Faith vs Responsibility

Human relations are a very interesting and complex mix. HR has definitely grown to become an independent discipline of its own and is regarded as crucial for any business organisation. Still, it is studied as a part of many other disciplines as well. Sociology, Economics, Psychology etc are not complete without the study of human relations. Even Law as a subject studies and considers HR. For example, Section 15 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 discusses influence as one of factors that may affect the consent of a party regarding a contractual understanding.

But i want to talk about something which is instrumental in one to one relationship. There are many relations where utmost good faith is required. The relationship between, for example, a doctor and his patient, a lawyer and his client, a teacher and his student or parents and their child falls in the same category.

What is the binding force in such relations. I will call it faith and responsibility balance. Patient has faith and doctor has responsibility. Client has faith and lawyer has responsibility.And similarly, student keeps faith and teacher fulfils responsibility.

Now, this balance is very crucial. There can be a financial implication also but that is less important in such relations. It is very easy for a doctor to fulfil his contractual liability by prescribing medication and treatment but responsibility has a bigger spectrum. And the same is true for the other mentioned relationships too.

Now what binds a doctor, a lawyer or a teacher is not merely contract but faith. Money can buy services but not responsibility. It arises out of faith only. And the moment one party loses the faith, the other party is relieved of the responsibility.

Yes! This point is very important in human relations. Have faith! For God's sake, never lose it. The moment we lose faith, we relieve the service provider professional from his responsibility!

A course in Salesmanship!

What makes us an effective salesperson?

This much-talked-of topic is most misunderstood too. Everybody has an opinion on the same and the variety of available tips seems to qualify for being called noise. Recently i was reading a book 'What they still don't teach at Harvard Business School' and got a very simplified answer to the same. The formula suggested is refreshingly simple and precise.

The book presents four direct priciples to learn to sell effectively:

1. Know the Product

2. Meet a lot of people

3. Ask them to buy

4. Use common sense

That's it.

It made a lot of sense to me. The first point clearly tells every salesperson to be sure of always staying in the know of everything that the prospect may expect from him or her. Knowledge is power and it wins trust. It creates confidence. People always tend to prefer knowledgeable sales persons.

The second point is the most obvious one and the most commonly ignored one too! Meeting new people either by way of cold calling or through some promotional events is very important. Meeting them in normal course of life is even better.

The third point is all about focus. To the first timers it also teaches the importance of being on target - at all times. Some initial hesitation must be overcome if one wants to practise this point of action.

And the last point is the most important one. It's all about common sense but common sense is so uncommon these days! If one ventures to list out the mistakes one has committed in sales meetings a very vast majority of them can be covered under the heading 'lack of common sense'. Possibly a very narrow focus causes many to ignore what is visible to the neutral eye.

Try to apply these priciples in whatever you sell and see the result. And of course, we all know that selling is omnipresent!