Humanity!

Folks,
Last week i was travelling back from one of the ME countries to Dubai and met up with this guy.
The airport authorities changed the boarding gate just an hour before the scheduled take off. ( this happens very often now a days, and one has to keep an eye on the TV monitors and keep checking the boarding gate and the time)
We were waiting for our turn at the boarding gate and as I was getting my passport and boarding pass checked, our friend, who was standing behind me, realised that two of our fellow passengers, whom he had helped earlier while checking in, were walking towards the other gate!(the old one) He told me that they dont speak English or Arabic and obviously not guided properly about the change in the boarding gate, by the airport staff. He ran, probably around 3-400 meters to catch them, informed them, came back running and stood at the tail end of the queue. I was overhelmed by this 'gesture'. Many of us, in our rush to get inside the aircraft, secure the overhead bins, would have just informed the staff to help and manage the situation! Such kind of gestures have become rarity in this fast paced world. I could not see him again as he rushed off, upon landing, to catch his connecting flight. The fellow passengers whom he helped were Srilankans and they knew only Sinhalese! I said hallo to them and they were immensely happy with the help they got from our friend.
He is Suman Avula and he can be reached at sumanavula@neulandlabs.com
I would appreciate if you can just send him a mail appreciating this gesture!!
This world need more Sumans.
Cheers

Memoir....Musings of a Sales guy at heart!!

Friendship as per Khalil Gibron

Episode 7

On Friendship:  

And a youth said, Speak to us of Friendship. And he answered, saying: Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace. When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the ‘nay’ in your own mind, nor do you withhold the ‘ay’. And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unclaimed. When you part from your friend, you grieve not; For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain. And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught. And let your best be for your friend. If he must know the ebb of your tide, let know its flood also. For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live. For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness. And the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. Your Friendly

RL Rajah

20/06/21

Perseverance.

Memoirs.....Musings of a sales guy at heart.....

Episode (10)

Before I start writing on my Madurai days, I thought I would share this with you.

Folks, A few days back I met up with a very young boy who has just joined the industry in sales. Very enthusiastic and eager to learn. When he learnt this is my 4th decade in this industry, his first question was whether I have ever been insulted/humiliated and if yes, how did I manage it? I countered him and wanted to know why he used 'humiliation?' instead of any other expressions? Simple...he had a very bad experience with one of the customers few days ago and felt very humiliated and yet to come in terms. Never happened to him in his life as he always got what he wanted! So, welcome to reality!!! Yes, looking back, down in the memory lane, there were so many instances, where customers/consumers didnt want my products or services and expressed their indignations in different ways. Some were polite, some were satirical and few were rude! But this is part and parcel of this profession!! I remember one episode which is indelible in my memory! In 1991, I got promoted as Regional Manager and transferred to Bombay. My first stint in this lovely metropolis. My region was the poorest performing amongst the 4 regions in the country and I was given the task of infusing energy and turning it around! I am not getting in to what happened finally but just sharing this episode which I did with the young guy whom I had mentioned beginning of this post. I was with one of my sales guys on my first trade visit and while reviewing the list of outlets to be visited during the day, against this retailer there was a big X. Not to visit!!! I probed and was told that the retailer is No 1 in terms of business but has stopped selling our products. Someone has rubbed him on the wrong side and he has put a 'NO ENTRY' for Herbertsons!! My colleague's attempts to meet up with him failed and he was thrown out and was in no mood to visit him again. I told my colleague that I must visit him in his shop! My colleague was not happy but could not say no to me and just followed me like the goat to the slaughter house! I went in and greeted the 'boss' who was seated at the cash counter and introduced myself. The 'boss' got up, told his young son, that he didnt want to see me and asked him to show us the door!! I, with a big smile on my face, pretending his ire was not directed at me, told him that I had come to say hello to him and just needed few minutes of his time!! This infuriated him further and he just walked off!! His son told me to leave and I was left wondering on what should be my next move!! This happened at around noon and the shop was decently crowded. My colleague pulled me out and told me the whole story about the relationship issue and tried convincing me not to waste time. Perseverance is one of my virtue and I decided to take this to its logical conclusion. For my colleague it was another humiliating experience in front of many consumers whereas it was a different challenge for me! I told myself I should crack this and started working on the same immediately. I met up with my distributor who was servicing this outlet. He told me the customer is his biggest and buys huge qty of all the other agency products except my company's. Reason? Some issue with the earlier bosses!!! What's the best time to catch him? 9 p.m when he is closing the shop. Next day at 9 p.m I was there, all alone, outside his shop. Around 9.30, after all the staff left, father and son with two of their staff came out to pull the shutters down and saw me standing there! They first thought i was one of their regular consumer and told me that the shop is closed and in a very apologetic tone!! I immediately rushed up to the father and held his hand and re-introduced myself. Without giving him a chance to say a word, I gripped his hands tightly and told him I just needed a couple of minutes of his time. I mentioned that i am new to the city and I have come from Madras with lots of dream and I need his help(wore the shoes of Shivaji Ganesan for a while). I told him I dont want to have a conversation with him at that moment as he must be feeling hungry and his family would be waiting for him to have dinner together and sought an appointment next day for just 10 minutes. I could see a sense of disbelief in his eyes and he told me to come next day at noon again but not with any hopes!!! I shook his hands again, hugged him(this habit continues still), and left! Next day dot at 1155 hrs, I was there, outside his shop. He called me in and, believe me folks, I spent the whole afternoon with him and when I left his shop, it was 1730 hrs!!! I dont want to delve  into what was the issue and how I sorted it out but just wanted you to know that one should not give up and take every issue to its illogical conclusion!!! And especially if you are in sales, never look at anything as 'insult/humiliation'. Yes, it hurts and embarrass when we are shown the door in front of fellow human beings but take it as a 'challenge' with a pinch of salt as they say, and how you could turn it around into an opportunity!! I have developed a great relationship with this customer and when I joined IDV the first case of Smirnoff was sold to this customer! ( there is another juicy story on this SMV first order but that would be posted later!). We still keep in touch and he is one of my well wishers! So, if you ever feel insulted/humiliated by any events, dont get bogged down as you can learn a lot from such 'episodes' and the beauty is to convert those episodes in to 'challenges' and 'possibilities'. Whenever I see a consumer buying competition, i would go to them and push my product. Many a times I have failed but I would never stop pushing!! I dont take it as an insult or humiliation!! I do it with pride and real service to the consumers. After all I sell the best products in the world, right!!! When you are in 'sales' first thing you learn is to shed all your inhibitions!!! I shared this episode with the young guy over a Dalmore GR and felt really good. This episode happened 30 years ago and still fresh in my memory!!! Enjoy life!!!

P.S. The retailer is Shah & Co in Crawford Market, Mumbai. Rundeep is currently the boss and running the show.

Mathi Yosi!

Folks, A long break, indeed! April was quite a crazy month with a week long stay in Glasgow and chasing every penny of the business in this trying conditions!! As mentioned in my profile, am a strong believer in 'possibilities'. Many people look at opportunities but do not know how to convert them in to possibilities. The key to success is converting opportunities to possibilities. This world and market is full of possibilities irrespective of the much talked about 'slow downs'. MATHI YOSI is the Tamil slang for 'think differently'. Many of us keep preaching this in our daily life but how many of us practice? People get bogged down with their routines and never try and get out of it to practice this great mantra 'mathi yosi'. Many of us, as soon as enter the office, switch on our computers. There are mails and emails and mails to attend to and meetings after meetings after meetings!!! Added to this is the instant chattings and G chats!! Where do we get time to move and look around? I strongly advocate to my guys to move around and look for new possibilities and ideas. Don't reinvent the wheel, that's not required but look at how you can make the wheel to run/turn faster!! Thats what will make you stand out!! There are so many examples to get inspired from. Great innovations. Developed from just a spark. Challenged the established ways and some great 'outside the box' thinking. 'Break through' as it is commonly known in the corporate circles. Many managers, responsible for delivery, keep looking at break throughs every second but from others and not within. Make it a habit to challenge the established way of working and thinking and imbibe the habit of breakthrough thinking-MATHI YOSI!! Walkman, Ipod, mobile phones, digital cameras all these happened due to someone challenging the current thinking and looking at breakthroughs. Examples of 'Maathi Yosi'. If you are following cricket, look at IPL. Isn't it a great example of this theory of 'Mathi Yosi?' I would be posting a lot on this subject and share with you some very inspiring stories. Whichever field you are in, whether sales, marketing, manufacturing, logistics or finance, start practicing this fine principle of 'Mathi Yosi' TODAY! Look within, look outside for inspirations, as you and your team on how they look at things? There is always an opportunity waiting for someone to convert it in to possibility. Keep it in mind always!!! Cheers!!!

Sales and marketing-two key functions.

Sales and Marketing...the tug of war....

Episode 6.

In my 4 decades of professional life I have never seen a day go without some issues cropping up between marketing and sales! Its amazing and not a single company can boast of 'no conflict' between these two functions? During the initial days of my salling career, it never was an issue as once a while, we used to get someone from marketing for a market visit and they would go around with us, visit some outlets, try to understand the shelf movement, enjoy local cuisines and leave next day..We need to ensure they carry good impression about us as they are from HO and a nice word from them would help us. Even as ASM never bothered about the marketing guys as most of our activations are customer oriented with visibility drives and on pack offers. The on pack offers are on allocation basis and hence not much of fights or difference of opinion. Things started looking different once I got a taste of 'pull' based markets like AP those days. Those in the alcohol trade and are very much used to TN, Kerala and the current AP, Chattisgarh 'pull' doesn't play any major role in these markets but if you look at Maharashtra, Goa, Delhi, Calcutta it's a different ball game. I started to understand the role of marketing only after I moved to Hyderabad as ASM-HL in 1986 immediately after my wedding. After joining IDV/Diageo the understanding of marketing/trade marketing/consumer activation became very clear and the disagreement and fights started. Lets understand the fundamentals first. Just the FUNDAMENTALS only...am not going deep.

The difference between marketing and sales. Many use the word 'marketing' even if they are just doing selling activities only. Someone who is in to managing a region like Madurai in TN to deliver his monthly numbers and when asked his role, he would say he is in marketing. This I had come across many a times. I used to take the trouble of correcting them.

So a typical marketing guy would be working on how to pull the consumers to a particular product/brand whereas the sales guys job is to ensure the stocks are made available in the right kind of outlets when the consumers demand them. In simple term, marketing is all about 'pull' (pulling the consumers to the brand) and sales is all about 'push' (pushing the brand in the outlets for meeting the consumer demand). Clear?

In marketing you start as product manager and later move on to become brand manager /marketing manager et al. Same in sales too...you start as TSE and move upwards as RSE-ASM-BM-RSM-National Sales Manager/GM Sales.

First an idea emerges which is developed further and then the idea/concept is given a shape in terms of a product. This is for any new product innovation...an example here would be Bailey's Irish Cream in alcohol industry...this was the first product with irish whiskey and irish milk cream perfectly blended-in consumer category the detergent bars. These would come under new product innovation and development. Where as many companies today do not bother to get into innovation as it is not only time consuming but also very expensive. So what they do is, copy existing concept and come out with their own variations. For example 'Viagra' was the invention of Pfizer and many just copied content and concept and came out with their own brands. In alcohol industry no one comes out with any new concepts. Baileys, RTD's (Ready to Drink) are exemptions. So let's take the case of  a new entrant with lots of aspirations and big pocket. Be it alcohol industry or FMCG. First the top team/promoters discuss what kind of products they should have in their portfolio, the markets they would start with, dynamics of the market, sales data, route to market, kind of team they require and finances. They would first appoint a CEO giving him the objectives and the CEO would look at the road map and go for recruitments. When it comes to product development it would be done in conjunction with the marketing, sales, finance and manufacturing. Once the road map is cleared, the product/brand development team-marketing- would start working on the product and get it ready. Once the product is ready, consumers research is conducted (in terms of content, comparisons, packaging and price et al) and based on the findings would tweak/change and come out with the final product. This would be submitted to the leadership team, discussed and cleared. The most important thing in NPD is differentiation or USP (unique selling proposition). Differentiation is all about the 'why' factor. Why the consumer should change from his existing choice to mine...what is that differentiating factor for the consumers to switch? This is so true if you are positioning a product in a category which has many similar products. And what is the USP of my product? Unless this is clearly stated, the product would fail to take off and sooner become more of a 'push' brand. If it's innovation, we have to clearly communicate to the prospective consumers on the 'what' factor of this brand. For example, take Viagra or Bailey's-initially it's all about the content -the what- and 'how' it would work. This is where the marketing has to get it right. Once these are all figured out, the marketing guys will sit down with the sales team and also with the Trade marketing guys and chalk out consumer activations. Trade Marketing is the connect between marketing and sales. The Trade marketing key responsibility is to execute all the marketing activations through the sales team as planned. In terms of activations also there are two kinds. One is tactical and another one is strategy. In simple terms ATL (above the line) and BTL (Below The Line). ATL is all about media advertising, visibility drive, digital marketing, celebrity endorsements et al. BTL is all about trade push and also consumer offers. ATL is to get the consumers on your side and for long term gains. For example, take Coca Cola. This company would be spending huge amounts on media be it conventional or digital, celebrity endorsements and also in BTL with purchase linked discounts to the customers/trade and periodical consumer offers. Offer for the customer is to block his space with Coke. The consumer offer gets good publicity by huge displays in the retail outlets and also media advertisements, where possible. Many companies focus on the Point Of Purchase (POP) or Point of Sale (POS). In the current scenario, hyper/supermarkets play a big role and hence POP/POS plays a huge role. And this comes with a cost which has to be factored in the brand cost summary sheet. What happens with these kind of consumer offers is two fold. 1) We retain our own consumers by offering them some freebies for their loyalty and 2) pulling competition to Coke during the offer period. There would be some %age of competition switching over to Coke even after the offer gets withdrawn. This is the idea behind any consumer offer. In alcohol industry only the MNCs and National players focus on ATL whereas the regional players due to lack of resources focus on BTL only with trade discounts, offers for consumers, window displays, Counter Salesman schemes et al. The problem here is that the counter salesmen would shift loyalties quite often based on which side the butter is stronger. And also from my experience, most of the salesmen do not promote any product unless it is TASMAC kind of situation. Also the consumers, mostly are brand conscious when it comes to things which are consumable-be it alcohol or cigarette. One has to really have a winning strategy to convert the consumers. That's why in alcohol industry the trade plays a huge role and also the distribution. 

So when I was in sales, I used to have my share of fights with the marketing guys but as you keep moving up and maturing you realise there are ways of managing the conflicts. First of all one should understand the role of these two important functions as explained above. In FMCG companies the roles are well defined but in the spirits industry, due to restrictions in marketing there are still unresolved issues between these two functions. My opinion on this is that the marketing guy, let us call him the brand manager, has to take ownership of the brand in terms of its overall performance encompassing everything. He is the guardian of the brand. He has to set very clear goals for his brand and explicitly share the same with the sales guys. The major issue here is that many of the brand managers, tend to become, what we call, 'armchair managers'. They google search for everything and rush to their agencies for even minor things. They dont, most often, take the pain of keeping their ears to the ground. Get confined to their table, agency meetings and fail to take notice of what the consumers are seeking. They can become great brand managers if they take time to visit the customers, spend time with them to understand the consumer and market trends. Spend time in the super markets to figure out the shopping trends of consumers in terms of what they are looking for, how they get influenced and what role the displays, promoters, billboards, offers and the sales team play. They should never compromise and make the agency to work hard to create the right kind of proposition! Many a times brands fail due to lack of propositions. Why should a consumer change from a particular brand to a new one? The brand managers have to always look for insights. WHY & What should be the question asked frequently to arrive at breakthroughs. The sales team have to also understand this and dont get excited with cosmetic things. They should always figure out how they would make an impact with the ammunitions they are given with. At the end of the day, especially in adult beverages business, it is the sales guys who have to not only make the product available but also ensure it is moved off the shelf. If one is launching a bathing soap, you can air few commercials on whatever medium available and drive demand. In adult beverages that's not possible in many markets in India and also in Middle East, due to restrictions on advertising. Also it is not like taking the goods in the van and going for spot sales. There are processes involved in every step in the alcohol industry. IF one is working for an FMCG and launching a shampoo, it can be made available the same day across a city but in alcohol industry it would take some time as the processes have to be followed. The government controls the movement of stocks from manufacturing to distribution points and to retail point. Each point one has to take an approval in writing to move the goods. The Trade Marketing guy, the brand manager and the sales guy have to work in tandem to achieve the desired results. Many a times i had seen this '11th hour' rush. The promotion has to start on the 1st of the month and the guys would be running for gift items logistics till the 31st. Planning is so important as you have to make a huge impact of whatever activity you are doing! Remember, consumers are not fools. They always look for value. The challenge is communication with the consumer. How do you attract their attention? How would you stand out? How do you ensure that they hear you out before they hear out competition? The sales guys, if they want to be successful and climb the ladder faster, have to understand brand commercials. The difference you know! Instead of just pushing and looking at numbers, start looking at creating value. Managing for value is the mantra here! Especially when the market is becoming tighter and more competitive. The sales guy must provide periodical feedback on the brand performance, market trends and competition to the brand guys. Ensure you capture everything and pass it onto the brand guys. There is no competition here between the marketing and sales guy! They are part of the same organization and both functions are equally important for the success of the organization. Empathising with each other and helping each other is the key for the success. Both the brand manager and the sales manager should know what the brand contributions are. Brand Contribution (net sale value-cost of goods-manufacturing-cost of sale-discounts), is so vital and hence should be clear to both the functions. Periodic customer and trade visits together would help to 1) understand and 2) iron out issues if any. There is no 'ego' war here. The guy in sales today would get transferred to brand management tomorrow and vice versa. So to be a complete manager, a stint in both sales and marketing should be made mandatory by every single company.

The advice to both marketing and sales guys-pl understand the cost card...this is the 'Gita' followed by the management. Understand every bit of the cost especially if you are in marketing as sometimes due to market dynamics there could be cost push which may have to be absorbed by the brand....so one has to understand the value engineering also. How one can cut cost without compromising on the content or quality of the product. Brand communication has to be uniform.

What we do for the brand at the consumer level would leave a lasting impression so be very clear about it. 

Also the seasonality factor depending upon the category you are in. For many the Diwali-Xmas-NY-Holi-Pongal are major selling seasons. If you are looking at achieving your 60% of the volume during this period, plan your activations well in advance and keep things ready. Always keep an eye on what's new. Avoid repeats as consumers would get bored of taking the same.

I will give you some examples here for some great promotions-tactical. 1) Value packs ( buy a lit at the cost of 750 or 3 for 2 et al). 2) Upgradation offers. Take JW series of whiskies. What's the company would be looking at..upgrade consumers from Red to Black to Double Black to Gold to Blue--right? So if you want to run a promotion on JW Red and at the same time remind consumers that Black is more premium and they should go for it on special occasions then the offer should be 'buy two bottles of Red and get a 20cl Black free...or in the bars, Black at the price of Red-only today...this will increase the trials and should result in conversions too. Once during my trip to India from Dubai, on landing I find out that on Blue label the shop was giving 50cl Black free. I immediately called my colleague in Bombay and told him to stop it as it leads to downgrading. When you visit supermarkets you would get lots of ideas. Sometimes it is better to copy and spin than reinventing the wheel. One of the best promo we reaped maximum was a SS Table spoon free on every bottle of whiskey. Initially there was lots of objections as the distributor was not able to relate these two but the consumers grabbed it. Communicating the offers at the POP level is vital here. Be it consumer brands or adult beverages. 

Compared to 90s and 2000s the market dynamics have changed a lot now. Consumers preferences are changing. They are getting influenced right left and center. They have huge choices to exercise from. So as a sales/marketing guy how you are going to play your role efficiently?

My key learning is that marketing and sales have to work in tandem for exploiting the market potential and also within the allocated budgets. Key is right thing at the right time. WHAT-WHY-HOW...

As stated, I have touched upon only the basics....in my future posts will also look at specifics...

Till next post....

Stay safe and enjoy life.

Selling is an art!

Salesmen are born and then are groomed to become professionals. I started my career as a Medical rep with a small pharmaceutical company. I was selected and sent to a small town with absolutely no briefing on product or my job responsibilities. So from day one it was self learning. B-complex and iron tonics and cough syrup. This was in Tirunelveli, a small town in Southern Tamil Nadu. I met some wonderful characters there and they made sure that I am properly 'educated' on pharmaceutical selling! ( I am not going to bore you guys with my story now) We used to joke around those days that those who can't get in to anything big, would get pushed to sales jobs! Friends, it may be true but I have seen many a guys scaling new heights from a very humble 'sales jobs'! The first quality for a salesman is to be 'pushy'. He is the one who would not take 'no' for an answer! He would start his day by asking his customer 'how's the day?' and would complete the question with 'isn't the day beautiful'. He would not give a chance to the customer to say anything -ve! A true salesman believes in building relationship with the customer and even with his consumers. He would ensure the relationship he builds is maintained irrespective of his relocations. 'Net working' is very important for him. He would be 'passionate' about his products. He would believe that he has to walk the talk!! Can you imagine a Coke guy drinking Pepsi or vice versa? He would never talk ill of competition brands but would always convey that his brands are a notch above! He would learn all the intricacies of his product and keeps throwing his knowledge during his sales pitch. This is to ensure that customer's interest is kept alive. He would be 'action oriented'. He has to be in the thick of action! Man on roller skates! He wants to see his volume, facings, depletions going up in every account he handles!! He would deliver his promises. Against all odds!! For him 'deliverance' is key. 'Never say die' is his mantra!! He would never give up!!! Read this story on 'never say die'. This happened some 18yrs back. It was Diwali time and the market was Tamil Nadu in India. The situation was that TASMAC, distributors of adult beverages in TN, subsidiary of TN Government, was to release an order for BP Gold, a product we just launched, but the MD of TASMAC was not in HQ and order cannot be released without his signature. Those days there was no mobile or internet facilities (only telex machines). We found out from MD's office his travel itinerary. We figured out that the MD was to take a particular train from Trichy that night. Series of discussions on how to get the job done without upsetting the apple cart. Our sales manager, opted to take the same train originating from Chennai and travel in the 1st A/C coach which the MD would board at Trichy and make it to look as 'coincidence' and request the MD whether he could give him an appointment next day morning at Tirunelveli!. All went off well till the MD saw him while boarding the train at Trichy. The MD, a smart IAS officer, immediately realised it was not a 'coincidence' and it was a plot. He called him to his coupe and probed him. Our sales manager, didnt want to bull shit him and told him that he was desperate for this order as he has given commitment to his bosses and the stocks have to hit the depots ahead of Diwali for him to get it to the retailers. He also confided in him that there was no way he could wait for one more week for the MD to come back to HQ. MD of TASMAC was overawed by this guys commitment and told him to see him next day first thing in the morning at Tirunelveli in TASMAC office. Our guy could not sleep whole night and at sharp 9 'o'clock he was there to meet up with the MD. The moment MD saw our friend, he called the GM of TASMAC in Chennai, on phone, and requested  him to release the order immediately. My guy was speechless! The MD, summoned all his colleagues in the Tirunelveli depot, and narrated the whole story and paid all the accolades to my sales manager and told everyone that how our company set standards in terms of commitments to numbers!!! This is a true story and you can call KS Raghavan on +919840846567 and he would be too glad to share with you his experience and how he felt when MD released the order on phone!!! Watch out this space for more!