CarTrade.com: Struggle

After that long training I came out of Tata Motor Finance office & called AVP for some leads but he said that 'you have to do cold calling. Moreover you will get some help from Hiren Shroff.' Hiren Shroff - senior sales manager of Gujarat who took my interview. I called Hiren sir but he said that 'I am in a meeting & I will call you in a while.' I did cold calling earlier during my internship but at that time I had an open market & here it was limited upto car dealers only. So to find those leads I used google as it always help. I found the list of dealers on just dial.

So I started visiting the dealers as per just dial & after visiting couple of dealers I reached narayanpura, hub of used car dealers in Ahmedabad. I started making calls there & four dealers one after another said that they are registered on cartrade. I knew there is different department of sales but I didn't knew that registration of both sales & auction is different as I was given very long training of 10 minutes. So I might not have remmebered it. While doing 5th call I finally met Hiren sir at that dealer's place. Hiren sir is a sindhi so he tried to bring me in my comfort zone by using it. He talked to AVP about my calling & asked what were his plans about me. It was sweet of him that he did his best to bring me in my comfort zone from day one. So this was the first day of my cold calling.

Then next whole month went just in making the script to use while approaching the dealers. I accept that I was very slow in that case. In that month I got to know that auction's registration is done seperately & it has nothing to do with registration of sales. In between I got my first salary. First salary is special for everyone it was special for me too. I can't express in words that happiness of first salary. As they say its pretty hard to earn first penny & last penny of life & after working for two and a half months I got my first salary so the happiness was on the next level altogether. It was the best part of the company that they pay to their employees on time.

It was time to know flaws in the product. In the next month as I started approaching the dealers, I came to know that from these kind of auctions dealers doesn't get any help from the banks. Moreover dealers don't even get the complete papers of most of the vehicles they buy in the auction. Ofcourse it wasn't discussed in that long training. In short there was not much benefit for the dealer in registering for the auction. So it wasn't a cakewalk as it was described by AVP. I discussed whole thing with Hiren sir as I wasn't being able to sale even a single registration.

He then adviced me to approach kavadiwalas as they will be interested in buying salvage vehicles from our auction. So I started visiting kabadi markets of Ahmedabad but there was a big hurdle in the sale of registration & that was their backwardness in the field of technology. They believe that internet is chaos as they don't understand most of it. Finally couple of kabadi walas shown some interest in registering but they kept me running around them. They had no intent to register but they used to call me thrice a week & used to give me another date. Tareekh pe tareekh was not going to go for much time. It was a learning curve that my first two prospects did this to me. Then it was the end of second month & sales was zero in this month too. All of the sudden management started new kind of auction in the third week of october which will be discussed in the next part.

To be continued...

CarTrade.com: Beginning of a new Journey

On 16th August 2013, day after independence day I joined CarTrade.com. Finally I had a job. As what I had earlier was a mere fraud. I worked in a fraudulent outsourcing firm in which they fetch money from clients to give them business in return but they give nothing in return. I think that was the worst nightmare I would ever had. On one side it was toughest phase of my career but on the other side it was a good thing to happen at the start of my career. It eventually taught me that this world is not good with good people. Moreover it gave me a push to choose the next company wisely. My life was hell, societal pressure was piling up as people were thinking that I am retrenched from this job.

In between of all this I gave the interview for CarTrade.com twice. I wanted to be a part of Automobile sector as cars always brought a sense of excitement in me & I love cars. I was selected for the sale of used cars but was posted in auction department. CarTrade.com is website of MXC solutions pvt. ltd. Where mainly the sell of used cars is done. CarTrade.com works as an agent between the used car dealers & customers. It takes commission from the dealers if their vehicle is sold through them. Similarly in the auction of banks re-possesed cars, if the car is sold through cartrade then cartrade will get the commission from the bank or financing company. Now being part of auction department I had to sell the online registrations for the auction.

This job gave a big Babaji Ka Thullu to all the people who thought I am retrenched from the job & I am going to get another one. Before pointing a finger or laughing on anyone's failure or rather an unsuccessful attempt just try to understand what he/she has gone through. Now back to the first day of the job. My first day of the job accidentally became first day at job. On 16th August 2013, I called HR head to know the dates from when I am joning & my reporting place. She said that I have to contact Assistant Vice President for that as I interviewed by him. So I called him around 10 a.m & he told me that live TATA Motor Finance auction is about to begin at hotel silver cloud & I have to be there. So in this way it became my joining day.

I reached at hotel by 11 a.m & auction was not started by then. As the auction was not started AVP sir explained me that we organise the open auction for Tata Motor Finance every month. He introduced me to the Tata guy & told that he will train you & guide you about how to approach the customers, the benefits the customers get from us & where to go in rural gujarat as per the auction. I still was ambigous about it so I asked a brief introduction until the auction get started. The way sir explained me it looked like a cake walk & suddenly my chest became broader with confidence. One of the most important thing I came to know in that briefing is that CarTrade doesn't have office in Ahmedabad. Finally auction began at 12:45 & it was first auction I was witnessing live. Before that I had only seen IPL auction & ofcourse I was comparing both the auctions for the time being. Auction went on till 7:30 p.m & AVP has to catch 8 p.m flight. So he was in lot of rush & in that rush I asked him about what I have to do next day & he said 'call that Tata guy' while signing off. So this was my first day at office not knowing what I have to do next day but I was happy that finally I have a job.

Next day I called that TMF guy & he said that he is going at yard auction today & I was instructed by AVP to go with him. I went him & yard was out of Ahmedabad in some village which was surrounded by various industries. It was totally different auction from what I witnessed on the first day. So from first two days I made a perception that I have to visit rural gujarat only when auction is organised there. Next day I met that Tata guy at his office to get some training & I thought it will be a proper training a person will be standing by the board & will make some drawings to make me understand the structure, target customer, approach to those customers, benefits of them etc.

On the contrary that Tata guy just showed me one piece of paper, it was a letter pad of Tata Motor Finance & on that No Objection Cerificate was written & he said 'this is the biggest benefit we give to the customer'. That's it! My training was over. I asked him about how online auctions happen but he doesn't had even an access to those. In total I was trained for ten long minutes. After that training I knew that I am not going to get any help from this guy, I am on my own. Can I ask for a better start to my career.

To be continued...