On my first job at HCL (Then - Hindustan Computers, Ltd.), my travels frequently took me to Varanasi (also known as - Benares) in eastern Uttar Pradesh - the most populous state in India. On one of my initial trips , I made a sales call at the Electrical Engineering department of Benares Hindu University or BHU. The EE department was an existing customer and owned six personal computers they had purchased from HCL a couple of years prior to my visit.
They were now looking to buy three additional PC’s and had sent us a sales enquiry. The enquiry had made its way to us in Lucknow via our head office in New Delhi. The Lucknow branch had been established only a few weeks back, most customers were unaware of this and continued to correspond with the head office. The head of the EE department (I forget his name now) pleasantly greeted me in his lab and after the initial courtesies, we got into a discussion on what they were looking to purchase, prices and delivery schedule etc. He was a satisfied customer and predisposed to purchasing the additional hardware from HCL. That would qualify as a dream sales call for any sales engineer. I was moving in fast for the close, quickly pulling out company stationary from my brief case and preparing a hand-written proposal complete with detailed specifications, payment and warranty terms , delivery schedule, post warranty maintenance details etc. I signed the proposal with a flourish and pushed the original across the desk to him and retained the carbon copy for our records. The professor went over it with a magnifying glass and after a few minutes looked up at me seemingly satisfied with everything. I expectantly looked at him, in anticipation of next steps to secure the order or at least a commitment of the order. There would be a formal 'tender' process to consummate the purchase but all I needed was a nod, a handshake, a commitment.
The curve ball he threw at me at this moment caught me completely by surprise. He said, 'I would like to give you a commitment for this order, but there is one thing you need to take care of' - I braced myself and all kinds of thoughts crossed my mind - is he looking for a deeper discount or additionally favorable terms or could it something more nefarious like an under the table bribe. The suspense did not last long. He stated in a firm but non threatening voice, 'You know we are a satisfied existing customer, but the fact is that three of the six existing computers we own are inoperable and we have been waiting for the last two months for your company to send a service engineer to attend to the PC’s'. My palms were beginning to sweat a bit, the thought of the order slipping away was scary, I quickly recovered my composure - and promised to move ‘heaven and earth’ to get the problem addressed with the highest priority. Soon, we had a deal - if I did move ‘heaven and earth’, he would buy from me.
I rushed to the train station to get back to Lucknow. This was a successful visit. All I needed to do is go into my bosses office first thing next morning, show him the copy of the proposal and let him move ‘heaven and earth’ - that was his job. He had been my boss merely two months and while I could not profess that I knew all about him, his reputation for making things happen preceded him.
My boss, R K Bachus came to the office promptly the next morning at his regular time, I had been waiting anxiously for the past one hour. My desk was right across his walled office and he could see me from his desk. When he settled down, he looked across and caught me staring expectantly in his direction. He shouted - “Khurana” and made a hand gesture to come into his office. I shot out from my chair like a bullet and promptly placed the proposal copy on his desk even before he could ask me a question. I went onto explain that this was the order that the customer wanted to place with us but was contingent upon his outstanding service issue being resolved expeditiously. Mr. Bachus, I have promised to move ‘heaven and earth’ and I am counting on you. He looked at me and asked me a simple question - What is wrong with their computers? I quickly replied - “they are inoperable”. He repeated his question- What is wrong with their computers? I understood his question the second time- ‘I don’t know’ I replied in a voice that was meant to imply - why are you asking me this question? I am a sales guy , not a service engineer. He pushed his chair back a little and reached for the bottom most drawer of his desk, he retrieved whatever he was looking for very quickly and pushed it across the desk to me. It was a toolkit with spanners and screw-drivers. He paused slightly and then stated very "matter of factly" - take the evening train back to Benares, figure out what exactly is wrong with the PC’s and then I will be willing to move ‘heaven and earth’.
That was my first ‘professional’ life lesson - ‘don’t be a part of the problem, be a part of the solution ‘. A lesson learnt and cherished to this day, more than three decades later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanasi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucknow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banaras_Hindu_University
#bhu #benaras #beneres #varanasi
They were now looking to buy three additional PC’s and had sent us a sales enquiry. The enquiry had made its way to us in Lucknow via our head office in New Delhi. The Lucknow branch had been established only a few weeks back, most customers were unaware of this and continued to correspond with the head office. The head of the EE department (I forget his name now) pleasantly greeted me in his lab and after the initial courtesies, we got into a discussion on what they were looking to purchase, prices and delivery schedule etc. He was a satisfied customer and predisposed to purchasing the additional hardware from HCL. That would qualify as a dream sales call for any sales engineer. I was moving in fast for the close, quickly pulling out company stationary from my brief case and preparing a hand-written proposal complete with detailed specifications, payment and warranty terms , delivery schedule, post warranty maintenance details etc. I signed the proposal with a flourish and pushed the original across the desk to him and retained the carbon copy for our records. The professor went over it with a magnifying glass and after a few minutes looked up at me seemingly satisfied with everything. I expectantly looked at him, in anticipation of next steps to secure the order or at least a commitment of the order. There would be a formal 'tender' process to consummate the purchase but all I needed was a nod, a handshake, a commitment.
The curve ball he threw at me at this moment caught me completely by surprise. He said, 'I would like to give you a commitment for this order, but there is one thing you need to take care of' - I braced myself and all kinds of thoughts crossed my mind - is he looking for a deeper discount or additionally favorable terms or could it something more nefarious like an under the table bribe. The suspense did not last long. He stated in a firm but non threatening voice, 'You know we are a satisfied existing customer, but the fact is that three of the six existing computers we own are inoperable and we have been waiting for the last two months for your company to send a service engineer to attend to the PC’s'. My palms were beginning to sweat a bit, the thought of the order slipping away was scary, I quickly recovered my composure - and promised to move ‘heaven and earth’ to get the problem addressed with the highest priority. Soon, we had a deal - if I did move ‘heaven and earth’, he would buy from me.
I rushed to the train station to get back to Lucknow. This was a successful visit. All I needed to do is go into my bosses office first thing next morning, show him the copy of the proposal and let him move ‘heaven and earth’ - that was his job. He had been my boss merely two months and while I could not profess that I knew all about him, his reputation for making things happen preceded him.
My boss, R K Bachus came to the office promptly the next morning at his regular time, I had been waiting anxiously for the past one hour. My desk was right across his walled office and he could see me from his desk. When he settled down, he looked across and caught me staring expectantly in his direction. He shouted - “Khurana” and made a hand gesture to come into his office. I shot out from my chair like a bullet and promptly placed the proposal copy on his desk even before he could ask me a question. I went onto explain that this was the order that the customer wanted to place with us but was contingent upon his outstanding service issue being resolved expeditiously. Mr. Bachus, I have promised to move ‘heaven and earth’ and I am counting on you. He looked at me and asked me a simple question - What is wrong with their computers? I quickly replied - “they are inoperable”. He repeated his question- What is wrong with their computers? I understood his question the second time- ‘I don’t know’ I replied in a voice that was meant to imply - why are you asking me this question? I am a sales guy , not a service engineer. He pushed his chair back a little and reached for the bottom most drawer of his desk, he retrieved whatever he was looking for very quickly and pushed it across the desk to me. It was a toolkit with spanners and screw-drivers. He paused slightly and then stated very "matter of factly" - take the evening train back to Benares, figure out what exactly is wrong with the PC’s and then I will be willing to move ‘heaven and earth’.
That was my first ‘professional’ life lesson - ‘don’t be a part of the problem, be a part of the solution ‘. A lesson learnt and cherished to this day, more than three decades later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanasi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucknow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banaras_Hindu_University
#bhu #benaras #beneres #varanasi
