The Hindu Business Line : Spirituality for the salesman

Marketing means aggressiveness, manipulation and introducing wants that are not required by consumers. These are some of the major criticisms of marketing in a world where changing lifestyles and aspirations leave no time to even think of spiritual aspects. Yet beyond the debate of rituals and spirituality, the Bhagavad Gita seems to offer several insights that are practical and simple when applied to the field of marketing and sales.

The purpose of this article is neither to support nor influence minds with a religious backdrop; it is just to highlight how marketers, whether believers or not, can benefit from spirituality. While the authors have considered a specific body of spirituality to drive home the point, they are sure that several such spiritual messages can be found in other spiritual texts too, beyond the trappings of any specific religion.

Spirituality at the individual level

The trials and tribulations in the life of a salesperson are too obvious to be explained. Given the fact that not all sales personnel have the good fortune of going through a professional business education, most of them start their career in a small company at the grassroots level. Their life revolves around people with different kinds of traits and temperament, both within and outside the organisation.

Life is truly a mixture of joy and misery. There are moments of joy when the salesperson establishes a relationship with a client, bags an order and wins accolades from his company. There are depressing moments when he/she gets tongue lashed for not showing results within the organisation, though in reality the odds may have been against him/her.

With a little known brand name or a company that is obscure, the situation is worse, with the organisation constantly prodding frontline sales personnel to cover up its deficiencies and limitations to `win' over its better-known competitors.

Customers too vary in their approach towards sales personnel. Some are professional and maintain basic courtesy and etiquette; some expect sales personnel to gratify their ego and there are some who have a condescending attitude towards sales personnel. Life in short is miserable, unpredictable and full of suspense with some moments of happiness. This continues till the salesperson is able to scale heights and is able to attain a position of status in a well-known company. For many capable sales professionals, such an accomplishment is only a pipe dream. What do training programmes teach young professionals entering a selling career? Behavioural aspects, negotiation techniques, selling process and more that is certainly conceptual, strategic and useful. Establishing relationships, radiating charm and the etiquette to be followed are ingrained with ruthless efficiency . It is also a fact that such training programmes, held in plush surroundings, are the preserve of a very few and to be able to undergo them, a salesperson should have the opportunity of being in such a firm. Can good brand names, good products and fine sales training be the foundation for a successful sales career?

Many a time we come across several fine professionals who have dealt with good brands in reputed companies being failures in selling, who shift functions or keep shifting their company of employment. Fate/luck; perhaps or perhaps not. But the point to be noted is that sales personnel should try and develop themselves in directions that will be required for success.

Some are born with a good temperament, but most attempt to develop one. This is essential as many do not have alternative employment opportunities and there is a need for them to stick to selling whether they like it or not. In fact, such people are "trapped" into coming up in selling.

The Bhagavad Gita conveys that one is supreme if he/she treats friends, relatives, well-wishers, foes, and sinners and for that matter any human being alike. On a practical plane, this is seemingly difficult to practice. But if groups of customers are classified into several of these categories with differing characteristics and approaches towards sales personnel, the salesperson will realise an equanimous temperament is something that can be cultivated over a period of time. In fact, for many sales personnel, especially frontline sales personnel, this remains the only option and it is certainly a better option than getting angry, blaming fate, cursing the customer and colleague or any other negative reaction that will only aggravate the frustration of the individual's situation.

If the salesperson thinks that the customer or a group of customers who are unpleasant to deal with are `transient' forces in his/her life/career, temperament will be developed over a period of time. This is not to imply indifference or lack of sensitivity to customers; this is suggested to strengthen the resolve of the salesperson towards greater accomplishments, with temperament being the basic foundation. Temperament is required by all humans in several aspects of life, but for marketing and sales personnel it is a prerequisite for not just success, but for existence on an hour-to-hour basis. The interesting aspect of temperament is that with success, even intelligent and successful salespersons fall prey to their own success.

The `I' factor seems to lose its moderation with success, and the successful salesperson and marketer seem to get into the `inertia of arrogance.' Customers are taken for granted, treated with scant regard after `success', with the fact that they have been the stepping-stones for success being completely forgotten. Indifference and bad service combined with a stark difference in treatment at even the interpersonal level lays the ground for the `downward journey'. A salesperson or marketing person reminding himself/herself that a temperament like that of a calm stream that maintains the same `calmness' regardless of whether it collects the flowers or dirt in its path, prevents them falling into the inertia of arrogance.

Message

A salesperson who practises and masters a balanced temperament towards all types of customers is the one who is supreme and sure to attain and sustain success. The `I' factor can throw a sales/ marketing person overboard to the extent of becoming the cause for his/her downfall.

(S. Ramesh Kumar is Professor of Marketing at IIM-B and D. V. R. Seshadri is Visiting Professor, Marketing Area, IIM-B.)

Next week: Spirituality at the organisational level.

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