Interview of Territory Officer at British American Tobacco PDF

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For this particular assignment, we interviewed a territory officer of British American Tobacco who is currently posted at Rajshahi, Bangladesh....

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Background of the Sales Person For this particular assignment, we interviewed a territory officer of British American Tobacco who is currently posted at Rajshahi. He joined the organization in 2017. His first posting was in Potuakhali and after one and a half years, he was posted to Rajshahi. This is his 3 rd year in this organization and he is hoping for a promotion soon. How is Sales as a Career in Bangladesh From his point of view, sales is a very challenging job in any country and that includes Bangladesh. It is not only about bringing in money; it is also about managing people and relationships. In his organization, the territory officers are told that they are the managing directors of their territory. So, they do not just manage sales, they manage the finance, the people, overall the whole business. Meaning of Territory in Bangladesh Territory is basically a portion of an area that is under the supervision of the territory officer. The meaning and structure of a territory depends from organization to organization. It depends on a number of factors. Such asThe number of outlets the company is covering Geography Volume of output from outlets Value generated from outlets Several territories together form an area and a couple of areas together form a region. The territory officers report to the area manager and the area managers report to the regional managers. Description of his Territory

In this flowchart, at the very top, we have the territory officer whose job is to manage the distributors and the 3rd party field force. The Distributors: The distributors are called the business partners here. There are two wings under the distributor. One is the sales part and another is the administrative part. Under the sales manager, they have sales supervisor and under him, they have sales representative. And under the administrative head, they have finance, computer operators and godown keepers. And all of these people are directly or indirectly reporting to the territory officer. 3rd Party Field Force: There’s another party that reports to the territory officer which is the 3 rd party field force. These are basically agencies that work as partners of the company. There are three types of field forces- territory sales assistants (TSA), contract merchandisers (CM) and brand representatives (BR). These parties may not be directly under BAT, but these people report to the territory officer as well. Activities of Territory Managers According to the territory officer we interviewed, he performs three major activities: 1. Managing the Distributor’s Business One job of the territory officers is to manage the distributor’s business from ensuring the supply of products from the company to the distributor. He also ensures whether the distributors are representing their company and following their policies. 2. Execution on plans on a field level Territory officers are also responsible for the execution of plans. For example, when they launch a new brand, the branding team performs the tasks from product design to packaging and the message of the brand. The task of the territory officer is to execute these plans in the market. So, he governs the distribution houses. 3. Planning Sometimes territory officers are included in planning as well because they communicate directly with the market and the distributors. So, they know how the products need to be customized or modified. For example, if the branding team plans to launch a new product in a high density area, they will need the input of the territory officer to know which areas will work well with this plan. Target Setting Targets are usually set in a top down manner. First of all, the top management gives them a yearly target. Then they divide it in a monthly basis. Sometimes they divide it seasonally. Targets actually vary based on situation.

For example, the sale of cigarette becomes high in occasions like Eid. On the other hand, the sales fall on rainy days because most tongs and stores are closed in such weather. Sales even become high the week before the new budget arrives because people get worried whether the price is going to rise or not so they start stacking up. Sales even vary weekly. The distribution houses remain closed on Fridays. So, they purchase more on Thursdays to maintain their safety stock. The territory officers customize the targets based on situation. But the overall yearly target remains the same. Sometimes the top management deliberately gives higher targets to the sales team, mostly in cases of new products, but higher sales aren’t always good. As their product is a perishable good, if they sell to the distributor beyond the level of customer demand, the unsold products will face quality defects. So, the targets are set based after considering these factors. How They Manage their Sales Force The most difficult task of a territory officer is to manage people. They have to think from the perspective of people from all the levels. People tend to lose focus very easily. So, the territory officer calls in the sales force every morning and gives them a small briefing about their tasks for that particular day. And, at the end of the day, the territory officer calls in another meeting and asks the sales force to give him a summary of his day including what went wrong and what went good. Sales Force Productivity Techniques Frankly speaking, the sales force isn’t paid a lot and on top of that they have to run errands all day long. So, they get really frustrated sometimes. In that case, they need reinforcements. Whether the reinforcements are going to be positive or negative varies person to person. You can either give the carrot or the stick. Throughout his tenure, directly or indirectly, total 384 people reported to him and among them most of them were older than him. Some were around 25, some 35, there were even people who had been working before he was born and he was only a fresh graduate when he was assigned as their supervisor. He even had to be harsh and scold people senior to him when they didn’t perform well and there was no other way. Even the sales force understands that it is his job to manage and supervise them so they don’t get offended. But sometimes people do get upset. Then the territory officer has to go visit them and apologize and make them understand where things went wrong. So, overall, it is very challenging to manage people.

Sometimes, the territory officers try to influence the distributors to raise the salary of the sales force. Although the salary of the sales force is mainly decided by the distributors, the company tries to influence them to motivate the sales team, because distributors try to avoid raising the salary as he wants to cut his costs. They completely overlook the aspect of motivation. Sometimes the sales persons directly communicate with the territory officer and ask for increments. Success Stories The fact that he has been working in such a position in such a renowned organization is a success itself. On top of that, he was awarded the best territory officer in Rajshahi region last year. Truth be told, the reason why he loves his job at BAT is mostly because the salary is really good, they gave him a car and they also send him on trips to keep him motivated. Relationship strategy The core task of a territory is managing people and managing relationships. There are four major groups they need to have a good relationship with: Customers: Most of their customers are people who have been in this business for maybe 10/20 years. Some of them have been working in this industry for generations. So, they value the relationships more than the product itself. So, they are treated with utmost respect and value. The meetings are mostly held in the customer’s office to show them that we are coming to you and you’re valuable. For example, he has one client whose name was Abul Hossain. So, he had to call him Mr. Hossain, because calling him Mr. Abul would have been disrespectful based on Bangladeshi context. He also refers to the sellers in tong as “bhai” to reflect a close relationship. Secondary Decision Makers: Although secondary decision makers don’t play a very big role in this case, still, if he gets any chance, he talks to the other staffs, even family members of the customers. For example, if there’s a tong where the older brother sometimes leaves the younger one in charge, the territory officer often goes and asks one brother about the other. Company Support Staff: As we have mentioned before, their whole company works as one team. So, he keeps a good relationship with everyone including the guard and cleaning staff. Today’s marketing is highly dependent on cross-functional coordination so you never know when you’ll need whose assistance. So, it is always safe to be in good terms with everyone. Top Management: Obviously he maintains a good relationship with his bosses. Any smart person would do the same, he says, because in the end, he needs to focus on his career and promotions.

Stages of preparation for building relationships In his preparation for building relationship strategies, he takes his preparation in 3 stages: 1. Building a Mindset: Win-Win strategy: The distributors are the main customers here. So, they have a certain limitation in case of stocking and selling. So, the company always tries to sell an appropriate amount of products so that it does not become a burden on the distributors. Emotional Intelligence: Often distributors do not want to make necessary investments. For example, sometimes there are vehicles that can hold up to 15,000 products but the distributor is using smaller vehicles that hold only 5,000. The territory officer knows that investing on that vehicle can save both time and money but the distributor is not willing to invest there. In these cases, even though the territory officer is getting extremely annoyed, he needs to keep calm and politely make the distributor understand that this investment will be profitable for him as well. There are often instances where the distributor or retailer charger a higher price than the one set by the company to get a higher channel margin. When they are questioned by the company, they try to give excuses like they do not have enough stock or there’s a shortage of supply. But the territory officer has enough data and evidence to show that the distributor is lying. So, he tries to build on the evidence and convince him to charge the negotiated amount. If the distributor still refuses to do so, they are bound to cut him loose. But till then, they do their best to keep calm and negotiate. 2. Non-verbal strategies In every sales meeting, he uses non verbal strategies. For example, in every sales meeting, he greets the customer or partner with a smile, shakes his hand. If the client is senior, he greets the client with a salam. Most importantly, he shows a politeness and integrity in his overall attitude. 3. Verbal Strategies As he often visits his customers, he knows their background. So, he uses that information to build up an emotional strategy. For example, if he knows about a customer’s children, he asks how they are, how their education is going and so on. Same goes for other family members as well. By doing these, he has built up very strong relationships with almost all of his customers. Whenever they see him, they come running towards him, offers beverages, talks about their lives, invites him to their houses and things those sorts.

Ethical Challenges He has never faced any ethical challenges in his organization because they have a Standard of Business Conduct (SOBC), in which, all of the ethical guidelines are mentioned. All the employees have to sign it before joining the organization. For example, they have a money limit on gift giving. So, they cannot give any gift to any customers above the limit. Also, before giving the gift, they need to declare the information about what gift he’s giving and to which customer. The same rule applies when customers or distributors give any gift to the territory officers or any employee in BAT. Intention is more crucial than the monetary limit. If the gift has any hidden agenda behind it, even if it doesn’t violate the monetary limit, that gift will not be acceptable. Conclusion In conclusion, we can actually see a reflection of things that we have learnt in our course in the behavior and strategies of the sales person we interviewed. This proves that the strategies we learn are applicable to become a successful sales person....