Developing Sales & Distribution Strategies

SM Technologies Ltd.

Case Background

1. SM Technologies offered broadband

enabled services for corporate

(business) and home (or domestic)

users.

Major competitors include Reliance

Infocomm, Airtel, VSNL, BSNL,

Hathway, Sify and Spectranet.

Company targets 40% growth in sales

and profits for the Bangalore office for

2004-2005.

Discussion on Existing Practices

Sales Organization Structure

For the corporate customers, there are

many different kinds of services offered.

However, the sales force isn’t divided on

the basis of such services.

This is likely to lead to insufficient

knowledge of different services among the

sales representatives.

The insufficient knowledge is likely to

decrease the prospects of selling, This

applies more to corporate customers.

Sales Strategy

For home users, the company employed contractual sales force.

The sales force was paid only through commission.

This is likely to lead to high sales force churn

Frequent replacement of sales force will reduce the efficiency

and the performance.

Despite the sales force getting trained by an institute, a

customized training was not given internally in the company.

Asst. Sales manager must also be trained in effective supervision

since they are in direct contact with the salespersons.

They can also identify the high potential customer segment and

target on that business share.

Distribution Channel

Currently using Direct Distribution-technically complex

For the corporate they can include the industrial distributors in the sales

channel who will be able to get a good idea of expected orders

through spatial discrepancy-reduce distance(1 service outlet in 3km range)

Temporal discrepancy-speeding up meeting requirements(locations have

potential customers)

The company is only selling through direct channels of company

workforce

The company should not use online selling and tele-marketing only for

prospecting but also**** to make a sale

Precaution should be taken that there is no channel conflict in the

distribution channel.

Promotion

There was no focussed strategy of

promotion for the domestic customer

market

The company isn’t making any significant

efforts to ensure that the products are

taken into the consideration set of more

and more consumers in the target market.

New Strategy & Tactics

Expand operations in the other Tier-I cities.Reorganize the sales force for corporate customers, service

wise Ensure reduction of churn of sales force if any. Motivate the

contractual sales force by offering benefits to top performers.Develop a focussed strategy of promotion for the domestic

customer marketAlso focus on the after sales service Effectively use the distribution channel-reach out effectively

to customersCustomer Retention :Past client reactivationValue Sell