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

Episode (9-A)

Salem Days....

True to its culture, I go to Salem on my own and asked to just find my own way. Salem HQ was carved out of Coimbatore region and I was given Salem, Erode and North Arcot districts.

A friend of mine introduced Soori to me who was working for Vikrant tyres as their TSE based at Salem and he immediately offered me to be his room mate. So I move in with Soori at Devaprakash lodge, a bachelor's den-rather Sales/Medical reps favourite. This place is ground + 2 floors and Sorri was in the second floor right side middle room. Very spacious room with two cots and attached bath. There are 6 rooms in each floor. We had a guy, Sundaram, who was everyone's man Friday. A very elderly person Nair, was the security and there was a manger. Come evening the fun starts in Devaprakash. ( I will come to this part later). The TN government relaxed a bit with the permit rules and also allowed select cooperative supermarkets to open a liquor retail in their premises.

In Salem there was Ponni Supermarket, Swarnapuri Supermarket and in Erode, Chinthamani Supermarket and in Vellore also a couple of them. Number of outlets were restricted but the business was decent. The permits were given only on health grounds (god knows what actually that meant!) but within few days the super markets started managing the permits by applying huge lots of them on their own and selling alcohol to non permit holders at a premium. The consumers demand was for mostly Mohan Meakin brands viz Black Knight, Diplomat Deluxe, Triple Crown brandy, Doctors Reserve and of course, Old Monk Rum. And McD brandy was also quite popular. Shaw Wallace brands were also on demand but HLs were not at all popular and hence I had to look at ways of promoting our brands. 

The first thing I did was to get VMR on my side and made him to understand the importance of 'push' strategy for HL brands and with some kind of offers to the super markets. He, being a very shrewd businessman, understood and gave me a carte blanche. I chose him as I didnt know anyone that much in Prince & Co and they were also not very HL friendly. It's all about deals and how effectively you establish rapport with the key guys and also timely supplies and settlements. The deals have to be very clearly explained, understood and executed. As HL brands were not that popular and I also wanted to push some High Society Gin and Royal Treasure Rum, I devised a quantity based offers to the super markets and ensured they placed orders based on that. While my distributor was okay to supply to Ponni and Chinthamani he was very hesitant to supply to smaller players like Swarnapuri. I took the responsibility of collecting the payments and also linked the discounts/deals to the payments. As I was based at Salem and living a great bachelors life, contacting me and coming over to me was never a problem for my customers and I could soon become their favourite. I put across these points to RSR my FSO..though he was not happy about VMR but agreed as I shown him how we can garner business...1) VMR inplace of Prince&Co and the rationale was customer preference. 2) Specified quantities of trade giveaways to manage the CSM and also for consumer promotions. 3) Absolutely no interference from office as I should be given free hand. I made it clear that my time would be 75% on alcohol and only 25% on Dipys and he should not insist on 25 calls per day and also travel to Chennai every 15 days to ensure orders executed on time. He was confident of me and hence agreed to my requests. 

I secured HL space in the super markets across all the 3 markets and one thing I realised during this time, which is a key learning, was to introduce HL to the Dipys trading partners, as a liquor company having some food brands than as Dipys company. As most of them were very naive about liquor brands as alcohol was only bootlegged till then, were so excited to know and deal with someone who is connected with liquor. So first few minutes of my calls, it's all about Bagpiper and Honey bee than Dipys and others. I also got them introduced to the key sales guys in the Supermarkets to get the access. I used the giveaways of alcohol to entice key retailers to stock and sell Dipys. 1980 was still very early days in places like Salem, Rasipuram, Namakkal, Erode et al for jams and sauces. Squash was better off but only in summer. Vellore had some decent demand due to probably CMC and so many big bakeries on Officers lane. Also HL did something stupid then by taking distribution of Freedom Sanitary napkins which became added to our nightmares (HL was quite popular for these kind kind of stupidities), competing with pioneers J&J (Carefree) and Helen Curtis(Comfit). Dipys itself was a big task in these markets and added to that were Freedom and Viva Toothbrush (!). 

It became a serious nightmare for me to sell both these Freedom and Viva toothbrush. The problem with Freedom was the size of the shipper carton. It was huge and my distributor had space problems and was reluctant to stock it. Also in 1980 the awareness of sanitary napkins was at its very nascent stage. I should complement J&J for creating that awareness.

First couple of months I really struggled hard to get placements and even in shops it was placed the movement was almost nothing as those who ask for it, either ask discreetly or thru chits. So my good friends at the retail could not use their skills to push Freedom. It was heading nowhere as it was the first year of distribution there was also huge pressure from HO and the principle. 

My neighbor in the lodge-Raghavan from J&J and one day over a drink I probed a lot about his volume and how he manages business. He was non committal and could not get much out of him. 

Once I went to congratulate a friend of mine whose wife delivered a baby at a nursing home in Salem. While sitting with them I saw a big carton of Carefree coming in to the hospital. I dug deeper and figured out they use the sanitary napkins a lot during and after delivery. Eureka!!! 

So through a contact of mine, met up with the chief of the hospital, a lady gynic and using all my charm and also some nice BP Ice Buckets and trays (more than my charm-people always fall for these giveaways is what I had noticed), got an entry order from her. But with a condition that if it doesn't move she would return it to my distributor...so, I have to ensure Freedom is given preference over Carefree. So, our Malayalee sisters came for rescue...again some nice key chains and glasses did the trick. They started pushing Freedom even from their pharmacy and my first cartoon was sold off in just 2 days. Got a big order from this customer immediately and I made it direct with an overriding commission to my distributor. This made Freedom commercially more attractive to the hospital. I identified few hospitals across my markets and this strategy worked well. I also supplied few stocks to CMC (!). So Dipys and Freedom were set...Viva Toothbrush (?)...haha...another strategy...I convinced VMR to buy 250 dozen of Viva Toothbrush in one go and I offered it as an in pack on every bottle of BP and Honeybee in the smaller supermarkets. In Swarnapuri it became a huge hit and I was so happy that I could get all sorted out. Guys these didnt happen overnight...I have to struggle every bit to make it happen in every step. Convincing the supermarkets and my distributors was very tough. But what worked in my favour was my constant follow ups and the support I got from my distributors. All these things between 10 o'clock and 5 only. Initially I used to spend the evenings in the supermarkets and help the salesmen and in the process push HL brands. Once I set the deals, things started moving better. Still collection was an issue but somehow managed it. 

Business was regular and not much of interference from office or RSR. Once RSR called me to Coimbatore and introduced me to the distributors and also to some key liquor guys there. I had established a very good rapport with him. HL wasted lots of time with these distribution brands in consumer division and because of these distractions lost a lot on alcohol business too, initially.

My strategies really worked well in the market especially with the alcohol business with the super markets and also for Freedom. I ensured that the supplies were continuous and stocks were also moved out of the shelves. My rapport with the purchase guys and the CSM really worked well and also focus on the smaller cooperative stores yielded great results. The big example was Swarnapuri Supermarket for alcohol where HL garnered maximum in terms of market share. I ensured every single market was covered and gave lots of importance for visibility and spot sales for liquor and major 'push' strategy for Dipys in select outlets and for Freedom in the hospitals. 

to be contd......