SALES - 'S'omewhere 'A't 'L'east 'E'veryone 'S'MILES....

Yesterday, my family went to a local mall to watch a new flick hence we thought to grab a quick bite at some fast food joint. We went to the food court where there were many small outlets for both Indian and international cuisines.

Looking at the paucity of time, we didn’t give much thought and ordered our meals from McDonald’s. While I was waiting for our food, all of my attention was grabbed by few sales men standing in front of an outlet serving Italian and Chinese food.

They all were greeting every one with a smile and showing menu cards to every passer-by, inviting them to order food from their shop but to my utter amazement, nobody gave a serious thought to their invitation.

While I was feeling really bad for them, one thought hit my mind badly - How they guys must be feeling at that moment of time. Though it was their job but this kind of work definitely needs something more than just selling skills.

My heart goes out for all the sales men, tele-callers, who strive day & night to generate big sales volumes for large corporations.

Every day for multiple number of times, they feel rejection by different people but like a brave solider, they again get up for next sales call with same level of enthusiasm and smile at their face, as if they have not lost but won a battle of this war called LIFE.

I may not be presumptuous to say that even a single rejection can make us feel low for the whole day or even more but we hardly think second time before saying a blunt NO to them. Sometimes we even scold them badly and carry on our routine work with a smile as if no heart was broken. We consider this rejection as part of their job & expect them to keep on working despite of the way we treat them.

When we faced any rejection, we quickly blame & expect that other person should have taken care before doing this to us. Why don’t we try to gauge the pressure of these tele-callers and sales men – How do they plan to manage their daily sales targets and speak to every single client with jolly good mood.

There is also another side of this story – Does this type of rejection impacts only their professional life or it affects their personal life too. Do they also feel unwanted at home with their parents, siblings and spouse. Does their family extends a helping hand, understands and accept them so that they may overcome this daily rejection syndrome.

Only solution to this problem is to treat them as our fellow humans and appreciate their efforts. Next time when we get any sales call / approached by any sales person, whether we buy anything from them or not, just be brave to say these magic lines in a soft and encouraging voice: YOU ARE DOING A WONDERFUL JOB. This way you can add smile on their face and give confidence to them to keep moving forward.

And as Woody Allen quotes “There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with a salesman?”