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

Episode 11

Field Sales Officer-FSO-Chennai 1983-86

HL purchased their own office @Rosy Tower, Nungambakkam High Road. A beautifully laid out office with two cabins for the RM, ARM and a small cabin for the FSO. So, for the first time, I got an office space...lovely feeling....

Along with me Kandasamy (Kandan) also got promoted. From a single FSO to two FSOs and also an RM and ARM for South. The reason being that business started growing in South and TN  finally opened up for alcohol. TN announced setting up a corporation for purchase and distribution of alcohol. Tamil Nadu Sales and Marketing Corporation LTD (TASMAC). All the private WS licenses got cancelled and also government had given licenses for bottling of alcohol to 5. MBDL, Balaji, SAFL, Empee and Shiva were set up between 1983 to 85. Business started growing and the real competition and fight started so all the operating companies were in full throttle right from setting up a Route To Market-RTM to offices and FF. So HL also got in to the fray but sadly was running with a handicap-Dipys on its shoulders.

TN was split into two...vertically. Those days the railways had meter gauge and broad gauge. MG was from Chennai to Kanyakumari through coastal and central TN. BG was Chennai to Ooty. I was given the MG and Kandan was BG. Chennai was also split into two with South and North Chennai. My team members were Dwarak, KG Ravi both at Chennai, Narasimhan at Trichy, Kalyan at Madurai, Manohar at Tirunelveli. This was my team and Kandan had JP and KS Raghavan in Chennai, Panneer at Salem, Noor at Coimbatore. (later Vivek) and ALP at Salem.

Both self and Kandan were to manage TASMAC HO. We were to manage order generation from TASMAC to all the depots and to avoid overlapping, we were given 3 days a week each for TASMAC HO follow ups....Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays by one and the other days by the other....I realised immediately it was nothing but stupidity as it created confusion with TASMAC purchase guys and also misunderstanding between Kandan and me. The reason being that both of us were only focussing on our territories and pushing stocks for those depots only. But bosses didnt bother or understood...In retrospect, what the bosses should have done was to keep one FSO for market and another one for Tasmac management (Key accounts management).  After a few months, I reached an understanding with Kanadan and he started managing the logistics with TASMAC and I started focusing on the markets and the depots directly. Instead of HO pressure on order generation, I started making the depots to place indents and exert pressure on the HO and it worked well.

As an FSO (later this designation changed to ASE-following McD's footsteps) the pressure was to deliver the numbers for half of TN for both liquor and Dipys. I also had Pondy under me but that time Pondy was not under focus for HL and HL was happy with whatever they were getting. The bosses of HL failed here too as Yanam which is part of UT of Pondy was playing a big role in cross border sales-MSR Group mastered it and promoted McD in a big way thru Yanam RTM. Mahe was under Kerala and Mahe was contributing decent volumes but Pondy was neglected. Pondy was also under MSR and was managed by Dharmaraj-King of alcohol in Pondy-Dharma was a great human being but his loyalty was completely on McD and Hl was nowhere in his radar. I tried to take away the distribution from him but that was not supported by Tomy and later to open up the market and that was also negated. So Pondy was more for Dipys than Liquor...surprised, right?. Initially the supplies were from Bihar, UP and Rajasthan till Balaji unit in Chennai, became operational. So managing the logistics was so very vital. As mentioned earlier, it was all Datta, Datta and Datta...right from excise office to coordinating with the units and also at the borders of Odisha and AP. While we have to (HL) run pillar to post to get our supplies, McD never had such issues as they had their own distilleries and they were given the first preference. By the time we manage the logistics and bring the stocks, we need to also pull back consumers who had switched over to competition due to non availability of our stocks 24x7....but this was initial hiccups but thanks to timely intervention of HO, we managed the supplies well and started going all out.

TASMAC initially didnt know much about logistics and procurement as the people appointed to manage the business were not from a business background and especially the section heads. Both chairman (Mr. Karuppannan) and his deputy (Mr.Nammalwar) were teetotallers and completely clean...it took some time for them to figure out the logistics and procurement, and then it was left to the companies to manage the movement of stocks from the retail points. We also had another great person in Abul Hassan head of Finance in Tasmac...later he became the commissioner of Chennai Corporation.

It took some time for me to understand the new role as hand holding and tutoring was never part of HLs culture especially in South those days- key lesson for people who rise from the ranks--you have to start working on man/people management, managing bosses, upward and downward communications and keeping in touch with the market and having a good understanding of competition. Customer relationship by the boss is also very vital as the salesmen, mostly, tend to bull shit their way which can land the boss in soup..one has to be weary of this always. This is the key learning for me as initially my focus was in my earlier strong territories but soon I realised it was more of a 'comfort zone operations' and hence started focussing on other markets too. Get out of the comfort zone as you need multiple skills to climb the ladder which sometimes would be spiralled. 

The 3 years I spent as FSO (83-86) gave a great foundation for my supervisory skills and people management. 

The tough market was Chennai as both for Dipys and to some extent for liquor it was challenging. Though Chennai was contributing maximum for Dipys overall but market share wise still very negligible. And Kandan and his team had Salim Bhai as their distributor and his partner, Wadood Bhai, of Zeenat International which was in to ship-chandling, helped to a very great extent in this channel. Raghavan and JP were able to push anything and everything thru this channel and we have to toil (Dwarak and Ravi) everyday knocking at each and every door and were heavily dependent on retail. The silver lining was the distributor we had for Dipys, Madras Associated Agencies, owned by Mr.Shukla, and always support our efforts. Dwarak managed him very well. A word about Dwarak here....Dwarak is 6+ footer, with great personality and command over English. Also he was fluent in Telugu and Tamil. Rest of us were good only in Tamil and with some English. Ravi (KGR) managed his business partners with his numerology skills and as a pay back those guys started patronizing our brands both Dipys and liquor. But the beauty was even Raghavan, on the sides, helped us without the knowledge of his boss, Kandasamy as Salim was not very strong in retail. I, kind of encouraged, Ravi to do cross border trading and Ravi got it right and made inroads into Nathan's, a shop in Parrys corner, which catered to many small retailers in and around north of Madras. This guy were also related to Ravi which made it easier. When I say cross border, it is trading in areas which is out of your bounds. Once we came to know a big retail stores at Perambur called Demiris, was not getting serviced well. I took Ravi there (Perambur was not in our territory and hence cross border) and stuck a deal with the shop...these two guys were great contributors but it took some time for Kandan to figure this out but we managed even after that. Our distributor MAA Shukla helped us with cross billing too. Also with Ravis numerology got great business with DK Wines Karunakaran in Ranipet and Sri Krishna Wines, Thangam, in T Nagar(just examples out of many). Dwarak built a fantastic relationship with the Taj Group especially with the head of procurement (another Telugu speaking guy) and this account gave us some big numbers too. Tomy didnt know much about key account management and hence it didnt percolate down with in the state or even in South. But we understood the importance of the contributions from the key accounts like Taj, Chola, the clubs, big bakeries, super stores like Nilgiris and Bombay stores in T Nagar, and Ambicas. We also got hold of another ship-chandler, who was giving tough competition for Zeenat, on our side. (Alankar International). This was also under Kandan but Alankar didnt want to buy from Salim due to the Zeenat factor. We exploited it well. So it was competition with in the company but we ensured it didnt get personal. There was rivalry between self and Kandan but that was only in business.

Narasimhan at Trichy, Kalyan at Madurai (from Hubli I pulled him to Madurai-finally Kalyan got some fantastic break), Manohar at Tirunelveli...Very solid team. The entire TN team was envy of everyone as we all jelled very well.

I was always a tough boss when it comes to deliverance as I never take 'No' for an answer from anyone and hence my guys have to run that extra mile to deliver their numbers but they did it with aplomb. Narasimhan didnt need much of spoon feeding as he was master in his market. Narasimhan turned around Trichy and made inroads in to the English Warehouse (Jaya Shopping Center who also got a liquor retail license), Pandiyan and Priya wines....Also we cracked it big in Karur...

Abraham, who was instrumental in my getting in to HL, had resigned and took up a job in Gulf...he could not jell well with the culture of HL.

HL got a new RM in Navratan Dugar (IIM C) with great pedigree. He was a great boss to work with and learnt a lot from him. His letter dictation style was something one should see to believe. His home at 24, Poes Garden was a lovely place. He had hosted many dinners there and his wife Manju Dugar was a great hostess too. But only vegetarian and no alcohol there. Few years ago he razed down the independent house and built a 4 storey apartment there called 'Sky Villa'. He later moved on to head Balaji Distilleries in Chennai. The only negative thing about ND was he was a bit egoistic and we had issues with him when he was in Balaji to get our share of supplies. 

I used to travel a minimum of 12 days a month and also when in Chennai spend a minimum of 5 to 6 days in the market. This helped me to have a clear understanding of the market and its dynamics and also building relationship with key retailers. In alcohol business, as I always said, relationship is key. Compared to FMCG the liquor universe is too small. You need to have a great relationship with the trade as otherwise you would not be able to make any inroads. For example, a place like Mumbai has just 500 retail vends. Considering its population, Bombay should have a minimum of 1500 retail vends but the government had frozen it and not issued any licenses in the last, to the best of my knowledge, 4 decades. But they give licenses to bars and restaurants but no retail vends.

Even in Goa, where almost every 4th house is a bar/retail, relationship plays a key role.

Within few months of our moving in to our office in Rosy Tower, a massage parlour came up as our neighbor. That was the time these massage parlours started mushrooming in Chennai. The purpose was multi and we had some great VIPs visiting our neighborhood that included the late Gemini Ganesan. Many of our retail dealers were regular visitors there and used to drop in at our office with a sheepish smile. Fortunately within a year or two they all shut down and we bought that space also and annexed it to our office.

We were supported in our office by Datta, Sheigar K, LT Murthy, Hari, Shankaran, Babu and Anbu. All these guys were fantastic in their work. We had our warehouse in the basement of our building where we used to store Dipys and giveaways. Murthy used to handle cash and the moment he gets our expenses statement approved by Tomy, he used to call and disburse cash. And it was a big family....vasudeva Kudumbam.....

Also Tomy used to insist that we meet the parents of the candidates we recruit to ensure the parents were aware that their son was joining a liquor company. I still remember when we recruited Baksha I met his parents and took their consent.

Tomy was a different character. He used to spend maximum time in the office and very less of a market guy. Very seldom he visited the distributors and market visit used to be a bit of a tension and also fun. Tension in terms of his firing on the spot and fun in the evenings. He never trusted people instantly. We used to joke in the office about his reading the carbon copy of the letters he was signing!!! He always went home for his lunch and would come back to office around 4 and work till 5.30. 

There were no Emails and everything used to be in letters or telegrams. Telex was just introduced then. And there was power cuts too. But I dont think we ever cribbed. Market visits and doing business was always fun. 

Once the purchase guy at Taj was acting indifferent with us. Dwarak informed me and I rushed with Dwarak to meet him but could not crack. We waited for a day and informed Tomy. He got up and told us that we would go to Taj to meet him. Taj was just 10 minutes from our office. We went straight to the purchase department and to that person who was acting indifferent. Tomy gave him a piece of his mind and we didnt know how to react. He just let his steam off and left. We thought the business with Taj is lost forever. But to our surprise the very next day he called Dwarak and gave him a big order....When we informed this to Tomy, he just burst into laughter.....

As a bachelor in Chennai life was total fun. My elder sister was in Chennai and most of the time my food would be in her home. I have taken almost every single colleague of mine to my sisters home for a meal. Also to my Srirangam sister Radha's home...Whenever i felt like having home food, I would just drop in at her place. Mostly for lunch. 

Woodlands drive in used to be our meeting point. What a lovely place it was. Our government should have continued the lease with the Woodlands guys. It was the landmark of Chennai. 

During the music season, December, used to frequent all the Sabhas, mainly for the food/canteen and acquainted lots of friends. Also attended lots of concerts and gained some basic knowledge of carnatic music. Chennai is different during December with weather being nice and the music season. Amaravathi's Bahar restaurant specialising in tandoor stuff, was an  awesome place. This was another joint we used to frequent.

Since i was a bachelor and was in a two bedroom apartment, most of the get together with colleagues and friends used to be in my place only. And it used to be very difficult to get good accomodation if you are a bachelor. Once during my initial days as FSO when i was searching for an acco, I saw one advertisement in the local newspaper and went to see the place. It was in VM street Royapettah. The owners had a bungalow and behind that bungalow this two bedroom house along with few more row houses. All within the complex. The owners refused to let it to a bachelor. I pulled a fast one and told them my wedding is fixed in the next 2 months time. I also told them I would bring my brother to confirm this. I rush to Bhaskar's home and requested him to come with his wife Bharathy and act like my brother. He said yes immediately and visited the owners with me..the owners were elderly couple, very nice and courteous. They got so impressed and gave me the place. I moved in and with in 10 days my Indian Airlines  friend Radhakrishnan also moved in. Center of the city and a great place to live. After around 3 months the owners started nagging me about my wedding and they were getting really restless as they didnt want to keep bachelors there. They also had a lovely daughter whom we nick named as 'Contessa'.

Once they called me and told me they are getting complaints from other tenants that they dont want bachelors around. A kind of ultimatum they had given me. Radha got a wind of this and moved to another place. What I did to manage this is completely out of box. 

Near Hubli-Karnataka in an unmanned railway gate an accident happened and few people died. This was reported in the local newspapers of Chennai. I called Kalyan, who was HQ that time in Hubli and asked him to send me a telegram 'Geetha dies in a train accident. Sad to inform you'. Next day morning the owners son, knocks at my door with a very serious face and hands over the telegram. It took a few seconds for me to realise that I have to react to this telegram and did a Sivaji act. He didnt know how to react and asked me who was this Geetha? I told him it was my fiance' but not sure how and what happened. I bought some time....went in and closed the door and opened it after a couple of hours and went out. Returned in the evening and straight went to their house with a long face and told them that my fiance' was coming back from her pilgrimage and was in the same ill fated train and lost her life. I had to shed some tears too. They genuinely felt bad and left it like that. So for a couple of more months life was normal. But on the 3rd month they called me and asked me about my future plans? I told them I cant think of another girl in my life for sometime (unless it is your daughter!!)....They comforted me by telling that life has to move on and I should get married soon as they cant allow a bachelor to continue there!!! So ultimately I have to move out but I managed to stay there for almost a year.....a bachelor midst of family people!!!!! I stayed with Zulfiq for sometime on Luz Church Road ( I had seen Kalaigar playing shuttle with Kanimozhi-just adjacent to the place I was living) and finally moved in to Ganesh Apartment where my sister Bhanu was staying. 

That was the golden period of my bachelorhood. Ganesh apartment was in Alwarpet and had 4 blocks. One of the very first apartments to come up in Chennai and especially in the prime Mylapore area...people bought two bedrooms at just 50k...The owner of my apartment Dr. Shyamala was moving to US for a couple of years and hence wanted someone to take of the house when they were away. They locked one room and kept their things and the rest (one bedroom, hall and kitchen) were all mine....decent rent too. My sister was in the next block second floor and no worries for food. That one year was the best time I had in Chennai as bachelor. Though all the other residents were orthodox and family men, they didnt object to my parties or people visiting me. The only issue I had was the noise my Yezdi used to make. My return used to be always late when many residents would have gone to sleep and it disturbed them.  The association told me that I have to switch off the engine outside and come in pushing my bike. They also constructed a speed breaker at the entry of the apartment. But every one of them were so loving and affectionate. The Ganesh temple on Warren Road was a must visit before starting for work. Raman used to be a frequent visitor to my office along with his colleague Manohar. 

I got acquainted to Shankar in ganesh apartment only. His father Rathnam Iyer also became very close to me. The whole family. Shankar, his brother in law Balu and myself used to have fabulous time in Ganesh apartments. Shankar used to be with IOB. Well settled but he took a great risk, quit the job and started his own construction company and has done so well for himself. Very jolly good guy. Our friendship continues.....TV news reader Varadarajan was also a resident there. During the cricket matches we used to assemble at Sampath's flat (on first floor just above mine) and it was total fun. 

Work was also fun....market work with colleagues and spending the evenings together. We all bonded so well and when I look back, I can't say anything but a big thanks to the almighty for blessing me with such great colleagues who turned to be my very good friends. Its not that we didnt have our quota of misunderstandings and fights but we used to get them sorted over a drink.

TN liquor scene was different then. Only the WS was with the government and the entire retail universe was private. The license fee was not that much and hence the retailers used to make good money and also due to competition the consumers used to always get the best of deals. There was tough competition but no one crossed the line. 

As an FSO, my priority was to deliver my territories numbers in total which we as a team could deliver consistently-of course with some cross border trading too. Monthly review meetings were a must and started conducting them in upcountry too. The guys had a chance to get a feel of other markets too as we made it mandatory the market visit. Copied some of the earlier success formulas in other markets too and got some great boost. One strong area of us was the merchandising part. Made the team to believe in the importance of POS and POP and made it mandatory to carry enough materials in their kit. Also appointed, for the first time, merchandisers to help the team in merchandising and also spot selling activities. HL had a decent marketing team but they never bothered about TN as many of them were, what SSG used to call, 'armchair managers'. 

Krithi got married, I think in 82 and set his family in Madurai. His marriage was all fun. Raman got married in june 86. My other friends Kutty and Radha also got married at the same time. 

I need to also mention here that Dwarak helped me with a loan to complete my undergrad.... When I asked him for the amount, he didnt even hesitate for a second....Thanks a lot Dwarak. 

I will write more about all my HL colleagues in another post....

The 3 years period as FSO was one of the best period in my career. Time just flew as every day was exciting and threw lots of challenges. Performance wise management was so happy and just around July 1986, Tomy called me and informed me of my promotion as ASM TN. Another big break. God was so kind.

Once on my return trip from Madurai to Chennai, travelled with Manasvini aka Manu, wife of Krithi along with Krithi and Venkat of SW  in Vaigai express...I told Manu that everyone in my friends circle got married and I need to do something about it as I felt very lonely. She told me to advertise in the Hindu Matrimony, which I obliged. She helped me to sort out all the responses and we picked up the letter from Jeyanthi's dad and she responded to them on my behalf.

I took Raman with me to Trichur to visit them and said YES after spending a couple of hours there. Jeyanthis brothers had done some discreet enquiries on me at Chennai and gave a positive feedback to her parents (that surprises me still, though). We took the evening train from Trichur and came back to Chennai next day morning and I informed my folks....They all said yes and we got married on 7th Sep 1986. I was the incharge of my wedding and managed everything with help from Kalyan and my sisters. the wedding was conducted in Woodlands and it was just a days affair. As per practice with my Salem friends, I gave them a cottage for their stay and card session and joined them too for a game. Of course alcohol flowed too. The wedding happened on Ganesh chathurthi day and it was like sponsored by HL...Full team in attendance and complete assistance and support. Jeyanthi joined me in Ganesh apartments. We went to Ooty for our Honeymoon and the moment I returned to Chennai, Tomy informed me of my transfer to AP with Hyderabad as my HQ. It was unified AP then. It was a kind of bolt from the blue. He told me its an independent branch with full fledged office, warehouse and distributors. And company provided car...Wah....what else you can ask for? And I never used to bother about money or negotiate with management. My wife used to work for Bank of Travancore and had applied for a transfer to Chennai. The request got changed to Hyderabad and she got it too...

The 3 years spent in Chennai was absolutely awesome. Professionally and personally. Its bye bye Chennai and Hello Hyderabad.....

 

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

Episode (10 A)

Madurai Days...

The competition was getting tougher every day in the liquor front. Companies have started tasting success and started launching new brands. Phipsons, part of our own UB group, launched Royal Reserve with lots of fanfare and 'never seen before' schemes. The pity was despite McD, HL and Phipsons were part of UB group, there was fierce competition between us which was not a healthy trend and competition fully exploited it. The problem was HL never had its own bottling unit and heavily dependent on units owned by McD or contract bottlers. Phipson had one unit of theirs in UP but they were also dependent on the contract bottling units. In TN there was no bottling units that time and hence everyone has to import from other states. We were getting our requirements from Hathida and Mirganj units (Bihar) of McD and also some from Carews (UP). But it was always a nightmare getting the stocks on time/everytime. The problem with liquor business was and is the control by the state machineries. The excise issues permits which has a limited validity and you have to bring your stocks within that period. We are in 2021 and our surface infrastructure has seen massive developments but back then from UP/Bihar it would take a minimum of 15 to 20 days to reach TN. So planning was most vital. My colleague at Chennai office, Datta, has mastered this logistics well and sometimes, I had seen him travelling to the AP Odisha border to handover documents to the truck drivers for entry in to TN.

Fortunately for me, I had built a very good personal relationship with MSR and hence could generate permits on time and also managed to get the stocks without much delays. Also have to manage the depot at Nagercoil of Nallaperumal. Nallaperumal was run by Nallaperumal and his two sons Appadurai and Ravi. They were known for their textile business but their first foray in to spirits was this WS license for KK and T'veli districts. Very professional and excellent people to work with. Their main business is textiles and they had a huge showroom opposite to the bus stand in Nagercoil. Hope it is still there. The size of the market was small but due to its proximity to Kerala, we could push Honeybee compared to other markets. I got some great support from Marthandam, Murugan wines and also that entire belt. Justin who had a shop in Nagercoil was another great supporter! Also this market was contributing good numbers for our Dipys and Freedom, as mentioned in my earlier post.

Kanthimathi wines in Tirunelveli was another big but tough customer. The owner, a very elderly person would not move out of T'veli hence his son Raju was the one who would come to Madurai for purchases. Very strong supporter of McD...and at the WS level could not do much as he would not change the indent proposed by his father as he was so scared of him (The old man had a very bad temper and pelt typical T'veli bad words when irritated/provoked). They used to own a medical shop and hence a very loyal consumer base. Son could not be cracked at Madurai. It's not that they would not buy our products but no big push or intent to support. Shekar of McD had a great rapport with them and his local guy Royan was based at T'veli...so easier to push and make the whole shop look like McD warehouse. So I had a big task on hand....few meetings with the old man but could not crack...got support from the bus stand shop Welcome wines but that was not as big as Kanthimathi...so how did I crack him? Thanks to my Mom....hahaha....Once I visited him around 3 in the afternoon and he was completely relaxed with hardly any consumers at the counter. He was in a good mood and was warm. He ordered Halwa from the shop nearby (this place is popular for its local halwa) and along with that some Sev....soft drink et al. At his hospitable best....I asked him the reason for naming the shop 'Kanthimathi and whose name is that'...incidentally the presiding deity/devi at the famous Nellaiappar temple is Kanthimathi but the shop was not named after her...he told me it was his mother's name and he was very fond of his mother....and his mother was his lucky charm...I caught on to this point as my mother's name is also Kanthimathi. I spun some instant story around it and narrated it with so much of emotion (lost my mother when I was 5 or 6 YO) and he also became very emotional and we immediately bonded....Deliberately didnt ask for any support or any big order for our brands and left his shop taking a big hug from him and he parcelled one kg of Halwa and insisted I should take it and eat it all myself. Next day his son Raju came to Madurai, contacted me and showed me the indent which the old man had handwritten. I just could not believe myself....100 cases of BP and HBB.....Wah....my mother has done that magic. After this initial BT, I managed Raju well and also some of the key shop guys and the momentum was gained. HL got its foothold in T'veli and Welcome wines also started buying more...

Learning....guys always look for emotional bonding with the customer....anyone can give discounts and foreign trips but emotional bonding would go a long way...but absolutely no bullshitting....you have to respect and stay true to the bonding....that's most important. Afterwards, our dear Kalyan managed the relationship well and took it to newer heights.

Also we introduced 'mystery consumers' concept that time in Madurai. We didnt appoint agencies but made my friends as the mystery consumers. Nagi was one among them...that clicked very well especially for HBB as the CSM who recommends our product would instantaneously get a gift from the mystery consumer....

Once I went to Blr combining some weekend off but got delayed there and came back a day later to Madurai but didnt inform my office..dont know the reasons but failed. I reached my room around 11pm and there was a telegram at my door steps from Abraham my Manager saying he would be arriving next day by flight from Chennai and I had to receive him at the airport with an ac ambassador car. Didn't have a clue about what time is the flight and how to organise a car (this telegram was delivered a day earlier)...immediately I rushed to Radha my IA friend who was staying close by, woke him up from his sleep and understood the Chennai flight would land around noon....ooops....thank god for that...it was not early morning....so next day morning organised for the car and received Abraham. He was such a wonderful boss to work with. He was not a pushy or bossy and these trips are just to motivate...i confided in him what happened the previous day and he was quite cool. He wanted to go to Thekkady from Madurai to visit his friend so we decided to visit some retailers en route at Theni and Cumbam. Courtesy to him, I stayed at a nice place in Thekkady that night....

We had a retailer at Theni by name Bhaskar. Gem of a guy...always barefooted....some kind of vow he had taken and stopped wearing chappals from that day....during that time the trade was run by private and hence it was fun visiting the markets. Most of the time lunch or dinner will be with the retailers only...ofcourse, with a couple of drinks. I used to visit most of the markets in Madurai district riding my Yezdi and hence could cover even the remotest of shops....

When in Madurai most of the time for lunch it used to be Sriram mess. Sriram mess was one of the landmarks in Madurai for veg meals with awesome offerings. Excellent food. One day while waiting for my turn to occupy the table, a guy approaches me with a big smile and extends his hand and asked me whether i am a sales guy...When I said 'yes-from Bagpiper', his smile widened and we became friends instantaneously. He is Krishnankutty and was with Avery's as their TSE. His brother was the one who was staying in the same independent house, on top of the grinding mill. Kutty introduced me to Krishnakumar his colleague from Averys and thru them to Radhakrishnan of Indian Airlines. Our friendship is 40 years old now. Bhaskar was the Branch manager then and a close friend of my brother and also the boss of Kutty and Krishnakumar. Bhaskar was also in SS colony. Bhaskar and his wife Bharathi were great hosts and entertained us so many evenings with booze and food. And my SS colony neighbors were my sisters friend from Trichy. They had also shifted to Madurai as they got transferred too. Kumar (different Kumar) was with Aristo. They were my 'to go to' people for excellent homely food whenever I wanted. They always welcomed me and I became a family member in no time. Rajan was also in Madurai with Parke-Davis and he shifted from Madurai immediately after my arrival but we bonded well. Rajan, Rajah, Kutty and KPK and Kumar, Kuttys brother....gang of 5.

Another great friend I acquainted was Parimelazhagan aka Pari...He was also staying at SS Colony and was with Lederle...a pharma company. Evening around 5, he would walk down from his home along with his son and daughter holding each of his hand (Ganesh and Preethi). His first stop would be Kumar's home and then to my place. Would spend some time and then he would leave for his home. We bonded so well. Also my place is the booze joint for many a guys as it was huge and the owners never had any reservations people visiting. Krithi was my neighbor and was staying with his friends(all bachelors). Shekar occupied the place where MSA Kumar was staying. MSA Kumar got married during his Madurai days and shifted to a nice place in SS colony itself. 

Rajeev from Dunlop was the previous incumbent and he moved to Blr...he was a wonderful singer and also a guitarist but only English songs....he had a style of his own...his cigarette used to be kept between the keys on top of the guitar...We used to argue a lot and when Pari asked me why we keep arguing a lot my spontaneous response was 'that's the problem with intellectuals' and Pari wasn't happy with that...

Before shifting to Dr's home I was in another place...on the second floor. I used to park my bike at the ground level and in the mornings to my utter dismay and shock the petrol would have run empty on most of the days...my mechanic confirmed that there was no leakage or any issues with my bike and I literally was breaking my head....I wanted to figure out what really was happening. One evening, after parking my bike, I quietly went to the neighbors place and started observing. Around midnight the owners younger son walks out of his home with a big bottle, opens the tube which connects the tank to the engine and starts filling up the bottle. Caught him red handed and bashed him up....

Another incident which happened in Bhaskar's home made me to think like Sherlock Holmes. Bhaskar got transferred and called me to help him to manage the packing and loading. While doing it his friends son also came to assist and this went on till evening. And that boy left and around 7pm Bhaskar was in some kind of distress...when asked he said he had kept some cash in his wardrobe and around 1000 was missing. Those days 1000 was really big money. It could be anyone, right...I felt I have to prove my innocence and also there was no time as Bhaskar was to leave the next day by Pandiyan in the evening. I had some suspicion on that guy who was also assisting that day. So suddenly hatched up a plot...

Called my friend Krishnakumar(Avery's), well built and with close hair cut could be mistaken for a police inspector. I also knew the suspect plays cricket for his college team. So the plot was to go to his house, bring him to my room to discuss a possible cricket match between his college and a team of Reps....leave him in the room with my wallet on the table with some money and I go down for sometime and come back with Krishnakumar. I went to his house in the morning and the moment I spoke about cricket, he was all excited and came with me to my room. Went as per the plot, left my wallet on the table, excused myself, went down for few minutes and came back with Krishnakumar. He was totally relaxed but the moment he saw KK he got a bit tensed. I took the wallet and found 3x100 were missing. So signalled KK and he he held that guy by his collar and that's it.... that fellow gave back the 300 and another shake and slap he admitted to taking the money from Bhaskar's place the previous day. We took him to Bhaskar's place immediately and handed over the culprit...it was such a great relief for me....

A sales guy has to always think ahead and smart....little bit of criminal investigative mind is required...this incident Bhaskar used to quote always with a hearty laugh....when I asked him whether I was also in his 'suspect' list he said 'never'. Such a great soul!!!

Madurai had given me plenty of friends and very fond memories. Nagi, Cheenu of Phipsons, Krithi, Pari, Aristo Kumar and his entire family, Aristo Sivaraman, Shekar, Krishnakumar of Lederle, Jat of Nicholas, Kumar of Nicholas, GV, Krishnan Kutty, Krishnakumar, Radha of IA, Rajan, Kamalakkannan, MSA Kumar and many customers who had become friends. Its 82-83 and almost 4 decades...we formed a Madurai Gang whatsapp group too....

Raman used to frequent Madurai and so also my brother in law Muthukumar. These guys always stayed with me. Raman is another connoisseur of  booze and food. He had to have non veg after drinks and his favourite was Arulanandam, Konar...and Taj restaurant. My place was a bachelor's den and like a choultry...what fun we had....health wise I had major issues with my digestive systems thanks to the local food. Madurai and Virudhunagar also very popular for the Parathas...the typical one made from maida...in Virudhunagar they make it with so much of oil and almost deep fry it...very crispy parathas....Every town had its own signature dishes...Another must visit is the border paratha shop in Shencottah....After a shower in Courtallam people drive down there for the lovely food...their pepper chicken with paratha is world famous. It's called the bordershop as it is the border between TN and Kerala.

Shankaran was my FSO and a wonderful guy...beginning of 83, he came down to Madurai for a market visit and before catching the night train, we sat in his room in Arthi hotel,  with a bottle of Booths Gin and finished it off between us. That's the time he broke the sweet news that I am due for my promotion and will be shifted to Chennai as my HQ soon as FSO as he is being transferred to AP. Didn't hit me as Booths hit me stronger and much before this promotion news....next day morning it slowly sunk in and felt so happy and great to know that I will be in charge of bigger territories and also TSEs reporting to me....big deal indeed!!! 

Madurai had given me so much of exposure, learning of booze business, relationship management and above all understanding of market dynamics. Also wonderful time personally and professionally and as mentioned, lots of great friends.

So my days as TSE got over in Madurai and over to Chennai as FSO....Bye bye Madurai and hallo Chennai again.....

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

Never say Die!!

Episode 11.

Friends, i know 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! (Many a times, from what I had experienced, when you ask a customer how's business,  the answer would be 'not great'. You get stuck with such kind of answers. When the customer says its not good, you can't counter him by some weird answers or examples). So, 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!!! 

Sharing here a real life experience on 'Never Say Die'... 

This happened in 90/91. 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. And we were desperate and have to get MD to get this order signed. Those days there was no mobile or internet facilities (only telex machines). We deliberated and with some luck on our side, found out from MD's office his travel itinerary. We figured out that the MD was to take a particular train from Trichy to Tirunelveli that night, that originates from Chennai. 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 was a plot. He called him to his coupe and probed him. Our sales manager, didnt want to bullshit 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 retail. 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, narrated the whole story, paid all the accolades to my sales manager and told everyone that how our company set standards in terms of commitments to numbers and perseverance. This is a true story and you can call KS Raghavan on +919840771486 and he would be too glad to share with you his experience and how he felt when MD released the order on phone!!! 

The learning here is 'never ever give up'! Always look for ways to get things done and not for excuses for non-performance. And do not be apologetic!! We need to confide in our customers how important is his contribution to our business!!! 

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

Episode (10)

Madurai Days...

With a heavy heart and without any understanding of Madurai market, I left Salem and reached Madurai, the Temple City.

Madurai is a different kind of place compared to other places in TN. Difference in terms of everything. A city that never sleeps.  ''தூங்கா  நகரம்''. 24x7 food is available and people on the move. The reason being that Madurai is the trading center and right from Cumbam people come to Madurai for trading purpose. Also one of the biggest attraction is the Meenakshi Temple...such a huge temple with a very rich heritage and culture.

And people are so lovable and affectionate. I reach Madurai and after a couple of days in a hotel, move to SS colony. A single room on the second floor of an independant home. My first floor neighbor was a lady-Tamil-Citizen of Malaysia with her son and daughter to pursue their studies in Madurai..(could not understand why from KL to Madurai for studies)..and the second floor was just a room with huge terrace but for bathroom and toilet I have to climbdown and use the facilities at the ground floor. The owner of the place also ran a flour mill (for Dosa and idli atta) facility at the ground and on top of it another room where Kumar of Sandoz was staying....

That's the time TN has opened up further the liquor trade. They had given license to around 7 or 8 wholesalers and also opened up the retail trade to private. So its action time. My WS in Madurai was catering the entire Madurai (Dindigul included) district, Ramnad (Virudhunagar included) and Tirunelveli district. The Madurai WS was of MSR group and in Nagercoil the WS was of Nallaperumal and Sons...

MSR group-in 81, were well entrenched in Yanam and Pondy and slowly getting in to AP.  Madurai Ambika Wines was their foray into alcohol business in TN. While the chains were pulled from Chennai and Nellore, the operation in Madurai was managed by their trusted employees but all are from AP. Nandakumar, Venkatram and Prabhakar Reddy. MSR was known for his loyalty to the UB group. 

Shankaran my boss, did a decent induction for me but the focus again was more on Dipys as we had lots of issues. HL just changed the distribution in Madurai from Meenakshi Agencies to Amaran Traders. We had distributors everywhere...Dindigul, Rajapalayam, Tenkasi, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and also in Nagercoil.

Its similar for Dipys like any other place in TN (Coimbatore and Chennai were exceptions). Tough market conditions added to that was the change in distribution. Amaran, my distributor, young guy and after his graduation, his dad pushed him to get in to distribution. He used to live in Aruppukkottai and come to Madurai by bus-an hours journey. Very sweet guy and absolutely had no clue about distribution. So, I have to start from ground zero again...but I had good distributor in Rajapalayam (Gnanam-very enterprising and friendly distributor) and Mani in Nagercoil. So first couple of months on market familiarisation. I realised I have to get maximum from KK district as due to its Kerala influence, the awareness was better on food stuff and also people were used to jams, squashes and sauces. Kodaikanal was good for this category but didnt contribute much to Dipys. Rajapalayam was also decent due to Gnanam. Tirunelveli was quite tough. Ramnad was small and the only market we could sell some was Virudhunagar. Barring KK district rest of the areas really sizzle during summer time. 

I had a good start there. Professionally, I had to get the numbers done on Dipys and used the same strategy ie 20:80. Targeted the biggies and hotels for Dipys. Pandiyan, ITDC, TTDC, Madura Club et al supported me very well for Dipys range. I got a long term deal done with Kodai school, Kodaikanal Club in Kodai and Meenakshi agencies there. The problem with Meenakshi was delayed rather very delayed, payment but we managed it well. When in Chennai, I got to know of the very fizzy and great concoction called 'cricket' a soft drink, served in MCC. It was a mix of Orange squash with Limca. Tastes great! I, kind of introduced this concept in the clubs in Madurai and Kodai. This clicked there and paved way for Dipys orange squash. Also Sweet corn did well, surprisingly. I appointed door to door sales girls for Freedom in Madurai and Nagercoil and made them to give discount coupons to the homemakers for redemption in select retail on our Dipys range. This worked very well in both the places especially in Nagercoil. There was a retailer by name Veta Stores where I introduced this scheme and got a big push from him. Also in KK district places like Thakkalai and Marthandam I used the same strategy of Salem and pushed good quantity of Freedom in the hospitals there (Marthandam had around 4 or 5 polyclinics in 2 kms vicinity) and with that pushed Dipys in their canteens. Caught hold of a ship chandler-Cashmere Fernandes-in Tuticorin and got consistent business from him. Very unassuming customer and the shop situated in the midst of the vegetable market. He had his own way of pushing stocks in to the ships and despite competition from biggies like Alankar and Zeenat International. I played a lot with my liquor giveaways and it clicked. In Tirunelveli I got good support from Kavitha Stores. I developed some loyal and good customers for Dipys across all the districts. Some markets where it was waste of time, I ignored them. Also Dipys had, apart from Squashes, syrups too. Their rose syrup was world class but sadly Kissan and Rex along with Roof Afsa were the prefered brands. But later I realised Syrups were just flavours and today I dont waste my money on flavoured drinks...this awareness was missing with consumers those days and exploited fully by the brand owners like Rasna and Tang. Today's consumers are well informed thanks to the media.

Also Dipys ATL budget was zylch and hence heavily dependent on customer relationship and push strategy. As mentioned earlier, I exploited my 'liquor guy' tag very well in these markets too to gain confidence and entry in to retail shelves. It was quite tough as I was covering geographically a big market. But never got tired of travelling. I used to cover Nagercoil ex Madurai and return same day. Morning take the 5am bus, reach Nagercoil around 1030-11, finish the work by 6 and take the evening bus and come back by 12 midnight. As mentioned earlier, food was never a problem in Madurai, the city that never sleeps!!!

I realised very soon that HL was losing out in liquor in Madurai due to maximum of our time getting consumed with Dipys. So, I motivated the distributors to push Dipys and just managed the key outlets for Dipys myself. 

My task was to get entrenched with Ambika wines the WS for my market. It was tough as none of them spoke Tamil and also.very bossy. There was a guy in Phipsons, my name sake, who was able to get things done with them. Also Krithi and Shekar from McD, Kannan from MBDL gave me a good fight. This is where I met Krithi, Shekar and Kannan. (Sadly Kannan died at a very young age). Krithi's family became very close to me and so as Shekars. Shekar was Krithis boss. Krithi, despite being in McD used to work very hard.  I figured out the Phipson guy's closeness with the Ambica guys were due to the liquor parties thrown by him so I decided to do it differently. By the time, due to some issues I faced with the landlord and especially with one of his children, I shifted to a nearby place in SS Colony itself which was in the first floor of an independent building belonging to a Dr. It had a bedroom, attached bath and also a nice drawing room with a huge terrace both in the front and back. Very ideal for parties and the owners had absolutely no issue with visitors and parties. So, I organised for a get together with the Ambica guys and it turned out to be the mother of all parties. The beauty of the party was, I served JW Red Label (the bottle was that of JW but liquid was substituted by me and no one noticed it!) and the food I ordered from Arulanandam mess which was quite popular for their non veg. As the Andhrites were fond of rummy, I organised a card session too!! I also pulled in some of my friends to help me out and the party went on till 3 in the morning and some of these guys stayed back and slept in my place. Instant bonding, the purpose of the get together, was achieved in one night!!! 

So got Ambica thing cracked but I have to crack the market and the retailers. The system worked differently. In the morning time till around 1, retailers would arrive at the WS office and all the sales guys would swarm them the moment they arrive. Ambica had an indent sheet and the sales rep would grab literally the retailers by their side and would start pushing their products. And most of these guys had their second in command to manage things in the market. But I was all alone and had to manage both at the WS and also at the retail. So, I have to do something and fast also. So I approached MSR at Chennai and told him this practice of indent filling by reps, helping Shaw Wallace a lot and if he doesn't stop it, the loser would be UB group. I somehow hammered this point very strongly and he immediately passed a directive that no sales guy should be allowed inside the WS and can only come in the afternoon to collect sales figures. This strategy of mine helped me immensely as I was a market oriented guy and was confident that I can manage it better in the marketplace. While I could pull Bagpiper to No.1 position in its category it was quite tough for Honeybee except Kanyakumari. So I have to do something and get some numbers for HBB and hence exerted lots of pressure on my bosses for a scheme-first time in the trade. It was a 11 cases 1 case free and of this 3 cases has to be HBB. KC Kapoor was the GM Sales and he made the scheme a very complex one but somehow I convinced MSR to contribute from his WS margin and introduced the scheme with Ambica. The competition was shocked but by the time they came in to terms and came out with their own versions, I had a head start and the very first month HL crossed two truck loads in Madurai which was a big number for HL. And HBB was 250 cases out of that. I have to compromise on the HBB combo with some key retailers as otherwise I would have lost BP too. But finally the scheme was a huge hit but it was for a short duration only. But this helped as the retailers gave a big push which created awareness. But next couple of months there was utter chaos with all and sundry coming out with their own versions of 10+1 and MSR called me to discuss this and was given a nice dressing down by him for being the culprit of this 10+1 version. I played my cards well and requested him to ban these kind of offers and he obliged...so this 10+1 was scrapped immediately. So WS became peaceful and this paved way for companies to think differently and come out with something different. We introduced the monthly scheme circulars and settlements directly from the company. And HL was always prompt in settling the market claims. Shankaran my FSO helped me a lot in getting the claims passed at the branch office level. Things have started working well. I also worked out a dealers get together, first of its kind, in Madurai. Navratan Dugar, joined HL as RM and Tomy was his assistant. Abraham left HL. That get together became talk of the town for other reasons. The dealers got drunk and completely gone out of control with food plates flying around and people falling in the swimming pool. Dugar and Tomy ran for cover and I have to cut a sorry figure. But the silver lining was the next day my key customers felt so guilty and the next few indents topped HL brands (!). After seeing this fiasco most of the companies decided to keep away from dealers get together.

So many learnings and interesting episodes...

to be contd.....