Ideal Sales Trainer for India Market

Recently the CEO of India IT major Infosys lamented that the Indian executives don't speak up and they chose to follow the instructions given by the superiors. Well an overwhelming majority of Vishal Sikka’s counterparts in India inc may differ with him profusely, not on the nature of Indian Managers, but about the undesirability of such an attitude among the executives. In traditional segmented society of India where India Inc is firmly in the stone carved hands of few families & castes since 1947 employees are treated like slaves and the business owners lord over their subjects just like the benevolent mai-baap would in the nineteenth century.

Millions of bright young women & men join India Inc every year upon graduation, subsequently failing to migrate abroad or ensconce themselves in the hallowed civil services,   just to be discovering that silence & compliance are the two major virtues over skills, attitude and hard work for a successful career.   Silently complying with orders from the top may not result in great productive work for progress of the company but it keeps the boss happy and the subordinate in the job. Therefore good executives prefer to follow instructions and off the nerve wrecking journey to find a new elusive job in India.

Dr Manmohan Singh in 90s brought in a welcome change to the moribund tradition bound Indian society and infused a new spirit of freedom in the economic activity. The liberalization of government controls on the commerce had its domino effect on how the India Inc behaved and operated till then since 1947.  MBA graduates were catapulted to numero uno position suddenly as most desired professionals for leading the India Inc to new heights.  Unfortunately India Inc since then has returned to pre 1990s behavior & approach to management. That’s why innovations, skills and creativity have evaporated from amongst the existing management pool in India which is the prime mover of economic growth.  Subservient & complaint managers can’t think out of the box.

India need to set up dedicated national institute for Sales Management which could provide training and orientation to Sales Managers. The USA has been built by the Travelling Salesmen, how India affords to ignore such a critical skill? An ideal sales trainer is a guy who keeps her/his feet firmly on the street and head in the boardrooms so as to bridge the chasm between the two ends of the commerce. Sales trainer can motivate the teams by working with them on the street as often as s/he would bring them into the classroom and listen to the feedback. Since India is large, disorganized, scattered & developing market it needs trainers who could help the executives focus on a particular segment while avoiding the curse of tunnel vision. 

Training is like a game, a demanding sport that requires regular preparation before every winning performance on the field. India Inc needs to allow more open environment from the street to the boardroom so that innovation could keep flowing in like a cool breeze for a healthy bottom-line. 

Selling to Your Sales Team !

India is the land of Micro Small & medium enterprises [MSME] and such firms face unique functional challenges to succeed in the domestic & global market. Particularly the task of organizing a powerful sales & marketing team is tremendous. Although several SME players would insist that finding cheap credit & trained workforce are far more serious than getting new orders. Well entrepreneurship is a challenge in itself and majority of SMEs are generally young firms that don’t have long experience & critical knowledge of the market garnered through years of operations I the market. However some firms fail to scale up with time due to many factors despite their efforts and vision. And majority of the times such firms show a distinct common strand of not having a powerful Sales & Marketing team to propel it to grow faster than the competition & demand in the market.

Many SMEs that have regional & national sales operations are straddled with teams that were relevant 20 years ago. Majority of such sales & marketing teams are full of people who have no formal business education and also have not been trained regularly on the job. Such teams function in a bureaucratic manner and lack creativity essential for real success in the market. You would be surprised to know that many sales professionals lack knowledge about size of market, nature of competition & consumer profile despite years of reasonably satisfactory performance. Well in a rapidly growing market it possible to sell with little or no effort but mature markets can only be dominated by a strategic approach.  

Few years ago I was hired by an established SME to rejuvenate & reengineer their sales team. The said company has been led by a technocrat engaged in manufacturing of capital equipment for high speed packaging machines catering to the need of other firms. The capital equipment they make were generally sourced from abroad at a premium & only limited domestic competition was there for them to take on. Therefore there was a ready market of export substitution at an Indian cost to the entrepreneurs.

Their commission based sales & service team had national presence and it recently had become the major bottleneck in achieving higher sales numbers to help the firm acquire critical size in the market. The promoters also enjoyed close relationship at top level in customer organizations. Business selling is a team sport and the seller has to satisfy large team at the customer firm consisting of cost & finance guys to operators. Another company engaged in manufacture of faucets, showers & bath fittings had virtually no control over the sales agent responsible for half the market. In India majority of firms involved b2b segment lack direct control over distribution network or the customers.

Several SMEs are in awe of the power & hold of their sales people on the market. Many firms are held hostage by the Sales & Marketing teams which lead to negative impact on the top line & strategic growth of such firms. There is need to create & train the sales teams to face the challenges of the contemporary market scenario in India. SMEs need to audit their sales team periodically and organize them based on their objectives such as nature of the competition, product handled, type of market and demand structure in the market.

The top management must keep two paces ahead of their sales force to get the desired results. Technical sales team must have trained sales professionals so that quality cold calling result in communicating the brand of selling firm. Sales professionals, like leaders, are made not born and regular training & nurture keep them in fighting fit condition. Sales training must be factored in the plan and be taken as ongoing activity rather than periodic break from selling routine. Healthy sales & marketing team attract customers, credit and effective team mates for other functions too as they are the external & internal ambassadors of the firm. 

Watch the Stars on your Sales Team

Whenever you want to pump up your sales team, take them to the nearest multiplex to enjoy a hindi potboiler. Hindi cinema has predictable storyline comprising a hero, heroine and the ubiquitous villain. You would wonder how it would help in improving the target achievement. Well let me explain the relationship. The sales guy (hero) has to constantly fight the villain (competition) to wrest the heroine, which is the sales target. And the story is complete with few songs & dances. Therefore lots of rehearsals would be required before the actors face the audience. So training sales team can not be a onetime activity, it must be an ongoing process.

India is land of SMEs and these businesses face unique challenges, particularly in organizing the sales & marketing function. Many a SMEs that have regional & national sales organizations are still straddled with teams that were relevant 20 years ago.  Sales teams are full of people who have minimal education & have never received formal training. Such teams function in a loose bureaucratic manner and lack creativity essential for real success in the market.

Few years ago I got an assignment reengineer a b2b sales team at an enterprise led by an amiable technocrat engaged in manufacturing of capital equipment of high speed packaging machines for FMCG companies. When they decided to scale up their manufacturing operation sales team refused to generate enough orders. Such businesses traditionally depended on agents led sales team to generate orders while they concentrated on manufacturing & finance. Most companies are currently going through this transition of restructuring their sales teams from agent led model to captive & committed sales force. If your company also depends on agent led least control model then chances are that you may have to invest more time in training the sales-force to achieve targets & give a real fight to competition. But shifting from existing traditional sales teams to modern hyperactive sales teams needs careful planning. Agent based teams are hardest to control and scaling them up is extremely difficult.

Another company engaged in manufacturing of bath fitting had similar problems as half of their production was dependent on one agent only over whom they had no control. Such challenges are to me met with robust knowledge management systems. It is time to organize professional sales teams rather than depending upon self taught sales people.

There is an interesting case of one of my client in b2c space where the sales & marketing head refused to achieve the higher targets & kept pointing figures in the direction of poor product quality & commercial issues. It is common for sales team to blame everyone else for non achievement of higher targets except their own limitations. And generally no company would take head on with their stars on the sales team. The way out is periodic training in sales tactics & motivation of the team.

Several SMEs are in awe of the power & hold of their sales people on the market. The company is held hostage to the ways of the existing team that controls the top line. There is need to create & train the sales teams to face the challenges of the contemporary market scenario in India. SMEs need to audit their sales team periodically and organize them based on their objectives such as nature of the competition, product handled, type of market and demand structure in the market. The top management must keep two paces ahead of their sales force to get the desired results. Companies need to have a set calendar of training for sales team to achieve the stretch targets

Career Planning & Corporate Orientation workshop

Career Planning & Corporate Orientation workshop!

Dear Engineering & Management students: We understand that most often you do not get industry experienced mentors to introduce you to various options available for your dream career. We would enlighten you about the job options available in corporate, train you for the interview battles & arm you with ammo required for a rewarding job hunt safari. Classes are planned for Sat-Sunday to fit your needs. Cheers. 

Day	Morning Session	Break	Post Lunch Session
1	Ice breaking & Formal Introduction		Movie on business Management
2	Identifying your personality type		Personality to Industry compatibility- which function/sector would be fit for your type
3	Effective Resume		Attractive Cover letter
3	Preparing for Interviews		Role Play
4	Prepare your Elevator speech		Prepare for war in the interview arena.
5	Professional Etiquettes		Hygiene Factors & manners - Role play and Video session
6	Winning in Group discussions		Feedback and Role Play
7	Voice Culture and impact		Recording & feedback session
8	Social Media Marketing for job search		Social media training session.
9	Contours of Global & Domestic industry		Shooting resume to suitable companies & discussions

                 

                      Course fee:       9500 only

                     Duration:         60 hours 8-10 days [Sat-Sunday]

                     Batch size:       25 participants

We welcome our students to take advantage of our customized Career Spa for selecting a suitable career & winning at the interviews. Video resumes for the fresh graduates are most desirable in the current corporate environment.

The Wake-Up Manager

Recently during interviewing candidates for sales for a client in Punjab, I was told to select at least one guy who is unfriendly, mean & without any manners. I was surprised because till today no one has made such a demand for such widely available virtues. I have great respect for this entrepreneur because he is almost hundred eighty degrees away from such qualities. The candidates called up for interviews had good academic and professional records. 

I tried my best to short list three such persons, with whom I would have never have thought of working together. But before we began the final round, I could not resist myself from asking the entrepreneur regarding the need for such a guy on the team. He, knowing me well, could not contain his laughter, said, that there are two main reasons for having such a guy on the team. Firstly he would constantly remind us what how we should not behave with others, secondly he would keep informing us whatever is going on in the team without we ever bothering to know. And we would call him the wake up manager.   

Actors on the sales teams in India

Whenever you want to pump up your sales team, take them to the nearest multiplex to enjoy a hindi potboiler. Hindi cinema has predictable storyline comprising a hero, heroine and the ubiquitous villain. You would wonder how it would help in improving the target achievement. Well let me explain the relationship. The sales guy (hero) has to constantly fight with the villain (competition) to wrest the heroine, which is the sales target. And the story is complete with few songs & dances. Therefore lots of rehersal would be required before the actors face the audience. So training sales team can not be a one time activity it must be an ongoing process.

India is a land of SMEs and these businesses face unique challenges, particularly in organizing the sales & marketing function. Many a SMEs that have regional & national sales organizations are still straddled with teams that were relevant 20 years ago.  Sales teams are full of people who have no business education and have never been trained on the job. Such teams function in a bureaucratic manner and lack creativity essential for real success in the market.

Few years ago I was hired by an established SME to rejuvenate & reengineer their sales team. The said company has been led by an amiable technocrat engaged in manufacturing of capital equipment for high speed packaging machines catering to the need of business organizations. The machines they made were quite complex and were generally sourced from abroad. Therefore there was a ready market of export substitution at an Indian cost to the entrepreneurs.  But their sales team having national presence had become an obstacle in achieving higher sales numbers as they were the only people that were in close contact with the customers. Another company manufacturing bath fittings had virtual no control over their major market as the person incharge of the territory told the company to route all communications through him exclusively.

Several SMEs are in awe of the power & hold of their sales people on the market. The company is held hostage to the ways of the existing team that controls the top line. There is need to create & train the sales teams to face the challenges of the contemporary market scenario in India. SMEs need to audit their sales team periodically and organize them based on their objectives such as nature of the competition, product handled, type of market and demand structure in the market. The top management must keep two paces ahead of their sales force to get the desired results.