The champion salesman

The true motto of a champion salesman is Nitor in Adversum. To strive against opposition when active selling requires sales people to confront everyday physical and mental odds and obstacles. It is literally going against the current and sailing beyond the horizons. It is confronting every situation, big or small, in pursuit of defined objectives. It is courage that gives strength to face fear and overcome it. It is the mental, moral, physical strength. It steadies the senses in times of stress, carries them through every challenge and aids them in facing new and unknown confrontations; to be persistent with one’s positive disposition in the face of opposition.

Personal characteristics of the Highest Paid Salespeople:

·                     pride in themselves                

·                     self sustaining drive

·                     courage in the face of  great odds

·                     resiliency against rejections

·                     quick learners

·                     resourcefulness

·                     splendid tacticians

·                     optimists and enthusiastic

·                     pro-active

Professional competency of the best Sales Managers:
             

·                     Achievement Orientation

·                     Interpersonal Skills

·                     Leadership Orientation

·                     Creative Thinking

·                     Change Leadership

·                     Communication and Influence

·                     Strategic Orientation

·                     Entrepreneurial Orientation

·                     Customer Service Orientation

·                     Marketing Management Competence

They live in the present moment. They learn from the past and  prepare for the future. They keep themselves in a positive shell and avoid negative energies as doubt and fear. They have a conscious discernment or effort to improve their craft due to an innate competitive nature. They are highly adaptable easily blending with the environment they are tasked to confront. They are knowledgeable of the terrain and distinct and peculiar  conditions of their given assignments. Challenge is like a fuel to them; it rouses their senses and faculties and increases their drive. They look at life as an opportunity; everyday is an adventure of a lifetime. A grateful heart for each day that is given. A desire to live a legacy; to leave the world a better place than the one they found. They are passionately committed to their plans and emotionally resilient in times of setbacks. They are decisive when opportunity presents itself.

Sustained Initiative

No ambitious enterprise can be attained by adopting a static position. Avoid all passive and inflexible methods. Concentrate all offensive on the defined target. In planning for an initiative, never a useless move. In implementation, never a step taken in vain. Time is a resource to be valued – a week, a day, an hour, a minute even a second. Do not miss an opportunity to master your opponent lest you be mastered by him. Great danger lies in losing the initiative – like a boat that loses fuel at sea, you will be at the mercy of the waves. Have a list of initiatives at hand to be able to modify your offensive to a great number of ways. Those deprive of initiative usually lose, those who retain it usually wins.

When the enemy advances, we retreat

When the enemy halts, we harass

When the enemy seeks to avoid battle, we attack

When the enemy retreats, we attack

Mao Tse Tong, The Long March to North West China,
Sun Tzu The Art of War

No footnote in history captured the whole spirit of initiative than this excerpt from the memoirs of General Mao Tse Tong. Constantly frustrating his enemy’s plans, the opponent  is isolated and demoralized, his will to resist  is broken. A kind of initiative combined with constancy of purpose can break the moral of weaker opponents.

Rene Bitara, Prometheus Consultants

Placement and other distribution tactics

Product efficacy is the core of marketing operations.

Illustration: Boy Bawang sells like hot cake using placement as a key marketing drive without the need for tri media.

Innovation supported by Speed in execution is a very effective drive against market leaders

Illustration: Oishi Sunday’s mango and melon placement is executed swiftly against Tang.

The product delivers the consumers perceived promise.

Illustration: Biolink papaya soap was pulled out from the trade last 2006 because it did not deliver its promise

Porter’s five forces captures the attractiveness of a particular market.

Illustration: Niche marketing of Silka papaya of  outmaneuvering Skinwhite and Nivea.

Ultimately, placement is the decisive blow in marketing operation.

Illustration: The placement skill demonstrated by Pop Cola against Brand Leader Coke in NCR was so menacing that Pop Cola occupied coke coolers all over metro manila.

Making the product available at the right place and at the right time for the consumer.

Tactics as determination of “purchase decision making process” provides impact on sales effectiveness.

Illustration: Selecta Distributor saturation drive, impulse triangle and Pay Day campaign was a decisive blow to Nestle leadership in the ice cream business ion the Philippines.

Installation of Key Sales Indicators controls marketing operations on a day to day discipline.

Illustration: Real time performance data on coverage, sales effectiveness, placement, visibility and availability reinforced Philip Morris leadership in the premium segment of Philippine tobacco business despite restrictions in advertising and anti tobacco campaigns.

PLOC is a highly recommended framework of approaching sales management.

Illustration: The do or die leadership of Selecta Walls in the year 2000 to 2002 was enough to take away the market shares from Nestle and Presto in less than three years.

Tactical moves as stock pressure and customer incentives.

Illustration: With the supermarket’s limited budget, once purchase budget is exhausted by a key supplier, it will be hard for a competitor to squeezed in his PO.  Thus, indirect competition exists in budget allocation and warehouse space.

Wars are not won by numbers nor strength, it is won by strategy.

Illustration: Ice Tea market leaders Lipton and Nestea could never catch up with the Gokongwei bold and skillful maneuver of C2. A strategy born out of entrepreneurial and marketing insightful analysis.

Sales and Distribution discipline can be a decisive tactic in FMCG marketing operation

Illustration: Selecta ice Cream motorcycle booking operation exceeded Nestle’s performance in terms of coverage and sales effectiveness. With the metro’s congested traffic,  Nestle’s glorified vehicle driving sales executive could never catch up with Selecta’s motorcycle booking operation coverage performance.

Leadership plays a very important role in sales and distribution operation

Illustration: Philippines, being a tropical country, rain and storms will come. The need for leadership and discipline is great. To maintain discipline in distribution – to be available the first time and all the time, there must be discipline in people.  Attitude and culture must be shaped and controlled to deliver the required results.

The genius of brand and benevolence of moral cause

Illustration: Despite attacks against its risks, Marlboro remains to be a multi million brand and maintains its strong following. No tv ads. No radio ads. No billboard. No newspaper ads. But its sales has never faltered. Why? First is Benevolence – individual choice must be respected.  A moral position which is at the core of human civilization. Second is Brand – Ferrari, Cowboy, Red, VAO and other promotional gimmicks.

“To respond to situation in an infinite variety of ways” The art of war, sun Tzu

Illustration: if I may quote my former VP a long time ago – “you must always have a thousand and one solution to a thousand problems”.  This concept dwells on attitude. One must have the experience and the moral capacity to sustain the drive despite what obstacles lie ahead. “Aut viam inveniam aut faciam” The great Hannibal Barca of Carthage once said. It means “ Either I shall find a way or I shall make one”. The leadership of Selecta many years ago under Kevin Hall and AJMB demonstrated this type of leadership. However controversial, the committed sales numbers were delivered.

“Know thy enemy and know thyself and in a hundred battles you will never be in peril” The art of War, Sun Tzu

Illustration: Philip Morris upon ending its contract with La Suerte took time and effort to survey the market. Central Luzon, under Paolo Tan, developed the database of the region thru hard work never cutting corners. These database became the foundation of a winning team which got the 2004 Best in Performance per ASMS. Fortune Tobacco and key retailers were identified and detailed information was derived

If their is life, their is hope

Along the path I have taken, I am fortunate to have witnessed the great many possibilities of life. From the high rise offices of multinational companies in Makati to the humble routes of mambobote in the streets of Mandaluyong, I have witnessed the true meaning of what it is to be made in the image and likeness of God. This simple truth holds so much power for every man who discerns its true meaning. Genesis 1:26 of the Bible, King James Version, writes and I quote “ And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle, and over all the earth …” Man’s  Capacity to  create.  Man’s power to define his internal and  external  environment.   Man’s freedom permits  him   to   discern right   from      wrong and  to  choose  accordingly. Human   freedom over  predestination,  such that,  man is   not defined by his environment. Man’s capacity for infinite possibilities. In the face of peril, man has a choice to stand his ground in pursuit of greater meaning as honor and justice. Human  history  is full of stories of heroism. King Leonidas  with  his  300 brave Spartans stood there ground amidst a formidable foe of a thousand invading Persians. He  defended  the  narrow pass of  Thermopylae  to  his  last  breath. No less than our  beloved   Benigno “Ninoy”   Aquino  and Jose Rizal faced  an  overwhelming opposition, a government administration  with all the might  to crush them. Took away there liberty; incarcerated them, accused them of  crimes they are innocent of  and  forced them to exile. With love for our country, a discernment of truth, they  braved there moral dilemma  despite the threat  to their lives for the sake of greater ideals. For with this God given faculty, we can reach for the heaven and the stars. One can only imagine the possibilities if one realizes the truth of our human existence; to aspire for more.  To live our dreams today or die trying to achieve it. To exert our full force defining our lives and discern the meaning behind our circumstance in life and the setbacks we encounter. Human history is full of stories of great battles and extra ordinary events. Behind all these historic moments are great men who defined there lives and refused to be defined by others. Let us now conclude this chapter with a contemplation on the beautiful verse of Longfellow’s  “A Psalm Of Life”

 “lives of great men all remind us

we can make our lives sublime

And, departing, leave behind us

  Footprints on the sands of time

Let us, then be up and doing

with a heart for any fate

Still achieving, still pursuing

learn to labor and to wait” 

I have kept this piece with me for the past 13 years. Verses of some poet long dead shared to me by a mentor on his retirement hundred of miles away. Driving along the dark highways of NLEX in the early monday mornings of 2006 and sleepless nights in Mactan preparing my territory plans for Panay, I have found solace in the words of poets and songs I have kept in my heart since my days in the Chapel. To follow a dream would mean so much sacrifice and I took that Manila bound bus at Agora early January 2 morning prepared to embrace all the loneliness and triumphs my dream would award me. 11 years after, I have not kept a single regret only thoughts of affirmation that I am who I am today because of the choices I have made. 

"Live today as if its your last" I always tell myself. Pursue your dreams with relentless determination never looking back and I have not. Set  your sail to your appointed course and brave the winds never to let go; what wind and storm that came my way and still I stand. For life is too precious. Never, never give up. I say to a weary soul - as long their is breath in you, never give up.

APC Operations Formula - Attitude, Passion, Competence

My odyssey with sales started with an acquaintance I had during my college days at Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan. That fateful day I met Raymund Acedera, formerly of Unilever Philippines, an Alumnus of Alyansang Atenista student political party . We were organizing for the XU Central Student Government 1996 Election. I had a very good impression on the way he captured our imagination in pursuing our campaign objectives despite the odds we were facing. That day I was resigned into pursuing a career in Corporate Sales. Truly, I say, “Waterloo was won in the playing fields of Eton”. Our educational institutions play crucial roles in the future of our land. Yet, the future remains to be a choice to be reckoned with everyday by each one of us.

In our time and age, where the definition of success has been equated to financial worth and property, it is a challenge to discern the horizon beyond this norm influenced by media and our materialistic generation. It is often a challenge to chose a vocation burn of one’s own personal passion when most of our mentors would prioritize the practicality of the modern age. Colonial mentality and globalization dictates even the core polices of our leaders over  sustainable national and traditional passion. And so we ask, where hast our passion for the sea gone when tragedy at sea continuously haunt out great land? Nor our passion for the land,  when we cannot even suffice in our staple food of rice, when our farmers lack in pride for their craft and teach their children the values for glorified white collar jobs.  Education perhaps can show us the glory of old days where Honor, Fortitude, Wisdom and Justice define a man’s stature in society; where the definition of the word “citizen” has graver implications towards society. Jose Rizal and our able historians spoke of a great race before the colonials. Artifact dated as far as 1000 AD suggest trade with Mainland China. Where is our national passion?  where is our personal passion?  Timely enough that we will discuss the subject of passion in relation to one’s pursuit of purpose that we make mention of this great quote from the movie Troy, an artistic interpretation of our modern poets pertaining to the grave question at hand:

“ Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity, 

and so we ask ourselves,

Will our actions echo across the centuries?

Will strangers hear our names long after we are gone…

and wonder Who we were ? How bravely we fought? 

How fiercely we loved?”

Looking back at the event that transpired in my life and the lives of people whose names now echo into hallways of greatness, I have given much thought as to a formula or an equation towards excellence in once chosen trade. Reflecting over the principles in psychology I have indulged myself to inquire, I have found three components in the lives of regular people who reached the pinnacle of human excellence:

Attitude, an individuals hypothetical construct that represents an individual’s degree of like or dislike for a subject. Often expressed in opinion statement, either leaning towards positive or the negative. Apathy and indifference is a manifestation of the negative opinion – “if you are not with me, you are against me”. A clinical anatomy of which is broken down into three components – Affective, Behavioral and Cognitive.

Competence, cluster of related abilities, knowledge, skills and commitment that enable a person to act effectively in a job or situation

           

Passion, intense, overpowering and overwhelming feeling and emotion, a consuming zeal, driving, pulling, pushing, burning us up forward regardless of logic or reason. Passion for Excellence.

           

While reading on the subject herein mentioned, I have realized why exceptional leaders have invested so much premium to a subordinate’s attitude. We hear of Abraham Lincoln’s confidence on General Grant or President Emilio Aguinaldo’s preference for General Gregorio de Pilar who was entrusted the fateful battle of Tirad Pass referred to by many historians as the Philippine Themopylae. An individual’s entire personality will eventually succumbed to one’s persistent attitude. Habitual persistence of attitude will lead into shaping one’s competence. The type of attitude we are referring to is the Attitude referred to in the composition “ The Impossible Dream”. To remain steadfast in our chosen path – to stand in the face of peril in defense of our chosen vocation in life.

We must apportion a thorough discussion on the subject of Passion. It has a special place in many historical events where beyond the structures of reason passion defined man’s finest moments. We hear stories about a father’s death awakening a dragon in a son’s heart; an insults inspiring a young man to riches beyond a child’s imagination or better yet, the story of Hannibal Barca, the scourge of Rome, who according to legend was brought by his father after the first Punic War in the shrine of their gods and made to swear eternal nemesis to Rome and so this child to his last breath was a constant threat to Roman homogeny in Europe. And so we ask ourselves, how do we acquire the Passion of the Titans to sustain us in our skirmishes with all the troubles the gods sent upon us. Unfortunately, it is a question whose answer is forever cursed into mystery whose key lies only in the hearts of men. In this aspect, we further ask ourselves are we truly free or are we mere pawns in the greater scheme of things. For how is it that so few find this godly emotion whose strength drives normal men into fits of godly magnitude. As the name of Achiless and Alexander echo into the centuries ; whose names we whisper two thousand years after. What logic is there for a king with a hundred soldier chose to battle to death a humungous invading force many times there size in Thermopylae. Passion makes Titans out of men.

·         Thou hast found a poor man in Tondo to educate himself  from borrowed books and led the Philippine revolution.

·         Thous hast seen a Shakeaspeare holding horses at a theater door, and hast driven him to write the immortal Hamlet.

·         Jose Rizal was broke in Europe while writing El Filibusterismo. A compatriot had to lend him money just be able to pay rent and be able to publish his book.

·         Thou hast found a blind Homer wandering on the shores of Greece and made him sing the Iliad of all times.

·         Beethoven was almost totally deaf and burdened with sorrow when he produced

his greatest works.

·         Repacking his consumer goods in a small sari-sari store at Quaipo and persevering in a shoe store rose the Retail Magnate of the Philippines, Henry Sy who owns the most progressive bank of 2010, BDO – Equitable.

·         Michelangelo, architect of St. Peter dome; sculptor of “Moses”
  and painter of “Last Judgment. Found in a correspondence at the
  British Museum, he was so poor while working on his colossal 
  bronze statue of Pope Julius II he had but one bed in which he
  and his three assistants slept together.

·         The passionate Miguel de Cervantes was in prison in Madrid when he wrote “Don Quixote”.

·         Selling his wares in some far flung palengke in Cebu and sitting with his tires for a six hour trip to Manila from Lucena, John Gokongwei of Universal Robina built his empire.

·         Thou hast found a Patton turning his battalion 90 degrees to relieve Bastogne, 150 miles away. With this almost impossible maneuver, the tide at the battle of the Bulge turned against Germany 

·         During the ten years in which he made his greatest discoveries, Isaac Newton could hardly pay two   shillings a week to the Royal society of which he was member.

·         Apolinario Mabini, the brains of the Katipunan, was a paralytic. Crippled by polio

in his youth.

·         Luther translated the Bible while imprisoned in the Castle of Wartburg.

·         Thous hast found a Pacquiao training in some obscure boxing ring in Manila and become an All Time Filipino Hero, winning 7 Weight Division International Boxing Titles, and inspired a nation to regain national pride.  

·         Thou hast created the immortal oath of Hannibal Barca who brought the great dagger poised at the heart of Rome in the Second Punic War.  To his last breath, he remained steadfast to his oath.

·         Christopher Columbus was dismissed as a fool from court to court. Rebuffed by  kings. Scorned by queens. But he persisted.

·         A nervous breakdown had him sore in bed for six months. Lost in business and whose borrowing he had to pay for the next 17 years. Abraham Lincoln had every opportunity to give up but he never faltered.

Genius is the ability to endlessly take pain and pursue with 

relentless determination once purpose in life; confront steadily

adversity or peril.. It’s the mental power to rule over once 

entire personal power towards a defined meaning or purpose. And

human passion is the self sustaining fuel that fires once great 

Want.

How is it that a man,. who once stocked scrap bottles, metals and newspapers; drove a worn out pick up while staying in a shack owns the largest scrap yard in the East Manila Area? What great sentiment he had to sustain him through the many obstacles of

scrap trading?

How is it that a man who nearly died of malaria would rise to great prominence in the Bicol Region. What great passion sustained him to pull his Kareta from one town to another in trade of his items? How is it that he succumbed to great courage to confront any situation from the Japanese soldiers occupying the Albay choke points during the War and the American soldiers during the liberation when he neither knew how to speak Nipongo or the English language?

Could it be love for his family and the memory of his father that would drive a young man of fourteen to trade in the provinces of Cebu using his bicycle and a three square meter table to display his wares in a “tiange” towards greatness in the air transportation, consumer and real estate ventures in the Philippines.

Could it be a love for a mother and aspiration for a father that fueled a man in the North towards the helms of the Philippine Senate? Born into unfortunate circumstances, he persevered in the houses of relatives as a housekeeper to be able to study.  Fought and a POW during the second world war.

Could it be love and fear that drove a young man into leadership in the real estate industry in the Philippines? When he witnessed how the family had to cramp in a small house in Tondo and how troubled his mother and father was in their fish stall, as the eldest child he must have invested much emotion for their situation. He must have thought that a situation as he had experience as young man is his bench mark for “worst” and he will use all his power to act such that it would not happen to his own family and provide for his parents when they are getting old.

How is it that Hannibal Barca, General of Carthage, carried with him a mission to his last breath. What great passion drove him into the peaks of the cold Alps? What great emotion sustained him in enemy territory? and beyond every obstacle and losses his person succumbed to? What passion is there for a man to carry a poison bottle relentlessly determined not to be conquered by the Romans to his last breath?

What great passion has driven our Lord Jesus Christ to weather every pain inflicted upon him – the wounds of the thorns, the weight of the cross, the heat of the sun, whipped several times, nailed on the cross, betrayed by friends, denied by his closest confidant. What great love to carry this insurmountable burden upon him. 

To steadily conquer great failures or setbacks would require the existence of the greatest passion in a man. A love for God, a love for the family, a love and respect for a father, a great sorrow for a lost love, a great grief over a personal humiliation, a love for a woman, a love for once country, a great infatuation for life, a passion for once craft or purpose in life and many more forms of emotion distinct and unique in every man. 

Rene Bitara, Prometheus Consultants

My thoughts on marketing management

 

My Thoughts on Marketing Management. 5Ps. IMC. Target Market. Competitive Survey. Sales PLOC. Demographics. Market Segmentation. Customer Decision Making Process. BCP. Placement. Brand Management. Inventory Management and many more… 13 eventful years in multinational sales and distribution covering 17 provinces, 2 multinational companies, 9 Professional Distributors.  I had the opportunity to interface with various marketing department. Departments as Brand Management, Trade Marketing, Sales Training, Sales IT, Territory Promotions and Merchandising and Sales Admin. Multinational Sales extends to other departments as well. Departments as Logistics, Finance, Third Party and Warehouse. Indeed, holistic business system is a phrase to capture the essence of Professional Salesmanship. I teach my students this regimen inviting them to demonstrate excellence in other minor subjects and other departments as Philosophy, Psychology, Accounting and Finance. More than technical competence in marketing management, the human factor will always be present in selling. In fact, interpersonal skills and leadership orientation are competencies which are imperative in sales operation. Competencies which cannot be learned in books or in the classroom. Concepts as attitude, courage, wisdom and sincerity are virtues one can only learn by himself thru experience and discernment. Indeed, self awareness is essential in gaining competence in marketing management and organizational leadership. It is essential to be aware of the foundation by which why must one exert effort in pursuing competence in Marketing Management. Thus, allow me to explain the gravity of this subject in 21^st century human enterprise . Let us be aware why  we need marketing.

Passion for Growth. The discipline of pushing the boundaries of excellent business, ask big questions about what is possible and then take bold entrepreneurial action over time to expand horizons of the business. Company success is defined as the delivery of sustainable profitable growth. With the opening of new markets and the sustained increase of population growth, if companies will not evolve with it, it will become obsolete.

Breakthrough Thinking. A company’s barometer for performance is its opportunities for growth and development. It does not wait for competition, an company makes itself obsolete with company initiated break through thinking and better ways of doing things. An application of which are the  Kai Zen philosophy of the Japanese Car Manufacturers and Passion for Excellence core competency of many multinational companies as Unilever and Philip Morris.

Return On Investment. Investments involve risks. The percentage of risk increases with time and foundation of a Business Feasibility Study. A major area of concern in a Feasibility Study is the marketability of prospect product. If an investor desires the least possible risk to his investment at the optimum return, Marketing Management plays a vital role in Risk Mitigation by providing Strategy to SMART Daily Operational Tasks.  Financial Forecast is made and operations plans are benchmarked on Financial Targets.

Company Net Worth. Brand equity, a major item considered in assessing the value of a company, is a consequence of Marketing. Global brands as Coca Cola and McDonalds are valued at 65B Dollars and 29B Dollars respectively. Not to mention Marlboro’s multi billion brand equity. The purchase price of RFM’s Pop Cola by Coca Cola last 2003 and Mang Inasal by Jollibee last 2010 was pegged at the brand’s equity.

Product Life Cycle. In theory, the life of the product is the same with the biological life of “birth-adolescence-old age”. After a period of development it is introduced or launched into the market; it gains more and more customers as it grows; eventually the market stabilizes and the product becomes mature; then after a period of time the product is overtaken by development and the introduction of superior competitors, it goes into decline.  Managing the product so sustain its growth and thus, avoid decline is the job of the Marketing Professional.

Competition. The clutter and alternatives that comes with globalization is a situation to be mastered by a marketing professional. In Globalization and Free Trade, competition is anticipated to be tough and the consumer is king. Caveat Vendidor, let the seller  beware. Speed of execution is a key element in achieving tactical and strategic advantage in the trade. Timing of placement of New Products in the trade is timed against advertising and other promotional efforts. Effectiveness of Advertising can be truly measured by an actual purchase on products upon release of Ad in Tri Media. Thus, Advertising and Placement complements each other.

Rene Bitara, Prometheus Consultants