The novice marketeer...

Having got a flavor of real marketeer’s life a day before, I went in with better preparation for my next meeting, atleast mentally!

But life never ceases to surprise us.

This time my meeting was at a distant college, some 150 kms away from my place. I had Manish with me who had come all the way from Mumbai for this meeting. We had prepared almost everything needed for this meeting the last night (this is what I and Ajay felt till we were proved wrong!).

Hoping to finish the meeting in half an hour or so we decided to stall our hunger till we are done. We reached the college after driving for about 2 hours. We met with a faculty member and were requested to sit in a room till we could meet the principal of the college. Clock showed 12:30.

Having waited for more than half an hour for my previous meeting, I was prepared to wait for atleast half an hour for this meeting and Dear Lord seemed to be in good mood to grant all my expectations, infact exceed them !

We prepared the laptops and arranged the documents we wanted to share in the meeting hoping to save time so as to explain us in a structured and detailed way. We didn’t heed to pleadings of our appetite thinking that we might be called anytime and it would cast a sad impression if we are called and found at cafeteria.

As someone said, never let the first though rule the proceeding ones. We failed here and stuck to what we decided first, we waited.

Yet again, I was reminded how different is the ground reality of all the cases and live projects which we would do at colleges. How difficult it is to get the circumstances to be able to market before actually marketing. I was also reminded of the infidel buttressing we are fed with for being wards at a premier B-school. And I decided, I would never wear that inexistent spunky hat ever again.

These feelings only spiked with the ticking of clock and the crest came a minute after we entered the room for the meeting with our client.

Clock showed 2:35, more than two and a half hours since we were waiting. Exhausted and hungry!

Finally, the moment came when we were asked to present our case to the client and the first thing we hear after getting in is – “Sorry for making you wait, please tell me what brings you here….but I can give you 10 mins max”.

My ears couldn’t believe what they heard. 10 mins to present our case after waiting for two and half hours?? We drove for 2 hours to reach this place. Manish came from Mumbai just for this meeting.

I was agitated inside but held myself together and said to myself – well, this is what you have got, so go for it!

Our presentation lasted for close to 30 mins. What was the result was suddenly least important to me. How we handled the situation and then meeting was primary and we loved it!!

Another chapter of learning in a novice marketeer’s book.

I am a marketeer !

A building that looked solitary, an untidy statue in the center of the L-shaped building and no one to be seen around. A scene that definitely is far-far away from the glitz and luster of the B-school life at the centroid of Delhi University.

Very few must have imagined that an MBA degree from one of the best B-schools of the country does not offer an alternate path to the journey of success. It definitely equips one with an armor which is quintessential to win the battle though. I had a withered imagination of pessimistic view of life after MBA and all my horrors did come true!

It all had started a month back. I along with two engineering friends of mine was planning to start something up for colleges. Putting it simply - Conducting workshops at colleges for students.

I happened to be the marketing guy. After working for a couple of weeks putting together documents and plans and various models, we were ready to meet our first client.  It was a mixed feeling...or calling it ‘mixed’ is oversimplifying it!

I had been to various meetings, handled various clients, gone to meetings with excellent preparation sometimes and no preparation at all at others. But this was different. No one was bound to listen to me, nobody asked me to talk about X, Y or Z with the client, No one was watching me, No one was monitoring me, absolutely no one. It was me, just me!

I reached the place of meeting 10 minutes in advance and expectedly found no one around. I started roaming around the college and realized there were exams being conducted. First thing that struck me, Will I be given sufficient time to explain myself?

Time started ticking and it crossed the designated time of 4 o’clock, now it was wait time that ticked. From one department to other, from looking at notice boards to pretending to be looking at them at times, I patiently waited, or convinced myself of being patient at the least.

I could not believe it first, a local PG college and I am waiting for a small meeting since almost 40 minutes now. All the flowery and boastful statement about the premier institutes and how we would be treated after our MBA fell flat on face that moment. I was like an ordinary salesman waiting for my turn to demonstrate my product and nobody would give a damn if I am from FMS or IIM or ISB. This was end of one emotion and inception of other. Words like special treatment, FMS, premier, best b-school, top-notch etc started fading away from my mind. Soon I found a different  platform to stand on for myself.

I was not an MBA student from one of the top-b schools here, I was a marketeer! I was already a marketeer!