THE FORK IN THE ROAD

Now dear friends, who have been patiently plodding along  this road with me (if any that is) , we have to part ways here.    

For my way lies in the direction of sales & marketing of high value capital engineering equipment. While, I think that the basis tenets that will come from my keyboard in the future will not be different... "it is not for me to reason why-but just to do and die!" ..with apologies to the author of " Charge of the Light Brigade"...frankly, it is you who should take this decision...not me! For I am not competent enough.

So take the decision and we will set off in our fork, in my next post.

Bilbo       

Why Dale's Common Sense is " Not Common" in India

                        I had read the Carnegie classic ( and it is a classic) a decade and a half back but the best illustration of my point is a story narrated in the book. ( Due to many years, the story may not be 100% accurate and my apologies).
A Motor salesman visits a customer who is dissatisfied because the supplied motors are running hot. After some Q-A sessions, it comes out that the operator cannot place his hand on the motor comfortably. At this point, our salesman says bingo! but that's the point cos the motors are supposed to run at 60 deg F and at this temperature, human skin of the operator will have a natural aversion to the motor's body heat. So everyone is happy and our salesman comes out with applause and the confidence that the next motor order is in his pocket.
Now let's imagine the same thing in India. The salesman will be told ( first after some bullying by the guard) that the Purchase Manager is in a meeting. He goes away and next time comes with an appointment. The Purchase Manager meets him and expresses his disappointment with the salesman's motors. They run hot and are expensive!! The salesman wants to go to the shop but the operator is not in. Next day, he meets the operator who just says that his motors are hot. The salesman gives the 60 deg F logic but the operator says no. He has other motors where he can place his hands and he has been running motors for 30 yrs, so...! The salesman slinks out of the factory with his tail between his legs and goes back to his office to lick his wounds.

Does that sound familiar! so, what should the salesman do to receive the applause that Dale's salesman gets??

I'll explain in my next post but why don't you try to think about it yourself and post it here as a comment?
Bye for now... Bilbo

Reader Comments:

Just What Is Culture Shock?

I'm bad at definitions but I'll try anyway.Culture Shock is applying well proven rules to situations in life, without making allowances for differences in thinking where the rules have been tested and where they are or will be applied. That's it lol simple isn't it? I'll tell you a real life story where directors and VP's made this very silly mistake and this is first HAND.....
I used to sell eqpt for a company, a multinational giant where I came across an my overseas colleague-an American.A product which was in high demand was marketed aggressively by yours truly and we had a no of enquiries. Customers were asking me why we were not quoting. This product was made in the US, Texas and the man in charge was very cooperative for the first 3 or 4 months.Then he stopped co-operating all together. Now, in the US-people close deals fast but in India the land of the ubiquitous Jains, Agarwals, Baids etc take forever to make a decision. As one unit was priced around Rs 1 crore, they took even more time. But my US colleague naturally thought that we are making HIS LIFE MISERABLE BY ASKING FOR BIG QUOTES AND THEN JUST SLEEPING. You can't blame him either....

The end result was that the management stopped the marketing in India of what could have been our most successful project. This is what is CULTURE SHOCK . If only our country head had told the American the true picture then this would not have occurred. But the Indian sales head did not as he thought it was pretty obvious. Well..it was obvious for me and him, but not the American...