So I’m back again with a novel experience which I can assure that no one of you ever had. Actually, I’m talking about MANDI which is a yearly event of NITIE in which all students are given bag full of toys from an NGO and they are suppose to be sell by the students on Mumbai streets. There were teams of two and each member was given a mandi t-shirt. We all felt great since this was the first t-shirt we wore on which NITIE was written.So, in the morning we had our breakfast and we were told to have unlimited breakfast. But there were chhola-bhatura and that too of worst quality and in that case how can you hope to have unlimited breakfast. So somehow I managed to eat 1 and ½ bhatura and moved towards badminton court where opening ceremony was planned. We sat in one of the front rows so that we can have a good view of Preeti Jhangiani, the celebrity and one of the chief guests. While waiting, we clicked some of the pics in different poses. After waiting for ½ hour, the ceremony started and preeti came. We were stunned to see her since she looked bit fat and less beautiful than in the movies. After all the speeches, there was an oath taking ceremony. After this we walked towards the bus by which we were supposed to reach our destination or market. So somehow we managed to fit into the bus but the driver took too much time in starting the journey. We were all pissed off and some of the guys even walked down and took auto. Well, after waiting for about ½ an hour, the bus started and took approximately 1 hour to reach andheri (w) station. So after getting off the bus, we decided to get segregated and then sell the toys.
There were people walking around but all of them were in hurry. So we tried to approach some of the people but were unsuccessful to convince them. Finally I approached a middle aged man who was waiting for someone and I said “sir, can I have your 2minutes please”. He replied positively. Then we said “we are the students of NITIE which is one of the top ten B-schools of India. We are selling toys made by an NGO called navnirmiti”. After that we gave him all the features of the toys and finally , since he was in hurry, he said “achha jaldi batao kitne mei dena hai.120/- theek hai”. But then we explained him that we can’t bargain and finally he agreed to pay the marked price of the product.
Like this we got some motivation that yes we can sell them. Our next customer was a couple where husband took the toys just because he also worked for an NGO. Since we were not able to click a picture with our first customer, so we clicked a nice pic with this couple. After roaming for about 1 and a ½ hour, we realised that this is not the right market to sell and we moved to Juhu beach where many of our batch mates were really trying hard to sell. Here we also joined the race and successfully were able to sell all of the toys till 7.30 pm. At juhu, we met some of our alumni and they gave certain tips on how to sell the toys. I kept one of the units for my nephews. After this, we had our dinner and catched a local to NITIE.
It was a inexplicable experience. I must say that it was a lifetime experience. We are never going to step in the market like this if we opt for marketing but the knowledge about market and customers we got from this exercise is fabulous. I personally realised how tough it is to earn money and even to spend each extra penny. We, at home or any other place, don’t treat sales people in a gentle way. But I realised how it feels when somebody says “NO” to you. We understood how tough it is for a roadside salesman to sell each extra unit of his product. Suddenly we all have gained respect for sales people. All in all, it was a great experience....
