Tucked away in the meandering streets of Gariahat-
Kolkata, there existed a small garment shop "Rana Sons & Sons".
The owner, Rana (his Daak Naam or the nickname. Nobody really knows the real
name) had inherited the shop from his father and tried hard to maintain its old
glory. Kolkata facing major out flux of efficient youngsters to other cities,
it was getting difficult to recruit good counter-sales people. And Rana was
having a tough time trying to manage and get the work out of his two employees,
Babai and Tatai (again Daak Naams). They would front-end the sale counter and
like true kolkattans, they believed it was their birth right to take 1 hour
lunch break and two hours afternoon nap every day and the shop thus remained
shut during these hours. In these 3 hours, customers came, saw the shut shop,
and U turned to some other one in the vicinity.
Rana, sometimes with politeness and sometimes with stern
eyebrows asked them to reduce their nap to one hour.
"Na Na Babu. Cholbe Na Cholbe Na", always came
an instant, chorused reply from the duo.
He was losing all hopes and almost deciding to shut down,
when one fine day entered a young lad called "Partha". His enthusiasm
and confidence impressed Rana and immediately hired him as one more resource to
the front end sales with Babai & Tatai. Now this bundle of energy, had
dreams to make it big and worked with a lot of zeal & zest. He offered Rana
to man the shop in the afternoon and keep it open for the customers while
Babai-Tatai were busy with their fiesta and siesta. The gesture was more than
welcoming and so was the prospect of additional revenues. Customers returned,
business increased, Partha’s salary rose while babai and tatai continued
snoring.
"This analogy can be drawn to a classic case of
poaching when a sales rep sleeps through his/her designated portfolio while
some other rep in the same organisation steels through the former’s accounts.
This always works in favour of the manager/branch/organisation since it only
adds to the revenues."
Now, to take the story forward….
Rana started smiling and smiling a little more often now.
And over a cup of tea one evening, he decided to convert his traditionally
built shop into a departmental store, 'Rana Fashions'.
Business kept growing and finally the Shop was converted
to a departmental Store and shifted from Gariahat to Park Street. Park Street, where the
spirits of 'Moulin Rouge' flurries till the night, where Christmas never ends
and sorrows never begins, where Kolkata is 'Someplace else'
As the store started taking form, Rana apparently,
started making business changes to make it more organised. Corporate jargons
arrived and they arrived in bullet points
- Top line
- Bottom line
- P & L
- Sales Targets
- Deadlines
- Incentives, and many many more.
Gone were the days of Babai, Tatai and their laze-making.
There were clones of ambitious Partha, like an Arindom, a Subroto, a Kaustuv
and many more who joined the Sales force. The Store was divided into zones like
kids, men, women and so on. And each zone was assigned to a sale executive Who
managed and generated revenues out of it.
Business roared, footfalls soared, employees prospered,
but Rana got greedier.
To increase the revenues further, and harness the more
potential, he introduced stricter target and deadlines.
And to meet them, the sales executives started venturing
into others zones for business if it was found unmanned.
Rana never
discouraged it or should we say encouraged it with due subtlety.
In a way, the culture brought in by Partha now became
official " raid others portfolio, by hook or by crook"
Initially the Parthas and Arindoms of the team were
cautious but gradually they lost all their inhibitions. Manned, unmanned,
raiding each other's zones became a norm of the day. A customer entered, and
every sales person was ready to pounce on them with their Rate offerings. It
irked the customers initially, but gradually they learnt to take advantage of
so many offerings.
Cross quotes, under quotes, Offer the lowest and grab the
business.... Chaos prevailed
Result: Unwarranted Business loss/opportunity loss
Growth trajectory slipped down and so did Rana's smile.
"Well! This is the other side of poaching, which is only
harmful to the business and customer's faith."
Poaching, really has to be viewed as a tool and how it is
used, is the key decider for sales growth.
Effective management knows the balance and uses it to
their advantage rather than become a victim of it.
Necessary systems
& processes can be placed to curtail under-cutting.
Instead of allowing immediate temptations and waste
energies, the executives can be encouraged on cross-selling and up-selling
within their own portfolio.
And yet engineer a traction towards neglected, dormant
accounts.
In a nutshell, Poaching is an inevitable part of Sales.
It's judicious usage determines the success of a sales system.
