Ever willing to learn and add value

STUDIOUS: Ever Willing to learn and add Value

Ritesh was excited. And scared. For ten years Ritesh had had a great run selling flow meters for an engineering major. Now with his company on Covid19 pause, Ritesh couldn’t wait to get back in action. That’s when he got a call from a former colleague, who had moved base to an African location. “Would you be interested in a short-term assignment to head sales for a Custody transfer company?” his friend asked. “Of course, this position could take a few months to materialize. The company is preparing to reopen post Corona. Anyway the pandemic impact hasn’t been severe here. The compensation package is excellent, with generous growth opportunities in the custody transfer space”

A quick check on the internet and Ritesh found that Custody transfer, had another name - fiscal metering. This was something that was used when large volumes of fluids or gases are exchanged in the course of business. Ritesh’s potential employer was offering fiscal metering solutions. Ritesh had just one worry. He had no engineering credentials. As always Ritesh turned to his mentor and former boss. Ritesh was surprised by his response. “Go for it” his mentor said “You don’t always need to be an engineer to excel at technical sales”. After a 20-minute call with his mentor, Ritesh was convinced. This is how it worked.

In real life, you will find many professionals in technical sales, who don’t possess any special technical qualification. A paradox? Not really. This becomes easy to understand when you recognize that for a complex solution to deliver tangible value, it has to be right on three counts: (i) Functionally right (ii) Attractive for customer (iii) Possible to deliver. Plus the salesperson must learn enough about the solution, to help the Customer derive best possible value from the solution.

No matter which area of sales you are in, your willingness and speed in learning new things and your ability to generate Customer value from that learning, is a life-long differentiator for sales success!