Selling in Half Pants
In late 1990s, I as a young boy was looking forward to transitioning from half pants / shorts to full pants at school. Our school did not allow the students to wear the full pants until they got into 10th standard. My only aim in life was, I wanted to cycle to school in my full pants.
Around the same time, LPG (liquified petroleum gas) for cooking was still a distant dream in Indian villages. For women, it was a considered a life changing event to move from Kerosene based stove or “Chulha” (firewood for cooking) to an LPG stove. It was clean, healthier choice and worked as status symbol for many in the villages. The gas connection was not that easy get partly due to the cost and partly due to lack of information on how to get one. Of course, there was no internet to search that information. The poor and lower middle class were even reluctant to approach the gas companies thinking — “aaplyala parvadnar nahi — we can’t afford it”
For some strange reason, I always had friends who were older to me. At times, twice my age! I was impatient to get lot of answers and often thought older people had all the answers. One such friend was Vinod who helped his father run his submersible pumps business. On the side, he worked as a commission agent to sell the LPG connection — a cooking gas cylinder, gas regulator and manual 2 burner gas stove.
After school, I would stop by his shop, amused listening to his big plans. I understood the process of how he sells the LPG connection. I asked him if I got the customers can I be his reseller? With no faith in my ability he said, yes!
From next day I started asking all the kids in the school if their families wanted an LPG connection. I tried selling to almost everyone. I knew the product, just was not sure if I was selling to the right audience. I carried on.
One day a school mate approached, “I told my mum about the LPG connection. Would you come home and explain it to her?” I said, “why not!” We fixed the time to meet before the school the next day.
Early morning, without informing the parents, I left home on my bicycle for his house. Once reached, I was given a special chair to sit on, a glass of water and his mother started making tea (on a kerosene stove). I felt strange because I was treated like an adult. After the cup of tea, she asked me how I can help her get the LPG connection. I explained everything in much detail, answered all her questions. A night before, I had rehearsed the objection handling. It helped. In the end the cost was discussed, I said 6200 Rs and delivery in 28 days. She did not seem very sure, asked me if it can be reduced, I declined. To give her one more reason to buy, I said I will home deliver and train you on how to use the gas stove. She reluctantly said, she will get back to me after speaking to her husband.
A week passed, I followed up with my school mate on their plans to buy the LPG connection. Two days post that he called me to his house again. His mother was joyous this time and even more welcoming. The twinkle in her eyes suggested that she had made up her mind about the purchase. During the initial chit chat, I observed she was tightly holding on to something in her fist, almost not willing to let go. After some time, she handed over a bundle of notes and said, “here is 6200 Rs.” The top note of the bundle was bit moist because of the sweat of her palm. I could feel how important was that money for her.
I assured her about the delivery, quality, and seamless process. I even told her she could come to my house if she ever faced a problem (wrong thing to say when your parents do not know you are selling services outside).
As I walked out of the house, the sense of better life was evident in her eyes. That hope filled me with great sense of responsibility. I was scared, anxious, joyous, excited, nervous all at the same time as I cycled to the school. The whole day, I kept checking my pocket and at times keeping one hand inside my pocket holding on to bundle of notes worried not to lose it.
Post school, I rushed to see Vinod, told him about my first sale! Gave him all the necessary documents and 4400 Rs. That is what he had agreed to sell me the gas connection for. As a reseller, I had made 1800 Rs i.e., 41% profit!
After two weeks of follow up, Vinod confirmed the delivery date. I reached the gas company office an hour before the agreed time. On my turn, showed the receipt and told them Vinod had sent me to pick up the stuff. With the help of their staff, I tightly tied the LPG cylinder on the back seat of my Atlas.
I reached the house of my school mate to see his mum greet me with a wide smile on her face. I fixed the LPG connection, regulator, and a stove which I had delivered 2 days earlier. The Kerosene stove was rightly pushed into the corner of the room. Today, she made the tea again but, on the LPG stove.
I was never passionate about selling the gas cylinders. Very recently, I realised, what I sold was not important but, what the buyer wanted to buy was. Selling is solving a problem, for a specific group of people who genuinely need it. We call it a Product Market Fit now a days. I made lot of mistakes during that sale. But hey! I had done my first sale and the bug had bitten.
I spent the next few days thinking what I am going to do with 1800 Rs profit. Frankly, I had not even thought about what I wanted to do with that money! It was lot of money. The first thought was, I will buy some Kachoris.
