By the time you become 22 and are still in college, you don't expect doing many many new things. Yes, you may try subtle or not so subtle variations of what has been done before, but to try something completely and radically new, never experienced before is what requires a substantial amount of.. what do we call it... Lets say courage, guts, acceptance.
I went or rather ventured with a brave heart to conduct a market research yesterday to Saharaganj (yes, they have malls ending with ganj here!), Lucknow's only mall. Market research! Those two words are perhaps the most voluminous for a guy who has to, as my friend put it, go around ' subtly begging' people for their honest opinions. Remember the irritant pest troubling you for a survey you shrugged off last time ? Well... I was asked to fit myself in that role and remembering the way I usually treat MR souls.. I wouldn't give myself much of a chance. My whole group was there, supporting each other.
Together, we evolved a strategy. We targetted only those people sitting single or in groups of two where the other guy was busy talking on a phone. When we ambushed our target, the first action was to brandish brand IIM. Then to request for 2 minutes of his time for an 'important study' we were doing. For the first time in three months, I realized the advantages of lucknow being a slow city. We got hit-convert rates of 80%. A mumbai or delhi would have hardly given us 10% convert rates. But people in Lucknow have lots of time, especially for IIML people :)
A learning experience? You bet! The amount of ego I had to deflate to request people, even with the kind of positive responses I received, was in an experience in itself. I can now vaguely begin to understand when they say, 'One year in sales can change your life!' And as far as MR is concerned, I am gonna give a treat to the next fellow who asks me for two minutes of my time!
I went or rather ventured with a brave heart to conduct a market research yesterday to Saharaganj (yes, they have malls ending with ganj here!), Lucknow's only mall. Market research! Those two words are perhaps the most voluminous for a guy who has to, as my friend put it, go around ' subtly begging' people for their honest opinions. Remember the irritant pest troubling you for a survey you shrugged off last time ? Well... I was asked to fit myself in that role and remembering the way I usually treat MR souls.. I wouldn't give myself much of a chance. My whole group was there, supporting each other.
Together, we evolved a strategy. We targetted only those people sitting single or in groups of two where the other guy was busy talking on a phone. When we ambushed our target, the first action was to brandish brand IIM. Then to request for 2 minutes of his time for an 'important study' we were doing. For the first time in three months, I realized the advantages of lucknow being a slow city. We got hit-convert rates of 80%. A mumbai or delhi would have hardly given us 10% convert rates. But people in Lucknow have lots of time, especially for IIML people :)
A learning experience? You bet! The amount of ego I had to deflate to request people, even with the kind of positive responses I received, was in an experience in itself. I can now vaguely begin to understand when they say, 'One year in sales can change your life!' And as far as MR is concerned, I am gonna give a treat to the next fellow who asks me for two minutes of my time!
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