It is a great irony of human mentality; the way our stand on product valuation and humility changes being on either side of the sales desk (real or virtual). But it is a well known fact that, we always root for our cause and in most cases enjoy to stand on our stand.
The first selling exercise and probably the only one during my MBA tenure, turned out to be a most fulfilling one for a lot of reasons. The most striking one among them in my opinion was the unique (maiden) feeling of working for the cause of an NGO. As the time passed on there was a constant feeling to get the maximum profit of the goods we were given, not for the sake of the exercise, but because more and more we marketed the product, the more we started believing
in the entire philosophy of giving. The fact that we were the one team which reached the final destination with just a few minutes to spare and the one with the least profit (close to 45% profit) was actually because all the groups performed exceedingly well. The best possible profit anticipated by the seniors was around 30-33% but it turned to be a good close to 200%. We were amongst the ones who spent the entire tenure with a very less operational cost (including travel).
These goods were made by women and children living in slums and were used for their empowerment, by money generated through sales.
The Merchandise:
To start with we got 10 items, but 2 of them turned out to be slightly defective-A carry bag slightly torn at the helm and a copy which was scribbled well till the first 5 pages by a kid (evident from the numbers and sketches printed all over) of the slums where these goods are made. But the best thing was that instead of being deterred by these goods, we used it as our USP. We sold and showed it to customers showing how child empowerment has started taking shape even in slum areas and how all the donations from the various organizations were actually being put to a proper use.
The Location:
We chose to go to the Qutub Minar to target primarily foreigners since it was a Sunday. But the strategy didn’t work out. Just like all the other groups realised we did too that Indians are much more concerned about the cause of Indian women empowerment than foreigners.
The weird, the mean and the Queen
Women buy stuff, men listen to them, follow their orders. There were several weird experiences, one of them included trying to sell our products to a policeman, even after he himself on 2 previous occasions, threw us out of the ticketing compound when we were selling the goods to people there. Another was an occasion who was convinced that he would give us a 1000 Rs for an envelope the charity cause and took it out, but just before it hit my hand his guide ( an Indian) warned him that we are fraudsters, he ended up giving us 100 Rs for the envelopes anyways. The same happened with an elderly American where a Sardarji took him by the arm and away from us. Strangely he didn’t even know that person. The most generous contributor was a very humble person, who understood our cause and appreciated out effort. It was a great experience and a very happy feeling for all of us. We used the IIT brand name at all places because we understood the importance of branding.
I used a slight bangla at one place, where a very gentle family heard us very patiently. Even though I am not very good in the language but I was able to connect more with the person after that. The elderly lady in the family blessed us for our effort and we even clicked group photos with the family.
One very strange thing that I noticed was that almost every person we met had some sort of an association with a similar NGO, which they used as a reason for not helping us. The probability of such an event seemed really bleak to me. Although there were a couple of people who actually helped us with the cause; because they were also associated with an NGO, they gave us our cards and proposed sponsorship even after this particular meeting. One of the senior police officers gave us very generous and long tips on how to market the idea and trap and grab hold of foreign tourists and their wallets.
The moment we reached back, we were already missing the entire experience and the amount of fun we had as a team. We missed the mean and the minar, for two very different reasons. The experience, both the good and the bad ones, had one thing in common. They were unforgettable.
