The home shopping channels started in the 1990s. Mostly the dubbed English slots were telecast which promised too much.Since then they have come a long way, innovating content and introducing new products. The video-based content explains the features of the product and assist customers in their purchases. Some popular channels are HomeShop18. Best Deal TV, DEN Snapdeal TV and Gemporia.These channels were challenged by e-commerce and online retailing. These have taken away many customers from home shopping. Many channels shut shop. It has become difficult for home shopping channels to attract new customers.
The TV shopping business requires high investments in quality content production. Majority of players advertise their products on standard TV channels after 11 pm. Many new categories such as travel and insurance have been advertised on home shopping channels.
Home shopping channels now focus on regional markets, particularly the southern states. These channels function on inventory based nodel and marketplace model. Their revenue comes from commission from sales, and they also charge a fixed fee to the brands. These channels exploit festivals and special occasions.

Some customers look down upon sales and do not like the idea of wearing garments not in vogue and using things out of fashion. But many welcome a sale to get the best deal. Sales make things affordable. Goods have short life cycles. Sales result in quicker uptake of such goods. They also flatten seasonality. Sales are used to dispose of surplus or leftover stocks. Some items in sales are shoddy. But this is no longer true. Sales can be exploited strategically. Sales may offer an entire range of merchandise, rather than just redundant stocks. Sales are used to improve customer walk-ins. Sales may encourage an unnatural buying habit in the consumers. Their visits in the non-sale period are next to none. In Western countries, markups are high to the extent of 100-125 p.c., and a portion of this is passed on the customer at the time of sale. In India, the mark ups are as low as 25 p.c. , and the same practice of passing on a portion of this meagre mark up puts pressure on the retailer. The competitive pressure makes it compulsory for retailers to announce a sale. A multi-brand store has to announce a sale if a standalone brand store does so. Big brands have a grievance that a sale by them attracts the customer to the store, which then sells him their own brands to benefit from the higher margin. Frequent sales may affect the sales during the festive season. A sale has to be based on good inventory planning. In a sluggish market, discounts keep the cash registers ringing. Some companies push out sales to their factory outlets, rather than holding them at their flagship stores. There are regional variations to be seen in holding a sale, much depends on the performance of a brand in a particular region. Retailers consider a sale as an event and use it imaginatively. Some stores fear that mainstream purchasing gets adversely affected because of discounting.

In a $ 146 billion IT industry, clients are sought by pitching since each project is worth millions of dollars. A client requests for proposals, is called RFPs. Generally pre-sale team of engineers write the proposal in a dull and dry manner, mostly doing a copy and paste work drawn from some past proposals. Actually here what is required is  imagination and creativity. Instead of engineers, you could utilize the services of design thinkers, MBAs and business analysts. Proposals have to be strategic, and the approach is to be that of a consultant. It should focus on outcomes. Why should there be an RFP? It is a battle lost. It should be a conference like brainstorming session where various possibilities and outcomes emerge. A potential solution is wireframed.

There is a technological shift — automation, cloud services, outcome centric measures. These should be factored in the solutions. It requires a new or modified approach. Infosys has made a new proposal creating team, to be headed by Shabana Khan, a California-based design thinker who was formerly with SAP.

Jeffery Archer, the celebrated British author, visited India in May 2010 to inaugurate Landmark, a bookstore at Palladium, Parel and also release his latest book on short stories. He was interviewed by the DNA reporter, and he enquired politely about the booksellers at traffic signals. He feels that they should stay. He saw them selling his book a couple of years ago. It is his greatest thrill about the city of Mumbai. He pleads that the authorities should not remove them from the signals. Apart from books, at traffic signals various eatables, toys, mopping clothes, incense sticks, newspapers and magazines are being sold. Some sell lottery tickets too.

Jeffery Archer, the famous novelist, in his recent India trip recollected that in his last trip a little boy at a red traffic light tapped his window and said, ‘ Get the latest Jeffery Archer.’ Jeffery said, ‘ I am the latest Jeffery Archer.’

Sales people are not held in high esteem. According to Shiv Khera, it is ultimately the conduct of the people that determines the stature of a profession. Most people in sales hate to call them salesmen. They prefer to say they are in marketing. Marketing never gets money, sales does.

A pool of employees remain on-the-bench when they wait for the utilisation of their talent in the company. This period of wait can be used to develop them and impart skills to them. A bench is kept in anticipation of upcoming projects. Even those employees who are now billable, are transferred to bench when they do not perform well or when there is no immediate project they can be assigned to. A bench ensures the constant availability of trained manpower. However, if the employee remains on the bench for a longer period, it becomes demoralizing for him. Even the compensation to the bench employees is not competitive enough.

Beck employees may be trained in sunrise skills. These employees can be made to learn by observing others — this is called shadowing. They can be coached and can be used to contribute whatever they can to the billable employees by engaging them in activities such as pre-sales. Bench should be treated as an opportunity to learn even when you are being paid a salary.

These four basic selling styles: trade selling, technical selling, missionary selling and new-business selling.

Trade Selling tries to establish long-term relationship with the customers. This is a routine job. In wholesale trade, this style is used extensively.Food products and textile companies also adopt this style. The markets for such products are well-established. Personal selling here just complements advertising, which is the main method for promotion. A trade salesman asssists the customer in his selling exercise. He counts the stock, sees that the stocks get replenished, suggests re-orders for replacements, helps in sales displays.

Technical Selling aims at improving the sales volume of established products by offering sound technical advice and other assistance . He is an advisor in industrial marketing. He acquaints the buyer with the product and its applications.  He also adviises the clients about installations and  productjon processes. His major ability is to solve his customer’s problems. These sales persons can specialised either by markets or products.

Missionary Selling  assists the customers in their selling efforts. The idea is to increase the sales volume. If orders flow in, they are just incidental. A medical representative is a typical missionary. He just assists the retail chemists by passing information about the new products and asking them to have them in stock.His direct customers are drug wholesalers. He also calls on doctors to persuade them to prescribe the products. This is also indirect selling. Missionary sales people also work low-profile.

New-business Selling tries to identify new customers and secure orders from them.He converts the prospects into customers. Selling for him is a creative job. He should have good selling skills. It is not, however, seen in practice that a company has a set of salesman doing just new business solicitation. The regular sales persons are expected to do new business selling too. Most sales persons may not have special skills to do so, and may therefore concentrate more on established  accounts.

Mentoring is the process of shaping consumer beliefs and desires directly. Marketing works subliminally making the consumer like the product and creating a desire to buy it. In direct selling, there is an offer. In marketing, there is acceptance. Mentoring leads to product experience and a little encouragement to create a lasting impression on consumer mind.

Many products are marketed by mentoring. Wines, spirits, microwave oven, olive oil — all these are being sold by mentoring. J0hnnie Walker scotch in India has been launched by calling select invitees to a journey of taste in five star hotels. These are mentoring sessions involving 12300 people. J0hnnie Walker had to justify its premium nature against brands such as Teacher’s Whisky.

The mentor model has been practised in the US. It is necessary to change the image of Scotch as a drink for ‘ oldies ‘ to one meant for youngsters. Leo Burnett could register 1000 attendees per month in the first year of implementation.

Customer mentoring is best option when advertising is not allowed legally.

Mentoring may not be target-specific and it is a big risk. Freebies at the mentoring session also affects its effectiveness. Despite this, wines have been successfully mentored to women by approaching women’s clubs and ladies wings of chambers of commerce.

Mentoring is helpful in introducing new or unique products. Marico opted for mentoring while introducing olive oil. A food expert conducted cooking sessions for prospective customers.

Mentoring has  long been used by cosmetics companies. Mentoring is not only useful for niche products but also for concept selling. Bajaj Electricals used mentoring to sell microwave ovens by targeting housing societies inviting 20-25 housewives for product briefing and demos. The sessions were guided by cooking experts.

Mentoring has still to assume a structured form. It is still a hit or miss affair.

Out of its 15000 employees at Lupin a third are on the field.The idea is to have a doctor call reporting systems, chemist reporting, leave, expense and even performance appraisals through tablets. Lupin has eliminated paper work by using a doctor call reporting system instead of paper reports field staff use now. The reporting software to send virtual reports that includes doctors’ feedback on new drugs is being used by Lupin. It has also introduced an SMS-based anti-counterfeit solution. The  medicines from Lupin display a code which can be texted to Lupin to authenticate it.

A group of 6690 job seekers was considered for a research to know their preferences for various jobs. The preference for a sales job was 10 per cent only. It was as low as 5 per cent among women.

Depending upon the industry, the attrition rate amongst the first-level sales personnel ranges from 50 per cent to 150 per cent.

What makes a sales job unattractive ? The answer lies in the rejection that a sales person encounters on a daily basis. In door-to-door sales, the doors are slammed on his face. In channel selling, the dealer or shopkeeper shows the unsold inventory, and complains about the incentives and schemes offered. The organisation wants to keep the credit period down. It weighs on the young person. The HQ pressurises a follow-up for the recovery of the amount.

Most meetings are at street corners or there is a stand up meeting in congested space. In this meeting, there is a talk of the missed targets and shortfalls in the numbers to be achieved periodically. It is a tension-filled engagement. The anxious boss spoils the dinner and sleep. Each day is a reminder to the sales person of the inadequacies. Less than 30 per cent salespeople have a happy evening.

Sales supervisors should do ‘joint selling’ but that is very rare. They do not focus on ‘how’ to achieve the targets. They are just pushy. B Schools graduates from the top schools do not accept the selling jobs.

As compared to their office counterparts, the salespeople are at a greater risk of being fired in the first two years.

The variable pay is as high as 50-70 per cent.

Organisations must do a rethink on their attitude to the sales jobs. They should be given time to learn the ropes. If they continue for a couple of years, they will be able to build referrals from captive customers and become productive.There should be patience while building up the sales force.There should be on-the-job-training, especially joint selling. Hand-holding inspires confidence and encourages competence.

The physical environment of selling cannot be changed, but sure, we can change the emotional and support environment.