Sales and Distribution Management: An Indian Perspective.
Zameer, Asif
Sales and Distribution Management : An Indian Perspective, Pingali
Venugopal, Response Books, New Delhi, 2008, Pages 330, Price 495.
Sales and Distribution management decisions are at the core of
marketing decisions for any company. This aspect is magnified in a
country like India where high retail density, multitude of consumer
classes and huge disparity between purchasing power, infrastructure,
culture etc. makes sales and distribution very complex. Most of the
books related to this subject, coming from foreign authors, contain
knowledge and practices more apt for developed countries. Over the last
few years, some authors have tried to bridge this gap by writing sales
and distribution books more relevant to Indian conditions. This book by
Mr. Pingali Venugopal is a commendable effort in this direction.
This book is divided into four sections. The first section deals
with the marketing and retail environment in the country. The highlight
of this section is the knowledge given by the author on consumer
purchase decisions related to various kinds of product categories. From
that angle, he has highlighted the role of the company's marketing
strategy. Some small snapshots are given to substantiate the application
of the concepts. This section, then takes the reader through the
unfolding retail scenario in India, emerging new retail formats and
strategic decisions related to retail business. Finally the chapter
describes various real life examples to tell about the retail management
practices in the unorganized retail sector in the country. This section
is a welcome addition and deviation from the existing books on this
subject. For any company in India, whether it distributes its products
through independent retail channel or goes into Vertical Marketing
System, the knowledge of the marketing and retail environment in India
is paramount.
In the second section, the author discusses the strategic decisions
in sales and distribution. The relation between selling strategy and
marketing strategy has been lucidly drawn out. The channel design
decisions have been told with some relevant cases lending weight to the
concepts. Further, the chapter tells about the growing use of Internet
as a channel and how companies are integrating service orientation in
their selling styles.
The third section contains the operational decisions in channel
management like channel selection, motivation, evaluation of channel
partners and channel conflict management. The section also has a chapter
on use of IT in channel management. It also has illustrations from some
companies to tell the practical aspects of implementation. The fourth
section has operational decisions in sales management. It talks about
the important dimensions of sales management like sales team
recruitment, territory design, sales force motivation, sales quota
setting and performance appraisal. At the end of the book, there is an
appendix mentioning about the emerging formats in rural distribution.
For such an important topic for students, this book is a lively and
thought provoking work on contemporary sales and distribution
environment and practices in India. The format does not have long,
verbose sections but crisp paragraphs interspersed with tables,
snapshots, figures, caselets etc. The writing style is very much suited
to the students of today with less focus on abstract concepts but more
application knowledge from various representative sectors. It can be
very useful for the teachers of this subject in Indian business schools.
However, this book falls short of being a comprehensive knowledge
resource for this subject. There is no knowledge imparted on Physical
distribution or Logistics management, which today is becoming a key
differentiator in a company's distribution strategy. Certain other
aspects of Sales and Distribution Management which are integral to this
function are sales training, understanding wholesaling in India and the
strategic differences between intensive, selective and exclusive
distribution models. The book does not contain any knowledge about these
topics.
Asif Zameer
Assistant Professor
FORE School of Management
