Attachment With Prof.umadevi, Gitam, Vizag, 14.7.2012 (4)

7/31/2019 Attachment With Prof.umadevi, Gitam, Vizag, 14.7.2012 (4)

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SESSION-1 (1st August, 2012: Wednesday)

Instructions for ROLE PLAYING for all students,

who are expected to function

in teams of roughly 10 students per team.

For every group of 120 students, there will be 10 teams.

EXAMPLE : ABN(P) LTD. CASE STDY: ROLE PLAYING EXERCISE


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A GENERAL FORMAT ON SALES AND MARKETING MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS, AS AN

INTEGRAL PART OF MANAGEMENT [Paradigm common for Role Plays]

Management, alongwith its 12 step approach, goes through, for any function, all these 12 steps. Briefly,

these are as follows:

Step-1: Setting of Goals: Mission and Vision

Step-2: Setting of clearly defined Objectives within the Goal definition.

Step-3: Identification of constraints and limitations, at a point of time.

Step-4: Generation of all feasible alternatives for solving problems, achieving objectives, and,

finally, reach pre-defined long term qualitative Mission and Vision (Goals).

Step-5: Using a tabular format for comparison, each relevant alternative is analysed, based on

cost and benefit aspects. This is known as cost-benefit analysis (CBA).

Step-6: Reach an optimum decision

Step-7: Detailed plan for implementation.

Step-8: Develop and organize and/or restructuring of an existing organization.

Step-9: Ensure, through Motivation, Control and Guidance (MCG), optimum utilization of

Human Resource in different types of Organisation cultures.

Step-10: Go in for test market approach, if called for

Step-11: Go in for planned commercial launching

Step-12: Develop Management Information System, to ensure planned feedback, follow-up and

replanning.

As a natural follow-up, Annual Business Plan (ABP) of any organization has to be worked out. Based on

the ABP, the steps will be as follows:

- Prepare Annual Marketing Plan (AMP)

- Annual Sales Plan (ASP: This will be a combination of existing sales objectives (Refer: Cell-

1 of Igor Ansoffs Product market mix as well as, as and when called for, Cell-2 (Product

development) and Cell-3 (Market development). Depending on the scenario and overall

PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social-cultural, Technological, Legal and Environment), allthe above will vary and may even include planned concentric diversification and/or even non-

concentric diversification (Cell-4)

Annual Business Plan (ABP)

This is a mother document for any organized activity.


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Based on researched data, past experience, future prospective requirements (Potential forecasting)

and a firms available competencies, ABP is prepared, taking into account concepts like SWOT,

segmentation-targetting- positioning (S-T-P), Corporate Planning Module, Igor Ansoffs product-

market mix and similar time-tested theories, guidelines.

It is a road map on how to go where to go.

Annual Sales Plan (ASP)

This, as an integral part of ABP and Annual Marketing Plan (AMP) is built up by using available

potential approach (Route-1) and/or workload approach (Route-2).

Route-1 [Top-down estimation]

There are, say, 1000 prospects

In short run (One year) 500 can be converted (Theoretically) to buying population (Customers)

A-B-C analysis shows:

At a point of time

Probable responses

A (Bulk buyers) : 50 parties Annual purchase Totalprobability 10050=5,000

= 100 units/party

B (Medium buyers) : 100 parties 50 = 5,000

C (Small, scattered : 350 20 = 7,000

buyer population)

Total probable = 17,000demand at a

point of time

Route-2: Grass route level Workload approach [Bottoms Up Planning]

(MBO approach)

SayOne sales person can call on 10 parties every day i.e. 3,000 calls/year of 300 working days.

Conversion of prospects = 50% i.e. 1,500 effective call equivalent needed to reach target.

(Balance: Cold Calls)

Break-up of ABC analysis

i) A (Total: 50: Relevant 25: Probable response rate per call X1 units

Probable sales/year = 25X1200 calls = 5,000 X1 Units

ii) B Category (Total: 100) = 50X2400 calls

Actual response from: 50

Rate of response/call= X2 (Lesser than X1) = 20,000 X2 units


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5. Based on practical number of effective calls per year (Consider travelling time, waiting time,

actual contact time AND a minimum of needed planning and administrative time), work out:

5.1 Number of sales, service persons needed, based on allocated sales targets (Sales calls and

response rates)5.2 Their selling, distribution (S&D) expenses.

5.3 Workload allocation , on sales type prospect type principle i.e.:

- Who will service bulk buyers?

- Who will coordinate with Distribution Channel Members?

6. At senior level

Coordination with

- Internal : Marketing team. Also Logistics

Market

R&D Ads & Planning Sales Competitive ResearchPublicity Promotion data activities/ other

& researches, if an

Execution any

Annual Sales Plan (ASP), therefore, is a basis for Sales Management Team (S.M.T.) for:

- Planning (Short term, mid-term and sometimes long term) specific, quantified, achievable

sales targets in pre-defined geographical areas, targetted at clearly focussed buyer-user

segments (With available product-service mix), subject to known 6 Ps (Product, price and

terms, place i.e. methods of distribution, promotional mix, process, people), not forgetting

present competition.

- Organising : Determine area-specific, individual sales targets, with proper sales type

(Deliverer, order taker, order getter, missionary type, technical and,finally, solution vendor) and fit with relevant product-service type i.e.:

Consumer products

- Perishable

- Non-durable

- Durable

[Emphasis here is on extensive promotion and distribution]

Industrial

- Standard

- Fabricated- Capital plant and equipment.

[More focus on person-firm-level personal relationship]

(Intangible) Services

- General- Tailor-made


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[Total problem solving mentality]

- Controlling : Periodic audit of norms for sales-service achievement and solve all

internal problems of coordination-communication-cohesion

amongst:

* Local (Branch level) sales, service personnel

* Regional/district level sales, service personnel* State level personnel

And

* All directions from central head office, which also can be

de-centralised..

- Performance norms (Time based), sales-service person-wise will have to be fixed depending

on factors like, say:

Business cycle

Seasonal demand

Tastes preferences [Say, tea types: ABN case]

Local competition

Local social-cultural norms

Geographical size i.e. scatter of buyers, users, population density, available local

wholesalers distributors dealers retailers stockists agents even upto Pan

shops

[i.e. length, width, density of channels]

Most important:

Available trained sales-service personnel (Number, personality profiles, education,

experience, willingness to excel etc.).

Even compensation norms(Salary, perquisites, incentives) will be related to actual sales,

service standards.

Guiding: For any function, including Sales-Service Management, selection-training (From time to

time often on the job), all types of Hand holding (Spot direction),

deployment (Sales vs. personality profile fit) are all critical to bring out qualityperformance from all employees, who need to be motivated from time to time.

Staffing: Number, types of people and their Working climate have to be created.

Train them, deploy them for suitable activities.

One important norm is:

Compensation:

It can be a combination of:

- Direct salary: High, medium, low as per prevailing industry norms

- Perquisites

- Meet timely on-the-job expenses for travelling, boarding, lodging and all other

miscellaneous expenses


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(Say for entertainment of customers, look after local Contact people, keep

happy indirect distribution channel members and the like).

- Most important of all:

Performance related (Achievement) rewards (Or even punishments fornon-performance as in enclosed ABN (Pvt.) Ltd. case study).

Using Frederick Herzbergs two-factor theory, both hygiene and non-hygiene factors need to be looked

into, bring out the best from all employees.

For any function, at any level, leadership innovation and willing To change with changing

environment, all, cumulatively play an important part to ensure employee level motivation-control-

(Often self) guidance.

Internal Process (P5):

- Simultaneously, all other functional planning needs to be organized. These will be for:

Production, Planning and Control (PPC)

Human Resource Management (HRM)

Research and Development process (R&D)

Financial planning and control, including all costing

Materials Management plans and programmes

Logistics: Both internal and external

Any other back-up functions, if called for, can also be organized, for, say, planning and

implementation for all services including Utility functions.

In other words, any efficient and effective organization will have to ensure all internal coordination,

communication and cohesion so as to:

- Satisfy customers and convert prospects to customers, maintain customers- Ensure firm-level objective achievement.

(Refer: Michigan Survey Research Centres 8 point criteria).

- Plus : Corporate Social Responsibility (C.S.R.)

-We are going to use ABN (P) Ltd. case study, for detailed analysis in so far as re-launching of the RR

brand is concerned, for this case study alone. Necessary Steps will be as follows:

Step-1: Using Market Research Techniques of assessment and/or forecasting, work out the existing

market demand in the city of Kolkata and also the future relevant potential. For these, both past,

present and future possible trends need to be assessed on aspects like:

- Price sensitivity

- Tastes and preferences for specific urban tea drinking segments.

- Others like competition

Step-2: Using the concept of geographical coverage and usage propensity, it has been decided that 16 out

of 28 Zones, in the city of Kolkata, will be very relevant for:

- Very interested in RR brand

- Medium interested


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- Low interested

- Not interested at all (These sub-segment, for the time being, can be ignored).

Using the above, for this case study alone, the following have been pre-decided, i.e.:

- Three existing wholesellers- Thousand relevant dealers, out of 1718 total number of dealers, for servicing 16 chosen sub-

segments (Zones), of probable tea drinkers (Darjeeling type of flavor). Here, theoretically, 6million families of probable RR type of tea drinkers have been assessed to exist, out of a total

of 12 million households, in Kolkata city, of all types of tea drinkers.

Concept of S-T-P has been utilized here.

Step-3: Internally within the organization, only available three senior sales personnel (Product

Managers), besides the Group Product Manager will be involved. Also, three existing sales

persons will also be involved. V.P. too can be involved (Total: 8 persons)

Step-4:

Sitting in SMs chair and using basic principles of Time and territory management, how will you / yourteam like to re-focus your sales teams cumulative energies to achieve your given team target of, say,

having 10% of related market share?

In absence of Hard data, present your :

- Overall strategy (Conceptual)- Process, step by step (Operational)

- Logic for your decision.

Assumptions are permitted.

Hint:

The conceptual steps, needed to be used, should first be highlighted.

For example, is it necessary to assess?

- Quantification of demand, potential for RR/similar tea brands? [Relevant need, want?]

- Present competitive inroads,

- Extent of buyer, dealers satisfaction or dissatisfaction with other tea brands?

- How to reposition RR in buyers minds?

How to go about ? Broad steps :- Can be:

Markets demand and future potential needs to be known, based on both past, present and future possible

trends (For this case, price sensitivity, tastes and preferences for specific urban tea drinking segments

etc.)[How?]

Geographical coverage and usage propensity needs to be known / assessed. For example, out of 28

Zones, which zones may be :-

- Very interested in RR brand (For this case study)

- Medium interested.


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- Low interested

- Not interested at all (Ignore for the time being).

[Question: How to test this concept?]

Obviously, along with quantitative (Most probable requirements) needs (RR / similar brands), qualitativeexpectations should also be identified ie :

- Package/Container shape, size (Design), colour, type of printing needed

- Availability near, say, buyers doorstep

(This will mean local level dealer, retailer relationship)

- Awareness creation (Is sampling necessary ?)

[Question: Will three current bulk wholesellers alone be sufficient to cater to all relevant

retailers?]

Fixation of first year (1998-1999) level, achievable business target for RR (For this case) in Kolkata

say for 1998-1999 period, to start with. [Basis for fixation]

Since current awareness level is low, as also Image of the firm as a steady and regular packed teasupplier, considerable internal Belt tightening measures, like the following (To mention only a few)

need to be taken and implemented :-

Macro level awareness creation via TV, special types of advertising, may be via publicityalso (Costs too need to be assessed first and budgetted).

Micro level contacts in pre defined, say, 16 zones (Out of 28 grand total) in Kolkata for, say, 1,000

contacts via :-

- Present wholesalers and their much needed rejuvenation or, if nothing else works, elimination over

a period of time.

- Local level dealers and retailers to be personally contacted by all eight plus three senior officers

(Sales personnel) : Specific contact targets need to be given, though bulk wholesellers/some

sales personnel (Who may have an axe to grind) may not like too much this type of attempt to reorganise/totally revamp direct sales/supplies, like in the case of soft drink sales team, all of whom

are given specific monthly targets.

Besides fixing commissions and incentives (To be pre-decided for A-B-C levels separately

vis a vis present competitive norms, which must be known), specific local targets also need to be fixed, as

also their internal needs for sales promotion, free sampling and merchandising. At a later stage, luckydraws, coupons and the like can also be organised, all aimed at recreating buyer level interest and keep it

flying.

Every sales person will be given specific :-

- Monthly targets to be achieved via all the eight officials (Say two zones/officer), who will begiven specific :

* Sales targets (Including for V.P.: Bulk buying houses?)

* Monthly S & D (Selling & Distribution) budgets.

* Daily/weekly/monthly actual sales contact norms, to be supervised by the three senior MBA type

officers (Who too have to justify theirExpensive presence) plus handle two direct zones per head

every month. [A suggestion only]


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* Quick Problem solving measures need to be taken on a war footing. For example, depending

on the zone, responsibility for daily replenishment of stocks will be allotted to specific sales person.

If anything goes wrong for daily supplies, he/she will be held responsible by SM directly.

* Obviously, all monetary collections will be every sales officials responsibility. Specific target(s)

has to be given for every time period.

Debate on the following statements:

For allotted zones and all efforts needed to service local dealers, retailers, every sales person will be held

fully responsible and accountable, including taking action for any needed problem solving measure. In

general, as a broad rule of thumb, 60 to 80% of time of each sales person has to be out in the market /

allotted zones, which, if called for, may even be circulated / rotated amongst the sales personnel, to

measure relative sales efficiencies.

Besides dealer level special incentives, incentives for Extra ordinary (to be pre defined) performance bysales personnel will also have to be designed and implemented regularly.

Complacency has to give way to active participation. For laggards, who refuse to be trained and perform,

removal may be mutually beneficial even if they fail to perform after vigorous retraining.

Only a few Measures have been suggested. Participants may like to come out with other suggestions

and how these can be implemented by the management within prefixed time and cost measures.

A basic question: Within one year, are all these re-organizational attempts actually possible,

especially at the field level? Debate and state your views.


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Guidelines: team-wise for role playing

1. One or two teams (10 or 20 people) will sit on one side of few tables, which have to be centrally

located in the middle of the Seminar Room. This will form the Decision Making Unit (DMU)

team i.e. a combination of Techno-Commercial personnel of any organization (ABN or

otherwise), who will be sub-divided as follows, with chest markings

[Example: Team-1: Initiators].

- INITIATORS :

Based on detailed internal discussions, the Initiators will be pre-selected, who MAY feel the

need for change over from existing brand/supplier to a new brand/supplier (R&D, Marketing,

Finance people etc.)

- INFLUENCERS :

Few people will be involved here. Depending on the product/service to be bought andutilized, and the magnitude of purchase (Quantity, quality, price, any others like credit terms,

need for before-during-after sales service etc.), the number and types of Influencers will vary.

Students will be expected to decide on the number as well as Personality Profile (P.P.) of the

Influencers, who may be from Marketing, R&D, Finance, Maintenance etc..

- BUYERS :

Few people (Size and P.P.types to be decided by the students) will be involved in thisMaterials Management function. They will be primarily concerned with Technical,

Commercial, Service requirements to be provided by the supplier organization.(Balance

technical and commercial issues).

- DECIDERS :

Depending on the Organisation Culture, the number of P.P. will vary. Normally, these

people, depending on the size and types of organization, can be designated as General

Managers, Factory Managers, Regional Managers, Divisional Managers or even higher.

- ACTUAL USERS

They will be the operational people, who will be buying and using the concerned

product/service. This people will be mainly involved with aspects like product specifications,

quantities to be delivered at a time, delivery schedules, before-during-after sales service etc.

These people are normally concerned with functional aspects and not necessarily price, credit

terms etc., except for individual or family level types of purchases-usage.

- Gate Keepers :


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Depending on the Organisation Culture, the number and types of P.P. will vary.

For example: In many family-oriented organizations, these people can be traditional

and culture based personnel, who may not like to changes at all!! These people will pose a

major obstacle to new suppliers and new types of products and services.

The above team(s) will form the Integrated Buying Team, who have to decide in advance,issues like:

- What are their Goals and Objectives?

- What are their specific constraints / limitations?

[Assume wherever relevant]

- What are available feasible alternatives of suppliers/brands?

- In advance :

Prepare, preferably in a tabular format, the list of purchase criteria and their relative

ranking/weightages.

Based on the above tabular format, analyse each and every supplier on specific issues, whichhave to be pre-decided by the Buying Team BEFORE they invite the suppliers to make their

presentations, one by one. They will also decide on the time of presentation and may even

terminate suppliers, who are not Upto their expectations.

Guideline-2: Sales Teams:

There will be at least 6 sales teams, who have to present their Unique Selling Proposition (UPS), one by

one over a maximum period of 20 minutes each, if not lesser.

Each Sales Team, say Term No.-3, will consist of 10 people, who will come in together and make their

cumulative sales presentation.

In advance, detailed preparation is called for regarding who and how, in each sales team, will be

concerned with the following steps of the selling process:

- How did they organize Prospecting and Lead generation? (Sub-team of Team No.3: An

example)

- How did they organize, internally, their pre-presentation approach? Which aspects of the 6Ps will be emphasized and why?

- Who will handle the OBJECTIONS, which can be for :

Technical issues

Commercial issues

Service-related issues Organisation specific issues

Any others?

- Sales presentations :

Who will organize these? How may times? In each presentation, what will be

presentation exposure and why?


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Who will Close the sales? For this specific case, what will be their pre-planned Terms

of closures?

Any others like, say, getting the contract, advance payments etc?

- Follow-up, feedback and replanning :

In Team No.3, for example, who will be concerned with the aspects of MIS i.e. Marketing

Information System? How will they organize their achievements? Advance pre-planning is

absolutely critical before the actual sales presentation(s) is organized. PPTs etc. can be

organized, as and when needed.

To sum-up so far:

Two teams (Maximum of 20 people) will form the Buying Team (Decision Making Unit teams)

Six teams will organize their sales presentations, one by one (610 students)

In addition:

The balance four teams will be common denominators. Around the presenting and buying teams,

separately, these team members (Say, Team Nos. 9, 10, 11 and 12) will sit separately and assess

objectively each team member in their assigned Role. Each observing team (Team Nos. 9, 10,11 and 12)

will prepare IN ADVANCE, their basis for evaluation, very clearly and presenting in a tabular format.

Each of these teams (Separately) will evaluate, on pre-specified norms (You can use an Ordinal Sales of

5-1: Explained later) their team-wise basis for evaluation of performance. You can use:

- Average Weighted factor

- Or, Priority ranking

- Or, any other basis, to be pre-decided well in advance.

The above four teams (9,10,11 and 12) will be the Observation Teams. They have to give their

observations, using PPTs, on:

- The Buying Teams (1 and 2)

- The six Selling Teams: All to be organized, team by team

- Even the decision(s) by the Buying Team can be questioned and debated.

An overall evaluation:

Prof.(Dr.) P.K.Ghosh and Mr. Sankar Mukherjee, or any other available Faculty, will separately evaluate,

on a pre-prepared tabular format, each of the above-mentioned:

- Two Buying Teams (DMU)- 6 Presenting Teams

- Finally, the four Observation Teams.

In each participation, debate and logical discussions will be encouraged, only based on detailed priorplanning and preparation, which MUST be team-specific (Concept: Team method of functional analysis

and presentation).


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Good luck,

Enclosed: ABN(P) Ltd. case study: Session-1 (1/8/2012)

Key: Ordinal Scale: 5: Excellent, 4: Very good, 3: Good, 2: So-so, 1: Not acceptable.

TIME PLANNING (Role Playing Exercise)

An example of how Role Playing will be organized? [Basis: ABN case study]

Step-1: Teams 1,2: DMU: To give a 10 minute (PPT) level of presentation to all concerned

[To clarify ABNs managerial expectations clearly]

Step-2: DMU on one side:

Presenters on opposite side of the divider tables (Teams: 3,4,5,6,7,8)

Observers will sit around the DMU teams (1,2) and presenters, separately, in a circular fashion

(Teams 9, 10, 11, 12)[Separate observations analysis team level presentations of their team-specific opinions,

views in a systematic, professional tabular format compare / contrast all the first 8 teams, one

by one after all 6 presentations are over (6+2 teams).

Step-3: Separately: Team-wise advance preparation is a MUST.

- First 10 minutes by DMU: General views.

6 presenting teams

- Record/present systematically say over 20 minutes/team + 10 minutes of debate and

discussions (30 minutes 6 = 3 hours)- DMU to decide and present their views (20 minutes maximum): After 6 presentations

- 4 Observers (10 minutes/team 4 = 40 minutes).

Step-4: Sum-up: (10 minutes) Dr. Ghosh, Mr. Sankar Mukherjee and any others.

- Overall views on TABULAR FORMAT: 12 TEAMS

5 points (Ordinal scale): 5-1 Ordinal Scale evaluation

To the point* Decisions taken: Logic

* Quality of team specific advance preparation* Quality of presentations [Body language + PICTURE principle]

* Logic and impact of decisions, views, opinions* Quality of leadership and innovation.

Approx time plan: 260 minutes ( 5%)

= 4 hours, 20 minutes/group


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Per day [2 Groups (122 teams) 8 hours, 40 minutes]

9 AM to 7 PM everyday (One hour break in-between for lunch).

LIST OF PROBABLE ISSUES

Session-1: List of probable issues to be discussed, to be debated, decisions taken(Example: ABN case study)

Students in teams have to decide on their own which issues to be discussed, why and how, by whom?

1. DMU level

They can delegate separately to 6 presenting teams (Who will do what?)

1.1 Symptoms.

1.2 Problem formulation.1.3 Problem identification.

1.4 Setting objectives.

1.5 Constraints / limitations.

1.6 Activity plan: A tabular format.

1.7 Specific decisions (Via C.B.A.).

2. Six presenters :

2.1 ABP: Annual Business Plan

2.2 AMP: Annual Marketing Plan2.3 Annual Sales Plan (ASP)

Demand, potential Specific, annual Overall selling strategy

(Kolkata) per year sales target setting i.e. how to go about?

How much quantity via

Indirect distribution Via 8 existing Path to achieve sales

channels sales personnel targets within available

resources.

3 existing Choose 6 million

wholelsllers 1,000 relevantdealers in households

16 Zones

Channel Management and Who will How to motivate,

internal conflicts handle then? control and

guide them?


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2.4 Work out:

- Sales budget

- Expenses for

* Promotion

* Distribution

(+ S&D expenses)

2.5 How to interact with internal marketing team on which issues? Their functions?

Decide

Example: - R&D

- Market Researches

- Any others?

3. Top Management : How to?

(Wholistic)

- Plan

- Control

- Organise

- Direct/guide- Compensate? (Via relevant staffing)

Students:

Teamwise detailed planning is called for by every team, in advance, for every session similar to thistype of planning (Contents to be forwarded via local Faculty).


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Case study

ABN (P) Ltd : Loose tea versus packed tea from a very well known tea marketer.

Preface :

Path of least resistance is a natural human phenomenon. Given the choice, and relative freedom, any

sales executive (Or for that matter any person) will prefer to service known customers / segments, where

the vendor firm, its products / services are known and the sales person is known intimately and may be

even at a personal level, where he can call All the shots and can even pressurise the decision makers to

take, for example, more than their usual monthly supplies by Calling in old debts. However, for new

products, new prospects and dealers, on the other hand, specially when competitive firms are already

operating, the job of a sales person becomes much more difficult since he/she has to :-

- Organise considerable energy investment to identify, in each prospective firm, dealer or both thespecific decision making unit members (DMUs), who have to be contacted maybe quite

a few times before positive response can be expected via the AIDA route (Awareness, interest,

evaluation, trial, decision, adoption).

- There are major possibilities of regular rejection, humiliation resulting in frustration. Inmanycases, especially for new product / service launch, or even relaunch. This case is all about

relaunch of a fast moving consumer good. It is a very well-known, nicely flavoured 100%

Darjeeling tea, whose brand name is RR, packed and promoted earlier in beautifully designed

and printed tin cans, specially made for them by Metal Box Ltd with an eye also to the export

market.

-A number of permutations and combinations may be relevant for this low level of market

acceptance

-

* The manufacturing and/or marketing firm may not be too well known, vis vis existing

suppliers [Firms image].

* The product (Or service) may not be acceptable due to variety of intrinsic factors like

(In this case):-

- Tea flavour or liquor or both

- Type of packaging and its disposability

- Price and dealer level terms

- Distribution efficiency

- Indifferent promotion via :-

* Advertising,

* Publicity

* Sales promotion

* Personal selling and quality of sales personnel

* Mix of the above.

- And, most important of all, Quality and frequency of service, which may be

a major differentiator amongst vendor firms.


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* Low level of motivation of sales personnel, many of whom are traditional and refuse to

change.

* The sales team may be too high handed and even obnoxious as per the dealers

expectations (FMCG products need, usually, extensive and wide spread dealer/retail

network, and they have to be Suitably managed, by marketers sales team).

Dr.PKG, in the role of a researcher, had found many Evidence regarding propensity of many so

called sales professionals (Many of whom have liberal education with MBAs from good

management institutes) to sit in air conditioned offices, give long lectures in impeccable English

language, plan and ponder in innumerable never ending internal meetings, with hardly any time to

spare for those, who really count (For this case) ie 1,718 dealers and retailers in twenty eight

separate Zones of Kolkata city. All these big medium, small and very small resellers stocked

some types of loose and/or packed tea from many large or medium tea production firms. They, in

turn, needed to service literally millions of tea buyers, all over the metropolis, on a daily basis.

This case, therefore, deals with a fast-moving consumer item, which needs fast-paced, effective

intensive distribution, backed by well-planned promotional inputs. Quality should be in tune with

targetted buyer-user level expectations.

For ABN (P) Ltd ,the newly appointed group product manager, a young man of 35 years with a MBA

from a good management institute from Delhi (His parents were in Delhi) and related experience of

nearly ten years in other FMCG manufacturing companies, was located at Kolkata in middle of 1997 atthis quite well known firms head office. They owned a number of tea gardens in North of West Bengal.

This new appointees name was Sanjeev Malhotra (SM). He was assisted by a few other sales

professionals, all of them with MBA(s) from a variety of management institutes, ranging from IIM,

Bangalore to IISW&BM, affiliated to University of Kolkata. SM reported to a Vice President

(Marketing) Mr AKN, an old timer in this firm and not a MBA himself. The newest appointee, as an

adviser, was MKN, who was earlier the managing director in a very well known IMFL marketing firm

(Indian made foreign liquor) and a very well known marketer, who had risen from the ranks once again

a non MBA. The sales set up was as follows:


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ABN(Pvt) Ltd

MKN, Adviser (60+ age)

AKN, VP(Marketing) [58 years, B.A] *

SM, Group product manager (MBA, 35 years)

Product managers

BM SKC Ms SK

(32 years of age from IIM, Bangalore) (33 years age, from (30 years of age and

IISW&BM) MBA from IISW&BM)

Retail sales officers

(all non MBAs, highly experienced

around 40-45 years of age)(3 persons : In charge of different parts of Kolkata)

5 sales persons

* He will soon retire.SM will be groomed, after few years, to be elevated to this position.

Above set up was only to look after sales of packed tea of different brand names. This case study is

concerned only with a particular brand name RR, which had failed to click in the Kolkata market in early

80(s). This same tea was being relaunched in the same market, this time in 500 gm paper

carton/composites, suitably printed, prior to commercial launch. Other sizes could also be considered, if

market needs were properly identified.

MKNs magic formula

(Marketing wizard)

Similar meetings had been held with a market researcher from a management consultancy company (XYZ

Pvt Ltd). Her name was Ms PP, a 28 year old Honours Graduate with three years of field research

experience. She had six field investigators under her supervision.

These brief meetings (Three, one after another) were to identify why earlier this brand had failed in

spite of the fact that product quality was indeed very high, especially targetted at those, who valued

flavour over liquor and for whom price sensitivity was lower. An important possible causative factor for


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commercial failure, as suggested by the retail sales officers, who were expected to be nearest to the

market, was usage of expensive tin containers, which were non disposable. Also, other brands, except

those for export purposes, from firms like Tata Tea, Goodricke and several other tea marketing firms

mainly used paper/composites at slightly lower prices. Back up advertising support was, however, much

lesser from this traditional organisation as also was lack of free sampling. Both dealer level, and maybe even consumer awareness, were lower as expressed by the highly practical adviser, who stressed

that:

- It was necessary to assess first how many dealers and retailers of any type of tea (Loose, packed,

both) were physically present in 28 separate Zones of Kolkata (As per physical layout chalked

out in a map). Relevant information on these centres had to be recorded.

- Out of these, how many stored their packed tea, specially RR or any other brand from their firm.

Also, what other tea brands from other companies were stocked.

- Views and opinions of these channel members were to be solicited regarding :-

- Their firms (ABN) total support system, as a whole, for the presently available marketimage of tea brand, especially RR, which had failed commercially

- All tea brands

- Any other complaints ?

At a point of time, market credibility of ABN also needed to be assessed.

Interestingly, all old timers, except SM (A relative new comer) were fidgety regarding this intensive,

first-ever attempt at detailed market investigation, which was bound to come out with plenty of data

(Subjective and otherwise), some of which may not be too palatable to the firms office based sales

personnel.

Mr MKN also insisted that, based on the market data to be generated, he would like the consultancy firmand others to work out:

- Zonewise: Concentration of ABC dealers and retailers and how much of packed tea each of

this sub segments stored at a point of time and how much these channel members sold, say, every

two weeks (Only packed tea) brandwise [available in standard reports by

a leading research firm]?

- As stated earlier, record views and opinions of these channel members, specially regarding the

RR brand (As compared to Similar other brands).

- Actual sales of their brands (Especially RR, which had been physically relaunched few monthsback in this city) every two weeks, during the last three months to assess impact, if any, due to

seasonality or any other factors.- Comparison with sales of other similar (Price range wise) brands from other tea marketing

organisations.

Presently, this firm (Following their age old concept of bulk selling to agency houses) sold in bulk to

three wholesellers in this city. A major job of each retail sales officer was to coordinate supplies to each

of these big wholesellers and ensure that they had enough stocks, at any point of time, so that they could

move packed tea to other local dealers and retailers in each of these pre defined 28 geographical zones.

Few zones, due to price and taste factors, may not be ABNs Cup of tea, at that point of time.


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Mr MKN rightly felt that, for each similar tea brand, for this case study on RR, it will be interesting to

compare, zonewise:-

- Physical comparison of stock movement of RR/all similar brands (Say every two weeks) by eachof their wholesellers, as compared to total movement of all similar packed tea brands.

Based on data (To be generated), for each zone, separate analysis can be done for :-

A class of retailers (Bulk)

B class of retailers (Medium)

C class of retailers (Small).

From the above, MKN and SM will decide whether to organise supplies directly to each zone on their

own (Like the soft drink manufacturers: Pepsi, Coca Cola etc) by using their own vehicles / or those taken

on long term contract. Entire distribution system, if called for, can undergo a massive, much needed

change, which will harp on all their sales people to be On their toes rather than be couped up in airconditioned offices and be involved with continuous internal, mostly non productive meetings. The entire

structure may have to be revamped.

Need for MIS :-

However, logical Steps have to be worked out, based on reliable, valid, consistent and substantial

market information namely:-

- Goals and objectives for Kolkata city need to be clearly worked out first.

- Specific zonewise targets, based on total demand now (For all similar brands).

- Constraints of the firm / RR brand may have to be targeted at specific user classes. Hence,

specific zones may have to be selected for distribution.- Cost benefit analysis ie :

- Direct supplies to few zones

- For others, via wholesellers.

Simultaneously, concepts (Like the following) have to be taken into consideration :-

Cost of a sales call (Bunch of calls for each pre specified zone for specific time periods) to organise :-

- Direct supplies

Or

- Supplies via wholesellers as at present- Opportunity costs : For example, only if wholesalers are used, what are the ?

* Costs (To the company and to the distributors)* Benefits to the local dealers, retailers, and also in quantitative (Sales) terms to the

marketing firm (And consequent sales value, gross profits).

[Suggest: cost benefit analysis is needed prior to decision making].

Study findings (From this six week old intensive assignment : End 1997 early 1998)

1,718 dealers and retailers in all were identified and interviewed in Kolkata.

Zonewise details had been recorded (A-B-C analysis could be organised).


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Less than 50% of these reselling units stocked this companys any packed tea brand ! (An

indicator of the relative current wholeseller level inefficiency and also lackadaisical approach of

full time sales personnel).

Direct sales teams efforts could now be quantified in terms of actual, much needed distribution coverage.

For RR brand, only 5% of the stores had stored this brand. Based on the earlier launch, some

residual memory had been triggered in few cases during this 1997 end early 1998 study.

Quite a few shop owners stated that :-

- Awful back-up service by this companys direct field sales personnel, especially for

restocking purposes. They (Sales people) hardly took any interest !

- Even old due cheques (For the company) were not collected ! In few cases, Ms PP was

requested to collect these old cheques, on behalf of the company!!

- Merchandising was a relatively foreign concept to this particular company, whichwas

still steeped in the monopolistic mode, even during 1997-98.

In subsequent meetings (After the survey), it also came to light that :-

- Most of the sales persons time and energy were spent (by the existing sales personnel)on theexisting wholesellers and pressurising them to stock as much as possible (Pressure technique).

- Very occasionally, other dealers and retailers were visited (Less than 10% in year) since they

were expected to be serviced by the wholesalers !!

- No records or data were kept on actual time (And energy) utilised on real time salescontacts, waiting and travelling time and definitely not on related administrative time, which

accounted for highest time spending.

- Very poor data on competition.

- Theoretical planning (And forecasting) was resorted to, based mainly on past historical data.Hardly any information were obtained and then maintained on :-

- Changing tastes and preferences of ultimate tea buyers and users.

- What were their preferences and basis for brand choice ?

- How to influence their preferences ?

- Finally, what all to do to improve sales efficiency and effectiveness ?

Dilemma for SM :

MKN wanted to re establish RR brand in Kolkata city within 1998-1999. Specific quantitative target too

had been given to SM, a dynamic new comer, along with allowable budget for any type of salespromotion (How about the Vice President and his role?)

Quality and cost wise, RR brand belonged to a top category.

Where was the firm going wrong?


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Questions

Based on the case study ABN (P) Ltd, groupwise, students need to solve the issues mentioned below:

1. Why is relaunching necessary? Has it any connection with the Product Life Cycle (PLC) concept?

If so, for which phase of PLC curve is this selling strategy relevant?

Debate and discuss.

2. In this particular case, identify systematically the following:

- What are the Symptoms (Use SWOT concept) in this case?

- Using Brainstorming Sessions, identify all possible causative factors ie problems,

which have contributed, cumulatively, to the above-mentioned Symptoms?

- Pinpoint the key causative factors (For example these can be):

Poor distribution system (What should be the right one?)

Poor promotion (AIDA concept) [what should be done? How?]

Lack of market knowledge including those of competition

In general, a lackadaisical attitude and casual Management approach

Anything else?

(Using CBA technique, what will be your Description and prescription for this Sales

Management problem? Be completely specific and kindly do not be vague).

- How will you implement decisions taken by your group? (Use Activity Analysis)

3. Using all the above as a backdrop, conceptually, organise the following:

- What specific activities need to be taken by the Sales Management Team (SMT)

for effective relaunching of RR brand?

- Using a matrix approach, activitywise, approximate time and cost estimate in

greater Kolkata city for:

All the 1,718 dealers

Or, decide FIRST on your STP approach ie sales strategy

[What may be the cost centres?]

- Finally, IF you had a free hand, what type of organisation structure you think will

be effective? Present your logic.


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4. Using activity analysis, groupwise, in a matrix format, approximate your selling and

distribution expenses (S&D). Obviously, your own Sales Management approach will be the

basis for all resource planning.

[Use given case study].

Assume data logically

Selling & Distribution (S&D) expenses: A format for budgeting

Sr Activities Selling Distribution Inventory Anything else? TotalNos (List these) expenses expenses

(Cost centres) (Rs./time

period)


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