At one of the training workshops a participant walked up to me to inquire about my rather unusual name – Udayan Salim Banerjee.
“Sir, how come Udayan and Salim? Are you a Hindu or Muslim or what?
“Hindu. However, it was my mother’s wish give both her children two names, which coincidentally happened to be one Hindu name and one Muslim name, hence – Udayan Salim.”
Ah! Nice”. End of conversation.
Actually, it was not always nice having such a unique name. In fact, I was pretty embarrassed by it during my younger years and whenever possible I would hide my middle name and write my full name as – Udayan S. Banerjee. It wasn’t until I started working that I truly began to appreciate its value.
Back then, I was in direct sales, and cold calling was a huge part of the job. It was incredibly challenging because customers hated being cold-called and would go to any lengths to keep ‘pesky salesmen’ outside their doors. Commercial offices and housing societies would boldly display boards reading – ‘SALESMEN & DOGS NOT ALLOWED. How rude!
But, we had a job to do, and that’s where my quirky name combo worked in my favour. On reading my unusual name printed on my visiting card ( it was unusual then, may not be so much now), prospects would invite me in just to satisfy their own curiosity. This gave me a foot in the door, and once inside, I’d casually chat about how I got my name before smoothly transitioning into the business pitch.
My name helped me overcome the first barrier in cold calling - gaining entry to my prospect's office.
So, what’s in a name?
For William Shakespeare, not much. To him, a rose would still smell as sweet, even if called by any other name. But for me? Quite a lot. My name has played a small but incredibly significant role in opening doors that otherwise might not have been so easily accessible.
Soft Skills Workshops for Multiple Clients
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