The most needed aspect in anyone’s attitude is the least given importance by most human beings. The world over its billion-year history and millions of years with humans on earth must have witnessed POM as an aspect that would have shaped our story differently with many instances of POM displayed by millions of humans. Why do human beings fail to harness this strength as part of their lives and build a capability around it to talk, hear, see, feel, etc. for displaying great POM?
Umpteen times we would have heard the story of the hare and the tortoise and not quoted in sales meetings today as there is a rush to do fast; we always sided with the tortoise because the hare never displayed the POM for winning the race. The tortoise was never a winner and also could not have participated knowing well it will be outpaced. Considering the belief of POM to have made its impact the tortoise just did what it could do best. Walk till it could last, but never fast.
The stories that we have read of great leaders, we know they always tried to prove the super qualities that they had and yet never failed to spot a few aspects of failed leadership characteristics. These will never be told though as a consequence of a bad POM.
There is some truth when we say; most leaders in business or politics thrive on decision making. Some turn out to be good decisions and some bad. The good ones show a great POM but the bad ones are not described as a bad or negative POM. So we could infer that there is only a positive POM and no negative POM. Again the absence of POM is always described as being less smart or not the person of the moment. In the marketing world, the POM moments are best described heroically by various salesmen after meeting a client. Lee Iaccoca had great POM moments and has narrated in his book.
Opportunities for a marketing person starts as soon as he wakes up and till he sleeps. Of course, he can plan activities and messages that will be processed when he is asleep and for clients to respond to his proposals. These are seen in global marketing activities and also in the modern net-based processes used and managed. Demonstrably I could show how POM works only when a person is faced with a situation. At various instances from the morning waking to getting ready for the day and responding to various calls of nature and duties, we somehow fall into a trap of POM moments. These moments if monitored well and if activities done are performed excellently well, POM automatically increases in its quality.
The army training or camps by various trainers, special training programs on leadership, communication skills, special coaching classes for competitive examinations, pilot training, teachers training, sports, and fitness training, etc., are all methods to improve POM. Sadly nobody uses the word POM in many of these training though the benefit is the increase of POM attitude only. For the sales executives apart from all the exercises they do, practicing POM also must be part of their daily routine.
You may find many salesmen trying to gain access to the customer premises first, then to the customer’s office or home and then to the customer’s heart and mind. The process as above is in varied forms, but when it comes to unplanned visits the POM and charm of the salesmen only help.
Similarly, many ad agencies give options to the client for the best ad to be shown. Certain products that are advertised require a combination of thought processes that happens before a product is purchased by a family. For e.g, when there are false claims and the advertisers make announcements that are hard to believe, the customers who exercise a great POM will be saved of a lot of cognitive dissonance. Another example is when advertisers entice children to buy a bicycle at fancy prices and the parent makes the child feel good by buying a better cheaper option. Also from the advertiser perspective – they may sell a product based on a USP not capitalized by a competitor and gain more sales. For instance, in yesteryears, Promise toothpaste announced it had clove oil in its products and this was a hit with the Indian consumers.
Similarly, at the time of interviews, great POM moments are seen and narrated by those interviewed for top positions, army, navy, air force, civil services, etc. but the best part and narration is always reserved and heard about is from the sales line.
Resting is a great stress reliever. But the human mind if set to idle gets to dream. If the human mind is trained for excellent POM management, it will set to a task and add value to any other task or effort. POM is being on alert for doing a job or doing nothing at each moment and the more the person knows the difference between doing and non-doing will help him and save many moments of anguish, pain, distress, and loss.
As philosophers would say “stay calm in all situations”, need not apply to the army and many other professionals. But when in a turbulent flight if the pilot appeals for passengers to remain calm, most would remain and also pray. A bad landing will have the pilot in blame and if the plane is tossed up by the winds, the pilot is never blamed. But if the pilot comes out of the air turbulence, there will be a story somewhere of the pilot having shown a great POM. Marketers today are in a great hurry to do more business and when the business does not come their way they lose their POM and start making mistakes and take risks.
So how does POM affect the world? Let’s imagine on January 1 of any year. If anyone in the world decides to drink to celebrate the New Year, the history of the world will be different than if the person decides not to drink. This is understandable as a chain of activities that would set in because the person drank. In the event the person did not drink the history of the world would be different. A lot would assume what a silly logic this is. But let us imagine the person as the leader of a great democracy is being discussed. The picture becomes better. Similarly, the world’s history would be different if a person shows a great POM.
Using all scientific and management tools can we know the worth of having a great POM?
It is said that in India you can cause great confusion by spreading a rumor. But in China, no one cares for rumors or sensationalism. Partly the media is controlled and much news of the world is censored. Depending on the moral and cultural fabric of the country, POM as a common denominator is seen in various aspects of public life. In Singapore the POM is great for cleanliness, in the USA for freedom of expression, in France perhaps for smelling good, in Japan for politeness, in India for the tolerance of others, in Saudi for fear of breaking the law, etc., How are these factors analyzed by marketers and is there any POM effect that needs study for use by marketers.
In recent years, we see India is trying to copy the POM mantra from major countries especially for cleanliness, technology prowess, preventing corruption, etc., but the POM to seep into each and every Indian for various aspects has to be done through a patriotic fervor or through an emotional appeal. In the marketing world we are seeing such changes as net banking, online purchases, CRM and cloud-based sales monitoring, instant client meeting feedback to bosses and headquarters, etc. With more pressure on achievements and deadlines and reporting swiftly, the POM moments are lost, a mechanical way of managing is increasing.
Each day’s many successful POM efforts lead to healthy living. Similarly successive great POM based sales will be more profitable. But when we falter and don’t show great POM moments all through the day, it leads to various happiness and regret situations including higher costs and losses.
Somehow, most of the time as humans, we take pride in passing each moment to the best of our ability in doing, thinking, idling or sleeping. POM is just a microsecond time management of thinking and doing.
When we practice any art or sports form, we are trained to do things and respond to situations as practiced, which may be recorded and witnessed by us later. This is one reason we are able to produce great sportsmen, artistes, intellectuals, etc.
The art of managing various aspects of a profession is managing multiple POM moments and mastering them for daily use. In a borrowed framework, if we use this for a husband or wife or for a son or daughter, a student or teacher, a boss and subordinate, then we could possibly master the art of being such a person through listed out POM moments required to be that character and live out an excellent life. For salesmen, how many companies record the sales discussions with clients and play it later for remedial measures.? If clients cooperate it will be good, if surreptitiously recorded that is blasphemous.
How do we know what helps POM moments? Some of the aspects that aid POM in our life is being silent, being responsible, quick thinking, good knowledge of situations, being alert in emergencies, positive thinking, being helpful, never thinking ill of anyone, being kind, being altruistic, non –interfering, giving up ego, seeing a long term vision, being healthy, managing relations, being trustworthy and trusting, etc.
The aspects that prevent great POM moments are lethargy, don’t care attitude, drunkenness, ill-feeling, distrusting, un-preparedness, non-planning, not able to vision ahead, being non-focused, giving up on hopes, giving up on the first attempt, not practicing, refusing to follow rules, showing disrespect, high ego, scheming mentality, bad in (thoughts, words, action), not craving for perfection, etc.
In a modest village far away from the city, many in the village will be leading a happy life despite being deprived of all the luxuries of life. Maybe the people there have reconciled to a simple life and adopted a high POM ability for the way life is. On the contrary in a strife-torn country, those who wage war have a great POM only for revenge and hate and in this process will be facing people who have a great POM for peace perhaps. In the battle of POM of differing philosophies the one who is faster than the other wins. Wars in olden days were scored daily of who won and who lost daily apart from the overall victory. But all wars with even the greatest of leaders and great POM could not prevent bloodshed and violence. If POM was used by leaders of countries, the reason to sell so much military hardware, etc would never be there. The POM moments are seen more in war heroics than the prevention of wars. The many scenes in a battlefield with examples of POM is shown to salespeople to achieve targets. Has any company shown the way Buddha achieve enlightenment to ace sales? ?
In a way life as it trudges to a perfect end game of deadly hollowness, we expect to live a life of harmony and peace. How much do we invest our time, cost and resource for great POMs each day perhaps depends on each one’s passion to live an excellent life. For the marketeer, it just happens that he has made another client or someone to buy or test his product. Excellence comes at a great price and requires great sacrifices. For every discipline. Includes the corporate world. How many salesmen do you find at the company /client doors as it is opened or slept at the client’s office door the previous night? It was never done and nowadays it will never happen. The decision-makers come late in the morning and most buying is done through internet media. The discussions are always over a beverage and maybe alcoholic too. Would it not be a fantastic scene to see a great salesman at the company door each morning as the door opens. Maybe if you see one now, he has read this article. The bosses of client companies would be keen to know about the person who is an early riser.
The best way for this for the salesmen is to try getting up each day at 4 am. A few not in the sales line do this to become great stars; a few to start a day of sweat and toil, yet many to only see the time and sleep again. POM has its own story and those who care for great living and work towards it may have more stories to tell than those who squandered it by the minutes or hours.
As I recall these words of a great poet, H.W.Longfellow:
The heights by great men reached and kept
were not attained by sudden flight,
for they, while their friends slept,
were toiling upwards in the night.
Try working up your schedule daily with more care and love for the world around you, your POM will be great each moment. This is one good try, each of us could attempt, rather must do. For the salesmen, the efforts of the previous day is the profit or loss result seen next day or week or more. It just requires 365 great POM moments ( maybe for the 365 days) for a spectacularly profitable balance sheet.
While the above POM article was written much before the Covid 19 Coronavirus surfaced, the POM now is more required by all human -and not just the marketing or salespersons alone.
