Why a stint in sales at your organization could do you more good than you can imagine?
I am back to writing blogs on medium after a very long time! I hope you’ve all been great & had a wonderful year. I am going to try & be more regular here from now on. Why, you wonder? Because this YouTube video just inspired me: https://youtu.be/7iA6dkaXYoo.
So a little bit about me while I was gone, I joined Hindustan Unilever Ltd. as a Management Trainee & my life has been an enrichening roller coaster ever since. But I recently just came back from a 5-week long sales stint, randomly stumbled upon a YT video & thought I should share my experience.
What is Sales?
Every business sells something. It may be a product or a service. And while sales department in different organizations may have a different name, they all share a common aim! To ensure that the product/service every employee of the organization (including you!) has worked so hard & diligently on, is available to it’s end consumer (at the right time, and in the right quantity).
I recently had the opportunity to work with the HUL’s Customer development (i.e. sales) team in Chennai. If I was to describe my experience in 3 words, they would be informative, challenging & inspiring. Informative as I witnessed the wide range of HUL products and brands in action, while consumers bought them & salesmen sold them. Challenging because a lot of hard work and sweat goes into selling & delivering a product (hats off to every field force/sales team out there)! And lastly, inspiring because despite the several challenges (like rainy weather in my case because it was monsoon season in Chennai) the team was dedicated to ensuring that HUL products hit the shelves at the right time. I witnessed both the buyer and the seller interact with the products, products that thousands of people had worked hard for. Having done one of my previous stints in a Bru Manufacturing unit, I felt a sense of pride, every time I saw someone buy a pack of Bru. I found myself searching for Bru packs in outlets. And that’s when I had one of those moments, “OK, so this what it was all for.”
Why sales?
Having said that, I don’t mean that sales is the perfect job for everyone. We all have varied interests. You could be working in one of the many teams that your org has. But what I have learnt from my sales stint is that, Sales is a must have experience for each and every employee of an organization. Why?
- It introduces you the consumer. It helps you understand the consumer, their preferences & problems better. And no matter what role you’re in, understanding & being close to the consumer would help you add value to your role. It adds a layer of “How can I serve the consumer better?” to your every day decision making.
- It helps add a sense of purpose to your everyday job routine. Every now and then, whenever you face a challenge or a difficulty in your job, thinking of the consumer’s delight while they use the product might motivate you. It may take you back to that “This is what it was all for” moment.
But how?
Having established that sales is a must-have experience isn’t enough. Given that we have different roles & responsibilities in the organization, I can imagine that reaching out for this might be a stretch for some of us. Also, I cannot even imagine the chaos if everyone just stops working for a day and goes, “Let’s do sales.” Every role is equally important & integral to the smooth functioning of the firm. But what we can do is:
- Set up a coffee conversation with someone in the sales department to understand what it’s all about.
- Join a cross-function team meet & get a bird’s eye view of what’s going on with the product, if possible
- Ask your manager if you can join the sales team in their everyday activities for a day!
- Or even better, convince your HR to arrange a full-on sales experience for you and your team (sort of a field day!)
I hope you had fun reading the blog & it helped you gain perspective on how even a short stint in sales can help improve & add a little zing to your (I hope not boring) job.
Merry Christmas & a very Happy New Year to all!
