Ride to Results and Realisations - 1984 By Ravi(RSS)

The ride to Rajendra Nagar from office was long. From the office lane we used to turn left and take the Rastrapathi Road straight down to the Tank Bund. Leaving behind the Boat Club on the right the journey on the Bund was refreshing with the cool air from the water front caressing the face while other vehicles zoomed up and down beside our Auto. The steady hands of Narasimha maneuvered the vehicle through the mean streets of Hyderabad and we finally crossed the Musi River and that’s almost seemed like a major achievement. The first stop was the National Police Academy and since my Dad was an IPS it was always a pleasure to visit. There was a museum there and I did make it a point to spend some time there. On the way to Rajendra Nagar there was also this biscuit factory. The calls never yielded any results but a cup of tea with freshly baked biscuits was a good break for the weary traveler especially on the way back to office.

On the highway we needed to take a right turn to visit these Institutions like the National Institute of Rural Development and also the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management. Sunita had opened the doors for us in the former but then I reaped a harvest from there. Additionally all the references worked wonders in the various other agricultural research institutes that spawned the area. It was like theory that you have understood coming alive in your own personal experiences and that’s the best thing that could happen to you. The theory of managing customer relationships is what I am talking about. Selling was a breeze. Get a name, give a reference or two, drop in some names, give a perfect demo, make a value proposition, and that’s about it. The order was for Network in each case.

NAARM was a different ball game. This was a new institute, no relationships with NIRD or the other local institutions. My first call was a tentative one to the secretary. I could not elicit any excitement in him or that’s what I thought. On my second random call I noticed the vehicle of the local Xerox representative (Sanjay or Sanjiv I don’t remember) parked outside. Then I noticed that he was having an extremely illuminated conversation with the same secretary and he had brought his machine too. I sensed trouble. I kept waiting at the reception. The Director was not in office and he happened to just arrive. Given my training, I straightaway approached and introduced myself and also made a modified General Benefit Statement that included some big personality names of Hyderabad too!! He was responsive and asked me more questions and that was good for me.

I was engaging him and that’s a positive I thought. The net result was that he asked for a joint demonstration the next day. I had managed to accomplish two things. Firstly, I had spoken to the Director direct creating some sort of a rapport and secondly, I had stalled Xerox at least for a day. I also knew that I had to win the secretary. The demonstration next day was scheduled at 3 PM.

LBR ran me through on how to counter Xerox point by point that evening. I also practiced the normal tricks and sort of created a script for myself. We also discussed possible client questions and responses. Then I landed up at NAARM at 1.30 PM! I had this ‘’secretary agenda” in my mind. People are after all curious. So when I set up my machine in the designated place in the open lobby, I discovered people coming up and asking questions. Even Mr. Secretary was curious and though I could feel his proximity to Xerox I did not talk about my competitor even once. I also made another important discovery. I managed to find out that they were in the market for 3 machines (my Daily Call Report forecast was for one). I met those other users too and by the time it was 2.30 PM I had almost convinced those other guys!!

The Xerox guy came and he was the first. Our product was more expensive but it could do more and I could see that relationship was the only key. The Director was impressed with both and said he will await an evaluation. There was a crowd of 30 watching us. I knew that I had covered more people in that organization and it was only Mr. Secretary who was perhaps on the wrong side. After a point one could only hope for the best, since the actions were done. The whole scenario was a tough exercise on me. (Located an image of a Xerox Memorywriter that we were fighting against).

Rajiv Khanna had come down to Secunderabad to disburse back log incentives. I was not in the picture since these were pertaining to a period before I joined, but all the same money was/is money. In the morning with his as usual booming voice he announced that he wanted some orders that day itself ( I reckon it was month ending). I was in a bitter mood that day and had genuinely planned not going anywhere and I had declared my intent to GP earlier as soon as I had come in. In any case I was not anticipating anything specifically to happen that day. Pressure was still on, when Seshagiri once again came to my rescue. The Rice Institute had sent a registered mail with an order for a 332. I felt relieved in terms of salvaging my prestige. Then it was a double whammy in the afternoon. I received a call from NAARM. The administration officer asked me to collect an order for 3 pieces of 316s with a whole lot of consumables and daisy wheels. My chauffeur Narasimha was missing and I could not find an auto. I hired a car and was back in office with the order by 5.30 PM!! That was some event, getting four machines in one day!! I did not declare this and it was LB who broke the news to GP.

There were bad days too. Especially the day I lost my first order to PCL. It was Omni Computers, a small software company specializing in CAD/CAM. It was pure price that was under consideration and I lost in spite of our equipment being superior. I also realized that whether you like it or not being cheap also is an attribute that appeals to a class of consumer. It’s not their fault, it’s about how quickly you realize and move on with life and other prospects, of course after giving a solid fight! Time and Timing is of essence here.

Getting appointments were not easy. The bosses were never a problem. It was the secretary that was cold. So later it was all about first all about building relationships with the secretaries of the world and where Electronic Typewriters were not perhaps the main topic of discussion. Instead it was about the weather, the movies, and then inching towards his/her industry and type of work. References would immensely help and thank God for them. Rakjumar and his team in any case had made a lot of forays by selling Dictation Systems and therefore one needed to mine the data and go ahead. Then it was all about what we did best. Massaging Egos!!

Pinning down people with time was difficult. Years back my nephew, when small, used to ask me a simple question. Mama he would ask, “’Do you want to play carom (a board game) in this room or the drawing room?” I did answer back and we always played in the relevant room. Similarly the idea is to always provide an alternative to the responder. This takes away the focus from the actual commitment that you are running after to something more concrete. It also provides the responder some alternatives to work with instead of being restrictive in his mind (basically avoiding a YES/NO situation). For example, I would ask. “Would you be free for a demonstration at 3.00 PM on Tuesday or 11 AM on Thursday?” Or in a different situation: “Would you like the machine with a standard Madeleine PS Wheel or additionally two three more styles?” This sort of questioning would give you answers, lead customers to commit unknowingly and was the best way to prevent YES/NO environments. Selling after all is a lot of gray. These were typically close ended questions. There were open ended questions too. That I reserve for another day, the discussion on questioning that is.

The best part of selling for Network was that we were absolutely convinced about the capabilities it had, the benefits it provided and the back up support we had. This was a killer and no way was competition going to overtake us (in the majority of cases that is). We were tigers, with pride emanating out of our ears. I even remember disassociating with HCL (the parent group company) since they were rather renowned about their terrible after sales support and we did it convincingly and to our advantage.

Then one day one of the clients asked us whether we could hook up our typewriters to computers, we knew that PCL was behind this since their machine has a parallel port that could be used as plug and play straightaway. We also knew that Network R&D was working on this facility. I had heard about C3PO and R2D2 but those were robots in Star Wars!! So when RS23C was introduced we were called to Bangalore for a training program and it was again days of circumspect speculation as to what was in store.

There were a few enquiries and there were some places where we stalled completion too. Bangalore was therefore of major importance to us, but to me it was more exciting since I had never been to the place before!!

It was again First Class Compartments in a train that stopped at too many places that we had to board from Hyderabad station. We were a larger team and that meant more chaos in everything that we did. Baggage handling, ticket handling, food ordering; it was about all of us and how enjoyable it was!! Bangalore Station was nothing special. As usual we took cabs and reached our Hotel. The sessions were to be in the same hotel. That where we saw RS232C!!

Delhi 1984 - By Ravi(RSS)

The title of this piece sounds ominous because of November but I am here talking about July. From the busy New Delhi Station we were escorted into Black Yellow Taxis. The most amazing part of a Delhi Taxi is the meter. The digits in the counter change like a gas station meter and that scares you to your innermost core. I would perhaps be mentally at peace in an auto. Once we crossed the Connaught Place area it was the well maintained avenues of Janpath, Akber Road and Panchsheel that greeted us. Finally we reached Taj Palace situated on a road bearing the name of a famous leader and that was common with our own Secunderabad office address. It was Sardar Patel Road, and mind you the commonality though did not make any difference to our now tired but excited, anxious but circumspect state of mind.

We were two in a room and LB was my partner. The first thing I did to create a bit of hullabaloo was to drop the keys through that gap of the elevator compartment and the floor. Though cursed by my partner not outwardly though I maintained my calm!! The security had to arrive, new keys issued and so on and so forth. We had to get ready quickly and this was not what we wanted as a start!!

The huge lobby and the expanse had perhaps mesmerized me, but once we reached the room I was quick to try out the different switches and knobs to ensure that they produced as intended. Whether there was want or not, the Indian Five Star Customer had to ensure his money’s worth though in this case it was not hurting his wallet.

It was Cleopatra on TV. Despite the weariness of the travel, I became glued to Elizabeth Taylor and dispatched LB to the washroom through some clever manipulative guile. The time finally arrived post breakfast and we took our seats in Durbar the largest Hall in the hotel.

They were all unknown faces in there and we chickens nimble footedly went over to our designated seats and occupied them. The podium was laid out with typical grandeur and the honchos finally arrived. Both sides of the podium had a few tables covered with something that we did not care about and all our eyes were glued onto the stage. Rajiv Khanna with his impressive and inspiring voice was the MC and the proceedings started. I don’t really remember too much about the speeches that were all about past glory but I remember Sunita’s contribution from Hyderabad being singled out by AKD (Anil Dang, MD).

After the speeches of glory, there was a brief coffee break and we the shy Hyderabadis huddled together. After the break, it was about some talk on new products by the ultra suave Arvind Wable and a flash of lightning and the new products were unveiled. It was the launch of the Network 332, 316, 102 and 100. These machines had changed the face of governments and corporates on paper!!!

PS. There was one lady with the old fashioned name of Madeliene who started the revolution in terms of being the favourite daisy wheel that was part of the free kit!!

This was still not the ending; and then we had lunch. I was looking for a few blokes and a girl, since we had joined together, in the melee and did find them. The discussion amongst people was mostly about past exploits, in terms of sales and achievements. For me, I could only listen since I was not preceded with any reputed events. We were still coming to terms with the grandeur, the occasion, the launch and the future to follow. More than we going around, it was other seniors that were coming and eliciting some response.

The afternoon was devoted to learning about the typewriters and that followed into the evening with Rajiv Khanna taking the role of an Indian Military Academy Subedar Major keeping us cadets always on the toes and on guard!! The bosses were perhaps having their own sessions on Targets where the figures fluctuated like stock exchanges. Finally we had to accept, that Delhi calculations prevailed.
In the evening, GP also let me know that there was going to be a Demo competition and I had to represent Hyderabad. I was a miserable failure in that but that made me treble my efforts when I was in Hyderabad. Myself and LB, I remember had learnt every possible nuance of the machines and hoped that an opportunity came later to take on the so called stalwarts of other regions. I could prove that when in Mumbai much later.

The Calcutta Office was led by the grey haired Sushil Joshi with always a mischievous and dismissive smile. His humour mixed with sarcasm and wit was humbling!! Then there were the girls from Kolkata and in spite of my natural Bong affinity and best efforts I could not make any headway. Though, we did hear about side infatuation affairs from other office groups about people.

One of the days we were also given a big handout of who were our target customers and which features would be useful for the different segments. We had to stuff these in our memory along with everything else. Our pricing was unique. There used to be a base price and there used to a Technical Service Charges that was almost 40% of the total price!! Later on I came to know of the logic and perhaps its better that I do not elaborate on the philosophy of the same or I might start up a separate debate thread on Indian Corporate Behavior.

On a particular evening it was announced that the full gang had to land up in Studio One a discotheque in the sister Taj Mahal Hotel on Ashoka Road. That was the first time for me in a Disco and what was amazing in there was the sound and effects. The damper was of course the Guy to Gal ratio at a pathetic 95:5. The novelty therefore wore me down very fast and I was keen to go back and perhaps relax with the Summer Olympic Highlights!!

The week was hectic, fun and did manage to get to know a few people but our small team could not match up with the raunchy and loud Delhi or Mumbai Teams. What we could match up was in knowledge, brimming confidence and a wish to go and get those customers on our side.

So that was Delhi or hardly it. From a station, to a hotel and then back to a station was the best exposure we had of life. The station this time was different. So were the train and the class!! It was the Dakshin Express starting on the night of Day 1 and reaching Hyderabad in the morning of Day 3. So we had two nights in first class compartments and were one of the most relaxing, lazy journeys I have ever made. Sleeping, Reading, Cards and of course the Old Monk was there for company. GP was not a part of the entourage and we were like this group of let loose prisoners making merry.

In Delhi I met up with Balbir from Mumbai, Kapil Chawla from the Govt Team of Delhi, and a few others. I remember Sunil Gupta, Sumathi, Vimla, and many more from other offices. I was in touch with some but perhaps I have to renew the lines of communication with them and so many more. Each of them would surely have something to talk about that would make up the rich history.

The conference was a confidence booster and I personally knew that one had to quickly now take advantage of the momentum created. I had to learn to make better sales calls and of course demo and negotiate.
My third order was from Nagarjuna Finance and between you and me that was a breeze. The buyer in question was a senior at college and it was just a question of a demo, a quote and the order with a 100% advance. The tough periods came later.

Evening after evening, me and LB worked on the machines. Every feature, every aspect of the typewriter was ripped open by us. This would include lessons from the engineers on solenoids and pulley technology. Hammer alignments, carriage alignments, fuse changes I promise you we knew it all. Dayanidhi and KVS taught me how to clean machines.(This served me good later). LB used to donate style, Ravikumar used to come up with challenges and Rajkumar would come up with out of the box thoughts. We were thriving as a team and though chaotic we were delving in Buyer Behavior, Customer Relationships, Prospect Building, Training Methodology, Territory Planning, Enquiry Handling – Voice and Face to Face, To me anything we do today, perhaps we would find some analogy that we could draw upon from those Network Days.

My first call ever was at Hyderabad Lamps. I was calmly shown the door by the Admin Manager. Now back from Delhi and prepped, revenge was the order of the day. The office was in proximity and Seshagiri our office boy (man) was friendly with the Security Guard there. I found out through him the name of the secretary to the MD. Next day I called up Hyderabad Lamps and asked for Rose!! The confidence in my voice quality made the operator direct my call straight to her. I started with a negative statement about me not being a salesperson but this researcher on typing practices and through in some YWCA and other appealing words. I was granted a session and I took the 316 along. The machine was left in the Auto in the safe custody of Narasimha and off I went. Rose was about 50 (that was a baffling revelation) but I went into all the problems she had with manuals. I also found about some quirks about the MD. I offered her a no obligation demo and was quick to display of all our tricks in the arsenal. Then I offered her that the next two letters for the day be typed on the 316 and sent in for signatures. The letters did not come out but it was Rose who was called in.

The 316 was taken in and I just had to show a formatted automatic table for a board presentation. Needless to mention, the verdict was positive and I was in awe when the price was not questioned. I went back happily, The order was of course signed by the Administrative Officer!!

COME TO TAJ - By BV RAO (YEAR 1986)

1986

This was year of the Canon launch when a new batch of SMT’s was created at Hotel Vikram. The week that was, called for staying back in the hotel - in spite of me being a local resident. The story continued the same way as Ravi and here I was May 5th 1986 in Hyderabad. Soon after the arrival of my train at Secunderabad I left my luggage at my aunt’s places and walked into a lane off the SP road in Hyderabad and there sat an Asm called Marcos Williams. It was exciting to get introduced to a bunch of old and new sales guys a bunch of trainers a consumable team of 2 guys and a bunch of engineers. All were a great support since they came in handy after the sale was made.

The last few Hermes machines were up for sale. I think the consumables continued to sell for many more years. The prices of those daisy wheels in the 90's were sold at 3000/- plus rupees in packs of 2/3 at Mumbai which was as good as buying a new ETW.

Canon launch at Taj was quiet an experience and I am sure many have enough of those stories to share. By the time the launch was to take place the ASM had exited. Ed sales R Kannan and Gurgeet had called on Markos at a local hotel away from the office .

Prithvi had moved out of the Hyd office but was still a sounding board for advice and action for this species called Markos. Raj Kumar had gone on a sabbatical to Xlri and had returned to Hyd may be he was to join some days later after the canon launch.

Our team to Agra was lead by RR Pai who I believe had a fall in the bathroom and the bath tub came in his way to send him back to Hyderabad with white protective armour of plaster of paris.

The exciting team I mentioned about was LB, Ravi, Saketh, Yusuf, Kalavati, and Vandana who was on her way out since marriage was on the cards. Venkatesh Prasad, DB, Raju - I miss a few names too.

Agra and its Taj and all that we learnt about the new series with categories of machines called the 400 and the 500 series closed with high adrenalin pumping in our veins. Pcl was not yet a threat but it was looming large as a strong force that had these cute small light weight machines and was spreading wings. We had a Marketing Head in a Wable and his team who created a blue book of all machines in the market place and taught us positioning our machines. This was radar of many features and the first lessons on consultative selling and the great balanced machine selling was learnt.

Wow!!! Those lessons still look valid and can be still used with teams of today in spite of the internet.

My impressions and my start at network

The Black Book - By Ravi(RSS) Year 1984

We all know of Red Books, Blue Books, Yellow Pages, White Papers and so on and so forth. In Network we had The Black Book. The Black Book was basically a plastic laminated black folder with some sheets inside. It contained an article on Social Justice which I am pretty sure nobody ever read and the question of Network paying royalty for the same perhaps did not arise. This article was typed in Cubic Mini PS (Cubic was the Font style, Mini because of the size and PS would mean Proportional Spacing). I will surely explain what these meant, but that's later.

This book was the proof of the hope that we tried to generate among VIPs and CEOs that would enhance their image. The article had some neatly typed paragraphs with a few tables scattered so that we could explain the nuances of the product in terms of Bold, Italics, Justification, Word Wrap and all such tough technical stuff! This is the book we used day in and day out and not the brochure to explain our products.

In my first call I had doled out a brochure. So did I again in the next and the following one. But after that day, never ever was this phenomenon repeated courtesy the same old Hyderabad analyzing sessions. From then on it was the Black Book and a empty ruled yellow pad that were the major tools In a business call.

Coming back to some technical terms, the other day my daughter came to me and asked the meaning of Justification and Word Wrap. I was absolutely delighted to explain the concepts to her. Justification would mean where the first character in a line is exactly placed on the left margin, the last character is placed exactly on the right margin and the inter-word spaces are adjusted so that the line gives a homogeneous look. Bold and Italics are simple stuff not worth explaining. Word Wrap would occur when the word at the end of the line was too big and did not fit. The intelligence of the machine carried the whole word onto the next line. These were features that made our machines sell, while these days many would not even know the mechanics.

The tough one was Proportional Spacing and I can assure you that even today people may not understand or appreciate the concept. To be simple, proportional spacing is when the inter character space is constant. Characters are of different width for example, a `W' is much wider say, than an `i'. Now if were to type "Witness" as I have you would notice that all the characters are compactly placed and there is no wasted space between them making it pleasing to the eye. Now without Proportional Spacing the same word would look something like this. "Witness"! The intelligence in the machine would advance the carriage depending upon the size of the character and then would print on the paper unlike manual or electric typewriters where the carriage would move forward irrespective of character size! Word Processing Applications follow these same concepts unlike say WordStar those days. Hope you get the idea. Of course you would, since, who else other than a Networker would read these gibberish explanations!

I was in the typewriter business, but lazy that one was, I never even thought of joining a typing class and learn to type properly. Instead all the preliminary efforts were on how to use the first and middle fingers to good use. Within months, of course I could easily take on rookie typists and that was enough for my job. I type the same way even this day and somehow I think the non conformance to regular typing skills is still serving me well.

I joined Hyderabad office in May when the climate is extremely hot and it affects you in the mind too. This was especially true for me, who from childhood had always been used to a humid climate. In this rather depressing state of affairs it was the company of office mates after evening that used to perk me up for the next day. Beer and Chicken 65 was a good combination and I remember some of the Service Engineers were also pretty happy to join up. Finally we three that is LB Raj, KVS and myself took up an unfurnished house in P&T Colony. Veeranna was the landlord. He had two sons who were my cricketing partners on Sunday mornings, Breakfast was a given in their house on most holidays, week after week. The ground floor house was pretty Spartan with one large bedroom and two small ones. LBR and KVS shared the master while I occupied the small single one. First day we bought three camp cots and one of them within two months collapsed due to my weight or posture or both!! It went on to serve me well for a year in that slightly slanted state.

Near office was this Banjara Hotel serving good South Indian food and that was a favourite haunt. The other was of course Taj Mahal with its patent Vegetable Dosa that I have yet to find elsewhere. On the front of this Banjara Hotel was a shop selling customs seized goods and I invested In a small walkman with external speakers. Saturday nights typically my company was Uriah Heep and the stars above. LBR used to vanish every Friday evening to his uncle's in APSEB while KVS would go off to Rajahmundry his hometown.

Monday was always a day where I had to board the crazy Hyderabad buses to reach office since my partner was not around. Monday evening until Thursday was adequately covered by my rides on the pillion of LB's Yezdi. Talking about Hyderabad buses they had this uncanny habit of stopping at some intermediate point and the conductor would ensure that all pax on board had tickets. This was while we were fuming inside in heat and frustration. At office, the breeze from the fan and Seshagiri's tea would calm the tempers down.

Narasimha, who was Prithviraj's favourite auto driver, was my standard chauffeur too. Quite often he was the one to push me about visiting Rajendranagar or ECIL, etc. I am not denying that there used to be work in those parts almost every day but I could understand the income they used to derive out of those journeys and the motivation thereof. However, I think it suited us both and we were fine with it. Enquiries even though were a trickle would come once in a while in the form of telephones or letters and then the Narasimha's (there were a few others, Vijay was one of them) of the world would be useful for us to find the exact address and locations without spending time unnecessarily.

Though officially Network started these Major Account teams and other team splits, in Hyderabad most of our clients were any way large Accounts with the potential of giving us repeat orders. One Govt. Secretary buying would mean going and massaging the ego of the others too. Sunita was very good at it I remember. Similarly in Public Sectors or Institutions, one Director would fall into our "net" and then we would "work" on all his peers. The sheer ego that was involved in buying these machines could be a serious focal point of buyer behavior studies.

Handling these large accounts were always tricky in their own way. The first was of course getting an entry into these large institutions and a lot of them were involved with the Ministry of Defense. So the first task was to somehow make your mark with the Security at the gate so that we are not dependent on internal invitations or pre fixed appointments for entry. Once you are in and security in your pocket, one was a free bird inside to make as many calls as we wanted and at all levels. I remember the GM's(Antenna) secretary in ECIL taking me for complimentary lunches and soft drinks depending upon the time of the day. Later on I could open the fridge myself without asking.

Nuclear Fuel Complex was another favorite free lunch haunt. When clients with need start regularly entertaining a sales consultant does one really need to sell? There were others who were in our good books and vice versa. Isn't that what relationship management is all about? As mentioned earlier, we in Network were living concepts that have been made into theories and people have earned money and still doing so, providing training on the same.

From the beginning we learn that secretaries were to be the major targets for us to sell. So the he or she in an organization was our first target. Competition handling as a concept was mostly at a secretarial level and once you had the lady or gentleman in your pocket there was no stopping us. Any other internal pressures typically from Administration Officers were nullified because the Boss's office had chosen a Network. The user after all is the main client and don't we know that software companies will not get their money released unless UAT (User Acceptance Tests) are satisfactory. As prices of Typewriters fell, the handling of competition became trickier but the basic concept of making sure that the USER is on your side still holds good and that too in any industry.

So after first two months of rigorous sales calls and prospect building exercises we had this Sales Conference in Delhi Taj Palace Hotel. This was my first but for Network it was the second conference. The first one was at the same venue where Network graduated from Dictation Systems and Phones to Swiss made Hermes Toptronic Electronic Typewriter (christened the Network 208). The second conference was to launch some more machines that Prithviraj kept as a secret from us until the last moment. In fact he was not the one who broke the suspense. It was the booming voice of Rajiv Khanna that opened our eyes in front of the grandeur.

I reckon it was in July, 1984 that we were destined to take the Andhra Pradesh Express from Secunderabad station to New Delhi. Early morning the team gathered in front of the AC 2 tier Coach and then boarded the train. I am not sure whether I bothered people with my snoring in the night, but then the whole day was extremely entertaining with cards and rum on the sly. Shortly we crossed Ramagundam one of the hottest place in India boasting of a NTPC Plant and little did I know then that I would have to visit this place more than once later in life.

Egg Curry and Rice in a stainless steel compartmentalized plate was my lunch and dinner. The railway thalis used to be unique. Typically there were six compartments and one of them had the rice. One had the egg curry while there was dal and veg curry too. I could not ever decipher whether they served Curd or Raita since the consistency was rather confusing but all the same it was there and so was some Pickle and Salt. Green Chillies were available on demand. So, the meals were also an event and so were some sessions of astrology. Hands were exchanged and prophecies made and looks like all the positive things have happened to people over the years. The train sped away towards Delhi and sometimes during times of slumber we were all circumspect and excited at the same time about what was in store the next day.

The morning arrived and so did we at New Delhi station. So with GP in command we left for Taj Palace and I was eagerly looking forward to my Five Star stay!! That it turned out to be an unforgettable experience was perhaps expected by some, but for rookie me, it was overwhelming.
At this rate even I am eager to find out as to what would flow out my fingers next but let's keep it for another day.

Hyderabad Days - By Ravi(RSS) Year 1984

Some of you might remember EK Ramakrishna and BS Giridhar the two guys working with Rajkumar selling Network Phones and Dictation Systems. Ram the short, thinand mean one and Giri his opposite. Well, Ram just gave me a call from Oman the other day. He comes to Dubai often and has promised to meet up(if I stay herethat is, given the circumstances!!). His voice has become heavy and I could not visualize him for a moment and then suddenly the past scenes were all crystal clear.

Giri , I remember once asked me rather humbly and with a lot of surprise as to how as a Bengali we eat fish "every" day. I replied that I do not but as a general idea the concept was correct. But to answer his query I retorted that it's exactly the way he had his curd rice to end the meal day after day, month after month without fail!! End of conversation.

Vandana used to take me along for her demos because perhaps she thought that Iwas a lucky charm. So while I was posted at Vizag, she used to position some of her demos for the days I was on reporting tours to Hyderabad!! Municipal Corp was one of the good clients of her that I remember we got some orders from.I think this was the best part of Hyderabad Network where we used to help each other out not only with demos but actual negotiation calls, analysis of calls(learnt from GP), making proposals, mutual training and almost every other thing. It was true that as the world was experiencing that repeat orders comefrom good relationships with clients, we at Network were actually living those concepts with our Service Engineers getting more leads than us and being finallyinstrumental in selling.

Getting an order was a big thing for us then. The Yezdi of LB used to roar twiceover, the day he got an order. He would walk straight into GP's room ignoring all the other folks filling up our daily reports and looking at him in awe and raw jealousy!! Sunita used to laugh a lot and be generally pleased with her own self and GP always never forgot to call us novices to talk about her influences in the secretariat. Rajkumar of course created a riot. For me, the rookie it was all learning and a lot of hope. Hope for my first order!!

I was a duck for a month even after the 300 Series launch and was quite convinced that the territory provided to me was the pits. Let me tell you the area….Rajendranagar and others as Rajkumar said "the other side of Musi River"!! The ECIL, HCL, NFC belt. RP/SP Road, Tarnaka, SD Road. Well GP surely must havethought that I was a joker to say this was a bad territory!!! Little did I realize that in the months to come this same territory was a serious cause ofenvy…which implied a lot of good for Network and of course yours truly.


Speakingof orders….my first one arrived by post. An order for the first 100 typewriter in Network nationwide from a casually bid tender floated by Andhra DairyDevelopment Board. It did nothing for my ego and nobody even asked me for atreat!! The only respect was perhaps from Seshagiri with a cup of tea. The treat was however reserved for Bhadrachalam Paper Boards.

As mentioned earlier this was the office was just round the corner in SD Road,and they were looking for 3 machines. The MD, ED (F) and ED (M) respectivelywere to be the ones to get them. My first call was with ED (F) Mr. KL Chugh(later ITC Chairman) and the demo was perfect. Given my build, carrying around a300 Series machine was not a big deal for me and so I climbed two floors with the combo (m/c and keyboard) and placed the equipment in the Board Room about 15 minutes before scheduled time and was ready to go.

The Correcting Tape gimmick was to be the first one in the agenda. Anyway, they were visibly impressed and as I entered his cabin, Chugh blatantly asked for a discount. I remember replying him unabashedly that I thought we were in the business of enhancing our client's quality, status and brand and not dishing out discounts. Those words had no effect and he said come back with a discount proposal the next day orelse……. So therefore the negotiations with GP started and then finally we agreed at 2.5%. I was dreading the next day. GP said that he wanted to come for the call since the disc had to be given andthis was an important order for 1.2 lacs in 1984. I was in two minds but convinced GP that he will come for the call but the discount will be offered byme. He agreed.

So off we went and while waiting at the reception Mr. Chugh happened to pass by and smile at me. The call came and we were ushered into hisoffice and I introduced GP as my manager. That whole call….he never spoke to GP. The disc was offered, accepted and the order placed. Once out of the room GP patted my back and that was the best feeling I could ever have.

The tremendous learning that I have always tried to repeat in future was never to take away from the `actual relationship manager' of a client. It's his client and his relationship. GP by agreeing to my concept actually turned my egoistic behavior to a lesson. Every sales person whoever worked with me, I have always tried to instill this thought and the confidence that was built was immense. The second learning was the importance of knowing the decision makers and reaching very near to them. If you have the decision maker in your pocket there is only God between you and competition and as GP taught us to be honest sales people, God was always on our side!!

That day I was on top of the world. I am not sure what came in but I am sure the evening aroma in the office was of Samosas and Hyd special Chilly Fries!! Second and Fourth Saturday's were off but sometimes LB had to come in for this"sideshow" accounts work. So I used to pile on too…spending some time with theET - trying to carry out some tricks and then when it became too boring, put on the AC and have a nice afternoon sleep session to be followed with an evening movie.

Every evening we used to dread this chore. The daily report! It was pure virus that generated fever. You had this pad (your own), the top sheet in white and the duplicate in blue (movie tickets used to be of the same color). The bluepencil carbon used to be inserted in between that made smudge marks on the duplicate sheet, your hands and white shirts. Disgusting!!

So you had to write one after another the visits that would include the name,orgn & details, no of machines, some sort of prospect classification in terms of Good Bad and Ugly, reason for the visit and future plan. The favorite remarkwritten by most people in that "Reason" column was F.U. In the beginning as a novice I used to wonder why a corporate would teach its sales personnel to be indecent even in record keeping and analysis if at all. Later I deciphered much to my amusement that it was Follow Up. Surely my mind had overworked! A couple of years later I had banned the FU usage in sales reports when in Mumbai. You"had' to write some good meaningful English sentence/s.

Later, our under-over-worked Marketing Department came up with this huge Daily Sales Report with prospect stages and order status and all sorts of funny number combinations. Analysis/paralysis!! To be honest, we used to have this simple Hot Warm Cold classification and that format used to work wonders for us. To top it all there were also these weekly reports that `nobody used to read"but were filled up purely to ensure that you get your claimed allowances settled by Accounts.

The Correction Tape gimmick was an important part of the demo process. You typeout something, possibly the company's name or the MDs name or whatever and then at the end you type some wrong characters. I had this white fluid empty bottle that I used to take out and tell them that this is not to be used anymore. Take off the wrong characters and then take the sheet out of the machine with AutoEject and hand over the paper to the client and let him feel(his/her fingers caressing the sheet) it while you carry on blowing your trumpet.The demo was an important selling tool and I remember sometimes carrying a brand new machine. If they liked it ask them to keep it. No machine was ever returned by the client. This was especially when we went "out of station".

Typically these enquiries came by post and we used to get them in sequence of arrival. So when the L&T Cement Plant in Chandrapur requested for a demo, it was my turn. The Nizammudin Express dropped me early morning at Ballarshah station and L&T had sent a vehicle for me. The plant was about 20 kms away and when we reached the factory gates and once we were in I was whisked away to the GuestHouse in the Executive Family area and asked to relax and freshen up. After sometime I was informed that the Union had gheraoed(a process of making the chief sit in his office chair, while other blokes surround and bombard him/her with their demands) the GM. Nobody was allowed to exit, entry or make telephone calls outside. Thankfully, the TV Tx was a direct INSAT relay system and therefore Iput it to best use.

In the evening I was invited to play badminton and waspampered thoroughly by a couple of families. It was 3 day vacation and nobodycould reach me.On the 3rd afternoon the strike was called off and I was called in!! The demo was for precisely 2 mins. The Correction Gimmick and the format fill up gimmick were the two things I showed (based on my pre-sales research with the secy). The GM was in two minds and I told him (though I felt insecure) that it was a brand new machine and he could use it for 2-3 weeks and it was not a problem. Once I reached office back in HYD I had to answer some major uncomfortable questions but you see you could not banish me to Chandrapur immediately. The next day a call came in from L&T that the order was being posted along with the cheque!!

All my outstation trips were interesting sojourns and I will come up with them.There are people to talk about and incidents. Mr. Markos Williams and his antics come as a flash and I think he earned some fame ( of the wrong kind). I did not care about him; it was the Mrs. that made me fumble. More next time….

The Network Years - Classified

1979-1982 The Beginning Years
1983-1986 The Silver Years
1986-1991 The Golden Years
1991-1993 The Promising Years
1994 - The Unfortunate Beginning of the end

My Beginnings at Hyderabad - By Ravi(RSS) Year 1984

Hello again!

Thanks Rajkumar for that welcome note and thanks BV for your comments too.It's just so exciting to remember those days. So here goes a few more lines on self indulgence.

To be honest it was absolute gloom when they announced in Delhi after a sort of semi rigorous Induction program in Vikram Hotel (famous for all the wrong reasons) that I was to go to Hyderabad. That city was never even in my radar and the announcement came in like a bomb being dropped by an extremely low flying aircraft!! So while some went to the coveted Metros, poor soul was given a ticket in the erstwhile AP Express with an advance of 1000 bucks (the voucher being signed by PK Sanghi - then Fin Mgr and now CFO of Nucleus Software). So I land up in Secunderabad station, still confused between HYD'BAD and SEC'BAD. Hyderabad is the main city while Secunderabad is the main station, though the former has its own station!!

I booked myself in this Hotel named Garden just opposite the Garden Restaurant and it was the pits. Those were dreadful nights until three of us shacked up together in a country house in P&T Colony. So now this fresh chicken enters Prithviraj's large cabin(originally supposed tobe a drawing room as per Shanker Rao's plans). He made only a couple of comments. Welcome to Hyderabad and looks like you have gone through an induction program. On an yes from me, he asked me to pick up some brochures and get out and make some calls and come back in the evening. The month of May believe me is hot in Hyd and there I was treading along Rashtrapathi Road without any clue whatsoever as to whom to call on. Then I found this big signboard of Hyderabad Lamps and I entered and found the receptionist. The General Benefit Statement and all those pitches we had learnt had totally vanished by then. I was coolly forwarded like an email to the admin officer who took my brochure and kept it on his shelf, asked me the price which I gleefully announced and within 2 minutes I was back on RP Road looking for my next customer...rather...a tolerant listener.

I met a couple of more uninteresting blokes and went back to office, tired, disgusted and for sure to look up the appointments section next day morning!! But that was only afternoon and the evening had not yet arrived, nor did Prithiviraj. His Red Rajdoot was missing. In the evening the first vehicle I saw was a grey scooter and a gentleman with a grey helmet with missing buckles that was perhaps badgered in World War II. Rajkumar huffed and puffed with his "MayeOyeis" and I wondered in awe. Then came the stylish man with his sunglass and the Yezdi. Little did I know that in days tc come I would be the one to warm that pillion of his mobike. LB Raj walks in, who was in Sales and also doing some sideshow with Prithviraj as far as accounts was concerned.

The balance came in and Prithviraj too was back either from a heavenly HomeLunch or perhaps from a call. The gossip in the office was of course the former,and perhaps I will ask him so next time I meet him. Then came the Hyderabad Office Specials. The one-and-ones with Prithviraj. He had and still must have this immense capacity to capture your attention for hours in terms of monologues but for a lot of us...that was the best take away I ever had from any colleague or superior I have worked with so far. I am sure and know that there are others of my tribe. Rajkumar's exit from inside his room was of course hilarious....and perhaps a Disprin was always handy for him. I am guessing!!

Talking about the one and one, the way GP ripped open the conversations that I had with the clients...his enacting of what I should have spoken or countered with was amazing. No wonder and it's not magic that he has been able to help so many people in their lives and still doing. I was lucky to have him as my firstboss but then you must be wondering who my second boss was. K, Ravishankar, and in Mumbai...and that was a complete turn around. But that's another story that I will surely narrate later.

Selling a typewriter was not easy for sure...and becos of all the help from Krishnaveni and Ravikumar I learnt a lot about that machine. To this day the fastest sentence I can type is .... "All over the world organisations are benefitting from advanced electronic technology" other than my name which is not a sentence. Do you remember that paragraph? It was the opening line of our 300 series brochure!!! And the way we used to do Research and Development on the ET, and we the salesguys were always proud winners over the MSEs, in terms of discovering new ways to do stuff on those machines. Raj is on my side...so no fighting on this one!! Prithviraj liked me too much, so after an year he packed me off to Vizag under pressure from Kannan. I am convinced today that he knew that it would be good for me. Vizag Steel Plant was an acoount being handled by Rajkumar and he came along to introduce me to the client. They were complaining, unhappy with service, payments were stuck and what have you. That we turned it around thankst o KVS and his major time spent there is something to relive.

I will never forget GARN(Goods Accepted or Rejected Note)...the most important document in VSP. How Rajkumar introduced me to that document is an evergreen joke and would only blossom in an face to face session. In Hyderabad, we had Narsimha the AUTO Guy "Made for GP". I also used to use him and even ten years later when I went to Hyd I met up with him and went to his house!! I similarly think about Chinna Rao in Vizag and wonder how and where these people are. Both these guys, were amazing, like family and more. Chinna Rao on holidays used to take me out for sight-seeing and treat me to lunch!!! He also use to work as our delivery boy and keep minor accounts for consumables.

Raman and Sanghi in HO were shell shocked when the questioned me about some signatures on invoices!!!Have you ever sold Paper, Ribbons and Daisy Wheels and instead supplied a Typewriter? Admiral Nadkarni - then GOC-in-C Eastern Command ordered for the former since he did not have a capital asset sanction. Income and ExpenditureAccount was however something he could manage!! Naval Science and Technology ordered for an Instrument 332 and the specifications made GP fall off the chair. The Govt was actually on paper buying an oscilloscope!!

A few days back Sunita Giridhar chirped up and said "Do you remember me"? I did not forget at all. The rides in her Amby to RR LABs and so many others!! LB Raj taking me on the pillion and making sales calls for me to watch and learn. Rajkumar always bringing in a different perpective on client behavior...it was amazing and astounding...that 1000 sq.ft of area in 1-1-156/157 SP Road. Krishnveni's boy friend use to work in Richardson Hindustan I think and she was so coy every evening.I am not able to recollect the lady who was a Secretary before Priya...she used to wear these rajnigandha flowers and then got married to somebody in BHPV...remember visiting her house in Vizag.

And KVS...where is he? I am yet to see a dedicated person like that in whatever he wanted to do. He passed his engineering in front of us inpsite of the pressure. He was from a village near Rajahmundry and he had relations in Tanuku.Thats the time I got first hand knowldege of staying in villages amidst simplicity and pure nature to pamper you. LB Raj in his Yezdi(Found him in Pune years later with the same bike), and KVS with his moped trying to teach me motor cycling..alas in vain.

I remember the receptionist in ECIL letting me know where Xerox and PCL was meeting who and when. In Vizag, if any Naval client wanted to contact me,standing instructions were in place for them to call up the CinC staff officer!!I once told the PCL manager Piyush as he was alighting from his Taxi in Naval Dockyard...that he rather go back to Hyderabad...since Navy will never place an order with him!!! What an ego I used to have!! Thanks to Network!!

As I write this I can feel the joy that I am reliving. Hope you do...and I will perhaps try and continue this ramble...for the sake of me, some of you and Network. Must let you know what the hell I have been up to!!!And BV...u cud call me on +971509575518 and what the heck...I will pick up the phone! Its from Etisalat,,,and in India you could complain to Shankar Bali another of those Networkers I am so fond of!!!

Locating old friends at Hyderabad - By Ravi(RSS) Year 1984

Finally made some time to go through the list of group members and a few current messages.Saw some verrry familiar names :-) and a few who I am not able to visualise just now.As far as I am concerned...my head now is like Rakesh Gulati's, if you know what I mean. My beard is still there though its become grey...oh I don't have to beapologetic...its white!!! I am still fat, and not much variation there and I still like good food! Just the other day I spoke to Prithviraj in Dubai and the best remembrance of those times was the after office hours analysis of all the sales calls I had made for the day. It's pure stupidity on my part that in spite of being in the UAE for the last 2 years I did not know that he was and is here!

I remember the Vazir Sultan deal where Rajkumar was so upset with Prithviraj on the discount the latter point blank refused. And then I convinced the same Prithviraj for a 2.5% piddly discount for 3 machines to be bought by Bhadrachalam Paperboard just round the corner at SD Road in Hyderabad.I remember how Rajkumar and his wife were like parents to me in Hyderabad and how they took care of me and the other two...LB Raj and Vishwanadham...we used to stay together in P&T Colony. if LB is reading this I went and met Veeranna and family in 1993 after a full gap of 9 years!! Sudhir Rao had taken me back to my memories. I hope they are fine!

Those were the days of Nuclear Fuel Complex, NIRD, ECIL, NPA, NAARM and so on and so forth. Krishnaveni, Raj and Ravikumar teaching me a lot of Typewriting.The security guard of Nuclear Fuel Complex having the same name as mine was a momentous situation because entry was never a problem ever after!!I wonder where is Vandana or Priya for that matter. Seshagiri I will never forget. Vivekananda Aryasri? I remember he bringing Azharuddin to a road show we were having and I had to conduct the demo!! Where is Prashant Unnikrishnan? You must remember Shankar Rao in his vests and lungi coming in to office at will. For people who do not know he was the landlord and off and on financier for Network (delayed salaries, et al).

The World Series at Australia, we watched in his house. Nobody worked for sure that day inspite of Prithviraj believing otherwise or pretending to!! Dayanidhi and Vishwanadham, they tought me how to service a machine. That was useful when I was in Vizag!! Sometimes I wondered whether I was the service engineer and was Vishwandham the sales guy!!And Rajkumar will always remember Chinna Rao. The fav auto driver hand picked by Rajkumar and later on my personal chauffeur.I won't bore you further...there is so much to just talk about. Hope we get to meet fast...and if anybody is visiting Dubai or en route to somewhere else please do call +971 50 9575518 or write to ravisarkar@yahoo.com.

If there is more demand perhaps I will ramble a bit more next time. And if there is none, who cares anyway. You have to tolerate my indulgence!!