A Marwadi Salesman

 

New MBA (Marketing) curriculum:

To add a valuable lesson from a pragmatic Marwadi Salesman.

 

A keen immigrant Indian Marwadi lad applied for a salesman's job at  London's premier downtown department store - the biggest store in the world - you could get anything there.

 

The boss asked him: "Have you ever been a salesman before?"

 

"Yes sir, I was a salesman in India," replied the lad.

 

The boss liked the cut of him and said: "You can start tomorrow and I'll come and see how you do."

 

The day was long and arduous for the young man, but he got through it. And finally 6:00 PM came around. The boss duly fronted up and asked: "How many sales did you make today?"

 

"Sir, Just ONE sale," said the young salesman.

 

"Only one sale?" blurted the boss. "No! No! You see here, most of my staff make 20 or 30 sales a day. If you want to keep this job, you'd better be doing better than just one sale. By the way, how much was the sale worth?"

 

"93,30,05,34/- Sterling Pounds," said the young Marwadi.

 

"What!!! How did you manage that?" asked the flabbergasted boss.

 

"Well" said the salesman, "This man came in and I sold him a small fish hook, then a medium hook and finally a really large hook. Then I sold him a new fishing rod and some fishing gear. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast. So I told him he'd be needing a boat. I took him down to the boat department and sold him that twenty-foot schooner with the twin engines. Then he said his Volkswagen probably wouldn't be able to pull it, so I took him to our automotive department and sold him that new Deluxe 4 x 4 Blazer.

 

I then asked him where he'll be staying, and since he had no accommodation, I took him to the camping department and sold him one of those new igloo 6-sleeper camper tents. Then the guy said, while we're at it, I should throw in about 100 Stlg. Pounds worth of groceries and two cases of beer.

 

The boss took two steps back and asked in astonishment: "You sold all that to a guy who came in for a fish hook????!"

 

"No" answered the salesman, "he came in to buy a box of Sanitary napkins for his wife and I said to him, "Sir, Your weekend's spoiled anyway, you might as well go fishing."

 

Boss: "You better sit in my chair....... .!!"