Happy Swamy

A long post alert but I am sure you will enjoy this real life case study that’s very close to my heart. This case study is from where I pick my inspiration from and I hope you will find it valuable too. 

Hence, I recommend that you read this when you have some time to spare and reflect. 

Imagine (or better even visualise) you are at a saree shop with your spouse and list down what all do you see there:

• Variety of sarees neatly stacked up 
• Mirrors (no trial rooms ever at saree shops)
• Air-conditioning, Lighting, Mattresses to sit down relaxing
• Cash counter(s)
• Heaps of unfolded sarees
• Posters of model wearing new arrivals
• Mannequins displaying variety of sarees
• And last but not the least the salesman. Yes that’s right, more often than not, you see a ‘salesman’ not a ‘saleswoman’. More on that a little later. 

All the things listed above can be bucketed into stocks, ambience, marketing collaterals, product display, payment options etc.  Everything has a reason to be the way it is and come to think of it the reasons are quite obvious, isn’t it?

Now let’s zoom into the scene where a sales event is taking place…the interaction between one of the lady customers and the salesman. Now what do you observe?

Listing down the common observations:

• Tirelessly, the salesman keep showing saree after saree pointed out by the lady
• He too on his own, keeps presenting various options basis the age, ‘in vogue’ items, new arrivals etc
• Helps the customer in short listing first and then concluding the sale
• He would place the saree on the customers shoulders as if it’s draped and guide her to the mirror as he showers praises of how much it suits her!

And the not so common observations:

• Reads the non verbal cues of the customer like when she looks at the saree purchased or shortlisted  by lady at next counter with a sparkle in her eyes. He catches that!
• Never plays the price card till he is sure the sale is almost done; while he would have gauged the budget the lady would possibly have to spend on this purchase tacitly much early on by asking questions like is it for a special occasion, is it a gift or such many note smart ones!
• Drapes the saree around himself to demonstrate the look: respectably one of the toughest act for a man to perform in front of a shop full of strangers. Hats off to the spirit!
• Even after a 50 saree heap, if the customer were to walk away without a purchase, within a split second the smile comes back on his face to greet the next incoming customer and this would happen customer after customer for an entire day…and of course day after day

This brings me to the crux of this story…some pertinent questions:

• How does this guy know so much about the sales process – opening a call, developing the need, proposing options, eliminating concerns and closing the sale? Because that’s what he is demonstrating, albeit without knowing that it’s a structured subject in itself!
• Who taught him to read non verbal cues?
• How did he gain expertise in unearthing explicit and implicit customer needs?
• How with such an ease he is able to sell a product which he will ‘never’ use himself?
• Where is all this perseverance, customer centricity and communication skill coming him?
• All these get amplified when we draw a pen picture of this salesman: in his early to mid 30s, maybe educated only till school (10th standard or lesser), comes from a humble small town, doesn’t gets paid a lot, most definitely has some sales incentives and so on!

With so many questions in my mind, I approached a friend of mine who is a saree retailer at Ghatkopar (one of Mumbai’s busy suburbs) with a request to observe this more closely, interact with his sales team and try to unravel the mystery!

What I learnt has stayed with me for almost 2 decades now and I hope it stays with you too!

Back to our scene of action and rewind to notice the heap of unfolded sarees. Ever thought what happens to this heap through the day! There in lies the answer. All new sales recruits are put through the rigour of folding each saree from this heap neatly and place it back where it belongs. 

Imagine doing this day in day out for 3-6 months with nothing much to do except folding sarees whilst observing what the experienced sales buddy is doing at the counter! They become experts in every variety of fabric that’s used in making the saree, they quickly learn what are the ‘hot selling’ or ‘fast moving’ items, what makes customers buy and so on. 

We in the corporate world struggle endlessly to get effectiveness in our sales training – be it classrooms or On-the-job approaches: buddy or joint calls, practice sessions, simulations, role plays and now even virtual or augmented reality based self learning! And see how simply yet most effectively it’s managed in this business. 

Think of our good old shoe shop in local market where, for some funny but maybe meaningful reason, shoes stocks are always placed in the mezzanine floor and get thrown down on a ‘gibberish’ code based demand through a hole in the ceiling by someone on the top….well that’s the new sales recruit there akin to the one folding sarees earlier!!

Intentionally I am holding back a lot more learnings I picked up from this case study and would look forward to the varied perspective each one of you would have to offer post reading this. Looking forward to your views and hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoy narrating this each time in my sales training sessions.

And yes, please feel free to use this case study in your training programs as this is my personal experience and not taken from any copyright material!