Paul Writer launches SAP Think Tank , 
Video interview series with Head of Sales highlighting best practices
Hemant Taware
Chief of Operations
Infiniti Retail Limited, Croma
Your advice to young professionals looking at sales as a career…
It’s a very tough profession to be in but very rewarding. I have been in sales for last twenty-one years now, I can quite clearly say that I’ve had very good days, good days, bad days but I don’t remember having a boring day so to that extent it is a very satisfying profession to be in. There is a bit of a difference when it comes to a direct selling job that people do in field sales jobs versus standing on a shop floor and selling. Of course, it is much tougher to be outside in a field job when you are sales person it is that much more easier i guess when you are standing in an air conditioned environment and customers walk in to you, it is that much more easier to actually convert customers. Whereas, when you are in a field job you have to really source customers, find customers, do suspecting, prospecting and so on and so forth that’s much more tougher I guess. To that extent retailing is so much little easier relatively speaking. Having said that, I also must put on record the fact that it is a very financially rewarding profession and people make a lot of money. Also, if you know customer well which is what most sales people are supposed to know well then you know the business well and therefore, you also have a fairly high chance of growing in the organisation. Most sales people who are good sales people are marketing people typically tend to grow a lot more than the other support functions who work in the business. So it is rewarding, it is enriching, it gives great financial rewards and a lot of growth along with it. However, I think there are not too many people who believe that sales is a great profession to get into. Today if you talk to any aspiring management graduate, he would “I would like to get into marketing, I would like to get into finance” and so on and so-forth. Even when we go around and recruit people from management colleges the general response is “I would not like to be on a shop floor, I would like to be in the office, I would like to work in marketing, I would like to work in buying and merchandising” and so on and so-forth. I think the real moment of truth is on the shop floor, so i don’t think any retailer who is worth the salt will get to the top if he doesn’t know what will happen on the shop floor. It is important for everyone to spend some time on the shop floor to understand what really happens there. To that extent I think sales is the first step in the ladder to success in a retailing business. If you really don’t understand how to operate a shop floor I don’t think one can get too far in the retail industry.
“I think the real moment of truth is on the shop floor, so i don’t think any retailer who is worth the salt will get to the top if he doesn’t know what will happen on the shop floor.”
