Sales Force is perhaps the most valuable asset of an organisation, but often the most difficult to manage. I have mentioned in my previous posts about the relevance of Lord Hanuman Ji and Hanuman Chalisa to the Marketing profession. In a series of posts, I shall be describing how Hanuman Chalisa is the best Sales Force training module in the World. Forty lines of Hanuman Chalisa can bring the performance of an organisation’s sales force closer to their optimal level. I shall also describe how Hanuman Chalisa has the answer to all the Marketing Problems of an organisation or enterprise. I am in the process of writing a Book on this, and will be sharing a few highlights from my Book in my Blog. This post describes the first line of Hanuman Chalisa
जय हनुमान ज्ञान गुण सागर ।
जै कपीस तिहुँलोक उजागर ॥
Jai Hanumaan Gyan Gun Saagar |
Jai Kapiis Tihu-Lok Ujaagar ||
1) Jai Hanuman
There are many interpretations about the meaning of word Hanuman. In this post, I am explaining the one which is the closest to Sales Profession. The word Han in Sanskrit means Killed or destroyed, and Maan means pride. So, meaning of the word Hanuman is the person whose pride has been destroyed. Ask any Sales Professional, and he will tell you how many times in a day does his pride gets destroyed. He has to face the tantrums of the arrogant retailer (the ultimate sales point), he has to virtually plead with the distributors to increase stock levels so that his sales targets are achieved, if the product fails to meet the consumer’s expectations, sales person being the public face of the organisation has to face the flak of the angry consumers. If the sales targets are not achieved, Sales department is the target of everyone’s anger irrespective of whether the fault lies with the faulty product planning/ inventory planning by production department, or with the higher management for not designing marketing friendly policies. So, the modern day Hanumans in an organisation are the Sales People.
Lesson 1
The first training need of any Salesperson in the World is pride management. This need may vary for every Business depending upon nature of product, the nature of distribution channel, the organisation culture and many other factors. My book will provide guidelines to all the above and will also describe how lessons can be learnt from lord Hanuman Ji for Pride management. This will be further bifurcated in to Lessons for Self (for sales persons) as well as Lessons for Sales Managers, HR Managers and Higher Management for managing their Sales Team and Marketing function.
The complete word is Jai Hanuman. Jai means victory. Jai Hanuman represents Lord Hanuman Ji. If we define the word Jai Hanuman in totality, it means achievement of victory while keeping your self- pride at stake.
Lesson 2
Does everyone who gets insulted becomes victorious or gets the same respect from higher management as Lord Hanuman Ji got from Shri Ram? And the question to Sales Managers and Higher Management is, Are you giving due respect to Hanumans (Salespersons) of your organisation? My book will describe how Salespersons can convert their humiliations in to their Victory. It will also describe how Management can transform their Hanumans in to Jai Hanumans.
2) Gyan Gun Sagar
Gyan means knowledge, Gun means Talent (ability to apply knowledge) and Sagar means Sea. Gyan Gun Sagar means a person who is full of knowledge, and who has the capability to apply his knowledge. But the key word here is Sea. Sea has the capacity to absorb all the rivers. Even the great and sacred Ganges is absorbed by Bay of Bengal. Hanuman ji is the epitome of Gyan Gun Sagar. He is a multi talented personality, a keen learner, talented but still hungry for more knowledge. I am deliberately using present tense for Hanuman Ji because he is alive within all of us. The more we find him within ourselves by achieving the right proportion of Gyan Gun Sagar, the more success we will achieve.
Lesson 3
Market Research is Gyan, interpreting Market research and creating a meaningful Marketing plan based on Market research is Gun, and ability to absorb knowledge from market research is Sagar. A company appoints a Market Research agency for suggesting measures to improve its market share (Gyan). The agency makes recommendations and the management (marketing/ sales management in consultation with higher management) interprets this knowledge in to marketing objectives and prepares its marketing plan (Gun). For implementing the marketing plan, the whole organisation needs to adapt. Production department may be required to change the product design/ quality/ inventory planning. Marketing department may need more resources and manpower. HR department may be required to make necessary changes to manpower planning across all functions, may be required to redefine Job Descriptions/ Key Performance Indicators, Finance department may be required to raise more capital. Higher management may be required to make structural changes to the organisation, may be required to prepare itself for more decentralisation/ delegation of Power (Sagar, Change absorption capacity). But is it simple? My book will describe how to create a balance between Gyan Gun and Sagar based on learning from Lord Hanuman Ji. All the three terms are interconnected. Deficiency in any one of the three may create an imbalance in the organisation. Before creating the marketing plan, it is absolutely necessary to know the absorption capacity of the organisation. Best Marketing plan is the one which is based on relevant market research, which interprets the market research in the right manner, and which is in synergy with the net absorption capacity of the organisation.
Lesson 4
More absorption capacity you develop (Sagar), more will be your Gyan and Gun quotient. My book will describe how marketing department as well as the whole organisation can increase its absorption capacity through blessings of Lord Hanuman Ji.
Lesson 5
Sales department is the most blessed department in an organisation in the sense that they are the ones who meet new people and face new situations on a daily basis. The knowledge they absorb from their market is of immense value to the organisation. Sales persons should also have the ability to decode such knowledge in the relevant form so that it can be presented as a relevant feedback to all the other departments of the organisation. My book will describe how to develop the absorption capacity specifically in the Sales Force.
Lesson 6
Gyan Gun Sagar also means that no matter how learned and able you are, there is always a scope of improvement. We live in an environment which is changing fast. What is relevant to the World today may become irrelevant tomorrow. If you are a star performer today, someone else may replace you tomorrow. Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and Anil Kumble were some of the best cricketers India has ever produced. Was there a question mark over their selection in the later part of their career? Yes, because despite having a great record in the past, their performance graph was trending downwards. Always be a Student of Sales and Marketing because among all the functions of a Business, Sales and Marketing are the most dynamic and fast changing functions. The day you think that you have mastered the art of Sales / marketing, remember that your downfall has just begun. More of this will be covered in my book.
3) Jai Kapis
Kapis means king of monkeys. If you are in a Sales profession, you are a monkey personified. Accept this fact or leave Sales profession. You are a monkey and your Boss is Head Monkey. What are the Personality traits of a monkey? Monkeys are Intelligent, Witty, Curious, Clever and Flexible. To become a Kapis, King of monkeys, or an effective Sales Professional, you need to rate yourself on a performance scale with respect to the above five qualities. Isn’t Hanuman Ji a master of all the above traits? However, he always used these traits for the benefit of his master, Shri Ram. That made him Jai Kapis, a respected leader of the monkeys. So, to become Jai Kapis, a victorious or respected Sales Professional, all your talent should be directed towards achieving the organisational goals.
Lesson 7
My book will describe how Sales Persons can learn the above five qualities from a Monkey, and how they can rise more in their profession by being loyal and dedicated to their organisation. The answers are provided by Hanuman Ji himself, and I shall be decoding these messages.
4) Tihu Lok Ujagar
Tihu Lok means Teen Lok. According to Hindu mythology, there are three Lokas, Dharti (Mother Earth on which we live), Aakash (Includes Heaven) and Paataal (the world below the mother earth).
There are three different ways to define a product,
a) The visible product including the entire product features .Equivalent of Dharti Lok.
b) The inside of the product which is not visible to the customer (responsible for working of the product as well as its quality).Equivalent of Paataal Lok.
c) The benefits the customer derives from the product. These benefits can be felt by the customers. Equivalent of Aakaash Lok.
Moksh Prapti ( Belongs to Aakash Lok, we define it as heavenly bliss) is the ultimate motive of a human being in Hindu Dharma, which in Sales and Marketing terms means achieving customer satisfaction level of the highest degree i.e. Heaven. The road to heavenly bliss for any organisation is through customer satisfaction
There are more than one meanings of the word Ujagar. The meaning relevant to Sales and Marketing function is “to Inform” and ‘to awaken”
Lesson 8
Who is responsible for the inner product? Finance department allocates finances for resources, HR department recruits personnel and Production department gives meaning to the Raw material by processing to convert it to a finished product. Without any prejudices, I can safely state that all these three departments rule the Paataal Lok of Business through their behind the scene activities. Marketing department does provide feedback to Paataal Lok, but plays a major part in introducing the finished product to the customers and the markets. As they are dealing with the visible product, they rule the Dharti Lok of Business. One can achieve Moksha through his Karma. Similarly, an organisation can achieve moksha by directing all its efforts towards achieving customer satisfaction. Marketing department, being the function ruling the dharti lok, is mainly responsible for executing organisational karma to achieve customer satisfaction. It is the duty of marketing department to inform and to awaken all the other functions of Business (belonging to Paataal lok) if they are forgetting the path of achieving customer satisfaction. In Ramayna, Vanar Sena was directly responsible for aiding Lord Rama in conquering Lanka. Hanuman Ji played an important role in coordinating the overall efforts for conquering Lanka. My Book will decode the coordination lessons by Hanuman Ji and how he awakened all the Teen Lokas. These lessons can help Businesses/ Organisations in achieving customer satisfaction of the highest degree.
Lesson 9
Hanumanji is a central character in Ramayna. He was given due importance by Shri Ram which helped Hanuman Ji in achieving his tasks. That central role enabled him to coordinate and create a synergy between Shri Ram and various other characters in Ramayna to achieve the ultimate task of victory over Lanka. Many organisations commit the mistake of either appointing a junior marketing person, or a person from non marketing background as a coordinator between all the functions of Business. This is an extremely important position. My Book will draw parallels from Ramayna and recommend a relevant Job Description for such a position. This is how the organisation can achieve Tihu Lok Ujagar.
Author: Kujnish Vashisht, Expedient Consultants, www.chanakyaneeti.com, expedient33@gmail.com, 91-9779883347, 91-9878904347
Note: Content of this post is the part of a Book (title not yet finalised) which will be published in near future. Copyright of this content belongs to the Author, Kujnish Vashisht. The Author grants permission to share this post in its present form (via his Blog www.chanakyaneeti.com). No permission is granted to use the content of this post in any other form without prior intimation to / authorisation by the Author.