Mandi Experience - Part 2

With the sumo sized goons behind us, we tried to figure out.our next destination. Andheri seemed like a place where we could have had some sales, so with our destination in mind, we were heading in that direction with a debat between me and Anshul on how we could.have settled scores with those goons. Of course our wishful thinking was interrupted with a realization that our normal lunch time is running out. My teammate's hunger pangs were becoming evident. At this time, we were not looking out for possible sales point, but for places to eat. I reminded my friend about the huge inventory of toys still left unsold in our bag and tried to.persuade to him to skip lunch, but I guess my friends growling stomach does not like to be put on a lower priority. Despite my request to complete our sales targets, his stomach voiced its opinions loud and clear. Finally we went to a restaurant in Saki Naka, spent about 15 minutes waiting for a waiter(I guess our black yellow uniform t-shirts did give us a peculiar look, but it was interesting) then we spent over 40 minutes waiting for food, and finally spent more on our food than we had earned. Spending more than my earning,hah!!! Thankgod it was just an assignments of a college, had it been real life, my financial planning would have taken a beating by now. Next thing you know, I am defaulting on my payments. Anyways, with our stomachs now full of Chinese cuisine, we tried to search for a spot to sell a bag full of toys as close as possible to our location. With a full stomach, our motivation to sleep took over the motivation to complete our assignment.
We were now staring out of the autorickshaw at people waiting at bus stops, or walking on streets, or even trying to hail a cab, judging them for prospective customers. After half hour, our sleep was replaced with desperation to rid our bag.
From what we had heard, some students had already sold all their products, and it was late in the afternoon we were running behind schedule. The situation had turned critical, and we were just getting started on our work. So from Saki Naka, our team rushed to Kanjurmarg. The place where we were told that was a strong hold of NITIE Mandi team. We asked our driver to rush to the point, and the next thing you know, we were praying for seats and safety gear in the back seats. I think I need to recommend the driver to a formula one team for his excellent driving skills. When I stepped out of the car, I checked if I had wet my pants, checked if I was stable enough to walk. Yeah, all was well. I had just turned back into a theist.
With the rest of the NITIE students in sight, my team mate and I regained some confidence. Some of them had more inventory of toys left in their bag. Yes!!!!! Finally more people like us. On top of that, we had a popular music channel crew covering our event. With a camera and a pretty lady by our side, some of us were able to get the attention of lot more people than we were able to do earlier. Unfortunately, I was not among the lucky ones to sell products on camera. With another destination in our mind, we headed for Marine drive to sell the bag full of goods. Seriously??? Whose idea was it to travel 35 km in Mumbai traffic? Enroute to Marine drive, we had to stop by our deserted college to pick up my laptop. Why pickup the laptop? To utilize our travel time to do our media assignment. Again, seriously, whose weird idea was it? At 5 PM, there was a race against time for selling some toys and also completing the assignment. Lesson learnt- it was a bad bad idea. The next 1.5 hours were spent traveling in a corner space on.a car with my fingers furiously typing the keyboard of the laptop. Thankfully the keyboard survived my trembling angry fingers.

The long journey cramped in the back seat of a tiny car, really got me a sore back, and then finally when we reached our destination, my team mate and I were desperately working on our laptops and making multiple frantic calls until all the power in our cell phones and laptops got drained. Only after we realized that the ships have sailed, and we missed boarding it, we gave up. The assignment that I had for the day was left incomplete. Remind me once again about the main lesson I am supposed to have learnt about time management. Oh yeah, an MBA student without proper time management definitely ends up with watering eyes, be it from strained vision or drained emotion. Trust me, you will find some of us crying their guts out after horrible weekends without sleep, or exam results that went south.

Coming back to Mandi objective, it was close to 8:30 PM in the evening, and we were at Marine Drive stepping out of the car. We realized that the weather was pleasant, so who would not want to support a noble cause and bring additional solace to themselves? We set out again to scout for prospective customers, and this time, we saw many of our colleagues dressed in similar black yellow T-shirts without anything in their hands. At this point of time, I was hoping that they would have kept their bag full of inventory at some safe spot. But unfortunately god is not that gracious. They recounted their experiences wherein they were able to sell almost all their inventory, within minutes of entering Marine Drive. With a bit of hope, when we tried to approach some people, they jumped upon seeing us and desperately begged us, not to bother them. It seemed that our colleagues had swept this area clean of all prospective customers. We were now branded as the scum, untouchable, to be kept away, to be looked down upon. Before we could say much, most people put up a grumpy face or a highly vocal language (censored here) to shoo us away.

It was a tough next 2 hours selling some of the inventory, and by the end of the 2 hours, we had given up any more hopes of selling. The only motivation to walk after a treacherous day was the journey back to my room, my bed, my precious sleep.

So if someone asked for Counting the Goods sold - don’t care. Money earned - Don’t care.

Ultimate result – slept for 7 hours straight, well -except when someone woke me up to remind me that I was almost sleeping on the floor.

Sales pitch, goons, running clueless and exhausted. In short Mandi

That was how I looked yesterday at about 1:30AM after trying my hand at something new. Selling like a salesman.
The event MANDI which is unique to NITIE requires every student to go out on the street and sell some toys or similar products. But before anyone gets the idea that we are being trained to be salespersons, please note that we don't get any monetary benefits out of it. All the money goes to an NGO for it's efforts to help the underprivileged. The motivation for us - hands on experience at understanding different people(read prospective customers or market study).

The day started with the speeches and the flagging off ceremony, with roughly thousand students from NITIE and a few other B-schools walking out of the campus ready to experiment and experience.
My team member and I set out towards a shopping complex not too far from our college campus. With our bag-pack full of products, we were accompanied by a lady from a media house who wanted to tag along some students to see how we fare at our task. Once we landed at this shopping complex, some of us spread out to find prospective customers while I was accompanying the lady from the media house. The first few minutes, I was trying to gauge the atmosphere around us. What are these people up to today? Are they busy? Are they leisurely shopping? Is this person looking grumpy? Is this one too arrogant? These were the questions running through my head at speeds unimaginable to even my mind, and I thought I was the one with wild ideas.

So when I attempted to approach someone, who didn’t bother to slow down one bit as I opened my mouth just to say "Good Morning" or a simple "Hi", I realized, “Hey, this is way tougher than I thought.”
So finally when I actually went to talk to someone about the toys and games in my hand and bag, there were a few people who politely declined saying they had already bought some toys from someone from the MANDI. Did I mention that we were all wearing the same uniform t-shirt of Mandi? This was my first proper reject.
I moved on thanking the old lady and approached someone else but wasn't too comfortable just walking up to a stranger again. Once more I reluctantly searched the crowd for a face that I can try to read, a person who might just seem patient enough to listen.
So the lady from the media house, who was accompanying me all the while encouraged me a bit, reassured that I will definitely convince the next person I approach. I guess my apprehensions were probably vivid on my face. She stepped away and out of earshot, telling me that I need to go in it alone.
I reluctantly tried again and approached a group of 4 to 5 girls who were probably leaving a store after making some purchase. I started a conversation with them talking about the NGO and the products I carry in my bag. They seemed reluctant at buying something from a salesperson at first but somehow I was able to get the conversation going based on some common associations with one of them who happened to be not only from my city, but my school too. I had finally met my first customers who were interested in some of the products I carried in my bag. I noticed the lady standing in the background raise her hand to give me a thumbs-up, a reassuring gesture. She had been right when she said that I would definitely get my customers soon.
I thanked the four ladies who bought a product despite their hesitations, and felt proud to have crossed the first hurdle. It felt GOOD!!! I walked up to the lady from the media house and thanked her for the support. By now, I knew she was not a reporter or a columnist, she was now a friend, atleast for the duration of the one day Mandi event.
After seeing her off quickly, my teammate and I went on to find our next customer around the same shopping complex, and while attempting to talk to someone outside a supermarket, a group of security guards started objecting to our presence. Despite our attempts to pacify them, it was clear that their aggression was not really going away until we were gone. We tried to tell them that we were students on a project and not really salespersons. We showed them our ID cards and the letters of permit we were carrying, but by now the matter was quite escalated. Step by step we got pushed farther away from the supermarket and reached the street, but that was not enough for the guards. They wanted us even gone from the street as if the street was also owned by the supermarket. It was then that we decided to hold ground. And then torrential arguments criss-crossed between us. Shouting at each other would be an understatement. Just then two people walked up to us to confirm if we were from NITIE. Quizzically we replied in affirmative and got to know that they were our alumni, who happened notice NITIE t-shirts and our ID cards. They took notice of the NITIE logo in the middle of a commotion and thought they should step in to see what the whole matter was all about. Suddenly my teammate and I found a new source of energy. Both of us got the support of our alumni while arguing with the guards. The alumni who initially had stepped in as mediators were now siding with us. I guess they understood that our attempts at posing as salespersons was just a one day educational experiment, and need not be taken too seriously by the over zealous security guards.
By now the guards had also got their reinforcements. A bunch of goons (I doubt if there would be any other word for these reinforcements) came with the objective to rid the property of the "disturbing elements". Yeah, that’s right, my friends and I were referred as the “disturbing element”. Seriously, who gave them that idea?? Within seconds our voices were restored to normal decibel levels. They informed us that the roughly one kilometer street on which we were holding ground, was actually a private property. Looking at the reinforcements, I was even willing to accept if the whole world is a private properly of someone. My teammate and I along with our alumni dispersed from the spot but since we were continuously being followed by the reinforcements, it would be apt to say, that we were being escorted off the property.
After that was a lot of running around in the hopes of finding a possible “Safe” market. At the end of the day, we had covered roughly 160KM without selling much. In between, we were swamped with additional responsibilities of keeping media houses informed about the updates from the event.
Did I succeed in selling the products in my bag? I will leave that part for my next blog post. It is a long story and my afternoon nap time on a pleasant Sunday is running out.