It is an incident that happened a few years back when I was in Hyderabad to be the part of a

technology tradeshow. I was with a friend who is the founder of another growing company.

My friend utilized this opportunity in the tradeshow to meet his local team to brief and review
their work. However, it was none of my business, thus I stood apart of digital marketing

While I stood there, I saw a street urchin walking up to the group (my friend and his team)
and started begging for money.

Since my friend was busy he got irritated by the kid and so as to get rid he asked him to go
away. But the kid didn’t move and kept on asking money. In few minutes my friend got
irritated and out of sheer irritation, he started looking at his pocket to get some change and
release the kid.

In the meantime, all his subordinates proactively pulled out all the change and gave it to their
boss. My friend picked a 10 rupee coin and gave it to the kid. It was really a substantial
contribution for the begging kid.

The kid was super happy and started running with his income happily. While he ran some of
the other kids from other street urchin groups attacked him and tried to snatch the coin.
However, the poor kid struggled and saved his income and managed to reach to his
headquarter where there were few other kids sitting.

He reached there with high excitement and nudged another kid pointing to the group of
people so that he can even try his luck with this set of customers.

Here, let’s try to understand few management skills w these kids follow quite instinctively.

Lesson 1# Talk to the Decision Makers

This is one of the primary lessons every marketing and sales professionals need to know is to
talk to the decision makers, even if the payment is not going to happen directly from the
decision maker.

Lesson 2# Patience is the Key

Even if my friend avoided the kid multiple times, he still didn’t give up.Sometimes the
customer may not be in the right mindset to take the buying decision, step back and wait for
the right time but do not leave the territory

Lesson 3 # Protect your Deal

The kid remained calm even after winning the highest income of the day. He did not go out
and brag and fought and struggled to secure his income. He also ensured that the competitors
won’t enter his territory and undercut your price and steak your market share.

Last but not least, the most important lesson..

Lesson # 4 Keep a hawk-eye on your paying
Customers
The moment the kid reached his headquarter and nudged the other kid and said they are
paying customers you must go there and try bring in some more business for the day.

What an amazing example of customer service management!

It takes roughly around 3-4 years to teach this to the management trainees from premium B-
schools when they join the corporate industry.

But who teaches this to the street urchins?

For a fact, if these kids do not pitch correctly they have to starve tonight. They sleep empty
stomach if their value proposition is not well accepted by their prospects. It is not about a
bonus or incentive it’s about that hunger that teaches them these management skills.