Stage II : The Most Important Stage

Hello Friends,

We now come to the middle 

portion, and the events that take 

place here, are going to make or 

break, all the hard work done. 

Here the main job is to

“Follow –Up”. Yes –I know that

follow ups can be a bit of a bore

sometimes.

But dude, there is just no help for it. You want to sell, you have to develop enthusiasm for follow-up

"Follow up has to be done if you want to sell."

There was once this Sales Guru called Pup

Whose favorite dish was fish-heads in Ketchup’

“The three basic rules" he'd say

“in the science of sales any day"

“Is follow-up, follow-up and FOLLOW-UP”

In Public Sector Tendering, what happens now is that Materials Dept. sends your file back to person who indented for it. This means the department and the officer who required it in the first place. I am assuming that you have built a relationship with the him/her by now. After that post in relationship selling, I am assuming that you-my readers-are using it to the extent possible.A few things have to be kept in mind when you are participating in Public Sector selling through Tenders, of capital equipment.

1.The "Indenter" is interested to know whether the equipment that you are trying to sell will give him the service he requires or not. Even if there is a single iota of doubt, he won’t proceed ahead on your proposal. Therefore, what you need to have in dollops is confidence. Because trust me, very few people can let their inner confusion not show outside. (The indenter will be an experienced person and he will barely need to ask two or three questions to know that you have no idea of what you are speaking about.). So try to get rid of all your confusion if you have any.

2.If you are representing a foreign OEM, then your product may have done fabulous work in Brazil and Peru. Do not make the mistake of glorifying these achievements. Their presence on your experience list is enough. Maybe you are new in India and have sold only one or two units so far. Glorify that achievement. That will serve you in better steed then the South American glorious stories.

Now, what about service? Do you have service people in your company who are competent as well as presentable? Or,  is your management only thinking about recruiting people? Or, maybe you have already hired experienced engineers and you've sent them overseas for training? Please note that you should not tell lies and untruths. If your product is slightly technically inferior, tell the truth. Even a person who is not the champion intellect is more likely to buy a slightly technically inferior product but with good service rather then a sophisticated gizmo which requires four(4) days for someone to come over from Koln.

Always remember that “ what the customer is interested in knowing: is how your product can help his organization in the subject application. He is definitely not interested in knowing about anything else before that..not the strict QA policy you have..not the prize for CRM your Paris Office won..no, nor even your recent order from Mars. This may appear to be obvious but we sometimes fall victim to our ego's. Talk to the point.

 It maybe so that your competitor's equipment had failed somewhere. Maybe your accessory life is higher. Do not criticize your competitor. Do not bring these up. Sometimes you have to be a little unethical!. But  do keep a professional looking paper which lists everything...on a plain white paper with you where your competitor's evil record is exposed and your advantages are monetized to the extent possible. Use it discreetly only when required. (say customer says”I heard that your equipment caused problems in… from… You can then say its funny, look at this..maybe I’ve got something here..Aaah here it is..I’ve never told you anything because I don’t believe in negative marketing)

That's the end of Part II and the file goes back to the Materials department.

Looking forward to the next time,we sign off now

Your friendly blogger

Bilbo

Prologue: (Indian Public Sector business)

Some commonly used abbreviations

NIT: Notice inviting Tender

EMD: Earnest Money Deposit

ICB: International Competitive Bid    NCB: National Competitive Bidding

RFQ: Request for Quotation  

RFP: Request for Proposal

P&F: Packing and Forwarding

DGSD: Directorate General of Supplies & Disposals (Under the ministry of Commerce and Industry)

ST: Sales Tax   CST: Central Sales Tax

IC : Interchangeability Certificate

These are some abbreviations, which you will come across when you do business with the Indian Public Sector. It is an irony that the very rules, which were, enforced for transparency in Public Sector dealings have now become the bane of the Public Sector, for you can take advantage of them if you wish to.

It should not be assumed that the Indian Public Sector is totally corrupt. It is nothing like that. Corruption is a way of life in the states but not in the centrally administered Public Sector Units. If fingers can be pointed to the Public Sector then it is only in the respect that they are bound and tied by the lowest rule, even if they are well aware that the lowest party got through the technical scrutiny only based on assumptions.

What is true is that the Public Sector Officers remain confined to their departments. If  the maintenance department and the planning department have got some overlaps, no one co-operates officially because “it’s not my job”. This attitude and the so called transparency attitude are now the major woes of the Indian Public Sector. As a reputed Materials Manager once told me “As per the existing rules, we can remove our clothes. But if you think that we are going to show you our briefs, you got another think coming”. Bully for him.

In this section, I’ll guide you through the quagmire of doing business with the Indian Public Sector, but never in a negative way. The State Government departments.... They are beyond salvation now. What do you say about the Chief Engineer of a WB State department who on asked to state the reason for the discrepancy of  official treated water figures and actual treated water says that he will be risking his pension if he makes public the figures for the public works that his department has done. All this in a linked in discussion forum, too. And this gentleman is now looking for a consulting position (after his impending retirement) abroad in the US(probably where his sons or daughters are settled) so that he can pass on his expertise in showing 1 equals to 2, to his US bosses.

Here I conclude this prologue, friends with the hope that you will like it.

It is not my intention to thrill or educate but only to tell you what you will be able to find yourself but at the cost of time. The novel, the plot of which, is outlined here. starts from my next post.

Till then,

It's 

Merci et Adieu

Bilbo