TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
ABOUT THE COMPANY........................................................................................................................2
COMPANYS VISION AND MISSION STATEMENT...........................................................................4
THE SALES PLANNING PROCESS.....................................................................................................14
THE INTERVIEW...................................................................................................................................17
SUMMARY.............................................................................................................................................26

NATIONAL FOODS
ABOUT THE COMPANY
National Foods Pakistan Limited (NFL), founded in 1970, is today Pakistans leading multi-category
Food Company with over 250 different products in 12 categories. It is the only food company in
Pakistan to have ISO 9001 and HACCP certifications along with SAP business technology to drive the
Companys strong commitment to quality and management excellence. NFL is an international brand
sold in over 35 countries. It started out as a Spice company. 3 decades later it has diversified into a
versatile Food Company with over 110 products and
165 and above SKUs (Stock Keeping Unit) for the
domestic market and over 100 different products for
the international markets.

The vision to see National Foods as a professionally

managed Human Resource company, set more than 7
years ago, was realized by transforming a local company into a very dynamic and progressive
management structure in line with industry practices.
The company has more than 1500 employees and operates 6 manufacturing units and 4 warehouses
across Pakistan. The product line has now grown to over 300 SKUs in 12 different categories. These
are distributed by over 350 distributors in Pakistan and to over 30 distributors across countries
worldwide.
Competent Human Resources from within the company have fuelled tremendous growth by excelling
in Functional Management. Even after 3 decades the company's focal point still remains on
Customer's needs through Product development in line with the changing market trends.
In this innovative age of ever changing lifestyles, fuelled by the rampant development of technology;
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consumers have been compelled to change their eating habits. National Foods responds to this
challenge of developing innovative food products based on convenience and fast preparation in line
with modern lifestyles and yet retains traditional values through its impressive collection of food
products.
The brand delivers its ultimate promise by consistently delivering value to its consumers. National
Foods enriches family relationships by bringing people together for family traditions, feasts, seasonal
holidays and of course - everyday life.

COMPANYS VISION AND MISSION

STATEMENT

To be a 50 billion food company by the year 2020 in the

convenience food segment by launching products and
services in the domestic and international markets that
enhance lifestyle and create value for our customers through
management excellence at all levels.

Core Values
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Passion: the company acts with intense positive energy and is not afraid to take risks. It challenges
itself continuously and has pride for what it does.
People-centric: the company puts its people first. Treat them with respect and actively contribute
towards their development.
Customer Focus: the company sees the world through the eyes of its customers. It does everything
possible to make them happy.
Leadership: the company and its people believe that they are a part of the solution never the
problem. They act like owners and a positive influence on others.
Teamwork: their roles are defined, not their responsibilities. They believe in going the extra mile to
accomplish their goals. They coach and support each other ensuring everyone wins. The company has a
WE versus I mindset.
Ethics: they dont run their business at the cost of human and ethical values.
Excellence in execution: We say. We do. We deliver. The people of the company talk with their
actions. They strive for nothing but the best. Execution is the key to winning!
Accountability: We see. We act. The people of the company take full responsibility for their
actions and results. They dont blame others for their mistakes; they analyze them and correct them.

Brand Pillars
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White is the colour of PURITY: purity is their first value, Purity of thought and action, Purity
as an uncompromising standard and as a way of life.

The colour red in their logo stands for TRUST: trust placed in them by their customers,
trade partners, shareholders and employees; a trust that National Foods Limited has upheld for the past
37 years.

The colour orange in their logo represents their rich HERITAGE: a proud heritage of
striving for excellence handed down by their founding generation to the present generation. A belief in
their heritage is the strong foundation on which their business continues to grow.

Purple, a colour of life that for them means CONVENIENCE for their customers:
convenience is a NFL value. All their products aim to enhance convenience for their customers and
their trade partners.

Yellow signifies brightness & for them brightness means INNOVATION: innovation is a
key NFL value. Innovation drives their ability to remain contemporary in response to their consumer
needs.

Product Line
Chinese Sauces become more and more popular as Chinese food makes the journey from select
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restaurants to households. With just the right taste and aroma, Chinese Sauces give Chinese food that
authentic touch and add a unique flavor to Pakistani dishes as well. They are like one
of the biggest Chinese secrets made public without the slightest bit of espionage
Chinese Chilli Sauce
Chinese Salt
Chinese Soya Sauce
Malt Vinegar (Brown)

Red Hot Sauce

Sauces-Tri-Pack (Malt)
Sauces-Tri-Pack (White)
Synthetic Vinegar (White)

All sweet things are irresistible and so are National Foods Desserts. For some, Pakistani desserts are a
must after every meal, for others any time is dessert time. Some do it for the aftertaste, others have
regular dessert cravings. But almost always, it gets you into the
best of moods. In Pakistan, it is synonymous with good news and
happiness. Three products in the range make National Foods
Desserts three times as sweet.
Banana Custard
Kheer Mix
Kheer Pistachio
Mango Custard

Strawberry Custard
Vanilla Custard
Vermicellies

The weight watchers who have a sweet tooth and who just cant
say no to dessert or those who simply enjoy something sweet after a hearty meal need not fight the
temptation any longer. National Health Foods bring the same sweet taste to you but sugar free. Their
ranges of Health Foods are just right, even for diabetics. National Health Foods bring you the best of
both worlds.

Diet Custard Vanilla

Diet Jelly Banana
Diet Jelly Strawberry

Diet Kheer

Made from real fruit pulp and juice, National Jams and

Jellies offer

you a taste of some of Pakistans most popular fruits.

With a wide

range of flavours, National Foods brings you the varied tastes of a range of tropical fruits, including
Mango, Pineapple and even Kino, a variety of orange only

found

in the subcontinent. So sweeten up your mornings and tea

times

with National Jams.

Apple Jam
Apply Jelly
Black Current Jam
Cherry Jelly
Fruit Cocktail Jam
Guava Jam
Kino Jam

Kino Jelly
Mango Jam
Mixed Fruit Jam
Orange Marmalade
Pineapple Jelly
Strawberry Jam
Strawberry Jelly

Made from the finest tomatoes, National Ketchups and sauces cater to every taste. From the hot and
tangy to the sweet, National Foods offers ketchup for every dish and occasion. Use them as dips for
your munchies, dressing for your salads, accompaniments for the main
course or even as marinades for your recipes. National Foods sauces
can do it all.

Pakistani food without pickles is like a portrait without colour. A mix

of mustard oil, mixed spices, salt, citric acid and various vegetables and fruits, Pickles are used as a
side relish, taste enhancer and even as a good source of digestion. Known for their uniquely sharp and
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tangy flavour, national foods pickles add that special something to food,
making all the difference.

Carrot Pickle
Hyderabadi Mix Pickle
Imli Pickle
Kasaundi Pickle
Mango Pickles
Mix Pickles

Pickle Chilli
Pickle Garlic
Pickle Lemon
Vinegar Pickle (Mango)
Vinegar Pickle (Mix)

Raj Masala brings you the joy and ease of North Indian cooking.
Traditionally, North Indian curries are creamier and less chilli hot than other Indian curries and even
Thai food. Over 20 different spices are used to create flavour and aroma. Yoghurt, cream or coconut
milk are used for the texture and to take the heat out of some dishes.
Raj Masala is a fresh and authentic range consisting of five different pastes and sauces for preparing
Rogan Josh, Kashmiri Korma, Balti Curry, Tikka Curry, Mango Curry and Butter Chicken, a perfect
blend of the traditional taste of most popular North Indian curries with the ease of modern cooking.
Pappadoms are served either broken up or sprinkled on top of curries
or as appetizers.

All Raj Masala products have been created to conveniently provide a

complete meal solution for up to four people; whether it's a quick
meal for the family, guests invited to dinner, or a new slant on your
backyard barbeque with your favorite drink.
A Raj Masala cookbook has been written for you to quickly and easily create meat curries, healthy
vegetarian meals, Asian-style Balti dishes and of course, Tandoori barbecues. It's easy, economical and
certainly a new way to eat your meat and veggies
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National foods ingredients are meticulously selected and blended to guarantee the right combination
and perfect taste.
National Foods uses modern technological processes to obtain thorough mixing, and hence the
particular flavor that is our specialty.
National recipes are based on the most popular and traditional
ethnic dishes the subcontinent has to offer.
They provide their consumers with recipes that are easy and
convenient to use. And, they taste great!
Achar Gosht (Pouch)
Achar Gosht Masala
Behari Kabab Masala
Biryani Masala
Bombay Biryani Masala
Broast Mix Masala
Chapli Kabab Masala
Chicken Jalfrezy Masala
Fish Masala
Haleem Masala
Haleem Mix Danedar
Kaleji Masala
Karahi Gosht (Pouch)
Karahi Gosht Masala
Kofta Masala
Lite & Crispy Masala

Murghi Masala
Murghi Masala (Pouch)
Nihari Masala
Nihari Masala (Pouch)
Paya Masala
Qeema Masala
Quick Cook Haleem Mix
Quorma Masala
Quorma Masala (Pouch)
Sabzi / Bhujia Masala
Shahi Dal Masala
Shami Kabab Masala
Sindhi Biryani Masala
Tandoori Masala
Tikka Masala
Yakhni Pulao Masala

Elaborate, home cooked meals are a daily tradition in Pakistani homes. Meals that call for hours of
preparation in chopping, peeling and grinding, Frying onions and tomatoes has been simplified by the
introduction of a complete recipe cooking paste, Rivaaj. Just add meat, cook and voila, enjoy some of
Pakistans most delicious cuisine.

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Biryani Paste
Bombay Biryani Paste
Chicken Jalfrezi Paste

Karahi Paste
Quorma Paste
Shahi Curry Paste

National uses the most modern refining techniques,

which involve

cleaning, washing and centrifuging. Carefully

chosen raw

material, at the initial stage, ensures maximum purity

of the salt.

Special processing enables the free flow of National

Foods salt.

National Foods is the pioneering manufacturer of iodized salt in

Pakistan. Due to their competitive positioning, iodized salt is now
synonymous with National Foods in Pakistan.

Whenever you feel like treating your taste buds to something snappy, try out the National Foods Snacks
Range. Whenever, wherever, snacks just add flavor to the whole experience. Bringing together a
variety of Pakistani street food delights that take you back to the time you had them off the cart,
National Foods Snacks are pure temptation - the fun side of food. With a range of five products,
National Foods Snacks are simply irresistible.
Chat Masala Powder
Chatpata Pakora Mix
Dahi Bara Powder

Fruit Chat Masala

National Chutni Powder

Spices and ingredients form the basic essentials of any Pakistani dish. To understand how to use them,
when to use them and in what quantities, is considered an art that can only be understood with
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experience. The colour, the aroma and the taste ... Everything that is so important for a dish to turn out
perfect is controlled by the correct and timely usage of spices and ingredients. National Foods Spices &
Ingredients are like little spells that come together to work magic.

THE SALES
PLANNING PROCESS

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AN
AL
YSI
S
CO
NT
RO
L

OBJ
ECT
IV E
S

IM P L
EM EN
TAT IO
N

STR
AT G
IE S
TA
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IC
S

Financial strategy is the most important and integral part of any firm, it determines how a firm
earns profit and how it makes the investments. This is a very confidential part of any firms
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management strategy.
National Foods finance department has a key financial strategy to maintain a solid financial base that
enables it to strike a balance between enhancement of short term profitability and forward looking
investment for long-term, stable growth. With a view to future growth, finance department implements
large amount of its profit in R&D. at the same time it maintains positive free cash flow in automotive
operations. Their management policies give priority to cash flows to enable them to respond quickly to
changes in the operating environment and to steadily increase corporate value for the shareholders.
The firm starts with their planning process 3 months before the start of their fiscal year. When planning
they keep into consideration the requirement of different departments in the firm as well as the political
and economic condition of the country. When they are done with the planning for one a fiscal year each
department is required to execute the plan. For example the marketing department and particularly the
brand manager would then come up with marketing plans where the talk about the brand plans, the
competition they facing, the segment of the market they are targeting and those that they plan to target
and they also plan about the prices by taking into account the pricing strategies of the firm. They also
have sub objectives which act as a means of achieving objectives for example if the objective is to
achieve certain market share then the sub objective would be to diversify their product range. They
mainly follow the cascading effect and their object can conflict. If they want to achieve profitability
then they would have to increase price but then the consumers wont be able to buy the product if the
fall beyond their range.
Their top management decides the organizational plans; they then set the financial goals and sales
growth which is conveyed to subordinates. They follow a mixture of group and top managers decide on
organizational objectives and both of them take part in it but the ultimate objectives are set by the high
level management. when formulating organization objectives they take into account the market
standing of the firm, competition, productivity their resources the political environment as well as the
history of the firm itself. The brand plans talk about all these plans and identify them. They usually
develop a mixture of long term or short term immediate objectives. This firm has a long term objective
of earning fifty billion profits by the year 2020 and a short term objective of achieving profitability. To
ensure the quality of objectives they develop brand plans and organize them and the effort put in
executing the plans matters which ensures quality objectives. the decision making process involves all
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level management but when talking about the middle level management the brand manager takes the
decision for the how the plan should work, the advertising and justifying their argument and if they are
able to convince the boss then their decision is implemented.. The tools they use for decision making
depend on different situations the firm is facing.
The firm favors group decision making. The strategic plan is to diversify products and reach 50 billion
by 2020 and their tactical plans include market leader and producing good quality products. The firm
basically uses the SWOT analysis and also uses BCG matrix and market segmentation for strategy
formulation but they use other tools depending on the circumstances they face. When it comes to
duration of the plan they use standing and single use plans. plans do fail in this firm because of the
dynamic market and economic downturn in the country and an example is the firm not being able to
reach target market share but plans are made to minimize risk and continuous monitoring and research
reports ensure that the risk of plans failing are minimized. The firm changes plans according to
circumstances. The planning tools they use come both from scheduling and forecasting and using
GANTT charts are common in the firm.
In their view, sacrificing long-term growth to boost short-term profits is not an appropriate financial
strategy for the manufacturing industry. They believe the sector should create markets based on new
technologies. National foods basic approach to business rest on the conviction that the best way to
achieve sustained growth of shareholder value is to heighten its profitability in conjunction with
adequate provision of funds to fulfill such social responsibilities as environmental investment,
returning benefit to local communities and employee welfare.

THE INTERVIEW
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Question: What is the mission of National Foods?

To deliver consistent quality to our customers using pure ingredients, authentic recipes and the
best available technology
Dedicated to continuous improvement through active alliances with international companies to
expand technological and product horizons
To maintain close and direct contact with our customers through consumer insights and dedicated
service
To provide external and internal customer service by excelling in functional management
To promote professionalism at all levels through education, training and development for all
human resources
To deliver annually a fair return to our valued investors and shareholders inline with industry and
economy

Question: In order to see the willingness to buy do you test market your products?
Yes of course. We first try to record the reaction of our existing customers by giving them free trial of
our products. If we get a positive response, only then we mass market our product.
Question: Do you follow a standard procedure of sales forecasting?
Yes. We have a separate department which forecast the sales revenue in accordance with the financial
data for the next year.
Question: Are qualitative factors more important than quantitative factors when forecasting
sales?
Both are equally important. Its like tea without sugar for me. Objective task method is widely used in
our company when forecasting sales but first we rely on the figures to give us a clear picture of our
sales potential.

Question: Who is responsible for sales forecasting?

All the mangers in our sales and marketing department are responsible. We often use our sales
personnel to know about the consumer reaction patterns and the future market trends.
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Question: How do you evaluate your sales forecast?

We usually compare it with the total forecasted sales. And I am glad to tell you that our sales forecast
are mostly accurate and differences only occur do you the uncontrollable factors in the environment.
Question: When gathering information, do you use primary sources or secondary sources?
Primary research is the key to our market research as we specifically gather information about our
existing and potential customers. Our whole sales team efficiently gathers date by coordinating their
efforts through all levels. From the highest to the lowest level.
Question: Do you incorporate advanced techniques like MIS in your research?
Yes, MashAllah se we have a separate MIS department which performs its tasks very effectively.
Question: How many years do you take in to account when analyzing the past data?
Two to three years. Due to the rapidly changing environment we do not really rely on the previous
years data.
Question: How has the market in general evolved during this time span?
During the past three years, there haven't been major significant changes in the market. However, a few
social changes have enabled National Foods to come up with a variety of new products. Each product
has been customized to adapt to the change in consumer taste.

Question: How did you perform against the competitors?

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Our company has a variety of SBUs (strategic business units). Therefore, it faces different competitors
in different product lines. National Masala has been the market leader for almost 5 years but other
products like Custard and Chili garlic are facing a tough competition in the competitive market.
Question: How have specific products, territories and accounts developed in terms of sales
profitability?
National foods already has different brands in the market like Jams, ketchup, Achar, Kheer mix,
Custard powder, etc. Recently, we launched a new brand named Rivaaj, It has increased our sales by
40% and profits by 20%.
Question: What about your market share?
Our main focus has always been on high profitability which further leads to a high market share. I am
proud to be associated with National Foods which successfully occupies 80% market share in powder
mix market.

Question: How do you analyze your competitors future actions?

We are operating in this industry since 1970. Hence, we are aware of the different reaction patterns of
our competitors. If a competitor reduces its price by 5rupees, it wont affect the sales of our National
Recipes. However, when introducing new products like National Rice (Guard) and kheer, we failed to
correctly analyze the competitor action and therefore faced major losses in both the product lines.

Question: What can be learnt from the past?

When entering in to new markets, for instance rice. National foods should emphasize on Research and
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Development to a great deal in order to make continuous improvements and minimizing the risk of
failure.

Question: How do Macro Environment factors affect Sales Organization and Market potential?
The demographic profile of our existing and potential customers majorly consist of single, married
working females, age 18 to 30. In Pakistan, with the increase in career opportunities for women the
demand for our National recipes has increased greatly.
The economic conditions do not have much impact on the sales of our products. As we deal in products
which are less costly and can be bought on affordable prices.
Our recipes are in accordance with social and cultural norms of the society.
The GDP is showing a declining trend from the past three years as it fell from 7.1 to 1.23%. Inflation is
also at its peak, in these tough times National Recipes have successfully managed to retain its profits by
selling manufacturing its products cost effectively.
Question: What are your Strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT)?
Strengths: National Foods has a very broad product line that includes different types of Masala
powders, kheer mix, ketchup, custard powder, pastas, achars and many more.
It is dealing with more than 380 distributors which is its biggest strength as none of our competitors
have such a vast distribution channel. It also has 500 people working as the field force and all of them
are employed by National Foods.
National food possesses specific manufacturing competence for example use of imported machinery
and high quality ingredients in manufacturing of powder mix that maintain the quality of product.
Weaknesses: Our major weakness is the declining gross profits due to the increase in operating
expenses. We have not been able to increase our gross profits since the past 3 years.
Threats: Political instability and competitors in the market. Especially our unpopular products like
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Custard and Kheer are facing intense competition from the new competitors entering in the market.
Also, the law and order situation
Opportunities:
Straight forward, the birth rate of Pakistan at the moment is an opportunity for us. Apart from this, the
increase in literacy rate is also an opportunity for mass marketed foods. GDP can also prove to be an
opportunity- but in countries unlike Pakistan. Coming back to literacy rate, how does that affect us?
Well young lady it has a major affect on the consumption of our Masalay. Women like you, women of
today, are now career oriented. More focused towards their aim. As a result, they need to balance their
time. Women no longer have the time or energy to create fresh Masalay. Let me give you an example,
my sister in law is a masters in English Literature from Karachi University. She can't even cook a
decent fried egg. National Foods is capitalizing on that aspect, such women will use our Masala packets
because they are convenient and easy to use.

Question: What are your major sales objectives?

Our sales objectives are very simple: Retaining leadership and earning profit. I can brag a lot about
customer orientation and customer value. Believe me, everyone does but the truth remains,
shareholders need profits. Leadership is a tricky business. To retain your leadership requires major
sales efforts. The leader can charge a premium whenever they like. Hence, our main objectives revolve
around keeping our shareholders happy.

Question: But what about key account management? Don't you manage your key accounts in a
way which generates customer loyalty?
Answer: Well, this concept of key accounts has basically evolved since Olpers came into being. We
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offer big retail discounts to major retail stores. In addition to the discounts, we give them commissions.
These discounts and commissions are not for the common man. We maintain separate accounts for
Aghas, Mottaz, Imtiaz, Ghaffars and all these retail stores. Imtiaz has been apportioned Rs.16 lakh
from National. In addition to these, we have adapted to these new trends of International Modern Trade
(IMT). Makro, Metro and the hyper marts are examples of such IMTs. So now what happens is, we
have separated an input/output system for all these. The decision of shelves, the placement, the share
we get (primary and secondary) are taken in accordance with the IMTs. Also, we provide a higher sales
personnel for MTS and big units. For instance, wherever there are higher sales, follow up is more.
Increased sales visits and sales calls are examples of follow ups.

Question: How do you coordinate your sales objectives with the sales personnel and the other
departments?
Answer: Yes this is a very big problem. Here, the finance department tries to keep lower costs of
production. The production is concerned with employee welfare. We are the sales department, our main
concern is to generate sales and attain profitability. But one thing which is good here at National Foods
is that the director controls everything himself so the coordination is very smooth. For instance, if this
was peak time for a product for which I had anticipated an amount of sales, and I was sitting in my
office at 12 am, there is no doubt I would be screaming at the logistics department. But if the director is
handling the coordination with the logistics, it is a given that I wont be yelling at my director. The
sales operation manager creates a buying based on anticipated forecasts. The HOD's get together before
the end of the month to discuss anticipated budgets for their departments. They discuss which products
are profitable, how the buying will be achieved, how customers can be attracted, how sales volume or
political instability might thrash the situation, the disturbance by the vendors.. all the issues are
discussed beforehand. Else, what will happen is at the time of execution when shortfalls or delays
occur, everyone would be placing allegation on the other.

Question: How do you implement your sales objectives?

Answer: I am happy to announce to you, that by the grace of Allah, last year we had toped our budget
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by 2.2%. Our implementation is effective because the maximum forecast variations we have are of 810%. We implement our objectives by first clearly communicating them to the sales personnel so they
know what they are striving for. Regular meetings are held for this purpose. We also provide training
every year to refresh the main concepts instilled in our personnel.

Question: What are your core strategies?

Answer: Our strategies include objective action plans to hold our current market position. Basically, we
strive for low cost strategies. Our products are designed for the entire market. Some of them are
targeted towards one specific group more than the other, but they are used by the entire market: men,
women, children, seniors. Hence, to be cost effective we adopt an overall cost leadership. We strive to
find out any possible way with which we can cut our cost of production. All our tactical plans or
objectives are based on this strategy.
Question: Which tactics do you use? Push tactics or pull tactics?
Answer: Okay thats a close question young lady. I would want to maneuver but I'm fasting and I
would hate to lie. To be very frank, we use the push tactics. It may be embarrassing for companies to
admit it, but truth remains, in Pakistan most companies use push tactics. Honestly, marketing remains
on its bench but lets say for instance that out marketing budget is Rs.100, there are 10 people who are
present to share the profits with us. We focus on below the line activities. We set up displays to push
the products to the shops and retail stores. It should seem like the shop is ornamented with our
products. Let me tell you about the failure of many firms in Pakistan for e.g. The United Colors of
Benetton. It used to rely on stock management. It failed to understand the psyche of Pakistan. Here in
Pakistan, the customers prefer to shop from loaded stores. Stores which have abundant inventory of
products. This represents variety for them. Here most of the customers are those who are influenced by
the buying decisions of others. This is known as 'word of mouth'. What we aim to do is basically
decorate the shops with our products. Why? Just to confuse you in your decisions. So basically, we
want to push or somewhat throw our product towards the retailer. As I mentioned earlier, we are
persistent in fact diligent in our key account management efforts. However, recently our pull strategy
has gotten stronger with better recruitment practices. This gentleman who just passed by was the
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marketing manager at Philips in the United States and is now working with us. Many other such experts
have joined the organization and they've been generating many innovative and positive ideas for
marketing. Hence, in recent times our marketing has gotten stronger too with Rs.2 crores budgeted for
copies and print media advertisements along with TV commercials.
Question: How do you communicate your tactical actions with your regional sales managers?
Answer: We have elaborated the categories of our profitability and then communicated them to the
regional sales managers'. For instance, we have three different flavors in ketchup: regular ketchup, chili
garlic and hot and spicy. The lowest sales are for hot and spicy. The highest sales returns are also for
that. And it generates the lowest profits. So we have set a mix, established a ratio. Wherever we see
performance like this, we retreat our products. We are looking for the competitor to steal our market
share. So these strategies are communicated to the regional or zonal sales manager. In turn he stops to
push that product to the retailers. So it's a whole cycle which starts with a shift in the strategy.

Question: How do you implement your sales plan?

In National foods good communication with the sales force acts as a key factor to implement the sales
plan successfully. For that matter sales operation manager arranges a meeting where senior sales
manager addresses the sales force and makes them aware of the sales objectives, strategies and tactics
to be used for the implementation of the sales plan for the forthcoming period.

Question: Is it implemented at all levels?

Level of coordination among all the departments is very strong in National foods. All the managers sit
together, discuss and respect each others views and try to create a bind that would give profitable
results in future.

Question: What training do you provide for implementation?

Sales people are trained to manage their time and respond to challenges competently. They are
provided with continuous support, advice, information and guidance that helps them to carry out their
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tasks effectively and efficiently.

Question: How do you evaluate the sales plan?

In National foods evaluation of the sales plan is done on quarterly basis. It is carried out by comparing
the planned results with the actual outcome. Generally the forecasted error is more or less 10% which is
almost ignorable.

Question: What corrective actions do you take?

During the past few years not much deviation has been observed in actual results when compared with
the forecasted ones. However, in national foods push tactics were used at greater extent but over the
last few years pull tactics have also been strengthened to diminish the minor forecasted error. Effective
daily reporting system is also practiced in the company.

SUMMARY
National Foods has a separate Sales Department which deals with almost 400 distributors. Thus, it
follows a systematic approach for sales forecasting. As sales forecasting is the starting point for
assumptions used in various planning activities. National Foods successfully coordinates with the other
24

functional departments like Human Resource and Finance when making its sales forecasts. On the basis
of the forecast, they estimate the market and sales potential of their different Strategic Business Units
(SBUs).According to the sales manager, National Masalas are the cash cows ( the most revenue
generating products) among the other product lines. National Foods incorporates advanced MIS
techniques in the information gathering process in order to estimate its sales potential in the market.
Due to the political instability the GDP has shown a decreasing trend in Pakistan, therefore the industry
sales have been affected due to the decrease in the national income. Yet, National Foods manages to
achieve its estimated sales revenue because of its affordable prices.
A proper analysis of the past 3 years is done which includes competitor actions, firms market share,
SWOT analysis, development of different products and territories, the macro environment factors and
most importantly what have they learnt from their past mistakes. National Foods has been established
since 40 years, hence, it has a vast experience in the competitive market. They successfully anticipate
the competitors future actions and do not face price wars as such. They have 80% of the market share
and estimate a large sales potential especially for National Masalas. Macro environmental factors, for
example demographic trends have increased the demand of National Recipes as its demographic profile
is showing an positive trend which mainly comprises of working women. National Foods keep a
regular check on its product life cycle and give emphasis on the products which have reached the
Growth and Maturity stage like National Masalas. They keep on introducing new recipes in order to
survive in the competitive market. They also focus on the changing consumer patterns and their tastes.
They review their competitive advertising media frequently in order to attract more people towards
their products.

National Foods sales objectives are retaining leadership in the areas where they serve as leaders,
attaining leadership where they have star products and earnings profits which indicate higher share
holder equity with an increased dividend yield.
National has a customized key account management system whereby it incentivizes its key account by
offering big retailer discount, maintaining separate key account profiles and allocating a higher
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percentage of sales personnel to key accounts. Additionally, the input/output system for IMTs is
managed separately and they are included in decision making of the firm. National Foods sales
objectives are specifically and clearly communicated to its sales personnel in order to ensure that the
focus of the company is not deviated.
Coordination of sales objectives is a difficult task underlying any company. However, National has
taken steps to ensure that the coordination is as smooth and as effective as possible. The director
manages the coordination which in turn ensures employee support. Also, for effective direct
communication, the HODs conduct a meeting before each month to discuss budgeting, allocation of
resources, provision of personnel, implementation of plans etc. Any errors the departments anticipate
are brought up at this stage which reduces future allegation and blame placement.
National Foods follows a low cost strategy whereby the firm strives to lower its cost of production
which leads to lower market price and a therefore a higher market share.
National Foods adopts push tactics. The product is PUSHED towards the retailer. It aims at
ornamenting the retail stores with its products in accordance with the Pakistan consumer psyche. The
Pakistani market prefers to purchase a product from stores which seem abundant in product variety.
However, recently it has also focused on attaining prospective customers by creating a PULL.
Advertising through electronic and print media has been adopted.

In National foods, with the intention of implementing the sales plan sales meeting is setup where the
plan is disclosed to all the staff. Then everyone is taken into confidence and subsequently the plan is
communicated to the sales force. Sales people are then informed about the goals, strategies and tactics
to be used. For that matter the sales people are constantly motivated and instructed so that they are able
to achieve the tasks proficiently, skillfully and expertly. The sales plan is evaluated by comparing the
forecasted with the actual results. Over the past few years the forecasted error has been 10% showing
how efficiently the plan is usually build up. To overcome the error timely corrective actions are taken in
order to achieve the desired profits.

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