Cycle Singh : Salesman of the Year

ITC hired me to fight the war for them in the market. To win wars you must first start by winning the battles. And to win you must fight. Nothing ever is straightforward. When you are out there fighting, remember all is Fair & Lovely in war. 

SmackD Trivial fact #1 : By the way you know you are in FMCG when you are using a TLA i.e. Three letter acronym for every terminology - POP, NTD, SWD, SCP, RBD etc etc

The new hires at ITC are called AUTs (Assistants Under Training). After training we all have to assist our commander i.e. the Branch Manager in the battles. Till then we are referred to as "ITC ke Damaad" for we are fed, pampered and well taken care of without the pressure of any deliverables. 

I was sent to learn the tricks of the trade to Nagpur branch which handles Vidharba region and Chattisgarh. To be a good leader you must be able to empathize and relate to your subordinates. So ITC puts us through every hierarchy in the command chain - right from the Dealer Salesman to Area Manager in every business - right from Cigarettes to Grocery.

A Dealer Salesman (DS) is our foot soldier. Well, not exactly. He's our cycle soldier though most of them now have bikes. A few still ply their trade on cycles especially those servicing localities with narrow roads and dense traffic. So my stint in ITC starts as a cycle salesman.

3 steps to becoming a Cycle salesman:

Step 1: Get your cycle. This HERO "new jet series" was my launch vehicle.

Step 2: Load the cigarettes in your thela

Step 3: Load the thelas onto your cycle

There you go ! In three easy steps you have now become a cycle salesman. 

SmackD Trivial fact #2 : You know you are a Engineer if you are thinking that we can rationalize the load distribution on both sides of the cycle for optimal pedaling effort. If you are ... God help you !

A cycle salesman mainly sells to the 'Paan Dukaans' aka 'Paan Thelas' aka 'Paan ki Tapris'. So we were on our way cycling through the streets of Nagpur visiting various Paan dukaans and selling cigarette packs to them. 

Different thoughts cross your mind when you are cycling under the hot sun through those streets. No No No ! You philosophical junkies. Your whole life doesn't flash before your eyes ! Just thoughts and nothing deep.

 

SmackD Trivial fact #3 : You know you are a MBA if you are looking at the relatively impoverished streets and wondering how you can extract value from the bottom of the pyramid. If you are ... Get a life or go get shot !

By the way we all know Cigarettes are not allowed to advertise on popular media like TVs, billboards etc. The only place you can 'brand' is on/inside the paan dukaan. 

We visited about 40 odd outlets during the day. In the morning if you got on that cycle thinking you were the ultimate street smart MBA in the quest for limitless power, by evening you would be a collective noun for tired muscles looking for a place to park that sore ass. 

While you are cycling through those streets, people look at you in amazement. Such well-dressed guy on a cycle ? They must surely be thinking what all our educated-but-unemployed youth must do today just to survive :)

Two days later I upgraded from a non-mechanized two-wheeler to a mechanized two-wheeler i.e. a bike.

Then the day we had to sell Non-Tobacco Division (NTD) products i.e. in layman terms choclates, chips, biscuits etc I was upgraded to a mechanized 3-wheeler.

After the ultimate path-breaking exploits in the Nagpur cigarette market, the Branch Manager has upgraded my Designation from Assistant Under Training (AUT) to CHairman Under Training (CHUT).

Anyways, these 5 days introduced to me a world I never imagined existed. It is an eye-opening experience and the true take-away from all this is a sense of respect and empathy for the men who do this everyday.