Salesman of the Year!

Rocky had hit a rough patch. Not so long ago, he was the blue-eyed boy of the multinational soft drinks giant in India. This year was bad. Bad was probably an understatement. He was missing his target by miles.

Rocky (Rakesh Agarwal) was not used to failure. His two decade old career had seen only highs. The smart lad was known for his innovative ways in the retail and FMCG space in India. The genesis of various innovative campaigns is credited to his fertile imagination. He had come up with maverick ways of selling products and ensuring mass appeal.

With success, Rocky’s arrogance was also on the ascent. He had this all conquering air about him. He had no regard for colleagues and made very few friends. He never gave a second thought before firing a sub-ordinate. He worked like a man possessed to break his own records and create new benchmarks in the industry.

The industry bestowed him with various awards and the media made him a star like no other. And as with most stars, the fall from grace is very tough. The media, the industry and his very own colleagues took great pleasure in ripping him apart.

With only the last quarter to go for the year to end, he was sure that he would never be able to come anywhere close to his target. For the first time, he was not confident of being a topic of discussion at the business leader’s award. For the first time, he seemed to lose control of his destiny. For the first time, he could see his superiors not being positive about him. The edifice of his confidence and self-esteem were crumbling within him, but he would show none of it.

The day was 31^st January. With two months to go, he knew he had a very steep mountain to climb. He had to give a lot of explanations in the meeting that was scheduled for 9 a.m. The executive council and some of its members would be happy to bring him down.

He left home as usual at 7.30 a.m. He was about halfway through his commute having negotiated a better part of the traffic when his car came to an abrupt halt. He vented his frustration at his driver but to no avail.

The last thing he wanted was to be late for the meeting. For the first time in nearly a decade, he was left with no choice but to climb into an auto-rickshaw to reach office.

In his immaculate professional attire but out of the confines of his air-conditioned car, he was feeling very uneasy. It seemed the auto rickshaw was affected by every pothole on the road unlike his luxury car. “Can you drive a bit slowly, you sick man”? He told the auto driver and also belted out a string of expletives in English. In his eyes, all auto drivers were a bunch of illiterate thugs.

“Sir, I am sorry that the roads aren’t well maintained and your journey in my auto rickshaw is not very comfortable. I will try to make it as comfortable as I can for you.”

Rocky was surprised at the mature demeanor of the rickshaw driver. What was more surprising to him was that he could speak English as good as anyone he had known.

Rocky was intrigued. He wanted to know more about this man. The phone started ringing at precisely the same time and it was to check whether he will reach on time. Another round of expletives, this time not directed at the auto driver could be heard.

“Sir, why are you so frustrated today? Is there anything I can help you with?” Rocky never had any regard for even his sub-ordinates so how could he have it for a random auto rickshaw driver. He told him that he was a country head of Sales and Marketing for a leading multi-national giant and that he could come nowhere close to understanding the way he functions, forget helping him out.

The auto driver, Rashid, was used to such rants, abuses and verbal volleys being directed his way. He was a very bright student but had to drop out before he could graduate due to circumstances. He had to take care of a huge family and his father – the only earning member of his family - passed away. He managed two to three odd jobs to make ends meet. He drove auto rickshaw at night; worked for a courier company during the day and sometimes did both jobs simultaneously.

Rashid told Rocky that he may not understand but atleast he could tell him and feel relieved. His philosophy was that if Rocky could get the thought out of his system, it may relieve him of the tension.

It was an unusual day. Rocky would never have opened his mind to an auto driver but this day was different. With at least half an hour to go to reach office, he poured his heart out to Rashid. He told him about the problems and relayed his concern of being beaten by the rival company for the first time in his life.

Rocky however, was soon back to being his usual self. He told Rashid that it was beyond the intellectual capabilities of an auto rickshaw driver to even think of a strategy that could put things in order in the next two months.

Rashid was a master in creating win-win situations and working under pressure. He told Rocky that he had an idea. He said, “Sir, February and March are two of the hottest months of the year in Mumbai. It is a time when the demand for cold drinks will go up. All you need to do is be present near the consumer when he is fighting the scorching heat. He should be able to grab a cold drink during that moment. He should be able to get a small bottle for as low as five rupees. The most important criteria for ensuring that the consumer gets the drink when he wants is to have an innovative distribution network. What better than autos like the one I drive.”

Rashid added,” Sir, imagine every autowallah being a distributor of your cold drink. You may ensure that he gets a small commission proportional to his sales.”

Rocky was spellbound by this thought. His only problem was that the industry thought so fast that the competitors would replicate this gem of an idea in no time and nullify any advantage he had.

As if reading his thoughts, Rashid said, “Sir, you can get all autowallahs to sign up with you for at least three months and leave no one for the competition to tie up with. I don’t see how the competition can replicate this at least till March. By doing so, you also contribute to corporate social responsibility; job creation etc. and that can contribute well to your branding initiatives.”

They had reached Rocky’s office five minutes before the scheduled time of the meeting. Rocky got out of the auto rickshaw, gave him a hundred rupee note, and asked for his mobile number. He didn’t bother for the change and rushed to the lift. On his way up, he saved Rashid’s number on his phone.

Rocky was to present ideas on enhancing sales in the next two months. He barely slept the previous night and had thought of three campaigns. Each would cost the organization as they would have to pay the advertising agency, buy expensive television media and do many events across the country.

He decided that his presentation would remain in his laptop and he would present Rashid’s idea which was a clear winner. The meeting was postponed by half an hour as two of the executive council members hadn’t arrived. He quickly summoned his team to his office. For the first time, he smiled at them and wished them a good morning. He requested (much to the delight of his team) if they could somehow find the number of autos that would be there in Mumbai, how many of them traversed some key areas and the number of passengers that travelled on them each day.

Equipped with these stats in his arsenal, he made the presentation and showed graphs on how the sales would cross the target if all went as planned. The members attending the meeting were impressed and he was given the “go ahead” to implement his strategy. He swung to action quickly and with the help of Rashid and his own team in office implemented the strategy.

The business leader’s award saw a host of important names from the corporate world. The media covered the event extensively and one award after the other was given out. The next award to be given was the best marketing strategy award. Rocky’s name was announced and he went on stage. He received the award and walked to the dais for the customary speech.

“Rashid, please come up on stage”, called out Rocky. Everyone in the audience was stunned to see an auto driver dressed in the typical auto driver’s dress come up on stage. The stage, which had seen the best minds in the corporate world, was seeing an auto driver for the first time. As Rashid came on stage, Rocky narrated the story and handed over the award and the prize money of two lakh rupees to Rashid. Rocky completed his speech by thanking his superiors, his team (for the first time) and Rashid – whom he called the “Salesman of the Year”.

The experience made Rocky a better boss, a better leader and took him to dizzying heights in his professional life. Rocky is, today, the most sought after professional in this industry. However, he still discussed strategies with Rashid and they come up with innovations which are unheard of. Rashid is a senior manager in his team. For Rocky, however, Rashid is an experience which has broadened his horizons, added humility to his personality and taught him the virtue of listening and learning for sub-ordinates and the seemingly lesser brilliant minds.

The Corporate world today has many Rocky’s who need to listen to the Rashid’s in their teams and outside and learn from their experiences to become great visionaries and realize their true potential.