this birth-year for me has had one of the worst starts....
for one, on my birthday, agartala recieves what seems to be 1 meter of rainfall... its raining cats and dogs all day and all internet and landlines are dwon, i mean what is a guy supposed to do in a condition like this... and friends and family cant get through because all the networks are clogged.... its real frustrating....
but thats still forgivable compared to the second day..
today is i think the lowest day of my professional career... forgive me my friends, i am a vegetarian, and a tam-bram at that, and for me to e selling horlicks all day in a fish (both fresh - whatever that means, and dry, and various states of drying), plus all forms of poultry and goats and sheep and cattle and the butchers alone know what else in one of the forementioned various states of drying are some of my worst olfactory nightmares...
i spent an entire day of selling horlicks and the rest of the assortment and putting up posters and POPs and backing sheets and what not in that atmosphere... and to top it all off, i had two new products to explain in bengali (readers may be reminded that im ok with a variety of languages even though i am tam bram, i can manage hindi, english, tamil and a mixture of haryanvi-punjabi) and had to use words like shonga -shonga, khhob bhalo chale, nutan product and the rest of my limited bengali vocabulary to explain things - oh by the way i didnt mention this, agartala folks dont speak bengali but a dialect which even my bengali HR manager cant get....
that means 4 hours of talking, running out of the market to get a couple of gasps of fresh air, and then back in in time to complete the pitch...
to say i lost it is an understatement, the mixture of smells got into my head and i totally lost it today... i ran out, i just couldnt stand there, and think about a poor vegetarian salesman/ sales officer in that situation, whew... i really really really feel for that guy man... its terrible...
i came out of the market alll pukey and all and tried to wash down the feeling with a pepsi... but the damn pepsi was EXPIRED STOCK... have u guys ever heard of expired pepsi??? well i got one and it tasted totally horrible and worsened my condition, i just could continue with the beat and took a rickshaw back to thee distributor's office to get my body to a better shape....
whew, that would by far be down as the smellist day of my career...
Monday, 18 June 2007
thanx a ton for all the birthday wishes....
its amazing spending ur birthday in a place like agartala, disconnected from the rest of the world...
for a lot of people trying to contact you, its a difficult, nay almost impossible thing coz they have no clue where u are and the last number they had does not work...
and u spend a normal day in your hotel room, just like the day before that and the one before that, there's no one to meet and no partying to do, not even a cup of coffee available here...
the downsides of sales :( ...
for a lot of people trying to contact you, its a difficult, nay almost impossible thing coz they have no clue where u are and the last number they had does not work...
and u spend a normal day in your hotel room, just like the day before that and the one before that, there's no one to meet and no partying to do, not even a cup of coffee available here...
the downsides of sales :( ...
Friday, 15 June 2007
my first day at agartala....
landing at the agartala airport, the scenery absolutely takes u aback, i mean the place is so ultimately green and small and pretty, for a moment, u feel uve landed in a time warp....
and then the first signal i see on my phone is Grameen Phone - the airport has a stronger reception from Bangladesh than from india - its amazing, i was later told, the other side of the airport boundary wall is basically bangladesh....
on the way here, the atr gave me glimpses of bangladesh - as i said it was flying that low, yes....
the place was totally flooded and green, it was like amazing... and the auto journey to the hotel was absolutely beautiful...
i then landed in a small, nay micro sized hotel called hotel plaza in a densely packed street called masjid street... the hotel had rooms on the first floor and i was booked into a room that cost me a princely sum of Rs 165/- per night, taxes included (please wait a while for the photos).... spent the rest of the evening looking for an atm and then staring at the idiot box...
got up nice and early on moday to go to my distributors' office, found the SO waiting there for me, after a brief 5 minute intro, i was out onto the first beat - Battala...
Battala is short for Bat (sounds exactly like but) - tala (as in the hindi word for lock) is the area around it, and around it was a market that was filled with shops, a total of over 70 counters in a beat lenght of about 2 km max....
went around each store observing what my SO was doing and noting down the orders for the day...
I havent mentioned it before, but its a different thing to be a horlicks company (as gsk-ch is popularly know) sales guy, we're so much more respected than the rest of the world, its absolutely amazing... the level of push sales in this company is probably the least, the products move well and or job is to get the right products at the right place, of course at the right time too, sonds jargonish, but what it means is check the movement of goods in the store, and then decide what to sell, coz its our resposibility if the products dont move from the store, so u see much lesser old/ damaged stock than a lot of other companies... and it means retailers respect u for that...
and so back to our storyline... finished the beat at around 2:00, when the shopkeepers start going back to lunch and a nap.... when it started pouring cats and dogs... hng back in a shed sorts waiting for the rain to abate but no such luck...
caught a closed rickshaw - an agartala special contraption thats fully covered, almost like an autorickshaw, but using leg power... and headed for some lunch - which wasnt brilliant, but expensive nevertheless - there's a huge supply problem here in the northeast...
then came back to the distributor point for a quick tallying of the days work with the other salesmen... and for some reporting to the boss in guwahati...
then headed back to the idiot box...
and then the first signal i see on my phone is Grameen Phone - the airport has a stronger reception from Bangladesh than from india - its amazing, i was later told, the other side of the airport boundary wall is basically bangladesh....
on the way here, the atr gave me glimpses of bangladesh - as i said it was flying that low, yes....
the place was totally flooded and green, it was like amazing... and the auto journey to the hotel was absolutely beautiful...
i then landed in a small, nay micro sized hotel called hotel plaza in a densely packed street called masjid street... the hotel had rooms on the first floor and i was booked into a room that cost me a princely sum of Rs 165/- per night, taxes included (please wait a while for the photos).... spent the rest of the evening looking for an atm and then staring at the idiot box...
got up nice and early on moday to go to my distributors' office, found the SO waiting there for me, after a brief 5 minute intro, i was out onto the first beat - Battala...
Battala is short for Bat (sounds exactly like but) - tala (as in the hindi word for lock) is the area around it, and around it was a market that was filled with shops, a total of over 70 counters in a beat lenght of about 2 km max....
went around each store observing what my SO was doing and noting down the orders for the day...
I havent mentioned it before, but its a different thing to be a horlicks company (as gsk-ch is popularly know) sales guy, we're so much more respected than the rest of the world, its absolutely amazing... the level of push sales in this company is probably the least, the products move well and or job is to get the right products at the right place, of course at the right time too, sonds jargonish, but what it means is check the movement of goods in the store, and then decide what to sell, coz its our resposibility if the products dont move from the store, so u see much lesser old/ damaged stock than a lot of other companies... and it means retailers respect u for that...
and so back to our storyline... finished the beat at around 2:00, when the shopkeepers start going back to lunch and a nap.... when it started pouring cats and dogs... hng back in a shed sorts waiting for the rain to abate but no such luck...
caught a closed rickshaw - an agartala special contraption thats fully covered, almost like an autorickshaw, but using leg power... and headed for some lunch - which wasnt brilliant, but expensive nevertheless - there's a huge supply problem here in the northeast...
then came back to the distributor point for a quick tallying of the days work with the other salesmen... and for some reporting to the boss in guwahati...
then headed back to the idiot box...
Thursday, 14 June 2007
all in a day's work....
the life of a sales officer more or less goes in a big whoosh...
it starts of with the distributor point... you go there in the morning, check the stocks, check damages, broken stuff, yesterdays sales and returns, quality issues if any (like an improper seal or whatever, any old stock, whatver else)....
then u go and plan ur day, make the daily targets for each of the salesmen... pick a beat to hit, then go meet retailers basically the most of the day...
at the retailers, check the stock movement check if there are any non-moving stock and try to rotate it... put up your pops, check competition moves and report it to your boss if there's anything significant...
then clean and wipe the bottles, packs, etc, clean the shelf and redisplay the product (usualy the salesman does all this even if u start, he'll take over)...
in the meanwhile show the new prodcuts and offers, push new prodcust and keep the retailer from ordering more non-moving stock of his...
this more or less repeats the whole time during the day... of course one is constrained by the fact that indian retailers sleep in the afternoon, so all this needs to be done by about 2...
then come back to stock point, do the totals for the day, make some creatives for the next and plan the next day...
assess the day's performance and fill up some reports...
give feedback to the salesmen...
go back and hit the bed, a tired soul....
to wake up the next morning
it starts of with the distributor point... you go there in the morning, check the stocks, check damages, broken stuff, yesterdays sales and returns, quality issues if any (like an improper seal or whatever, any old stock, whatver else)....
then u go and plan ur day, make the daily targets for each of the salesmen... pick a beat to hit, then go meet retailers basically the most of the day...
at the retailers, check the stock movement check if there are any non-moving stock and try to rotate it... put up your pops, check competition moves and report it to your boss if there's anything significant...
then clean and wipe the bottles, packs, etc, clean the shelf and redisplay the product (usualy the salesman does all this even if u start, he'll take over)...
in the meanwhile show the new prodcuts and offers, push new prodcust and keep the retailer from ordering more non-moving stock of his...
this more or less repeats the whole time during the day... of course one is constrained by the fact that indian retailers sleep in the afternoon, so all this needs to be done by about 2...
then come back to stock point, do the totals for the day, make some creatives for the next and plan the next day...
assess the day's performance and fill up some reports...
give feedback to the salesmen...
go back and hit the bed, a tired soul....
to wake up the next morning
Sunday, 10 June 2007
paradise on earth...
aboard an ATR (a rickety airplane, literally an auto rickshaw of the air) took me to paradise, a place called agartala...
people who say that kerala is green have got to come to the northeast, while fly over bangladesh and entering agartala i caught sight of a place that looks like the visuals of thee amazong rainforest you get on national geographic, there's been some rain and the whole place is flooded to some extent, and the greenery is absolutely stupendous...
i thought ill just put a bracket quote on the ATR but i think it deserves a bit more... the ATR is like the autorickshaw of the air... you feel every bump on the road (in this case air turbulance packets, the first time i felt it properly and its a bit like a roller coaster, suddenly you experience wightlessness and bumps all along - its brilliant ) and it takes all the skills of a superpilot to maneuvre this thing through the odd weather.... and it flies real low - lets you have a great view of the land below, which in this case was briliiantly beautiful....
and btw, agartala airport showed signals from a variety of operators (including grameen phone and a host of other unrecognised names - i guess they must be bangla operators)....
this place is truly beautiful but ull have to wait till i find a secure comp to upload the photos... till then, ill try to be a s desciptive as possible...
people who say that kerala is green have got to come to the northeast, while fly over bangladesh and entering agartala i caught sight of a place that looks like the visuals of thee amazong rainforest you get on national geographic, there's been some rain and the whole place is flooded to some extent, and the greenery is absolutely stupendous...
i thought ill just put a bracket quote on the ATR but i think it deserves a bit more... the ATR is like the autorickshaw of the air... you feel every bump on the road (in this case air turbulance packets, the first time i felt it properly and its a bit like a roller coaster, suddenly you experience wightlessness and bumps all along - its brilliant ) and it takes all the skills of a superpilot to maneuvre this thing through the odd weather.... and it flies real low - lets you have a great view of the land below, which in this case was briliiantly beautiful....
and btw, agartala airport showed signals from a variety of operators (including grameen phone and a host of other unrecognised names - i guess they must be bangla operators)....
this place is truly beautiful but ull have to wait till i find a secure comp to upload the photos... till then, ill try to be a s desciptive as possible...
life in bengalland...
over the last 2 weeks i have spent in calcutta, my image of the city has undergone a considerable change... i always thought cal (or kolkata to be precise) was a smelly crowded city fulll of khadi users, but my experiences in the market have changed a lot of impressions... apart from the smell and the crowdedness (which you kinda get used to) the city is a lot more, i didnt spot too much of the khadi brigade, but instead found a caclutta with loadsa pubs, women drinking, et all, a metro/ cosmopolitan place...
and the place is a foodie's paradise, i have found the best bakery probably in india in flury's (even a die-hard wengers fan like meself found the place absolutely amazing and much better than any other bakery... a typical british atmosphere i would love to take vidhi to...
and the other eateries are amazing, cal is serioulsy a foodie's paradise... dont know when ill go there next, but i'm looking forward to it...
and the place is a foodie's paradise, i have found the best bakery probably in india in flury's (even a die-hard wengers fan like meself found the place absolutely amazing and much better than any other bakery... a typical british atmosphere i would love to take vidhi to...
and the other eateries are amazing, cal is serioulsy a foodie's paradise... dont know when ill go there next, but i'm looking forward to it...
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