Operational Realities in Traditional Sales Channels: Learnings & Observations

Hi All , It’s been a while since I have been thinking about sharing my Learnings/Observations regarding operational aspects in a Sales Organisation.

Much has been written about the processes/ Trainings/ Inherent qualities of a sales person in any milieu.

What has been neglected is the fact that even now more than 70% of the goods are sold in B2C channel barring the Online sales and industry like IT and E Commerce and may be Real estate. We still sell the goods across the counters. The estimates on the size of the industry vary from one extreme to other. The products and companies include Organised and Unorganised ones with range of products from Automotive Components/ Batteries /Oils/ White Goods, Paints, Building materials and host of other products.

The distribution Channels are still the traditional ones which we saw / experienced in the last 50 plus years, with very little change in psychographic or even demographic profiles of the buyers at all levels.

We still have traditional Channels from Distributors to Wholesales’ agents to retailers and onwards to final user.

The Sales persons and Managers in this universe are in a very confused state. On one hand the primary and Tertiary Channels have not progressed much in terms of systems etc but the Manufacturers’ demand and thought processes have undergone a change with more and more educated people taking over, and with due respect, many do not have the grip of the grass root level process and requirements.

My endeavour here is to share my thoughts on specific topics in next few articles, over weeks so that grass root level sales persons can be reached and their working can be channelised so everyone gains. My request to the functional managers who have access to LinkedIn, to share the same with their reportees.

Please do let me know the specific topics that you would like me to touch. I can promise that the writings will not be any earth-shattering revelations but standard day to day operational issues which we have either forgotten or have missed out while training our teams