Effective Manager

Role of Manager  
He has to create/split the tasks and get assigned to his team and follow to achieve it. 
Necessarily, through his leadership skills, he has to inspire and empower his team. 
Moreover, he has to facilitate them to get achieved tasks by themselves. He is also responsible for enhancing and upgrading their skills and capabilities.
Therefore, the area head must be equally responsible to manage, lead and train his team.

There are certain actions and processes which have to be followed by the manager.

• Understanding Purpose  

He has to ensure, they should understand the company's broad objectives. Essentially they should have an understanding of the causes of running different operations and activities.

• Alignment 

He should very well understand the company's objectives and design his strategies & plans accordingly. He should ensure, his team's plans should also be aligned with his objectives and they must work in the same direction.

• Growth Mindset 

They should have a positive attitude to explore different opportunities (coverage expansion, effective coverage, brand and category development, etc. ) for business growth. The manager has to ensure, they should understand the concerned business/category growth trend. They should also understand market share and growth statistics.

 For Instance, a particular category is growing by 10% and your company's market share is 5% in the same category, and the company asks for a 1% growth in market share. 
What should be the growth % target?
Answer is...
Suppose...........
Current market size 100 Cr
Proposed market size 110 Cr
Current market share  5% (5 Cr )
Targeted market share 6% ( 6.6 Cr )
Required growth % =  (6.6/5×100 - 100)
= 32%

So, a 1% market share growth plan seems to be an achievable projection whereas a 32%  growth target looks aggressive.

 It is attitude and perception which contribute to a positive or negative mindset!

• Operational Skills 

He should facilitate and train his team to enhance their operational skills which are the hard & core skills required to implement and execute sales/distribution processes and their objectives smoothly.

•  Management Capability  

Let them be strategic, he should facilitate the team to enhance their management capabilities, they should actively involve and participate in different plans and decisions.

• Distributor Appointment 

He has to train and facilitate his team to follow certain routes, processes, and standards to appoint the best available prospected customer.                                         (For more details, just go to Customer Management post.)

• Infrastructural Arrangements  Manager has to facilitate & groom his team to establish and maintain appropriate infrastructural arrangements at the distributor point.

• Salesforce & Distributor's Back end Team Training          Manager has to train his field force to make them enable to groom and develop the team assigned at distributor point whether he is a team leader,  market executive or salesman. He also has to train computer operators to handle billing/reporting software & primary order placement operations. He also has to train the warehouse in charge to manage proper stock keeping, FIFO system, etc.

•  Primary Orders & Dispatch Plan Management 

The manager has to facilitate his team to establish and manage the stock replenishment system & primary dispatch plan compliance effectively.

•  Supply Chain Management  Manager has to train his team and facilitate them to control stock inventory management by handling stock replenishment system and dispatch plan compliance effectively. They should ensure timely order/full order deliveries in the market.

• Customer/Trade Marketing Skills 

He has to train his team of territory managers to understand outlet types, outlet channels, shopper's behaviour & demands, growth enablers, trade marketing plans and its suitability across channels. They should also be groomed to identify competition, analyze its scale of impact and design appropriate trade marketing plans to counter it.

• Trade Relationship Building 

The manager has to groom and enhance their relationship-building skills and facilitate them to train their sales force too.         (For more details, just go to Trade Relationship Building post.)

•  Trade Service Levels 

He has to train his team to get provide the best possible services to trade through their distributors, whether it is timely order deliveries, credit facility, damage stock replacement or claim settlements, etc.

• Process Implementation Management 

Essentially, the manager has to train and facilitate his team to implement and execute a structured sales/redistribution system & processes to achieve objectives. They should rigorously follow and implement the EDGE process at the distributor point.                                                 (For more detail, just go through Redistribution Management post.)

• Alignment with Customer       It's necessary to understand that the customer's objective is top-line growth whereas the sales team chases bottom-line growth. Therefore the manager has to facilitate his team to get aligned with their distributors.      
• Understanding Return On Investment Metrics                     He has to ensure each and every territory manager must be proficient in the ROI Metrics
•  and the understanding of its characteristics.

1. It's critical to understand that ROI is not merely a mathematical calculation but also a key tool that is significantly helpful in customer handling. 
2. Adequate infrastructural arrangements and its optimization improve trade service levels which contribute to relatively higher turnover, lesser expenses, and subsequently more profits.
3. Adequate stock inventory management and its optimization lead to more turnover, more rotations, and subsequently more Profits.
4. Effective Edge process implementation contributes to higher turnover & more profits.
5. ROI Calculation.................

• Investment = Stock+Credit+Claims-OD
• Gross Profit = Turnover×℅Margin
• Expense = Trade D/C+all Other exp.+Bank Interest
• Net Profit = Gross Profit-Expense
• ROI = Net Profit/Investment ×100

    An effective manager is a leader who takes charge of his team and delivers sustainable business growth.

Kindly publish your valuable comments.

Courtesy

PKGoel

 Sales Trainer

9319155888

Pkgoel_22@yahoo.co.in