Memoirs......Musings of a Sales Guy at Heart!!

Training and development....

My first job was a door to door selling job for a floor cleaning disinfectant liquid product and people used to call this phenol. I was looking out for a job and just knocked the door of this company near the Town Rly station in Trichy. My friend whom I used to hang day in and day out, Murthy was also with me that day. The name of the company was Nabora, we go in, meet the boss and ask him for a job...to our surprise he told us that we could start immediately and gave a quick brief on the product, price and just go and sell....So we decided to knock on the doors of all the known people first and hired two bicycles and went around...I think we sold few bottles that day and in the following days and one day we sold a dozen bottle to a known retailer too....the boss was very happy and one incident was unforgettable. We went to my relatives house and we did a complete sales call. The lady asked us whether this can be mixed in the water to bath the baby....Murthy didnt hesitate for a minute...he nodded his head and that lady bought a bottle...we came out and laughed our heart out...when I asked him why he bullshitted, pat came the reply-"it would kill all the germs on the body of the child as the child was looking dirty". Oh, forgot, i got a job for my father in that company as accounts manager...

Anyway I moved on and joined Win Pharma a local pharmaceutical company with their manufacturing facility in Thillai Nagar, Trichy. I got this job, thanks to my brothers friend Krishnan who was with Himalaya Drugs as their Medical rep. The owner of Win Pharma Sethuraman a B.Pharm graduate but settled in Trichy. He gave me some product briefing and told me that I would be based at Tirunelveli and cover Tirunelveli, Ramnad, Kanyakumari districts....So, Murthy came to see me off in Trichy. Murthy was a bodybuilder and very conscious about his diet and a non smoker. I used to smoke those days. While boarding the bus, I handed over my cigarette to Murthy to hold it as I wanted to keep the bag in the bus and come down...oh, when I returned, I was surprised to see my friend puffing to glory....I gave up smoking as soon as I got engaged, thanks to my wife but my friend still smokes...fate, as we call it. I have to mention Murthy, Shekar, Meenakshi Sundaram, Ganesh and Ravi....all from Trichy....we built such a bonding...Murthy is one guy whom the girls would fall far as he had a slight resemblance of Kamal. We are all still in touch...Murthy well settled in Hyderabad, Meenakshi in Delhi, Ganesh and Kaduks in Trichy and Ravi in Chennai....Love these guys from the bottom of my heart....A lot more about Murthy later....

Okay, coming back to the main story....

So, I reach Tirunelveli, take a room at Nellai lodge (INR 5 per day) and dont know what, completely broke down...didnt know anything or anyone and the fear of what I would do in a place which I felt was very alien...but that lodge was full of medical reps and with in the next few days, got in to my groove and settled well. Win Pharma was just making some basic stuff like B complex and iron tonics and cough syrup...competing with biggies...I realised that it's impossible to convince Doctors about my product and hence started making deal with the chemists which clicked massively as those days, (even today) the Chemists played a major role in promoting a product OTC. I built a very strong relationship with many Doctors and chemists in smaller towns and could achieve my targets. My salary was just 125 per month and daily allowances of 8 for HQ and 12 for upcountry...but believe me guys I could live a good life with that money. The beauty was that my company never sent my salary. My boss told me to take my monthly salary from the collections and send the balance(!)....Life was such fun...the bachelor accommodations  were called mansions and so popular and I lived in some nice mansions in Tirunelveli...once a month a visit to the office in Trichy and a day with my family (my brother was with Avery's based at Trichy) and go back. My friend Murthy still was without a job and every time, he used to be with me to see me off but before that dinner at either Kavitha or Ananda's....

A friend of mine who used to be with Chemo Pharma, set up an interview with his boss as he thought I should not waste my time with Win Pharma but I failed very miserably in the interview as my product knowledge was Zilch....i was only selling thru deal making...so where is the question of gaining knowledge!!!

Travelled extensively in these three districts...the best market was Kanyakumari district where every small town used had poly clinics those days and am sure those would have turned in to big hospitals now. Marthandam and Nagercoil had some wonderful poly clinics and again I struck some deals for regular business....

The tough part was travelling in Ramnad district especially the coastal....used to stay in Karaikudi and travel to places like Kamudhi, Thondi, Ramnad et al by the local buses...

This has taught me how to look at business differently. Had I been a typical Medical Rep, I might have gained good knowledge about pharmacology but failed as a sales guy...

One day a guy from Micro Labs bumps bumped in to me in some place, looks at me and tells me that am wasting my time with Win Pharma and arranges an interview with Narayanan of Selco Marketing Pvt Ltd, the Jackpot bonus stamps guy....After the success of Reman bonus stamps, Jackpot was introduced and I was given a job there with Trichy as my HQ....What an experience it was...it was all about selling a concept....the concept is to identify shops in every area in each category, show the big picture to them on how the bonus stamp would increase the foot fall in to their shops, collect some advance and sell them the stamps. They would in turn give the stamps free on every Rs 5 purchased at their outlet. For example you take a bazaar where there are 10 groceries, 10 textile shops, 5 utensils stores, 10 jewelleries and 10 chemist. We select one in each category and advertise these shops giving free bonus stamps....with our boards, leaflets, promoter girls et al. We give a small booklet for the consumers to stick the stamps if they want to go for continuous numbers or use the options of redemption of stamps for gifts. For the customers it provides increase in foot fall and for the consumers additional gifts. But the catch was on collectables. The consumer has to collect 1 to 100 in terms of number. As the stamp is a peel off one, the consumers mostly would get duplication of same numbers and they strike deals and exchange stamps with fellow consumers. But the company had the final laugh as they would hold few numbers with them and wont release it in the general pack. So they strike a deal with some biggies and quietly release those elusive numbers. My salary was around 250 p.m with some kind of incentives. But I remember that getting the incentive from the owner was a task.

So it was actually 'concept selling' which was not only unique but also unchartered territory for the traders...loved it....Narayanan recruited only women to manage the showroom and the spot canvassing in the shops. It was really fun working with so many of them under one roof.

I need to talk about Narayanan here. Its very difficult to see a person/boss like Narayanan. Such a cool and composed guy he was. My brother got transferred to Chennai and shifted the base and I have to manage myself. And Narayanan accommodated me. He used to stay at Mayavaram Lodge in a small room. He occupied the cot and I slept on the floor using a mat. He used to feed me literally. Such a great soul. I pulled Murthy and another dear friend, Shekar aka 'kaduks' also in to that company and we really had a ball. The relationship I built with Narayanan is just unforgettable...A great boss with a big heart. And the girls loved him. We launched the product in smaller towns and also in Pondicherry and that gave me lots of exposure  and proximity to booze in Pondy. Sadly the owners of the company were not great professionals and fortunately for me, got an offer from Detergents India retaining Trichy as my base.

From pharma, to bonus stamps to selling Regal detergent cakes. The market in TN was of washing bars made with vegetable fats-called in village 'savukkaram' with 501 from Tatas and Sunlight ruling the market. Hindustan Lever changed the game with the launch of the first detergent cake, with Rin closely followed by Det, from Promar (a division of Sarabhai).This changed the market dynamics as the washing became easier due to the chemicals used in the detergents. Bala Iyer the CEO of DIL launched Regal. The launch price was INR 1 per cake which induced so much of trials. I was based at Trichy and was incharge of Trichy and Tanjore districts. We gave tough fight to the biggies initially but they had deeper pockets and hence the going became very tough despite decent advertisements budget from our company. But we could not crack the wholesale as the biggies had full control on them. I need to elaborate on the WS market here...in many places in TN and across the country, the WS play a huge role in feeding the small retailers. The WS helps the retailers in two ways. 1) They get most of their stuff under one roof and 2) Even on smaller quantities they get lower prices than what the companies offer, as the WS game was volume based and they would undercut and sell. The WS make smaller margin on fast moving items and build good margins on their 'push' brands and average it out. As DIL was a one brand company, we struggled to break through with the WS but still managed to pull off the targets somehow. Spot selling was the order of the day. My selling activity used to start at 9 in the morning with a visit to the distributors place, fill up the tricycle with stocks and with their salesman and invoice book, the journey starts. We used to make around 25 to 30 calls a day. Certain areas we used to go on van sales for better coverage. Tough and challenging but enjoyed every bit of it.

Learning from DIL carried me further as it gave me the roots and understanding of how to sell 'non-popular' products. More of 'push' brands than 'pull' brands. Managing distributors with small turnover was another task. Reconciliation every day after the route sitting with their salesman and the distributors manager and closing the account. Tea and cigarettes....DIL came out with brilliant TVC those days for Regal. it used to start with a caption 'if you have a kid like Tinku, you need to have Regal at home" Tinku was depicted as playful who comes back home with dirty clothes after playing with other children and the mother would give one look at the cloths and with a smile take a Regal cake on her hand and say 'if you have kid like Tinku, you need to have Regal detergent cake at home'. As we could not afford TVCs at Doordarshan those days, the commercials were run mostly at the cinema halls....those days we had agencies running the commercials at the theaters. Blaze was one of them. And there would be minimum 20 to 30 commercials before the movie. I remember, using my relationship with the Blaze guy in Kumbakonam ran the commercial just before the start of the movie....that left lasting impressions with the consumers. The fundamentals of consumer product selling for me was sowed and well grained during my DIL days though it was just for 2 years. DIL didnt do well due to lack of money power. I think finally they sold the brand to someone and it just vanished. 

Guys, if any one knows the whereabouts of Narayanan ( he was married to the sister of Kaviyoor Ponnamma husband), pl share his number. I want to go and meet him and touch his feet. My love for him is unconditional.

In DIL I had a boss called Khan who used to live in KK Nagar, Chennai..no idea where he is...another great fun loving guy. Those days when the boss comes it is market visits only....no laptops, no WhatsApps and no other way of communication.....Evening after the market work go for a movie and dinner. Work is over by 5 as the no one would entertain you after 5. 

After DIl the big breakthrough for me professionally, when I look back....

Till next blog.....

Yours lovingly