Memoir...Musings of a Sales guy at heart!! (2)

This post is all about the typical 'never say die attitude' of a born salesman!

My Diageo days-based at Bombay looking after the entire South Asia. One of the key market for Diageo is Sri Lanka especially for Duty Free. The contribution from the Colombo airport DF shops both arrival and departure were huge for Diageo brands. And the operator at that time was Alpha International, an UK based company. Diageo in terms of value and volume numero uno at the DF. Another operator is Sri Lankan airways where we JW Red, Black, Smirnoff were listed for inflight serving. And for inflight Duty Free, JW Black was listed but sadly JW Red was never ever listed. This I came to know when I took charge of this market and when I approached the officials of SL Airways procurement team, we were told to wait till they call for applications which came out in the next couple of months. It was very clear in our mind that we have to get JW Red listed as a competing brand was ruling this segment in inflight DF sales and the passengers never had an option but to buy that brand. We submitted our application and one day in Bombay, Arun Kumar who was looking after this account, came running to me, with tension written all over his face, and informed that JW Red didn't go thru the process. And when I asked him for the reason, there was none...just rejected. This is unacceptable and I told Arun we have to fight it out. Arun was helpless as he felt that we cant fight with the airlines. My point was that we have to escalate and meet the top guy in the airlines and represent our case.

Arun, through our stalwart, Rahul who was based at Colombo, fixed up an appointment and we flew down to Colombo immediately to meet up with this person. And we prepared well with the sales numbers of all our brands in departure and arrival at the DF shops in Colombo airport and also our market shares. Also we carried with us the competition numbers and their market share including the domestic numbers.

Guys I need to tell you the Sri Lankans are great guys to do business and lovely people. You should only to know how to talk to them as they dont like to be bossed over.

So we go to their office at Colombo and meet up with this senior guy. After all the pleasantries we put forward our agenda and pat came the reply that nothing can be done. I asked him how that competition brand got approved and Red was rejected...whats the logic. He didn't want to divulge but finally after lots of persuasion he said it was consumers preference. Thats what I was waiting for. Now the conversation went somewhat like this.

Diageo...Sir, you said the consumers choice is this particular brand, right?

SL Airlines...Yes, they prefer  and hence we are selling only this brand.

Diageo...Sir, who are your consumers?

SL...What exactly your question?

Diageo...Sir, nationality...

Sl air......Majority Sri Lankans.

Diageo.... Fine sir, if thats the case, they also shop at the duty free at the airport?

SL...could be....

Diageo...sir in that case, this is the numbers at the DF of Colombo airport both for arrival and departure where in you would find JW Red is X number and the brand you are promoting in your airlines is a very poor No2...that is not even 25% of JW Red....

The officer was slightly taken aback as he didn't expect this...

SL...I can see the numbers but how authentic are these? 

As we expected this, we got our friend in Alpha connected and made him to speak to this person.

He found the numbers are genuine.

SL...but in arrival shop it could be different.....

We showed him the arrival figures of DF also where JW was almost 90% market share....

He took lots of time and asked us what about domestic.

Diageo...Sir, you know domestic is too small but we are enjoying similar market share and showed the numbers to him.

We also showed him the performance of all our other brands in the DF, domestic, ports shops, ship chandlers, in other airports in Mumbai, Chennai et al.

He started realising that we have a strong case. He told me that he needs time and asked me to come back after a couple of months.

We said, sir 2 months is a long period and hence we want to start this asap. We were very determined not to leave till they accept that some one in their team has not done their home work.

But as he has to protect his team, he started talking about space availability. He said since aircraft cant carry multiple brands due to space constraints and the competition is already listed it would be difficult to accommodate us. Fair point though but we were so clear in our goal we realised that we need to give him some solutions instead of just harping on our point. So we suggested that on a trial basis, he should make available both the brands in equal quantities and give the choice to the consumer/passenger. And mind it we were $2 higher than the brand they were selling, per bottle of lit.

He told us that he cant take that call himself as he needs his bosses permission too....So he took some time off from us and came back and led us to his boss....

To cut the long story short, we got our listing and we ensured by working with the logistics team handling the movement of stocks-Rahul was great in that-that we never run out of stocks and JW Red is made available in all the flights for sale. We also took a two page advertisement in their inflight magazine (the front back and page 1) announcing the availability of JW Red. In 3 months time we captured 75% of the share of this segment and as they say, rest is history.

And its not small business guys....We then developed huge promos for the inflight staff and consumer packs and made JW Red 'numero uno' with the Sri Lankan Airways....

I should really thank my team for believing in me and also the SL Airways bog bosses on the fact sheet and logic we provided.

The lesson:  Perseverance Pays. 

Never ever give up...Diageo HO never ever bothered about this as they must have thought it was too small a business to bother. 

If you say, you are Johnnie Walker, the most popular brand and hence easier! Yes, true, but my predecessors didn't think like that...they never realised inflight duty free in SL Airways would provide so much of value and volumes...thats where we succeeded. If you are a leader you should do everything under your command and even outside, to remain in that position. Never ever give up. And as a boss, you set very high standards for the team.

This episode of SL Airways is something which I always cherish. Arun and Rahul, if you guys are reading this, it would invoke lots of excellent memories and a big smile....yes, we truly made the lips smile!!

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

Memoir....Musings of a Sales guy at heart!!
Everything from personal to professional. What life had mirrored and the learning from that....
For a start, I don't agree with the saying 'Salesmen are not born but are made'. 
I would say salesmen are born and their skills are polished by constant learning and from inspirational bosses. I think many of us who others recognise as successful (highly subjective though), would have the traits of a street smart salesman in them...whether you are in sales, marketing, finance or general management. If you are not a salesman at heart, you cant be successful in anything. Even a story teller has to be good at selling his story to a prospective producer or director...
This is the 'prologue' of what I gonna share with you thru my blogs.
For someone from a very humble background and becoming the COO of Diageo India and to move as General Manager Gulf Operations, a post held for the first time by an Indian in Diageo in the Gulf region to Regional Director of Middle East, Africa and South Asia with Whyte & Mackay and floating Geoscope with Sudeep, Krithi and Vishal....its a journey, I thought, worth sharing. The incidents and the learnings....
It will not be confined to just the career but also some random stuff....
Also guys pl note that am a therapist by choice....run Heal n Hale spiritual healing center in Chennai...
Where do I start....the unconditional love!!!
Yes, the first time I experienced this utterly divine 'unconditional love'.
We are a four member siblings and mostly brought up by the maternal uncle and paternal grand ma.
This is about my grand mother...in Tamil its PATTI...Nani....What a gem of a soul...there was a phase in our life where we were engulfed with utter poverty...we were in our village and lived in a huge ancestral house but a bit dilapidated without electricity connections... My grand fathers time our family was highly respected and revered by the villagers but after he attained the lotus feet, something had gone wrong and the properties just disappeared.. With my fathers brothers moving out of the village to Chennai, Neyveli and Tata Nagar, my father, who was so attached to our village, decided to stay put there. Its not that he was unemployed but he could not stick to any job....he was with the defence accounts in Pune and later with REC-Trichy as librarian...but our village was his priority as he was also respected and revered by the fellow villagers-and that probably gave him all the high...We lost our mother when I was 4 and my younger sister was 2...I studied till 7th at Dalmiapuram where my maternal uncle was working with Dalmia cements and all four of us were under his care. Plus he had to take care of his mom, his wife and his first kid....My Mami really took care of us but with a salary of around 150 or 200 it was impossible for my uncle to manage all four of us....and he truly cared and loved only my elder brother and elder sister and was indifferent to me and to my younger sister. When I finished my 7th standard, self and my younger sister were shifted to my village to continue our studies and I completed till my school final there and my younger sister, after an year at school in the village, gone back to Dalmia.

Few years later we all shifted back (3 of us and not my brother). Young and raw....My father was jobless and my brother was trying to get a job....My father's brother who was working in Tata Nagar used to send some amount to my grand ma for her expenses but it turned out that all of us have to manage with in that....and thats the time we experienced extreme poverty....It was such a horrific scene on few days we didnt know where the next meal would come from.
Our grand ma, somehow used to manage the kitchen fire going to feed us but as children we only bothered about filling our own tommy and never bothered to look at whether anything left over for grand ma. But as a kind hearted soul with unconditional love for her grand children - one look at us-she would realise, our tommies are not filled and without any hesitation she would empty the pots to feed us without keeping anything for her. Most of the days a glass of water is what would quell her hunger. She never ever complained. She used to cook in those old, dark kitchen using fire wood emitting thick smoke and thats how she lived her life. And she was a great cook and added to that is the mix of Pure unconditional love in it!!
Most of the time, our meal used to be Jack Fruit as that was one thing which was available to us from ours and neighbours gardens....she would cut it patiently and distribute to all of us equally. She would also keep one portion for her. But we would finish off our portions in a jiffy and she would, with a big smile and a gentle pat, take out whats kept for her and distribute to us....I dont remember her ever complaining of 'hunger' where as we always used to feel the ever burning appetite...may be as we didn't know where the next meal was going to come from.
When guests come home unannounced, she would go crazy as she has to feed them too....so, she would call us and tell us to wait till the guests finish their meal. Whatever is left over, would be served to us without keeping anything for her.
I had grown seeing this and when I reminisce now, I see how this great soul has lived her life. Selfless and for the grand children. 
This is not a sob story but from my heart....Whatever we are today, it's her blessings and also the blessings of my maternal grand mother, my maternal uncle and his wife. Every one of them had contributed immensely in making us whatever we are today....a big THANKS GIVING....and my friends in my village. They used to bring food without the knowledge of their folks and feed me. Also the temple in our village and the priest there...They all had a great liking for us and most of the days the temple prasadam used to be our life saver. 
Whats the learning....when you are filled with love in your heart, your stomach keeps quiet and your systems get satisfied with just water as it is busy digesting the omnipresent LOVE!!

That phase of our life was something which probably had helped us to learn the art of 'never say die' attitude....