Air-conditioner freebie

A lady rang up and seemed to be in a great hurry to buy an air-conditioner.

I asked here whether it is for her house. No, for my office she said.
What's the price of a 1.5 ton 3 star split?

I said around 35K for the air-conditioner, stabilizer, installation and delivery.

What about the free water dispenser?

I said: Offers are on MRP. The MRP for the unit is Rs.39,990. Give that and we will give you a dispenser too.

Oh!  She immediately hung up.

I was staring at my ceiling fan!!!

Chennai market for air-conditioners

The annual (12 month) sale of air-conditioners (all brands put-together) is around 300K units.

Around 85 to 90% of these 3 lakh units of air-conditioners (splits and windows) are being sold by retailers and the remaining by Sales and Service Dealers (the people who have taken up air-conditioning as their business and have toiled over long years in brand building ).

So the over-all outgo of machines from Sales and Service dealers has
gone down and with more retailers coming in (two days back I went to Mylapore and saw Reliance Digital near the Mylapore railway station)
there is hardly scope for improvement.

Sales and Service dealers would do well and hope to survive only if
they strengthen their man-management skills and administrative skills,
develop a good service team, monitor them and improve service oriented business for which there will be not dearth nor competition.

Stop sitting and start scouting should be the mantra.

Arrogance?

Some persons are arrogant, some have arrogance thrust upon them and some are arrogance personified.
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A government department wanted to buy a few water dispensers for their office.

I explained them about the features in detail and sent them the quote by post. Then they said: You should have addressed it to the Project Director but have addressed it to the Project Manager. Also you have written my name and phone number on the quote. Please send another quote. (Is not the Director a manager??). I patiently sent another quote.

Then they rang up and said that they are eligible for concessional tax.
I reduced the quote further to show the adjustment and sent a fresh quote.

They said they would place the order but reduce 2% TDS. (To the best of my knowledge there is no TDS for supply items (products alone).

We said it is okay as long as they gave the TDS certificate.

After two days they said their Director wanted to see the products (with fridge and without fridge) to decide which one they wanted!

I said they are welcome to come to our showroom to view the products kept in display.

Our Director will not come there and all that, bring them over here for demo.

I asked them to go to hell in a couched language: "We do not have such facility".

All through my business live, I have never dealt with government departments and you may have guessed the reason by now.

Have a great day!!

For a change....

I had been to my friend's hometown Kayalpattinam (near Trichendur).

In his shop they had kept Rs.1000 worth of coins neatly packed in packets of 100 coins. I inspected the packets. No commemorative coins.

Then, he took me around to nearby shops and asked them to show the coins that they had with them.

In one shop I got a 50 paise Grow more food coin.

In another shop, three Cu-Ni coins which the shopkeeper had kept aside: Kuka, Alphonsa and Reserve Bank (all 5 Rs. coins).

One of our boys said: I have something rare. He took out from his pocket and gave me a 1 Re. 150 years India Post (Calcutta mint). A somewhat rare coin.

Another aged person whom I asked if he had some old coins asked me how old? I said 40 to 50 years old. Then he said, how about more than 100 years old. He asked us to wait and brought four coins, all in very poor condition. One coin was the 1/12 anna East India Co. I quietly gave back the coins to him.

The trouble is many people are keeping with them some coins thinking they are worth a fortune. We should hold awareness camps. I was not even prepared to look at the above four coins!!

A famous question and an even more famous reply....

My mentor was a very successful small business owner.

Once in a way, he would ask a new worker, "Who provides you lunch".

Pat would come the reply: "You, Sir."

The reply: "No. Our customers provide us our lunch every day".

The reality of this is not fully understood by many a businessman.

If our customers desert us and we are not able to add new customers, loyal customers then our business is lost.

I have observed in the recent past that owners give very scant respect to the prospects list and spend time in unnecessary phone calls and what not.

Owners will do well to carry a small note book with the title : PROSPECTS.

At-least one or two prospects should be added to the list and the entire list reviewed first thing in the morning every day.

If you do this and you find that you have not added any new prospects in four or five days........ Imagine for yourself the prospect of your business prospering.

They cheated me! They cheated me!!

This happened some years back.

We were doing regular work for a nationalised bank and the officers used to buy
air-conditioners from us.

Once, a rather fussy customer bought an air-conditioner from us.

After a few days he comes to us and says: XYZ shop is selling the same ac what
you supplied me for Rs.500 less. You cheated me.

Immediately, we gave a five hundred rupee note to that customer saying: If that is so, and you think that way, here is the money. He took it.

After a few days, when we went to the bank, he shows us and tells a colleague: These are the people. They cheated me. They cheated me.

Beware if such people in your business!!

The power of the internet.

My wife and I moved to Guduvanchery to my daughter's house for a few weeks stay.

Yesterday, my wife wanted to do some grinding work and found that the bush of
the Sumeet mixi had worn out.

She was totally at a loss and was under the impression that I had to travel 30 to 50 Kms
in my car to get the mixi repaired!

I told her not to worry and searched in google for "mixi repair in Guduvanchery". I got a number, rang him up and asked him where his shop is situated. I told him my requirement and he said he
has the necessary spares.

His shop was just 2 kms. away. I took the jar, got it repaired and was back home within an hour!