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.