the common perception, Amit talks about how sales is not just a profession but a life skill that literally translates to earning money, growing business and creating joy.
He talks about the inevitability of a sales career being fruitful and shares what motivates him to do the daily gring of selling enterprise software. He breaks down the mindset, skills and how to acquire them in order to be an exceptional salesperson.
From talking about why and how we decide on our careers, to sharing the importance of the emotional as well as the intellectual quotient to a salesperson, Amit gives some invaluable advice. No matter which career you plan to get into, this insightful conversation will leave you with food for thought and help expand your knowledge. Don’t forget to check it out!
Key Takeaways
1. Values we look for when choosing sales (or any career) = Personal value, Business value, Social Value.
2. Reasons to work in sales include driving the economic growth and bringing joy to people as well as growing business and paying salaries.
3. If you want to earn more money than the CEO of a company, there is only one function which can do that, and that is sales.
4. If the salesperson is not making money, the company is not making money.
5. Emotional quotient, as well as intelligence quotient, are needed to become an excellent salesperson.
6. Remember the 3 deals you’re grateful for; you’ll immediately become resourceful and feel motivated.
7. Gratitude helps attract more things to be grateful in life or business.
8. The intelligence of a salesperson lies in how he or she can simplify communication and tell stories.
9. You can emotionally connect with people by sharing stories and experiences, or metaphors.
10. The IQ of a salesperson lies in developing expertise in the domain they operate in.
11. To gauge your own level of expertise on any subject, try speaking extempore about it for 18-20 mins non stop.
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