HPL was a large food products company in India known for high quality products sold at reasonable prices. It had a wide range of dairy and other food products. Though it faced strong competition, HPL was often the market leader due to its focus on quality and affordable prices. However, the company was experiencing a decline in sales due to low motivation of its sales team from lower than average pay and lack of non-financial rewards or training. Proposed solutions included analyzing underperforming regions, recognizing high performers, and ensuring effective supervision by managers.

2.  HPL was one of the largest food products company in India.
 Very well-known and respectable brand.
 Its products- milk, butter, ghee, cheese, milk-powder, ice-cream,
chocolates, shrikhand, tea-coffee whitener, and curd.
 Some of its products were even marketed internationally to USA,
Singapore, and gulf countries.
 The products were known for high quality and reasonable prices.
 The company was the market leader, with maximum market share, in many
products, despite strong competition.

3.  Severe competition from local as well as MNCs like Hindustan Unilever, Nestle
India, and Cadburys.
 The company had been able to beat competition due to its sound business strategy
of providing quality products to consumers at affordable prices.
 The company had 50 sales depots (or warehouses), with over 5000 distributors (or
wholesalers), who were supplying the company’s products to over 1.2 million retail
outlets in India.
 The decision of the selection of right kind of distributors was important, because
the distributors had to invest at least Rs. 2,00,000 in infrastructure like cold storage
and to carryout key activities like selling to retailers, inventory carrying,
warehousing, and transportation.

4.  Main issue- motivation of sales representatives, sales executives and area sales managers.
 The compensation provided for the salespeople was less than the industry norms.
 Salaries paid at all the levels were much lower.
 Incentives were given once in three years.
 Financial rewards- the most important motivational tool.

5.  Non- financial rewards were missing.
 Decisions on promotions were delayed in the case of clear vacancies.
 High turnover of people due to missing of the some of the important
policies in the company.
 Training was inadequate.
 Less promotional budget.

6.  All the former suggestions told by the different regional sales managers.
 Doing our jobs properly in place of blaming others for the declining of sales.
 Finding out :
 which region was not performing properly compared to the sales quotas
 which sales areas were not achieving the targets
 which sales executives, sales reps, and distributors were showing unfavorable
performance with large gaps.
 Talking to them about the reasons behind all these problems.
 Recognizing good performers during weekly or monthly meetings of salespeople.
 Ensuring effective supervision by area sales managers.

7.  Selection - Recruiting and selecting the right talent needed for each sales position is the
single most important skill of sales management.
 Raising the Bar- Sales and service improvement is an outcome of deliberate, planned actions
over time, at all levels. "Raising the bar" must be the primary objective of sales and service
leadership.
 Sales Process - Documenting your sales methodology and Best Practices both for salespeople
and sales managers provides a “Framework of Excellence” for improving your selling system.
Once documented, the sales process drives hiring, coaching, training, and marketing support
efforts.
 Change - People change behaviors because they want to, because the value of change is
compelling, and because it benefits them significantly as individuals. If you want to change
selling behaviors, actively engage your people in the solution. It is their ownership that
ensures long-lasting change.
 Measurement is the essential ingredient of process improvement. Without clear expectations
for activity and performance, sales improvement efforts seldom hit the mark.

8.  Support Systems including activity scorecards, technology, pipeline forecasting, territory plans,
lead generation and strategy worksheets provide the tools to implement change. Tool
development is not a one-time effort, but a continuous process of enhancing the tools, modifying
them, and applying them to the business.
 Focus Coaching sustains excellence and builds employee loyalty. Coaches are the catalysts of
team and individual effectiveness. Their ability to tap and stretch the capacity of each individual
generates power and momentum.
 Training is the #1 intervention to communicate expectations, to stimulate growth, to lift
individual performance. It must be a core practice, consistently applied and customized to fit
your organization.
 Compensation and recognition practices must be aligned to strategy. Alignment creates
leverage and increases the potential to maximize revenues.
 Customer Retention - Its focus is indispensable, and everyone in the organization must take
ownership for their role in adding value and enhancing the customer experience.