We were in the last leg of our two-day whirlwind trip to the innards of Tamil Nadu, yesterday evening. As we reached Madurai Railway Station, we were dead tired – the heat is a big reason and so was my 6 month old daughter, who I had been carrying all along. My wife and my 7 year old son sat in whatever chair that was empty and I managed to grab a place to sit a bit ahead, with my daughter in my arms.
A young boy (he must be a 12-13 year old) came to us and showcased the kind of baby rattles he had. My daughter seemed vaguely interested and turned her head away after giving those rattles just a cursory glance. The boy tried to attract her attention by rattling one of his wares where she was watching, in the hope of making a sale through his target audience…it didn’t work. Soon, he left.
My daughter was largely silent, but the blaring sound of engines was a bit too much for her. What started as a startled look soon turned into a full-fledged bawl. I was trying everything to stop her from bawling, but in vain. It was then I noticed another kid (12 year old, as I later found out), who was sitting all along opposite me in another bench, started walking towards us. He came to us, used the rattle right next to my daughter and somehow managed to stop her from crying.
Next, he told me that it costs just Rs. 10 and I bought it immediately to continue to use it to change my daughter’s mood. I was quite amazed by what he did – I asked him too.
His name, as he told me, was Murugan and he and the other kid are regulars in selling assorted items in Madurai Railway Station. They have been doing good business selling baby rattles for the past 2 weeks, it seems. He told me that his friend tries to pitch his wares to just about everybody and it seems he believes that helps him close at least a few deals. Murugan, on the other hand, said, he notes people first to see if they have children in the age groups that need baby rattles, gets a place to observe as many potential buyers as possible and look for an opportune time to make a pitch. He did concede that as the train nears, he gets into his friend’s mode of selling – pitching randomly to everyone.
For a 12 year old, this is fantastic business sense! You’re wondering what the social media selling lesson in all this. Simple!
Social media is a platform, just like Madurai Railway Station, is one for trains (massive cringe, I know, but don’t deny there is a similarity!). People offer to leave traces of their lives in both platforms – in the railway station, people are forced to do things in the public since it is a public place. In social media, we volunteer to share information, for various motives.
Sellers/brands/organizations have 2 ways of doing things – they can bombard all they notice online with their wares and hope for a few deals. Or, like Murugan, they could use that intelligence – they could note (this is what we call ‘listening’!) the kind of people you need to watch, observe them over a period of time and look for an opportune time to reach out. The other smart tactic that worked for Murugan was that he made the pitch without making it sound like one and his only connotation of a sales pitch was quoting the price to me. It was a simple, easy to deliver Rs. 10, another smart tactic that had me handing over the money as soon as possible so that I could calm my daughter.
Interestingly, I could have reached out to my wife, sitting a couple of blocks away, for the rattles we already have – from international brands like Fisher-Price that we have so carefully selected and purchased, but at that point, in that situation, buying a rattle from Murugan seemed to be the most feasible option to control my thoroughly annoyed daughter. It helped that Murugan had demonstrated the use of his product more than adequately to convince me!
Smart boy. Excellent lesson in social media selling!
PS: I’d have loved take a photo of Murugan, but he had other clients to reach out to and I had a bawling 6 month old daughter to tend to. Quite unfortunate. The pic above is courtesy Nambi83 from an online message board.