Today I had a very different experience, and I was not ready for that.
One of my clients (the one in Liverpool which was my closest client and I ran most of their IT) CIO and PM were visiting India and I volunteered to meet them. They are planning to change the core orchestration system which I was an expert and thought of sharing my input with them. I stayed home yday to read their docs and brush up on my knowledge, I was prepared to give gyan on what they could do and how this change can become an enabler.
I reached today for breakfast with them and as the conversation started, she was asking about my history and what I do now. Soon I realized she thought I was there to actually bid for this piece of work. And i was just not ready for it. I set the scene that I was meeting them to share my thoughts and give advice where possible. If things are fine we can work on the bid but as of now, it is just as a wellwisher :D I dont think she registered that (she was not feeling good and was distracted) and was enquiring about what I currently do and how my organization is. She had to leave due to bad health and I continued talking to one of the PMs whom I knew well from my stay there. I told her to look at the wider plan for the next 5 yrs and then decide how to replace the core system. It is the heart and not easy to replicate without good knowledge of the process. And given their track record, they would not have updated the documents I had created 5 yrs ago before moving to India. I actually was convincing them to bring it in-house than giving it to a vendor to build.
That is when I realized I am so not a salesman. Here was an opportunity where a client is ready for work and I am saying them to do it themself. I typical salesperson would have jumped at it and sold the world to them. But to be fair to myself, I did not go to sell, all I wanted was for them to understand the end goal and make an informed decision that works for the long term.
And then I realized, I was actually asking them to come up with a strategy and break it down into milestones. I asked if they spoke to some of the ex-employees who have joined competitors to check the systems they use. Delivery business is a small industry in UK and most of them move between a few companies and will have good exposure to processes and systems, why reinvent the wheel if they can reuse? I was actually giving them Ideas on how to build the strategy which I thought I was bad at :D.
I felt I am good at planning for business and processes than IT and services :D Something to work on :)
Overall loads of realizations, the biggest one is that I am not a good salesman, at least not the typical kinds :) Dono if have to be sad or glad about it :))))
