Dear all

The reality of sales and marketing and application of marketing concepts to real world is what one of my ex-student has beautifuly captured in his mail to me. He was also the one who initiated this blog and his thoughts on academics vs reality can be eye opener for all the future MBA's.

I am posting his mail without any edits for all to cherish.

Dear Sir,

My first instinct was to post my experiences in ITC on the blog, but i thought it would be better if you take the call on what should be there. I have tried to edit my experiences on whatever wouldn't be a problem for the company as well.You can use the below material for any academic purpose, if there is anything fit for it.This is primarily an experience in the sales department.
"I have joined ITC on June 9th, after a 10 day induction in conference halls, i have been posted to Coimbatore Branch. For a month i had to shadow the sales man from all categories, cigarettes, foods and personal care. I am restricted here to take the brands and their nature in the market, but at a general level, my first observation was ---
Sales force is like an army, the number of people involved in it and the area they cover , they literally work as if they are guarding the kingdom. This enormity is what is actually difficult to capture within a B-School. I have had really interesting experiences like following a sales man on bicycle for 2 days(not to forget that i was formally dressed), but it made me realize his hardships.When you get see that crores of turnover of any company is actually contributed by thousands of salesman(or foot soldiers) who earn some where between 4000-5000.
I would say that people who did their summers in sales are very lucky that they can get a sneak peak into the life of a sales man. At first i felt how come we didnt realise all this in class, be it S&D course or i remember your class on sales transaction and its analysis(now that i have seen a 1000 of those at retail outlets, i realise that class's importance). But later i have come to the conclusion that the ever arguing and complaining duo of the retailer and the salesman are impossible to totally comprehend and understand through a book or a class. And also the problem arises from the fact that Kotler and a few american books we follow have only a Marketing Perspective, because American market is more modern retail oriented.
I have seen salesman making a bill worth of 5000 over a good joke and ofcourse retailers cursing me like hell because of problems in stock delivery. I learnt it by practise that one should absorb those selectively.
Another animal in this chain that is very difficult to understand is the distributor. I once again would like to clarify that its not that we arent taught about it, in fact i remember memorising all the functionalities of the distributor from the book. But to which extent he performs these duties and what keeps him motivated is very difficult to generalise.
Few things that keep coming back from college courses are the fundas of competition and branding, Push and Pull(not to seem funny, sometimes you see this in physical terms, i mean, the sales man pushing the stock across the retail counter, while the retailer refuses, and in another scenario, retailer coming out of his shop and giving orders and taking the stock). Regarding competition, one will only be humbled, when you see a target customer coming and asking a local brand by name and purchasing it.You will feel that all your advertising budget had just been flushed into the drain And I could find all products that fall under the categories of guerilla,Challenger,Imitator, Follower.
The guest lecture on A.C nielsen retail audit was very useful( though i actually forgot basic funda like Wieghted distribution). A.C nielsen's retail audit data is the Bible for all FMCG companies here."
There are many other learnings from these 2 months, just that i am struggling to explain exact instances and funda with examples.

Kartheek