2021 - Sales Team getting Redundant & likely to be quaked

                                              The Sales Guys are Quaked 

I am now nearly 60 years of age and am engaged in several fields ie A practicing Executive Coach & Mentor, Director in a Recruitment Firm, Sales Trainer, Business Consultant, supporting a logistics company for Business Development & a Marketing Consultant for a Mid-size FMCG Company . 

                                       In a nutshell, doing nothing . 
  

                                             

The Trigger:

  A few days back one of my previous boss in one of his usual calls started discussing about Post Covid scenario. Their industry has done a remarkable recovery post Quarter 1 and had cracked the impossible ie breaking the preceding year’s Turnover As such there was happiness & glee all around and they had also been able to reward the employees by giving back the deducted salaries of Q1 & Q2.

Current status 

  The Sales team was working indoors ie WFM all these months and much of the volume was coming naturally from customers . Production was somewhat hampered The agriculture business was booming and had broken the glass ceiling. The channel partners were added so much that it had broken all records of the previous and even old/existing  employees were opting to enter the trade on their own.

Environment Support

  With great support from Govt Policy changes ie import restrictions the Indian manufacturers were on a roll  Even smaller ones grabbed the opportunity & enhanced the bottom and topline without any interruptions nor roadblocks . The export market flourished – restrictions on Chinese brands in other foreign lands helped the Indian Manufacturers to exponentially increase both the Top and Bottom line more than they could ever have imagined.

Cost savings & Financial Impact     

  Q1 was a grim qtr and the results as expected were worrisome with no sight of improvement and the industry was reeling with Labour shortage/encountering unprecedented crisis during lockdown & post/ and market sentiments were at its lowest ebb .

  Salary cuts/reduction of manpower/blocking annual increments & promotions/squeezing of credit terms/reductions of Incentives/slashing of Market support budgets/freeze on CAPEX investments/slashing of travel & demand generation activities budgets/calculated postponements  of vendor payments etc etc was executed without any thought of any pain occurring to the affected stakeholders

Work from Home Scenario : 

Technology Buster:  While the Top management got exposed to technology the lower rung also got introduced to Zoom/MS Team/Google Meet/Webex  etc. It was gratifying for the lower ranks to note that even the top management were at times fumbling with technology  However, on a positive note the majority of them upgraded their wifi subscriptions- or got new ones and got acquainted with new  terminologies like bandwith/speed tests etc . 

Common Challenges:  

  Being uncomfortable to face the camera and superiors throughout the day in and out the usual trick adopted was to “close the camera” so that others cannot see that you are either playing with your pet or getting a shelling from your “superior half”.

  On the positive side the husbands were keen to impress their spouses that how important are they to their organizations and that without them their company will probably collapse . Needless to point out the spouses were “starstruck” to say the least.

  And yes the serious challenge was the frequent powercuts esp in Tier 2 & 3 Towns shutting down all video communication.

  Back to back meetings initially were exciting as it allowed the sales team to stay at home for a change/ no travels (Thereby reducing their savings) but very soon it wore them down . Not used to such sessions they got frustrated though several companies tried to motivate the team to keep them engaged but didn’t help .

  For the top management – managing daily agenda and content was in itself challenging and reviews though was being done but half heartedly  and for them organizing and expected changes everyday was quite taxing.

Impact on the sales Team:

  The first quarter of the Year was a shocker not only for Top Management but more so for the Field team . They had completely no idea how their jobs will continue, what will be the riders, each day news was coming that either some were being laid off or that there is going to be severe salary cuts . In short, it was a chaotic mind and the only way forward was to do exactly what your immediate superior was asking for ie to be on the right side of the coin .

  Then came the shocker in the second quarter . Retails shot up, demand escalated, exports shot up and suddenly the companies were back in action . However the happiness of the salesman was short lived as they realized that almost all sales was natural demand, no persuasive or selling skills were needed nor travel was necessary and personal visits was completely pointless. Even the demand generation activities which used to consume so much time and energy was completely prohibited due to the ongoing pandemic . Very soon the realization dawned on the salesman that they were now getting  irrelevant and have become more of a liability rather than an asset . 

  The salesman imagined that this would just be a bubble and will be short lived but when the Q2 results were announced the photograph became clearer that this trend is going to continue . To make matters worse – the Govt imposed restrictions on imports thereby allowing “Make in India” initiative to flourish. This left a gap in the Indian Market by about 25% and lo & behold suddenly there was an availability crisis,.  This was the last nail in the coffin of the salesman who had some hope that when things normalise at least they would still be relevant . With capacity constraints, production & labour crisis the best strategy was to increase the bottom line and the easiest route was to increase prices.

Quarter 4 : This was the most crucial and deciding quarter ,. Inspite of low QTR 1 performance - by the time Q3 results were declared it was abundantly clear that all the Top four companies would be beating the previous year’s performance .              

2019 vs 2020  - Field Force an eyesore 

By end of Qtr 3 the Companies started their Budget Exercise for the next Year and one of the most common agenda on the list was “Cost Cutting” . There was a unanimous decision to go slow on CAPEX investments and the most crucial of all was the urgent need to assess the rationalization of the field force . The past nine months learnings were startling that no marketing efforts were required , travelling was not so important and demand generation activities were obsolete or completely not required . With the import policy restrictions supporting the Indian Manufacturers the Industry was on a roll and the sales force was now becoming an eyesore .

Expectation in 2021  

  Capex reductions 

  Cautious  steps to leverage capacities 

  Leveraging unused capacities of others 

  Cutting Marketing Budgets 

  Outsourcing manpower instead of keeping them on Payrolls 

  Holding annual increments and promotions 

  Companies having own offices/branches in various locations across the country to experiment with            3PL Operations efficacy.

  Reduction in Logistics operations 

  Leveraging social media for advertising instead of Electronic media 

  AND ABOVE ALL CONSIDERING CUTTING DOWN SALES FORCE STRENGTH AND                    MAKE   DO WITH OUTSOURCED RESOURCE. 

  

 Advice to all Sales Guys :

  Instead of getting a kick on getting sales numbers alone, focus on adding one skill every year 

  Instead of getting upset with poor increments/no promotions,  focus on adding a skill every year .

  Instead of trying to be busy and considering yourself a Hercules – thinking that the Co is standing on          your shoulders – think of your future and add one skill every year 

  I guarantee that in case you will add some skills in first 10 years of your career  you will probably              get more than you ever desired and the jigsaw puzzle of promotions/ increments will come running            behind you .   

  Life is very simple the best way to measure your performance is to check how many skills have you            learnt this year . Even if you have not done anything so far it is never too late . 

All the Best 

Tarun Srivastava 

Email : taruns007@gmail.com

Linked In : https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarun-srivastava-30aa13a

Lucknow (India) 

Dated the 17th April, 2021