I am blessed to have parents, family, friends, and teachers, who have helped me tackle through the difficulties and challenges, that I faced in my life, cushioning me from the hard blows of life. It was only after I graduated and started my job, that I faced my first true challenge. Graduating from Hotel Management, I was campus placed in sales role with a commercial kitchen equipment manufacturer. Starting the job I neither had the knowledge nor experience, my company also didn’t provide me with any sort of training. I was briefed about the company, handed a bundle of catalogues, and told to go outside and sell. I was not provided with any sort of leads or database. It was my first job, giving up was not an option, I went to the internet and compiled list of hotels, restaurants, hospitals, colleges, mess, anyone who would be in requirement of our product. I called up these establishments, got contact detail of their purchase manager, contacted them, pitched the product, and setup appointments with them. Nobody wanted to talk to a sales person, and those who did, weren’t interested in the product or setting up an appointment to hear more about it in detail. I was facing rejection left and right, and it was a very sombre experience, I was now in the harsh world that everybody had warned me about. Grasping at straws, I continued my journey, and got the hang of it.
Later on, I switched to doing sales of Co-Working spaces in Gurugram. It was a big contrast from the previous setup, which was a SME. This company was a startup, and the very major difference that it had for me, was that it had a dedicated marketing team, to provide the sales team with the leads. The product was different, the skill required was different, but I had got the hang of sales, and three months later I was getting myself top salesman of the month bonus. Its only when you are alone and pushed to the corner, the real you is able to come out. Now I am pursuing my MBA from TAPMI in Marketing and Sales Management (MSM). Looking back, in my starting phase of my career, I had thought about quitting and look for another job, feeling that sales was not meant for me, now I am doing MBA dedicated to Sales, I surely have come very far.
