The Details first
I interned with Tata Motors Ltd this year. Read below the tale of my experience. Why termed a tale you may ask? Because it was replete with initiation rites, journeys undertaken, friends made, stories shared, lessons learnt from wise people on the way & of course a shining goal (Sales Target
) to be achieved.
The initiation rites! (Did you just throw a paper ball at me??!)
The first 2 days in the company were dedicated to inducting us enthusiastic but a little in need of software support (hence lost) interns. There were quite a few interns from various premiere B Schools all over India & I was very excited to get the chance to interact with these bright people. We even played a few weird games just to lighten up & get to know each other & yes I got bonked on the head with a paper ball in one of those. I had some very riveting conversations during & after our time in the induction. We met some senior executives who had very wise things to tell us but I have to confess after a few hours I did start drifting to think about places I would visit in the evening with my newfound friendsJ. I think the HR saw our expressions & even gave us a few suggestions J . We were all handed our projects & information of mentors & reporting offices. I gave myself an inward “High five” & beamed with happiness (yes beamed like the Sunrise biscuit cartoon guy, I was so happy) when I saw I had to report to another office based in Mumbai because I wanted the chance to explore the city. Also 3 more interns had the same mentor so we quickly made a little happy clique & exchanged numbers to stay in touch & compare notes. (Maybe even party sometime?)
A celebration that was premature & taught me not to rejoice before getting the facts!! & read on why!
Who is afraid of a little Primary Research in rural India? APPARENTLY ME !
So our mentor turned out to be someone with some serious Sales experience across various sectors. He looked us in the eye & told us “You guys are going to Rural Markets!!” & then proceeded to explain the project.
Ok MBA grads, you know, it’s different studying rural marketing (because we all know Late Prof C.K. Prahalad effectively proved it was important) , but I had talked to seniors ,visited showrooms , dealerships, & truly led myself to believe that’s where my work would lie! You know, where the AC is in reach!
My fertile imagination started making up stuff involving thatched huts, cows, the scorching sun, bullock cart rides & what not. I won’t lie , I felt a little squeamish for a while , then being the infantry man’s daughter that I am , I gathered my pluck ,smiled brightly & thought , “This ought to make a good story to tell the classmates!” and I was rewarded many time over for that optimism I’ll tell you how!
Sell those CARS ! (Not selling pencils in classrooms anymore! Are we?)
Before we actually went out to sell, we had some research to do which involved going to tons of unknown places in Maharashtra like Pimpalgaon.
In a matter of 1 week I had covered 14 locations across 5 districts of Maharashtra & interviewed people in emerging markets.
After that I reported my findings & was sent off to sell cars in locations selected from amongst those covered during research.
On field selling is a deeply collaborative process between dealerships & the company with help of third parties which needs patience, stamina & superlative motivation skills.
Our mentor came to one of the locations & demonstrated how to go about the job & I will never forget the lessons he imparted by his actions & chai side “Gyaan”.
The 1st most important lesson I learnt from him,”Your job as a leader is to motivate others when things look down, be decisive, relentlessly lead by example & have a sense of humor, because on field things get tough & being able to share a joke or two with people you are working with helps much more than any fancy strategy you learnt in B school”
2nd lesson: I learnt was “Your customer could be anyone! When on field tell your story to everyone, don’t try to analyze who is likely to buy. The time to analyze is before you get on the field”. I’ll tell you why. There were these 2 young boys (Not old enough to have a driver’s license) who kept asking lots of questions & the sales executive was initially paying only scant attention. When the executive was reminded that he needed to give information to whoever might seek it, he gave a proper demo to the children. Guess what? Those two boys got their father; convinced him for us & that was our first On Spot booking of the day!! So never underestimate anyone’s buying desire or potential, especially in Rural India.
3rd lesson: If you are expecting someone to work for you, you better be ready to sweat it out as well. Be informed & work harder than people you lead. There was this instance when because of the intense heat, few Sales people sat inside a car with the AC on .To their credit all of them had worked diligently the previous day in the sun too. Another executive suggested to me to take a seat as well, but I refused. I let the executives take a break, waited till a customer came & then rapped at the windows of the car & reminded the executives that when the customer is out in the sun, we too stay out in the sun. I couldn’t have convinced a single one of those hardened salesmen if I had been relaxing myself. This idea too had its genesis in the example set by my mentor when he had come to inspect & instruct.
4th lesson: There is no right time or place to sell!! In one location, a storm came right in the afternoon & crash! Went our stall!! I was actually in the stall when things started tumbling all around me! Talk about excitement! There we were- a little wet, with no stall, no banners with just a speaker & we were not selling shampoos! We were there to sell cars! We decided we would go on!! We started handing out leaflets, started talking about our product on the speaker as if nothing had happened! & it worked. If we didn’t mind, our customers didn’t mind!
In fact people started coming up to us to joke about the storm & the stall crashing on our heads & stayed to hear about our cars! That’s what I love about people in small cities & villages- Their love for incidental humor & swapping of stories! We couldn’t have planned that as an attraction but it did! So convert your problems to opportunities I say!
These lessons amongst many others have made me believe that on field is an experience that should be mandatory for every marketing MBA student.
From the field to the Boardroom
The final presentation went off well; we reported our figures, got some good insights & advice from senior executives & had a celebration later.
Conclusion
If you can survive the heat, the strange problems (refer to stall crashing on head incident), the logistics, the planning of the budget for a campaign, the collaboration with different teams you know you have had a fulfilling internship.
I finished my project feeling satisfied, confident & happy because I acquired more learnings than an entire semester’s worth, because they had been tried, tested, approved & honed by me & most importantly because I found some really good friends in my fellow interns who had gone through the same trial by fire.
I interned with Tata Motors Ltd this year. Read below the tale of my experience. Why termed a tale you may ask? Because it was replete with initiation rites, journeys undertaken, friends made, stories shared, lessons learnt from wise people on the way & of course a shining goal (Sales Target
) to be achieved.The initiation rites! (Did you just throw a paper ball at me??!)
The first 2 days in the company were dedicated to inducting us enthusiastic but a little in need of software support (hence lost) interns. There were quite a few interns from various premiere B Schools all over India & I was very excited to get the chance to interact with these bright people. We even played a few weird games just to lighten up & get to know each other & yes I got bonked on the head with a paper ball in one of those. I had some very riveting conversations during & after our time in the induction. We met some senior executives who had very wise things to tell us but I have to confess after a few hours I did start drifting to think about places I would visit in the evening with my newfound friendsJ. I think the HR saw our expressions & even gave us a few suggestions J . We were all handed our projects & information of mentors & reporting offices. I gave myself an inward “High five” & beamed with happiness (yes beamed like the Sunrise biscuit cartoon guy, I was so happy) when I saw I had to report to another office based in Mumbai because I wanted the chance to explore the city. Also 3 more interns had the same mentor so we quickly made a little happy clique & exchanged numbers to stay in touch & compare notes. (Maybe even party sometime?)
A celebration that was premature & taught me not to rejoice before getting the facts!! & read on why!
Who is afraid of a little Primary Research in rural India? APPARENTLY ME !
So our mentor turned out to be someone with some serious Sales experience across various sectors. He looked us in the eye & told us “You guys are going to Rural Markets!!” & then proceeded to explain the project.
Ok MBA grads, you know, it’s different studying rural marketing (because we all know Late Prof C.K. Prahalad effectively proved it was important) , but I had talked to seniors ,visited showrooms , dealerships, & truly led myself to believe that’s where my work would lie! You know, where the AC is in reach!
My fertile imagination started making up stuff involving thatched huts, cows, the scorching sun, bullock cart rides & what not. I won’t lie , I felt a little squeamish for a while , then being the infantry man’s daughter that I am , I gathered my pluck ,smiled brightly & thought , “This ought to make a good story to tell the classmates!” and I was rewarded many time over for that optimism I’ll tell you how!
Sell those CARS ! (Not selling pencils in classrooms anymore! Are we?)
Before we actually went out to sell, we had some research to do which involved going to tons of unknown places in Maharashtra like Pimpalgaon.
In a matter of 1 week I had covered 14 locations across 5 districts of Maharashtra & interviewed people in emerging markets.
After that I reported my findings & was sent off to sell cars in locations selected from amongst those covered during research.
On field selling is a deeply collaborative process between dealerships & the company with help of third parties which needs patience, stamina & superlative motivation skills.
Our mentor came to one of the locations & demonstrated how to go about the job & I will never forget the lessons he imparted by his actions & chai side “Gyaan”.
The 1st most important lesson I learnt from him,”Your job as a leader is to motivate others when things look down, be decisive, relentlessly lead by example & have a sense of humor, because on field things get tough & being able to share a joke or two with people you are working with helps much more than any fancy strategy you learnt in B school”
2nd lesson: I learnt was “Your customer could be anyone! When on field tell your story to everyone, don’t try to analyze who is likely to buy. The time to analyze is before you get on the field”. I’ll tell you why. There were these 2 young boys (Not old enough to have a driver’s license) who kept asking lots of questions & the sales executive was initially paying only scant attention. When the executive was reminded that he needed to give information to whoever might seek it, he gave a proper demo to the children. Guess what? Those two boys got their father; convinced him for us & that was our first On Spot booking of the day!! So never underestimate anyone’s buying desire or potential, especially in Rural India.
3rd lesson: If you are expecting someone to work for you, you better be ready to sweat it out as well. Be informed & work harder than people you lead. There was this instance when because of the intense heat, few Sales people sat inside a car with the AC on .To their credit all of them had worked diligently the previous day in the sun too. Another executive suggested to me to take a seat as well, but I refused. I let the executives take a break, waited till a customer came & then rapped at the windows of the car & reminded the executives that when the customer is out in the sun, we too stay out in the sun. I couldn’t have convinced a single one of those hardened salesmen if I had been relaxing myself. This idea too had its genesis in the example set by my mentor when he had come to inspect & instruct.
4th lesson: There is no right time or place to sell!! In one location, a storm came right in the afternoon & crash! Went our stall!! I was actually in the stall when things started tumbling all around me! Talk about excitement! There we were- a little wet, with no stall, no banners with just a speaker & we were not selling shampoos! We were there to sell cars! We decided we would go on!! We started handing out leaflets, started talking about our product on the speaker as if nothing had happened! & it worked. If we didn’t mind, our customers didn’t mind!
In fact people started coming up to us to joke about the storm & the stall crashing on our heads & stayed to hear about our cars! That’s what I love about people in small cities & villages- Their love for incidental humor & swapping of stories! We couldn’t have planned that as an attraction but it did! So convert your problems to opportunities I say!
These lessons amongst many others have made me believe that on field is an experience that should be mandatory for every marketing MBA student.
From the field to the Boardroom
The final presentation went off well; we reported our figures, got some good insights & advice from senior executives & had a celebration later.
Conclusion
If you can survive the heat, the strange problems (refer to stall crashing on head incident), the logistics, the planning of the budget for a campaign, the collaboration with different teams you know you have had a fulfilling internship.
I finished my project feeling satisfied, confident & happy because I acquired more learnings than an entire semester’s worth, because they had been tried, tested, approved & honed by me & most importantly because I found some really good friends in my fellow interns who had gone through the same trial by fire.