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“I’ll get back to you..”I couldn’t take it anymore! After 2 weeks selling telephone systems to small businesses (nearly 20 years ago), i had seen more prospective customers - and pitched more businesses - than any of the other 15 reps in our NY Metro Office. My briefcase was already bursting at the seams from all of the file folders i was carrying around with me..This was commonplace in our industry. Average sales cycle for selling a PBX was around 90 days. Some would string you along for weeks or months, knowing full well they were never going to sign. Others were buried with more pressing issues, far from urgent in deciding what phone system they might switch to, let alone dealing with the pain of re-training all of their employees on the new hardware.Finally, it broke.. literally! Walking down the street one blustery fall afternoon, the handle from my overflowing briefcase broke, files poured out on the sidewalk, and documents were flying away, down the street, as i scampered to collect them frantically. Not only was my briefcase broken, but my patience was as well!One by one, i decided to call on every file which had not followed through with gathering info, or had not returned my last phone call, or had not talked to their partner and gotten back to me with our next meeting date, or had postponed our scheduled follow-up, or any of the other umpteen excuses people might have had for not proceeding to the “next step” in the pipeline. Although the sales process had typically been about 90 days long, it was time for me to “close out files” and free up same bandwidth (as well as space in my briefcase).“Hi,______. I’m sure you’re very busy. I need to call you because things have been very, very busy over here as well; and i recently found out that i am only able to work a certain number of accounts at any given time. Therefore, if it is okay with you, i will close out your file for now. You can always call me down the road, when you free up some bandwidth and are ready to dig deeper into the (expense reduction and improved customer experience) that our clients are realizing. Fair enough?”I spoke directly to the DMs i had met with - or i left a vmail if i couldn’t reach them. But it felt great! I was no longer going to be “that guy” who gets strung along for months, chasing my tail, forecasting pipe-dreams and wishing on miracles.You know what felt even better?? The 4 deals i closed that week! One person told me right over the phone that this WAS important to him but he got distracted. Three others returned my phone message. Wait.. did you hear that? They called me back and asked me not to close their file. My 4 sales in my 3rd week were more than any rep had closed in a single month; And as far as my prospects went, I was the one now calling the shots!I took it a step further. I created a “Project Manager” sheet with a timeline, which included:follow-up meeting with Stakeholders,technical discovery meeting with IT,credit application processing,engineering spec review,final approval meeting,implementation andemployee training.Each step had a checkbox of who was responsible, with the corresponding timeline. I explained the process and timeline on my first call, asking for a commitment to the timeline and next steps.If they hesitated or lacked commitment at any point, I immediately pulled back in a take-away. “When a company like ours has a solution that is unique in the market, it creates extremely high demand. Thus, we (as a company) are forced to rely heavily on a streamlined process for approval and implementation. Also, it limits the number of accounts that I am able to work with, at any given time. One unresponsive or disruptive client can slow down the gears and grind us to a halt. It seems that your process (which has probably worked for you) and our process, which definitely works for us and our customers, may be in conflict. I am not in the business of telling folks how to run their company. So if it’s okay with you, i will simply close your file for the time being. Don’t worry, a simple phone call back to us, when you have the bandwidth to allocate to this timeline, and we will find someone who can meet with you and start the process again. Unfortunately, it may not be me - if i am already at my limit..”Unbelievable! While many hesitated, or agreed to put on hold, or simply did not qualify, the vast majority resolved their decision within 7 days. Some were a NO, but most were a YES! We averaged 4 new phone system sales per week for 10 weeks, before getting promoted. The best month a rep had ever had in that company was 3 new sales. We averaged 4 per week.Find a way of showing amazing value and demand for your solution.. reduce the “I’ll get back to you” objections.. create a process timeline for them to commit to.. gently close out people’s files if they “buck the system”.. and go set some records!Happy “Telling”:)

Scam 02 :: The “Sneaky ICICI Bank Credit Card Late Fee” ScamAlmost all Indians are aware of ICICI Bank and how deeply intertwined this bank is in today’s Indian banking system. The bank offers many services, all for applicable charges, and credit card is one of them. I have been using ICICI credit card for many years now. Not because of the Payback reward points. Because Payback points redeem offers are totally and utterly worthless, and I haven’t redeemed a single thing from it in the past 8 years! I still use this credit card because I have memorized the number & other details and feel confident using the card online even if I don’t have the card with me at that time. Obviously followed by OTP verification on my mobile number!The scam I am talking about is the ICICI Credit Card SMS notification and Late Fee payment.The due date of paying my credit card bill is usually 2nd/3rd of every month and the first thing I do on getting salary is getting these payments out of the way. The sneaky thing I have noticed about ICICI credit system is that In all the years of using the credit card, I have never got any reminder SMS notification from ICICI to pay the credit card bill payment a day before or on the due date. Its like ICICI is waiting for you to miss the deadline so that they can charge you hefty amount as the late payment fees. A similar such incident happened to me today.Today, I got a notification from ICICI that I need to pay my credit card due amount (some 1204 rupees) to continue using my card. I recalled that I was busy with some personal chores and forgot to pay the bill on time. I checked my SMS notification and saw, to my no surprise, that no reminder SMS from ICICI bank was sent reminding the customer to pay the bill on time. After the initial notification on the previous month to pay the bill by 2nd Sep, the next notification I got was 7 days after the due date passed viz: 9th Sep.On paying the previous bill (1200), I thought of checking the current statement and saw that ICICI has charged 500 rupees late fee payment on my 1200 and additionally charged me 18% GST on late fee as if they are doing me a big favor and providing me a big service!I immediately called the customer care and had a heated discussion with the customer care executive who told me that it is ICICI policy to levy Rs. 500 + 18% taxes for any due amount under 10,000/-. For other banks, usually it is some percentage of the total amount but for ICICI it is the lump sum amount! So even if you owe 300 rupees to ICICI bank, it will charge you 500/- as the late fee and will add cherry on the top of 90 rupees as GST making the total fee as 590/-.I discussed with the customer care executive that is is unjustified to charge late fee payment from customer without giving them any reminder SMS as not all are free or remember to pay bill. The guy confirmed my phone number and checked his system to make sure that what I was saying was right and then offered me the reversal of late fee payment charges. He also apologized and admitted that bank should send notification SMS reminder at least on the due date. He also initiated “Auto Deduct” option for my credit card to avoid any such hassle going forward.But the thing is, how many of us actually look into these details months after months? Some are too busy to look into these details! Had I not noticed this scam, I would have paid next month bill with late fee without realizing what I have been paying for. Banks like ICICI use this shady technique of keeping customer in dark, not sending notification and then charging lump sum amount of money as late fee for their benefits. Govt doesn’t interfere in such practices as they are getting 18% cut of the deal!Scam 01 :: The “Screw the Humane Guy with Nice Heart” ScamThis is one of the hot-in-trend money scams that has been going on in Chandigarh/Mohali area. The scam seems very legit to a novice but is very devious if one looks into the detail. This is how it really works..Imagine you are having a pleasant evening stroll in one of busiest area of the town. You are waiting for your friend whom you have finally cornered for the treat he promissed months ago. All seems merry & cheerful and to kill some time while waiting, you go to a road side vendor for some ice cream and perhaps some snack as well. All of sudden, 2–3 poor kids in ragged clothes come to you asking for some money. Since you don't like the mindset of putting kids to beffing, you keep on ignoring them but they keep on persisting saying that they have not eaten anything for the whole day and don’t want money if you can buy them a bag of wheat flour so they can eat tonight.You consider this for a moment, calculating their miserable appearance and then your humanity takes over your better sense. You agree to their demands and go with them to buy them a bag of wheat flour. They will take you to a shop nearby and ask the shop owner for a wheat flour bag. You pay for the bag (say INR 150), the kids take the bag saying thank you and off they go, and then feeling extremely pleased with yourself, you come and sit in your car waiting for the pal to whom you have gone to meet.As usual, your pal is late - he is coming in 5 min for the last 30 min..that jerk! So you keep on waiting in your car listening to your “I hate waiting” songs. After 10 - 15 min, you realize that the kids to whom you had bought the bag of wheat flour are going to the same shop, carrying the same bag back to the shop, returning the bag and pocketing a crisp note of INR 100. I mean….WTF!!You get out of the car, the kids see you and then ran with the money. You go to the shop owner and he simply refused that he knows anything about it. He claims that kids came and returned the bag saying their mother already got some flour and he simply gave them INR 150 but in-fact he gave them only INR 100.So what really happened here..?The kids asking for the bag of wheat flour and the shopkeeper selling the bag are in it together! The kids ask for wheat flour as it looks genuine to the person than giving them money. The shopkeeper already had cut a deal with those kids so that they bring the person to his shop and his shop only! He will charge INR 150 for the bag of wheat flour which he will then take back keeping INR 50. Shopkeeper made 50 bucks, kids made 100 bucks and you..you my friend are fooled out of 150 bucks by a bunch of toddlers.I came to know about this scam after few days when many of my colleagues confirmed similar incidents and stories. There are many shopkeepers in Chandigarh/Mohali who run similar kinds of scams, take advantage of empathy of the residents and squeeze money out of their pockets. Not sure about other parts of the India but the sophisticated way they operate, I am pretty sure this has been picked from metro cities like Delhi/Mumbai/Pune etc.Just wanted to highlight.. Saavdhaan rahe..Satarkk rahe! Nahi to bache aapka paplu bana ke nikal jayenge :)The only reason why I found this scam distressing is because after that day, I refused to help anyone asking for money or wheat flour fearing same thing might happen again. Those bunch of idiots ruined it for some genuine needy people as well.

The question was altered. Earlier it asked about relatively poorer performance of BJP in relation to General Election 2019.With the revised question my answer is that the single largest party of the two assemblies the performance of BJP can, by no stretch of imagination, be called “poor”. And if BJP’s performance is poor then performance of SS is below poor, NCP performance is rank poor and that of Congress (in both the assemblies) piss poor.For the original question my answer remains unaltered.I believe that the following are the reasons for the lackluster performance of BJP in Maharashtra in the backdrop of thumping win in the National Polls.Absence of a strong personality like Modi at the state level. No doubt, Devendra Phadnavis has emerged as the tallest leader with cross Maharashtra appeal in comparison to all others from all parties but his charisma is still limited and not all pervasive as Modi.Good performance on a wide cross section of areas have ensured that BJP has emerged as the largest party with a good margin, despite sliding down from the last election, and supports the theme of development.The policy of breaking the ranks of Congress / NCP has failed. While those people who walked over could not garner benefits for BJP/SS, the NCP / Congress had to field new faces which carried no stigma with them and this benefited NCP/Congress. The fact of admitting Congress/NCP leaders in BJP has not found acceptance in a cadre driven party like BJP. This cooling off is the most visible in rural belts where the party workers carry a lot of weight and where massive infrastructure drives like Metro etc are not available to influence the voters. This has been the reason for poor performance in the rural belt and good performance of BJP/SS in Urban centers.Credit must be given to Sharad Pawar who has, probably, fought his last poll battle. He must be given credit of hitting the road in the right earnest immediately consequent to the drubbing NCP received in the last Lok Sabha elections. Large scale defection to BJP/SS of his troops have deprived him of something like 40 odd seats. So this defection business has proved to be a double edged sword.It was widely expected that the Congress will be decimated, so demoralized were their ranks. However, relative silence on part of the first family helped Congress not slide into irrelevance. Is there a lesson for the Congress to disown their family and fight the election through new age leaders? I believe so. Unlikely that Congress leaders will listen to the message.Lastly, the policy of hanging sword over the heads of corrupt constituents of UPA has outlived its utility. BJP must understand that on this count people are expecting results through courts. This is important now.As regards Harayana, I have not been following their politics closely but believe that point numbers 1, 3 & 6 are equally applicable. Credit must be give to Hooda for marshaling his troupes well. Harayana has again proved that just as in Punjab and Maharashtra, absence of the first family helps it revive.Last but not the least, it is good that there exists a semblance of opposition now. It will be good for the country and health of BJP organisation.