A

Practice School-II Report on

TEA VALLEY SALES DEPARTMENT

BIKANER TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Under the guidance of

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Mrs. Inderpreet Mam Abhishek Garg

HOD Of Mangement Roll No.19M2AJMBM10P602
Session
2020-2021

Aryabhatta College of Management

Near Patel Indoor Stadium, Suchna Kendra Circle, Ajmer Rajsthan-305001
 INDEX

Part I

 Company Profile
 Product Range
 Organizational structure and hierarchy
 Different kind of jobs/works done by the employees at all levels in the company
 Working of different departments
 Types of skills required to work in an organization
 Ways of internal and external communication
 Formal dressing and attitude
 Coordination and team work

Part II
Social Responsibility
 Cleanliness Campaign
 Plantation and care for nature (soil, natural resources, plants and animals)
 Donation of his/her belongings which is of no use to him/her to needy ones
Part I

Company’s Profile

The Tea Valley Brand was conceived in 2018 as a part of the DJ Group. After extensive
research and consultation from tea experts, the group decided to invest in creating niche tea
blends for the Indian and international tea lovers. The name of the brand was derived from the
Assam Valley, where tea plants have grown with natural affinity ever since their first
cultivation in 1830 by colonial explorers. The Tea Valley blends are handpicked from the
most pristine tea estates in the Himalayas to gift tea lovers with a singularly delightful cup of
authentic Assam Tea.

The Tea Valley Original is a blend of 100% Assam Tea, enriched with aromatic, orthodox
long leaf and the finest crème la crème of CTC teas grown in the valley. The Tea Valley
Original offers the malty thickness of ‘good’ Assam CTC, delivering a truly joyful tea
drinking experience. It is our signature offering for tea connoisseurs, and is available in two
exclusive SKUs. Priced sensibly, the Tea Valley Original is the ideal beverage for avid tea
drinkers.

Formats Available:-

Loose Leaf Tea

Luxury Leaf Tea Bags

Tea Sachets

 
Buy Online:-
 Product Range & Marketing Efforts
Tea Valley is basically a Tea manufacturing company, which focuses on getting the
authentic taste of the Assam’s hills to the common customer’s home. It’s evident from the
company’s advertisement which says, “Ab Assam ko apne ghar la sakte hain” which means “We
can bring Assam to our homes”. Plus, their tagline which is “truly original”.

For the purpose of marketing their products, they’ve roped in Shri Amitabh Bachchan as
their brand ambassador, which should bring huge amounts of confidence to the common
customer of the product, as well as everyone from the distribution chain, the internal sales
personnel and the external middlemen.
From Premium to Economy, the following products are Tea Valley’s efforts:-

 Tea Valley Gold, a premium, 100% pure product from the choicest of tea leaves,

 Tea Valley Royal, a premium blend Assam and Doaars tea,

 Tea Valley Classic, which combines Assam and Doaars tea,

 Tea Valley Utsah, a product for the general masses to start the day every day.

Below is a picture which highlights the outer appearance of their brands:-

 Organization Structure
Tea Valley apart from the product focuses heavily on its marketing abilities, which include their
brand ambassador, their online presence, their distribution chain and their competent sales team.
Their sales team is the backbone of their marketing. Being a good, but not a very huge brand like
Lip top or Tata Tea, they rely on the regular business arising from good experience of their
customers and middlemen alike. For this, even the junior most person of the sales team must
present a great persona, in front of the shopkeepers they interact with. The company focuses on
establishing relations that are there to cherish, not perish.

Tea Valley’s Organizational structure is based primarily on the fundamentals of Line

Organization, but with a hint of functional & divisional structure in the middle management
onwards. What this means is that the job positions in the sales department are usually not
assisted by additional staff members like IT experts, accountants, etc. Most of the work is
expected to be done by the Sales Personnel themselves.

Hence, there are only the required job positions in the hierarchy and none extra, a good strategy
to reduce costs, maintain profitability and ensure all-rounded experience and competence of the
workforce. A smaller team also ensures better control and easier development of the workforce.

The demerit to such structure is that a line manager is supposed to perform a wider variety of
work, and may not be able to focus on the main work expected from the position, like managerial
planning, strategy formation, etc. However, a little pressure always goes a long way in ensuring
on-potential work performance. And, for the present time, this organization style fits the best
interests of the company.

In the next page, we shall see the organizational chart with a special reference to the sales
department.
 Managing Director

CEO

General Manager

Human Resource Regional Sales Production

Executive Head Manager Incharge

Sales Officer

Sales
Representative

The Sales portion of the organization structure is the important one. The company aims to
provide a uniformly good experience to all its clients and shopkeepers, and thus sales activities
are a big part of its overall market penetration strategy.

As visible above, the Regional Sales Manager works on a state level, the Sales Officer on a
district or sub-district level, and finally, the Sales Representative works on the local level, as per
need.

Thus, there is a divisional structure within the Marketing/ Sales department, on the basis of
geographical segmentation. Responsibilities can easily be fixed, and there is clear and sufficient
amount of authority at each level. In all, the structure is a convenient & performing one.
 Different Kinds of Jobs/Work Performed By The Personnel At Various
Levels

There are various job positions in the company, and their roles and responsibilities differ. Yet,
each position is important in its own way. The work of each person of the Organization Chart is
outlined below:-

1. Managing Director: The work area, roles and responsibilities of a Managing Director can be
outlined in the following points:-

 The Managing Director has a very creative, yet important role in the company. Innovative
changes and efforts are initiated by the MD’s vision & farsightedness.

 The MD sets long term objectives and the strategy going forward.

 The MD coordinates with parties outside the company for long term collaboration, like
coordination with brand ambassadors, BPO agencies (customer care, IT consultancy, plant
maintenance, etc.), other companies & firms, etc.

 The MD ensures compliance with the Organization’s vision and mission.

 The MD is ultimately responsible for the performance of the firm.

2. CEO: The work area, roles and responsibilities of CEO can be outlined in the following
points:-

 The CEO keeps updated and updates the Organization with changes in the Business
Environment, like legal, technical, market, political, etc.

 The CEO makes effective rules, policies and procedures for the entire Organization.

 The CEO frames medium term plans for expansion and growth, including product and
production plans, sales plans, etc.

 The CEO assists in policy formation by discussion with the Board.

3. General Manager: The work area, roles and responsibilities of a General Manager can be
outlined in the following points:-

 A General Manager must coordinate the working between different departments, like
Production, Marketing & Human Resource.

 A General Manager ensures good implementation of the rules, regulations and policies at the
ground level.

 A General Manager Implements expansion plans by coordinating with potential distributors

at new locations.

 A General Manager handles grievances and disputes of the Employees Union, and ensures
general peace and harmonious industrial relations.

 A General Manager ensures effective scheme communication and circulations at all levels
and also check the customer response to each scheme and product line.

 A General Manager checks sales reports from the RSM’s.

 A General Manager also communicates all the rules and regulations to the lower levels of the
management.

4. Production Incharge: The work area, roles and responsibilities of the Production Incharge
can be outlined in the following points:-

o The Production Incharge is supposed to maintain the Supply chain system, the logistics and
to ensure that raw material is available from the source at the right time and place in good
condition. It’s his responsibility to negotiate the purchasing of raw tea leaves from the
landlords and estate owners.

o The Production incharge ensures the timely processing and production of the Tea. Also
ensures the timely availability of the stock to the sales team for sales.
o The production incharge deals with quality management innovations and changes like
Kaizen, ISO certification, FSSAI compliance & license extension, etc. A production incharge
is overall responsible for quality of the tea produced.

o The Production incharge strives hard to keep production costs low.

o The production incharge deals with purchase of raw tea leaves, as well as assets that can
enhance the activity of production in any way, as per the company and legal requirements.

o The production incharge coordinates with sales department to find out the estimated market
demand, and to ensure overall efficiency by lying off workers, avoiding over production, etc.

5. Human Resource Executive Head: The work area, roles and responsibilities of a Human
Resource Executive Head can be outlined in the following points:-

 The HR Ex. Head plans and conducts recruitment drives for the sales and other positions in
the Organization.

 The HR Ex. Head conducts and monitors training & development programs for employees,
by internal and Guest trainers.

 The HR Ex. Head, in consultation with RSM’s conducts various sales competitions and
contests to motivate sales personnel.

 The HR Ex. Head handles feedback and complaints from the employees and the union
directly, and then decides the most appropriate way to move forward with it.

 The HR Ex. Head takes decisions on the promotion, transfer & compensation of the
employees.

 The HR Ex. Head keeps a record of the employees’ details and well as events of importance
in their individual files in the HR Department.
6. Regional Sales Manager: The work area, roles and responsibilities of a Regional Sales
Manager can be outlined in the following points:-

 The RSM is a state level head for states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, etc.

 The RSM takes sales reports from various Sales Officers and coordinates with them directly.

 The RSM reports the overall performance in the state to the GM.

 The RSM may also issue circulars to the state-wide offices addressing any special issue the
state’s market may be facing.

 The RSM conducts meetings of the SO’s to keep a performance check and gather conclusive
feedback about the market.

7. Sales Officer (SO):- The work area, roles and responsibilities of a Sales Officer can be
outlined in the following points:-

o A Sales officer is a district head for the districts like Ajmer, Udaipur, Jodhpur, etc.

o For a large district like Jaipur, there are four SO’s, one each for North, East, West and South
Jaipur. Depending on the company plans, these SO’s are assigned certain locations, towns
and cities, and they have to keep their operations restricted to these locations only, unless
they suggest expansion to a new location.

o The Ajmer SO, for example has Ajmer, Vijaynagar, Pushkar, Nasirabad, Beawar.

o A Distributor point is like an office within each Sales Territory that functions as a point of
coordination between Sales Officers and Sales Representatives.

o A Sales Officer works by meeting and coordinating with a team of various Sales
Representatives, to ensure zero coordination errors.
8. Sales Representatives (SR’s):-The work area, roles and responsibilities of a Sales
Representative can be outlined in the following points:-

 A Sales Representative reports to the distributor point, in morning before visiting the field.

 A SR has the minimum target of visiting 45 shops daily for sales presentation, additional as
per confirmation.

 A SR gets fixed salary, plus commission as per his performance.

 A SR also has to take ‘Point of Purchase’ Promotional Material with him, so that shop
owners can stick it outside their shops for better & regular visibility of the brand.

 A SR normally takes big orders from shops, and reports the same to the distributor point in
the evening, where the order is served by their distribution vehicle afterwards.

 Small orders or samples are instantly served by the SR, as they carry the stock with
themselves in small quantities.

Types of Skills Required to Work in the Organization

An Organization focusing on its sales activities and market image needs to ensure that certain
requirements are met in regard to their recruited and existing personnel. There is a need to ensure
capable personnel with certain skills and personality characteristics apart from the knowledge
required to work. Some of such attributes are mentioned below:-

Communication:-

A sale is an activity based on the cornerstone principle of Communication skills. The ability to
communicate effectively is one of the most essential skills for the workforce. In this context,
while it is preferable to have sales representatives who’re good at Hindi, Marwari and Sindhi
languages, it is more essential for the communication to be clear and proper.

Having communication skills mean they can articulate thoughts clearly, express ideas through
oral, written, and non-verbal cues, and equally important is to listen to gain understanding. It is
essential that they are able to share and deliver information through digital means like Whatsapp,
etc. Having relationship skills and social awareness are two central components of effective
communication. Sales Reps. should understand how to be respectively assertive, think about
themselves within the context of a greater organization, understand the social rules of the
workplace, and know how to communicate within that structure.

Teamwork and Collaboration:-

Most jobs in the world require some sort of teamwork and collaboration between employees, and
a job in Tea Valley is no exception. Personnel must have the ability to work in a team structure.
When young people enter the workforce, they need to learn to think beyond themselves and their
own desires, and toward the common goal of the company or organization they are working for.
As a new employee in the workforce, sales reps. are rarely the bosses and need to learn to be
team players. They must use their skills as something they offer to the company.

In the early years of a career, teamwork is often demonstrated through hard work, commitment,
and sacrifice. This means playing whatever role is needed to support the mission of the
organization. It also means celebrating and supporting the successes of other employees.
Teamwork requires employees to foster relationships with their bosses and coworkers and to be
socially aware about the context of these relationships.

Professionalism/ Self Discipline:-

The responsibility and self-management required to be successful at work can be totally different
than environments academic exposure is used to. The key to professionalism is forming good
work habits. Being on time, responsible, and organized; these are all skills that are important in
professional settings. Being on time is perhaps the simplest, yet most essential part to
professionalism.

Personnel must be able to keep their work organized and be responsible for deadlines and targets
assigned to them. Young people should be sure to communicate clearly with their bosses about
these expectations. These basics are all part of learning to manage oneself and one’s time.

Self Management and Initiative:-

Employers want workers who have leadership qualities. For sales Reps, it does mean they must
possess certain skills that show leadership potential. This means they have self-management and
initiative. Self-management in the workplace includes the ability to plan, organize, and prioritize
your work. This means having follow-through and discipline to stay on track with assignments
and projects.

Initiative is the ability to act or take charge to do things without being asked. This quality is
highly sought after for employees as it shows a deep level of motivation and curiosity for the
work they are doing. It’s also often extremely beneficial to a Sales Officer to be able to rely on
employees to take initiative without waiting to be asked to do a task first. Finally, SR’s should be
able to self-evaluate their performance by assessing their actions & work against goals,
timelines, and general work guidelines.

Critical and Creative Thinking:-

Critical thinking is the ability to make an evaluation of something by assessing, analyzing, and
examining the issue or topic. It requires not just accepting what is, but looking further for other
possibilities. Creative thinking, on the other hand, is a way of looking at problems or situations
with a fresh perspective and suggesting new or nontraditional solutions and ideas. Critical and
creative thinking go hand in hand, and both skills are required for the workforce today.

SR’s need to be able to make decisions and solve problems using their creative and critical
thinking skills. This may be examining data and providing an informed analysis to report to their
boss or coming up with a creative solution to a customer not easily pleased.

Global Fluency & Perspective:-

In today’s economy, workers need a broad understanding of the world around them. More and
more employees are finding themselves interacting with people who are different from them.
Having a global perspective means respecting diversity, and being open, inclusive, and sensitive
to all people.

People must be able to interact with and be respectful to people from different cultures, races,
ages, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, political ideologies, and religions. However, this
does not just mean having the technical or human skills, but also the knowledge of appropriate
social media use, informal vs formal emails, and how to effectively communicate online, and
keeping in touch with different clients differently, as per their preference, history with Tea
Valley products, etc.

Learning:-

Learning is all about wanting to understand new things and picking them up quickly. It also
involves taking on new tasks and being able to adapt to change. At Tea Valley, it is expected that
each and every person from the bottom of hierarchy to the top strives to learn newer things
regularly, as and when their time permits.
Learning is generally considered an endless process. Examples of ways to develop or improve
your learning skills include:

 Doing a short course or online course on modern communication, other topic, etc.

 Creating or joining a volunteer group to initiate something new in the Organization.

Technology:-

‘Technology skills for everyone’ do not signify the ability to create a programme, or to assemble
a computer or to create a cloud based server. These activities are for the Core IT personnel.
However, personnel should be able to use a computer for word processing, using spreadsheets
and sending email, or knowing how to use office equipment like a photocopier, or being able to
use a Smartphone to use the Tea Valley application for coordination.

They also involve using social media, working with design or video editing software or knowing
programming languages. Examples of ways to develop or improve technology skills include:

 Doing a short course or online course.

 Asking for extra training at work.

 Finding out what technology is used in the job you want and how it’s used

 Making a list of all the technology you're already using in your day-to-day life.
 Ways of Internal And External Communication

Communication is an activity of prime importance in any Organization focusing on Sales

Activity. Hence, it is necessary that Tea Valley must establish a robust system of internal and
external communication.

Internal Communication:-

The internal communication happens in the usual forms of office orders, notice, circular, etc.
Apart from that, non-crucial lower level communication also happens over Whatsapp, to ensure
good level of coordination, by message delivery at maximum speed. The Team meets twice a
day at the distribution point, first thing in the morning and the second in evening time, before
calling it a day. This provides a good opportunity for interaction before the field visit. From the
top management’s side, there are various instructions, initiatives, policies, etc that are
implemented and communicated, and their effectiveness depends on the entire chain. Just like an
actual iron chain, the weaker link of the hierarchy may prove to be the problem area. Hence, at
all levels, important communication is required to be properly acknowledged by subordinate
staff.

External Communication:-

The external communication largely depends on the history and expectations of the customer.
Here, the customer is often a shopkeeper or an outlet manager, in short, all those who stock Tea
Valley products in their retail outlets. The customers may expect to keep in touch using Phone
only, Phone & SMS only, Whatsapp, Face book, Twitter, Hike, etc. and the SR in this case
complies with the customer demand. Also, as the time passes and the history with the customer
expands, the SR understands more and more of the customer and starts to respond accordingly in
terms of communication pattern. For example, an old customer may like it if every order’s
summary is sent to him over SMS, for the purpose of forwarding to his outlet’s internal staff/
departments, and the SR creates such a message on every order.
 Formal Dressing and Attitude

Since sales are being nature, not the most formal activity, there simply is no need for formal
dressing in the company to be implemented as a rule. It means that Tea Valley’s SR may visit the
field in comparatively informal dressing as well, like T Shirt and Jeans. In fact, the company
encourages its employees to wear the official T-shirt with the company logo on it. This is
consistent with the “Make work cool” philosophy which many world leaders like Mark
Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, etc. There is a relatively higher freedom level in the company, but this
however results in a higher level of self-discipline among the SR’s.

The nature of the job does require utmost cleanliness and present-ability though, so this is not
compromised at any level. Overall attitude and appeal of the SR must be pleasing to generate a
positive response to the Sales Approach, the first step of the sales process in which the actual
company-customer interaction happens.
 Coordination & Teamwork

In the activity of sales, it is essential to develop a record of the visited shops and meetings, so
that the same clients are not visited twice by mistake. Hence, there’s a meeting log that is created
by SR’s, so that the SO can coordinate the future meetings. This otherwise very tough task can
be simplified by using geographical segmentation, creating easily identifiable segments of the
city/ town. For example, Ajmer city can be divided primarily into Chandarvardai, Station Road
& Madar Gate, Jaipur Road side, Vaishali Nagar, Panchsheel, etc. and the surrounding areas to
these locations are also included in these segments.

Then on, the next process is to assign SR’s to these segments. Generally, SR’s are assigned
locations where they’re expected to do better with their personality, contacts, language, etc. For
example, a SR who can speak Sindhi language is sent to Ajay Nagar for better communication
and results. There are no hard-fast rules here, but the SO is expected to bring good results from
his experience in the field, and to ensure zero errors in the field. For example, two SR’s visiting
the same shopkeeper is a coordination error, which must not happen.

A Figure showing a SO-SR meeting, at the Distributor Point

Part II

Social Responsibility

 Cleanliness Campaign:-
 Plantation & Care of Natural Resources and Plants:-
 Donation of his/her belongings which is of no use to him/her to needy Ones:-