Young Achievers – Venugopal Kesavan, Regional Sales Manager, 3M India

In conversation with Venugopal Kesavan, Regional Sales Manager, 3M India

Talk about your professional & academic background. Can you also brief us about your role in your current organization?

I completed my schooling and college from Chennai, did UG in Madras University and PG from Alagappa University.

I am currently working as a Regional Sales Manager for the Auto Care Business in Northern part of India. We manage the value added Vertical of 3M, executing the car care treatments in Car Dealerships via 3M trained applicators who are on the pay-role of our authorized distributors.

My main responsibilities include increasing the profitability of car dealerships and providing solutions to various hurdles of maintaining the car’s fresh look, cleanliness and protecting it from environmental damages, delighting every car owner who undergo this treatment.

What is the single most important skill that you think is required to do well as a Sales professional?

I would say, a person needs to have passion in owning responsibility. Basically selling is a beautiful profession by its nature. People who think sales is only for the sake of doing and foresee short term goals only will struggle in sales.

What had driven you to choose a career in Sales and what motivates you everyday to go to work? Is it the numbers?

I love taking and handling challenges. I felt Sales is the only profession which perfectly suits my character, where I can thoroughly enjoy the experience. The curiosity of knowing the challenge for the day motivates me every day to go to work. I have never chased numbers. There are days where we did 132% OLY and also days with 0%OLY. Do what is required for your business; numbers will fall in place automatically.

Talk about any critical project that you’ve handled and what were your takeaways?

There are few projects in my career which I came across and every project has definitely given me some takeaways. My current role in North India itself is a project to replicate our best practices of South to North which in itself was a lot of learning. My takeaway so far is “Know the reason for your success too”. Most of the time, we are used to doing a lot of analytical workouts for our failures but, for success we never implement it. Knowing the reason for your success will give a lot of learning. This will make you a veteran in Sales.

What has been your most significant achievement till date and key learning in your career so far?

My most significant achievement so far is of achieving 132% growth in Tamil Nadu from 2007 to 2008.

Key Learning: Set your target far higher than what is expected of you.