Abhishek Kohli — Sales In India
It’s not just about selling to one person.
Read the full transcript & show notes →
Abhishek Kohli is an Account Manager at Clarivate Analytics, which was until recently, the Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters. He is based in New Delhi, India, where he is selling to government agencies and institutions in the North and Central part of India. In this episode, he shares his experiences dealing with government bodies and bureaucracies in one of the toughest, most challenging markets, India, and how he overcomes the obstacles he is faced with on a daily basis. Tune in to find out more!
Shareable Clips & Quotes:
Key Takeaways:
[:37] Scott introduces his guest for this episode — Abhishek Kohli.
[1:03] What are the the top three things that have allowed Abhishek to become the top seller in emerging markets?
[5:29] Who is the ideal person to be Abhishek’s internal champion? How does he enable them to support his effort?
[8:06] What is Abhishek’s role, and what type of solutions is he selling?
[10:21] Abhishek quantifies his results from last year.
[10:52] What is Abhishek’s background, and how did he get into sales in the first place?
[17:30] What is the business culture like in India? What is it like to sell in that environment?
[20:03] How does Abhishek overcome the challenge of clients coming predisposed and unwilling to listen?
[21:44] Abhishek also manages the added layer of complexity of selling to the government. How does that work, and how does he overcome some of those challenges?
[26:23] There is an increasing prevalence of a “buying committee,” and more people being involved in the purchasing process. How does Abhishek manage that and keep things moving along the process?
[30:15] How does Abhishek manage the individual stakeholders and various influences in the process?
[31:50] In Abhishek’s process, the internal champion puts in a lot of effort to push the product. How does Abhishek persuade them to put in that level of effort to bring things to closure?
[36:28] Personally, how does Abhishek manage his own process to get his clients?
[40:41] What is Abhishek’s daily routine?
[42:33] How does Abhishek structure his in-office days to maintain productivity and efficiency?
[44:40] Check out ViewedIt — it is a great tool that allows you to easily insert videos into your emails!
[45:13] What are some tips and tricks that work well when Abhishek is travelling?
[47:23] What are some tools and apps that Abhishek uses to make his day-to-day easier?
[49:19] What does Abhishek’s information diet look like?
[53:55] What is Abhishek’s sales philosophy?
[57:49] Sometimes it is better to “give up” on a client you know will not produce any returns for the next few quarters, and then go back into prospecting anew. How does Abhishek decide when the best time is to do that, especially after having invested time in pursuing the prospect?
[1:00:57] How would Abhishek describe his sales style?
[1:02:42] What motivates Abhishek? How does he develop his self-belief?
[1:04:46] What is something that Abhishek believes that the average salesperson would think is crazy?
[1:06:06] On the flipside, what is something that’s out there about salespeople or how sales should be conducted that Abhishek thinks is crazy?
[1:09:32] What advice would Abhishek give to someone starting out on their sales career?
[1:11:31] Abhishek shares some advice for someone further along in their career who’s looking to get back to the top of the game.
[1:14:55] Abhishek has some questions for other top salespeople.
[1:16:16] Abhishek didn’t start as the best of salesmen, but he has worked his way up — just because it hasn’t happened so far, doesn’t mean that it cannot happen in the future.
[1:17:26] Abhishek challenges you to double the number of conversations you’re having. The more people you get in touch with, the more sales you’re going to make.
Mentioned in This Episode:
Top1.fm
ViewedIt
Abhishek Kohli on LinkedIn
Clarivate Analytics
Salesforce