An Experience of a Salesman
J.Srinivas Rao (Srinivas) is a Management Graduate from a premier business school. He started his career in sanitary ware industry in a small way and rose up to the level of a manager. During his tenure at TOTO Ltd. (TOTO), a Japan-based Multinational Corporation, he experienced many ups and downs of the market and interacted with many customers and gaining varied experiences. When Srinivas started working in Hyderabad with TOTO, he happened to meet Ramana Chintala (Ramana), project engineer at Vasantha Green City (Vasantha), a luxury apartment project, to promote sanitary ware products. With great persistence of one long year, Srinivas got the opportunity to meet Vasantha Venkata Prasad (Prasad), the Managing Director (MD) of Vasantha Green City, to discuss about the supply of sanitary products. During the meeting, there were TOTO’s mock-up (Presentation and Demonstration) too. For almost two months after the demo, Srinivas regularly followed up with Vasantha to close the deal. After a long discussion Srinivas almost come to closure of the deal for the project wherein the company decided to use Toto sanitary products and place an order through an authorized channel of the company. One fine morning he visited Vasantha’s office as a follow up to close the deal, but, to his surprise, Srinivas saw specimens of a competitor brand with Vanity having Wash Basin. Srinivas was clueless about the sudden change of things at Vasantha - a deal which had almost come to a closure with a client (considered as a sure client) saw a competitor penetrating the client’s space. ..............
TOTO India Industries Pvt. Ltd.
TOTO started its operations in India in 1998 as TOTO India Industries Pvt. Ltd. (TOTO India), with its headquarters at Mumbai. In 2014, it started a factory in Vadodara, Gujarat (India), to produce wash let and sanitary ware. TOTO India’s sales control units are spread across India - Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad in central part of the country; Kolkata in the East; Delhi, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Udaipur in northern India; Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Cochin and Calicut in southern India (Exhibit II). As of 2019, TOTO India has 90 authorised channel partners in India. In 2019, it opened its first showroom with state-of-the-art technology in Delhi. Toto India had around 1200 employees (including its employees at the factory in Gujarat) out of which approximately 80 employees are working in sales department.................
TOTO India’s Distribution System
TOTO India follows three channels of distribution (Exhibit VI). In the first mode, selling directly to the customers wherein they take the order and deliver the products to the customer through the showrooms. In the second mode, selling directly to the multiband retailers from the production unit. They also have traditional channel of distribution which is the third model of selling. In this channel, their production unit sells to the authorised dealer/wholesaler and the wholesaler sells their products to retailers and the end consumer can get the products from the retailer. The salesforce facilitates all the modes of distribution that TOTO India has. .......................
Exhibits
Exhibit I: TOTO’s Efforts towards its Corporate Philosophy
Exhibit II: TOTO India Network
Exhibit III: TOTO India’s Products
Exhibit IV: TOTO and Its Direct Competitors’ Production Capacity and Revenue
Exhibit V: TOTO India, Its Competitors and their Offerings
Exhibit VI: TOTO India’s Distribution System
Exhibit VII: TOTO India’s Sales Force Reporting Structure
Exhibit VIII: TOTO’s Clientele
Exhibit IX: Shivam Dealership with TOTO India’s Competitors
Exhibit X: Vitra’s Vanity with Basin
Exhibit XI: Toto’s Proposal to Client