And i decided to quit

Next Day

I woke up at around 4.30 am . I had never woken up so early in my entire life. But what made me left my bed so early on that day ..i don’t know. I fumbled my ING bag and checked the cheque and saw the figure of 10 lac . I came into the balcony. There was dark silent all around . Bangalore city was sleeping. Some dogs started barking without any reason and I was staring at them. I was not feeling sleepy .Glimpses of the incident were flashing back into my memory. I knew that every time luck had favoured me whenever I was at the brink (whether it was campus placement in B.tech or In MBA , I was selected in the last company ) but I had never thought of the doctor’s call .

It feels good among friends when we talk about any girl and claim that we can do everything. But most of us know the reality. We know that there are only few kind of boys who can go to that level and I was not one of them and never wanted to be like them. Whatever people say about me but somewhere I was happy. I used to love talking about the hot girls but those girls look good at a distance . People can call it double standard but this is what I am.

But that day I was ready to sacrifice all of this. Some where I was not ready to compromise with my job. I knew that God would not come always to help me. There would be pressure . My ASM would always ask for investment. So is this the way I would generate investment? Then what would be the difference between me and a prostitute. I would become a legalized prostitute. A sense of disrespect suddenly shook my identity. I knew I had to take a hard step.

I called my father at around 7 and I was ready for many questions . Why do u want to leave such a lucrative job.. how will u get a new job in recession … it is better to have a new job then leave the job .. and bla..bla..well finally I called my father and told him straight that I wanted to leave my job as I was not happy with my job. I didn’t have any other job in my hand and I wanted to do preparation for PO exams. He didn’t say anything for a minute then he asked where i wanted to do preparation for PO exam ,whether i would go to Delhi or i would be at Bharatpur . I was surprised to learn that he didn’t ask me any single question and that is why I love my parents because they believe in me and the do respect my decision . I booked my train ticket for the next from Bangalore to Mathura .( this time Sleeper ..of course from Karnataka express) and went to Regional office . I handed over the 10lac Rs cheque to ASM with my resignation letter. First he was shocked to hear about it then he asked me where I had got another job. I put it simply that I wanted to prepare for PO exam but I could figure it out that he was not very much convinced and even tried to convince me that I am a good sales person and very few people are able to get 10 lac rs investment . But this is only me who know how I got that cheque.

Well .. I called all my friends and told them that I had made my mind to leave ING. Some were happy with my decision , some were not . But I had already taken the decision .

Next day I reached the Bangalore railways station and took my berth . I was jobless and wishing that no one should ask me about my job . My seat was in RAC and had to share my seat with a boy . He was basically from Mangalore and going to Delhi . He started a causal conversation and finally he asked me that question of which I didn’t have the answer and I told him straight that I am preparing for Po exams . Then I asked about his profession . He responded in a very professional way …
“I AM JOINING ICICI BANK AS A RELATIONSHIP MANAGER “ 

Well…When one story ends ..another one begins….

Last words:

After four months, I have three job offers in PSU bank s and I know that now I wouldn’t be required to compromise with my values (a lot of thank to my father ) .what is more is that somewhere after 15 years down the line these four months wont matter at all but if I had stayed back in Bangalore as a relationship manager , my life would have been changed and I would not be able to ask only once question to my kid that why he is coming so late at 2’o clock In the night with a beer in his hand …completely slouched

Thank you…….

Part-15, Pleasure is completely mine

Well… today I am going to write something about which I have never told to anyone and I never wanted to write about it but without it my story would not have been completed.

I called that lady at 7 in the evening and communicated her that I would reach her apartment by 8. I told Nilesh that I would stay at chinmoy’s apartment. I started my bike and headed towards her apartment . Through out my journey I was thinking about my decision . is it worth to compromise with your valur for your job? Consequence of losing the job was scaring me as some of my batch mate were jobless so I knew how hard it was to get a job as recession was on and that too so lucrative job. I convinced my mind hard that it is a matter of one night only and my job would be secured but my heart was not ready to accept . In this dilemma when I reached the apartment I don’t know. I asked security guard that I had a appointment with the lady , he called her no and allowed me to enter.

I took all the application forms and reached her apartment, ringed the bell and waited for some moments . A servant opened the door and asked me to sit . After some time that lady came into the room in a very decent dress .I thought she would simply fill the application forms but all my happy feeling got disappeared ,when she sat near to me ( so called in my intimate zone ) and approached towards me.She whispered in my ear whether I was ready for it and said that she would be back in 10 min.

I was alone in the room for 10 min.. emotionless and feeling less. just wanted to finished off all the thing as soon as possible .. didn’t want to think anything . I Was completely dull at that moment.

Well.. after some time she came into the room . I don’t want to write about the details as I m not writing a porn story but yes, she was wearing a reveling dress. She sat near to me and some kind of peculiar smell was coming out of her body. She asked me whether I would have vodka or whisky . I asked for whisky as I had heard that whisky effects faster than Vodka and I didn’t want to be in my consciousness. I had 4-5 glasses of whisky ..Cause I wanted to forget that moment . But all my myth went wrong when even after having 5 glasses of whisky .. I was conscious . I knew what was happening around. Who says that drink makes u forget everything . I was aware of each and everything .When she had enough amount of drink , she came near to me and started unbuttoning my shirt –button . don’t know why but tears started rolling out from my eyes. But she was busy with her act. She didn’t notice it.

I took my cell –phone out from my pocket as I wanted to keep it silence mode because my father used to call me around 8’o clock and today,I just wanted to avoid this call. But as I picked up the cell phone .. I received a call . I knew it was my father’s call and was about to cancel it . But it was from the Doctor( London based ). I told that lady that it was an urgent call and I had to pick –up , I didn’t wait for her respond . I picked up the call and said “Hi” to the doctor. Doctor told me that he was going dubai on the next day and he wanted to make an investment of rs 10 lac today and asked me if it was possible for me to come down to his home today. It was the happiest moment of my life and I told that I was reaching his home in half an hour and I told that lady that I had to leave , without looking back to her I came out from her apartment.

I took my bike and headed towards the doctor’s home. I don’t know why but I felt like vomiting after 10 min. I stopped my bike and Vomited like anything. I was not feeling normal . I cried bitterly I was feeling like a pimp . Some people stopped near me and asked me if I needed any help but I didn’t say anything . .. don’t know how long I cried but when I felt normal , I approached to a shop and asked for a water bottle . I washed my eyes and face and reached the Doctor’s home. As soon as Doctor saw my red eyes he said “ sorry to disturb you “ . But I responded in a amiable way “ Sir, Pleasure is completely mine “

you do make compromises

Like any other day I reached to my branch sharp at 10 .I was aware of the fact that i should have been at 9.30 but how does it matter whether I reach by 9.30 or 10, end of the day I was not going to do any business so I myself extended the timing by 30 min. well.. nothing wrong in it as I am a part of Free india and a free indian should have right to decide when he wants to come to his own office . So I just used some of my democratic rights . Well.. I parked my Bike and entered into my branch . Suddenly I got shocked to see my ASM over there ( my Boss ). He was talking to my branch manager , and I was wise enough to know the topic of the discussion ( why business is not happening  ). He looked at me , I looked at him . I didn’t speak anything and tried to search some pages( just wanted to show him ..how busy I was and didn’t have enough time to talk to him ) . He came near to me and I knew the question he was going to ask so I kept the answer ready. Well… he asked very obvious question why I was so late and business was not happening Now I tell you billion dollar worth thing …how to handle these kind of questions. Whenever your boss asks about your negligence on duty ,just give him what he wants . so I did the same . I said that I was having a meeting with one of my client. But meeting needs to have some out come so he asked for the ask outcome .nothing came into my mind as I wanted to avoid the disastrous situation so I told him that the client was ready to invest rs 1 lac in reliance mutual . Now see the good part . you might be thinking that when I didn’t have 1 lac rs in my alms ,how would I able to make the investment . Now generally what happens that ASM asks for the investment and a relationship manager job is to say some arbitrary no., let say 2 lac or 3 lac. It is only end of the month that ASM can realise whether true investment has made or not through MIS because MIS is prepared at the end of the month. So if if an ASM is asking about the investment in the first week of a month then you can say anything and get investment in the rest of the month . This was the only learning I learnt throughout my job . So I was able to convinve my ASM as I used Bram-Astra( who have seen Ramayan knows that Bram-Astra never gets fail but it can be used only one time ). So it also worked for me and I was able to postpone the disaster. But I Knew I had taken the one more tension of getting rs 1 lac’s investment. Me who had not earned the 10k rs investment, how would I ever be able to get 1 lac rs investment. What kind of mess I had got myself into. well it was like Munna Bhai-MBBS story when sanjay datt told the lie that he is a lecture and to prove himself right he had to read all the books . I thought a lot what I should do . Finally like the movie I convinced myself that I had to get an investment of 1 lac. So again I picked up my client’s list and as per my expection I got the same routine answers. I knew I would not be able to get investment by this method.
When nothing works for me , I always think of having tea . So I went to a tea –stall and asked for a tea. But even after having cups of tea I couldn’t find a way so I came to the branch. There I saw a lady ( age would be around 30-34.. fair young lady , north indian ), she was asking for the Balance enquiry . it was told to us that we were supposed to pitch walk-in customers but it was against my reputation as I was a manager. But the consequences of my lie encouraged me to pitch the lady. I approached to that lady and didn’t say that I am a relationship manager but asked why she was there in the branch. She told me that the person on the counter is not helping her and she had been waiting for the last 30 min to get her balance statement . I took her account No and went to the senior relationship manager ( Kya karu.. matlab ke liye to Gadhe ko bhi baap banana padta hai .. my father’s only advise ). I don’t know what mood he was into but he took the account no and gave me the statement as he had his own personnal computer not like me a manager without any desk . well I handed over the account statement to her and I asked for the investment . She looked at me and asked how much invest I want. I said rs1 lac. Ohh god it was like those kind of scene in hindi movie when heroine is in truble ( because her father is sick or his brother got paralysis or whatever) and she needs money . Then villain asks her how much money she needs. And she pretends that she does not understand anything even a child can tell the villain’s intension. I was standing on the same condition. Well nothing was in my hand so I said plainly 2 lac rs investment (when I am going to be sold why should I earn some profit) . She told me that she was interested but she wanted to have more discussion about the investments as branch was over crowded so she suggested me to come over to her own apartment at 8 PM ( don’t know whether it is 8 in the evening or 8 in the night ) and left the premises .
I knew what was going to happen but I was ready for that sacrifice even though my father was not ill , my mother didn’t need money . All my sisters are married and well settled, my brother is earning enough but still I needed some money. what I can do when my situation was not as worse as in hindi movie’s actress , still I needed my job and money .Finally god shown me a way but it was me who had to walk thorugh that way . I called nilesh ( my roommate ) that I was going to chimoy’ room and I would stay there. But it was me only who knew where I was going.

Proud to be a part of Bangalorean culture

Salesman’s life is not always full of frustration as Management provides lot of opportunity to rejuvenate him but to recreate yourself; you need to fulfill certain conditions. Which I understood when I got an opportunity to be a part of so called bangalorean culture .
One fine morning my branch head called me and told me that the Reliance mutual fund was giving a party at century club as they want to give a presentation on their new product. Now I tell you why these people give parties because even they are given targets to assemble certain No of people and introduce about their products to them. So if they don’t through a party in a luxurious hotel, who would come to listen to their shit. In sales everything including party is driven my targets.
I was asked to invite at least 4 HNI clients and I was extremely happy as I got something to pass my time. I took my client’s list and thought that everyone would eager to come Well my whole presumption went wrong when none of my clients agreed to come and I was surprised why people can’t come even at free party . Finally I asked one of my staff whether he knew any HNI clients .By that time all the staff members had become my friends, not because of my nature but because of my condition. He gave me a contact No and asked me to call the client by giving his reference as expected the client accepted my invitation and told me that he would come along with his wife. In sales everything works on recommendation or references, whatever you do .Even to invite a person , you need to have some recommendation. Finally I was satisfied with 2 clients
We all assembled at 9’O clock at century club and no client had come yet from our branch. By the time I had called 4 times to my only dearest client to remind about the party. My branch head was staring at me and asking me mootly about my 4 clients .In sales even if you are able to achieve half of your target you become a hero . Suddenly two unknown face (A Couple ) appeared at the front door and I felt some vibe that those were my clients . I confirmed it by asking their name and they turned out my clients. I felt so existed and happy that I introduced them to my branch manager and reliance mutual fund’s people . First time I was able to draw the attention of my branch head. Everyone was appreciating me as it is not a simple deal to call the clients and I was able to do that . Reliance’s people gave a short presentation as they were aware of that no one was going to listen to their presentation . After a brief question-answer secession, Real party or true Banglorien culture started .
In Bangalore, everything is started with drinks. My branch head asked me that I should always be with my clients just like a waiter and i was quite ready for it because they made me proud .After some brief conversation , I asked from the male whether he would like to have something and he asked for the wine . I called the waiter and arranged for the same then I asked from the lady whether she would like to have something .She told me that she didn’t like wine and I was not surprised as in my so called Bharatpur city women generally avoid drinks ….so I thought I should ask for a glass of juice but again my whole presumption went wrong when the lady told me that if I could arrange for a Vodka. Wake up Deepak Wake up, you are in a metro city and that too in Bangalore .Well… drinks is followed by Non-Veg dish so if you are simple Bharatpuria kind of kid who doesn’t drink and a vegetarian , you don’t have any place here .
People wait for dance floor to be opened and once the dance floor is open then Kon Apna kon Paraya .Well I appreciate this kind of culture because people mingle with each other like there is no barrier and why their should be any barrier . But I who was from a tiny city , finding it abnormal . First time I was evidencing some real moves which I had seen only in movies or magazines. Who says metro culture is bad, I was just loving it and enjoying it. Well everything was over by 1’o clock and everyone started retuning to their home, With the help of their drivers
When I returned to my room, I felt some kind of changes in me . India is really becoming a developed country and today I became a part of its development

..And i was completely lost

Nothing was going like the way I had planned and I knew if I was not able to perform I would be thrown out from the organization. The fear of throwing out from the organization used to motivate or compelled me to make some calls but responses of all those calls used to be same. People advise that to be a successful salesman one needs to keep his self-respect aside but we should not forget that even salesman is a human being and he has some self respect too. I won’t blame to my client either because they were not responsible for it .why would they buy my products if they didn’t feel like buying it. Gradually I realized that people don’t feel any need of buying insurance product because they are not ready to accept that they will die or they have an option to postpone it for some other time. But whatever was the reason, I was not able to sell even a single product. I started begging(Read: asking) from the staff for leads .I offered them some commission from the sell also. I was ready to share some part of my salary. I wrote letters to all my clients. but nothing worked .People say one needs to be optimistic and give the example of half filled water that one should not see emptiness of the glass but should see that it is half filled, but to see it half filled , there should be some water in it . How long a person can motivate himself, one day he will accept his defeat. I tried to push myself to the last mile .But nothing worked. I tried to make me happy in some peculiar ways.
Finally I started using my cell for my own purpose as I was not getting any lead so Rs 1200/- were going useless. I Started sending group SMS to all my friends in Bangalore. I don’t know why but that used to make me happy at least it was a nice way to let people know that there is a guy called Deepak Khandelwal is present in the city .I started talking to all of my friends every day. Some or other way I tried to pass time as I knew I had to spend 8 hours which becomes quite long when u don’t have anything to do . The whole life was a mess. I was surprised that how come people were able to sell insurance products. Whenever my colleagues used to become successful in selling the insurance, I used to call them and enquired about how they were able to sell and the answers I got were more discouraging. Some time their branch managers helped them or some time customers asked for the product which forced me to curse my own destiny. Why can’t i have the same type of customers who come and ask for the products or why can’t I have the same branch manager who can get the customers. Well… I accept that the work pressure from management side was not so much but it was my self- respect which used to make me sad. How long can I continue like this. One day management will ask for the policies. The moment I used to leave for the branch, I was aware that I would not be able to do any kind of business. Well thanks to internet, I was able to pass my time by seeking stock market fluctuation unlike my life which was pretty smooth. I won’t say that all 30 days were bad. 28th of every month used to make me happy as it was our salary day .But after some time even that day didn’t motivated me anymore. With keeping smile on the face, i was completely lost.

God's indications

I accepted finally that i wouldn’t be able to sell insurance product but even though i knew about it , i could not convey the same to my ASM. Every morning he used to call me and asked about the policies i would sell in the day. Earlier i used to say that i would not be able to sell any policies, which led me to get scolding two times, first in the morning then in the evening. so two times in a day was routine for me but my creative thinking converted it to one time in a day as and when he used to call me in the morning, i used to say i had plenty of leads and expecting two-three plicies which led me to get appreciation in the morning at least but when he used to call me in the evening , i told him happily that i was not able to sell single policy . That is how i used to get rebuke one time in a day ( How SMART I WAS:) )
So even after being understood that i would not be able to sell single policy, i was not ready to accept it and god perhaps was laughing at me and might be angry with me as so many times he had given me indications but i was so stubborn that i was not ready to listen him.
First time:-
I called a client and asked for the appointment by using the way No.2 .He told me that his office was quite far and it was not practical for me to come over there. But i was not ready to lose an opportunity and told my client that i had no problem and i would come comfortably. Well... he gave his address. Even a trainee who was with me told me many times that we had no need to go over there but i an MBA post graduate was not ready to listen to him and reached over there in two Hours .
Outcome of the meeting :- My client was 82 years old guys, now you tell me what product you can suggest an old guy because insurance policy can be given under 60 years of age . i thought i should pitch to his family but his whole family was residing in USA.
Second time:-
One of was my client was a London returned doctor and made a lot of money in India. So i thought if i was able to impress him, He would give me some policies in return . He was Illiterate in computer and trying to learn it so i thought it was a good way to make relationship. I started giving him 2 hours in a day to teach him computer and able to do so but that doctor was really a smart guy and never gave me a single policy
Third times:-
I tried to figure out where i was going wrong and found out that perhaps i was helping my clients out of the context and should help my client in financial products only . So i started helping an entrepreneur in his banking need. He was quite happy with me and used to call me whenever he required my helps but when it came for insurance product .He refused me plainly
Well after being understood god hints , i found it useless to call my clients but when you don’t have any task in the branch it becomes more tough to spend 8 hours in the branch and you need to be really creative to spend those 8 hour.. well you know How creative i am ......

Job profile of a relationship manager

So First of my task was to understand my role and let the client know about my role. So in persuasion to achieve this, I called all my friends but even they were as ignorant as i and provided me plenty of their advice based on their own knowledge. i understood finally that there were few people present in the world who knew about my profile and one of them was my ASM ( my reporting head ). But I didn’t find it practical to ask him directly as my reputation of being MBA was on sake. So after using my entire education, I found a way out and called my ASM and asked him that how I should be more beneficial for the enhancement of the organization except doing a routine job. It was like a mentee asking a question to his mentor and my strategy worked right on spot. He guided me in a very humble way and told me that I was supposed to generate revenue through life insurance products and mutual fund products keeping sequence in mind as first generate more revenue .In order to sell the product I needed to have good relationship with the clients. That is why we are called relationship manager. Now let’s understand the implicit meaning of this definition. A relationship manager is a salesman who calls the people so many times that he finally gets an appointment (but how would he get the appointment, there comes his true skills). After getting the appointment ,Just forget about client’s problem and sell life insurance products first then mutual fund .If he is able to sell any of the products , then call has been converted otherwise he is not a good relationship manager .
Now after having understood about my role , I needed to convey the same to my clients . but I was smart enough to understand that if I say direct to them that I want to sell the life insurance products, no one would give me appointment . But I needed to get appointment so how should I get appointment. So I tried following ways…
Way No.1:-
Deepak :- Hi Sir, I am Deepak Khandelwal and I am your newly appointed relationship manager and I want to introduce some new products to you …you will like them certainly …
Client:- Fuck you .. who gave you my No..
Outcome: - Mission failed
Way No.2:-
Deepak: - Hi Sir, I am Deepak Khandelwal and I am your newly appointed relationship manager. Some set of customer have been assigned to me and you are one of them. Sir, I want to meet you to introduce myself so that I can serve you in better way
Client:- No need to come to come. Whenever I will visit the branch, I will meet you
Outcome: - client never came…. Mission failed
Way No.3:-
Deepak :- Hi Sir, I am Deepak Khandelwal and I am your newly appointed relationship manager. Some set of customer have been assigned to me and you are one of them. Sir, I have to hand over your cheque or payment or your account statement or something
Client :- Ok come but after taking the concerned thing, Boss I need to go or I have a meeting
Outcome :- Able to get appointment but not able to sell the product. Wasted my 2 hours and half a liter petrol plus lots of frustrations