Tuesday, March 26, 2013

SALES vs. REVENUE


SALES vs.REVENUE          ____________


Mirror, yes...  you!, Mirror on the wall


Among Sales and Revenue, who is more
 likely to  fall?

Well, good sales figures will make your mid-term report sleek,

But with no revenue, your future (at the year end) appears bleak. 

       And so would any self respecting magic  mirror have said had it been in such a position that it could answer questions. ( I am actually surprised that Rowling did not have any magic mirror in the entire Harry Potter series Yes, there were all moving photographs but then a mirror is a mirror. Wait a minute, there was one in the first right?.. that's enough of mirrors.
Let us go back to the subject).

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM
Therefore, we have the modest and suave 'Sales' on one side and the loutish and brutal “Revenue" on the other.” So who is more important? Sales surely because I have named this blog as " Salesgyaan". Well no friends, it is actually the reverse. Revenue is much much more important. Let me define what is revenue? Revenue is what the company earns from the customer against the supply of its services or products which has been done against the long and long purchase or work order (for capital equipment, purchase orders are usually long). You have the ROI (the Return of Investment)  ...You made a product for $60, suffered an expense on it of $10, paid another $10 to the government as tax and the balance $20 is the revenue or PAT (profit after tax). This is what  Revenue is. 



Now you are confused!! Wait a minute, you say. If this is revenue, then what is the sale? What is selling? If we had been talking about selling groceries or tools or F.M.C.G, then sales and revenue has only a small gap or none, say maximum 1 or 2 days. However, in capital equipment, the entire scenario changes. You are investing millions and you are getting back millions, so you just can't afford to be nonchalant and cavalier in your approach. Everything needs to be written down; the contract has to be signed, both parties agreeing to the points written. This paper or contract is your Sale. It is a contractual assurance that party X is going to buy ABCD from party Y for a value of $Q million dollars. And the process will be done in this way. A long list will then follow describing the breakup, which you had hammered out with your counterpart in the purchaser's company.



 Here, in the final stages you will see that people are going bang bang for 500$ when you are selling or buying million dollar products. Do not point these situations out as ridiculous  but accept them as compared to your sale value, its peanuts. That $500 can mar your case. You see everybody wishes to have played a role in decreasing expenses and what better role to play that to cut down the profits of the manufacturer who wants to make a buck doing fair business. Its a different matter that the Air Conditioners go on and on even in empty rooms, nobody switches off the fans before they quit..that's entirely different.(Never point out these things to the customer..i was only telling you as a fellow salesperson).

So, you have got your sales order or you have achieved your sale, can you now forget it? 
No you can't..May be your responsibility has decreased somewhat  but it is still there,.very much there..and it will be there till you get the revenue as per the steps outlined in the Purchase Order or Sales Contract.. We will tackle those steps in our next discussion. 


Before we finish, it seems that plenty of people are curious as to the word Gyaan and Salesgyaan. Well, Gyaan in Hindi means knowledge or wisdom. So-Salesgyaan means imparting knowledge of sales ( revenue too, hence) and 'the selling process' to those who want to avail of the facility, or wish to know of the same.



so  friends
auf Wiedersehen,
-------someone---------
from Bag's end

NB: Ever since the movie,my signing myself Bilbo has become too common. Though when i started, I had never even heard of the movie. Therefore, from now on., I'll sign 'someone from bag's end' till I can think of a more suitable name. (or maybe you can suggest one for me)


Saturday, February 16, 2013

MIS And Feedback

....
Ha-ha. Does the pic seems funny to you?  It does to me. Now, if you are  thinking that ' the bastard is about to go in a long, sanctimonious lecture, again..Help :-) Lol!
 You need not be scared. I just want to tell you or "share with you" something about "Management Information Systems" and their role in Indian Companies.

Let us analyze what Mr. Boss is doing on top of the arrow. The conversation may be something like this.
Boss: Nope! I don't like it.Somehow alters the view ; aesthetic point of view. Not that I expect you bummers even to know what "Aesthetic" means.You people do not know what a good sales view is. Put me the...ere, instead.
Engineer #8: ( sotto voice) Does he mean that his bum is aesthetic, considering that's what we see almost all the time?
Engineer #7: ( sotto voice) Ha-ha; good one dude but keep your voice low

         A very important system in an organization which can result in an organization being buried  and failing woefully or rising up from the ashes, sphinx like, is MIS. What is MIS? MIS or management information system is the system available in your organization through which information flows, not gossip, not political diatribe but positive information. Business Information which does good for your company.

When the MNC's first arrived in India, we were optimistic that we were going to see some good management practices, after all. But nothing happened like that. The amalgamation of Indo-European Management thinking, literally made sales people account for every minute of your time. There is a particular MNC in Noida, where even branch managers have to fill out timing..Now, I believe that filling up a form where you are required to mention the waiting time too is absurd.( There is a journey time, a waiting time, a meeting time and a miscellaneous time)
There are plenty of reasons why this is absurd but my main bone of contention is that the minute someone is asked to do that, he or she ceases to be loyal soldiers of the commander-in-chief, if they comply.They instead become hear and doers, they become "yesman"-that creative spark inside them fizzles out and the challenge of capital equipment selling becomes a dodo.

        Well, a kangaroo lady I know and plenty of other departmental heads will not understand that. They'll say "  we are paying you big bucks man, this is the least you can do for us. They then proceed to tell you what to do and at the end of the year they ask what happened to you. Hey lady..back off. You want to place responsibility on me with you taking all the decisions? This is not acceptable at all. These lapses all the more important in capital equipment selling where there are few orders and less players. You gotta speak up for your rights.

         This is a tragedy. Today we have one of the best inventories for minds if not the best and look where we are going, in comparison to the Chinese-next door. Say you are Fernando Torres and the coach tells you that he must score a hat trick. A hat-trick has to be made irrespective of the side of the field where the goals are to be scored. So, Torres finds the going tough and ultimately score his hat-trick against his own team. 



Torres scoring for Chelsea against Sunderland while Juan Mata looks on.








     You must be in splits by now now...but these things do happen. Look around in your office, and you'll find the same happening day-in and day-out. Therefore, in selling capital equipment, let your team the freedom to think for themselves as per their capabilities. Take stock in weekly sales meetings. Gather all information and link it together to get information about new projects. Tell them what to do and why they should do it.

Do not tell them to do something without any explanations. For this indirectly tells him that you don't trust him. And lack of trust is one of the greatest demotivators -in the field of B2B direct selling of high value capital equipment. 
with love
friends
Bilbo.