INDIAN INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN TRADE

Kolkata
MBA-IB (2021-23)
SALES & DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT
Course Coordinator: Dr. Rajendra Prasad Sharma
email: rpsharma@iift.edu, Ph. 9903522627

Trimester IV Credits: 2

Course Introduction

Everyone lives by selling something. It is the only function directly influencing the top and
bottom lines. With product and service differentiation eliminated, what a customer buys
mainly depends on the sales and channel member’s ability to instill trust and fulfillment. The
best way to differentiate is how B2C and B2B customers can buy and the experience they
have at the point of purchase and during the relationship. When in-person sales got
challenged during the pandemic, sales organizations felt an urgency to embrace sales
automation, social selling, and remote, hi-tech sales methods. The course addresses this
transition for preparing future-ready sales professionals.

The flexible distribution system is a crucial source of strategic power. The power has shifted
from upstream players (suppliers, manufacturers) to downstream (wholesale intermediaries,
retailers, and vertically integrated manufacturers). A strong salesforce and distribution
channel often foreclose market access to competitors. It is also most profoundly impacted by
the internet. It is also normal for firms to go to market via multiple channels. However, few
firms understand how to coordinate a multichannel system. The course also looks at the
omnichannel strategies that gained prominence during the pandemic. The course is quite
essential for B-school graduates. The senior marketing positions are offered mainly to the
people who have sales and distribution management experience. The course aims at making
the participants appreciate not just an agile and systematic sales management process and
distribution strategy that leads to enhanced organizational performance.

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Course Objectives

1. To gain an understanding of significant decisions in sales and channel management.

2. Exposing students to analytical approaches to sales, viz. sales planning, sales
process, selling systems and methods, and sales analysis/evaluation
3. To understand the role of sales leaders in sales enablement
4. To understand the distribution flow, channel gap, and the role of channel institutions
5. To gain insights on managing and motivating the channel partners
6. To manage omnichannel strategies and channels conflicts
7. Conducting a sales & distribution audit of organizations and capturing the new
practices in the domain

Pedagogy
Pedagogy will be participant-centered learning. Students will act as co-producers of
knowledge by preparing the cases, assignments, and readings.

Linkages with Other Courses

This course directly links with other marketing areas like Marketing Management,
International Marketing, B2 B Marketing, and Retailing.

Evaluation Components

Sr. No. Component Weightage

1 Midterm Quiz 30
2 Case analyses & Review of readings 15
3 Group Project- A term paper on a contemporary 15
trend/ S&D audit of a firm
4 End-term Examination 40

Text Book / Reference Text

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Text Book:

Still, Cundiff, Govoni & Puri: Sales and Distribution Management - Decisions,
Strategies & Cases, (2018) Pearson

Reference Books

1. Panda & Sahdev: Sales & Distribution Management, Oxford University Press, Latest Edition
2. Havaldar & Cavale: Sales & Distribution Management: Text and Cases; TMH, 2e
3. Charles Futrell: Sales Management- Teamwork, Leadership, and Technology
4. Spiro, Stanchart & Rich: Salesforce Management, 11 e, TMH
5. Ingram, Laforge, Avila, et al.: Sales Management: Analysis & decision making
6. Bert Rosenbloom: Marketing Channels- 7e, South-Western, Cengage Learning
7. Louis, Stern, Couglan & Ansary: Marketing Channels- (PHI)
8. Pingali Venugopal: Sales & Distribution Management: An Indian perspective; Sage
Publications (ISBN- 978-81-7829-848-1)
9. www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

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SESSION PLAN
Each session will be 90 minutes. The last session will be for two hours.
Session Topic and Subtopics Cases/Readings/ Text
1 Overview, Sales as part of marketing, Diversity of R 1-2-3-4
selling situations, Digital transformation of sales, Text: Chapter 1
SDM objectives, Pre-requisites of salespeople and
sales managers, Promotability issues in sales
2 Managing the selling process for results
How do institutional sales happen? C1: Mediquip
The transition from solution selling to insight selling
R 5-6-7-8
Product selling to selling services Text: Chapter 2-3
CEO sales orientations
3-4 Sales Planning and Forecasting C2 Cottle Taylor
 Planning the size of the sales force Text: Chapter 17-18

 Sales forecasting
 Sales budgeting
 Sales quotas and targets
5 Managing the selling effort: Sales onboarding, R9-10-11-12
deployment, sales enablement, sales compensation,
Text: Chapters 9-16, 19
Transitioning from Personal selling to virtual selling

Discussion
https://www.businessinsider.in/advertising/brands/art
icle/despite-2020-being-daunting-our-resilient-team-
has-made-us-a-much-stronger-organization-than-
ever-before-marzin-shroff-eureka-
forbes/articleshow/80234623.cms
6 Exercises in salesforce sizing and territory design Assignment 1: Sizing the sales
and deployment, and debriefing force
Assignment 2: Time and territory
(Covering any content due from sessions 1-5)
game
7 Leading the sales team, Issues in International sales C3 Image International
management, Managing the sales velocity R13

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 8 Sales analysis: Evaluating the sales performance C4: Hanover Bates
R 14
Text: Chapter 16

9 Sales Channels: Flows in distribution, Reverse C5 Snacko

distribution, Mapping the path, role, and functions,
R 15-16-17-18
Trade promotions

10 Managing the distribution channel: territory C6: An irate distributor

coverage and ROI issues in FMCG

11 Designing customer-oriented distribution C7: D. Light

channels: Channel gaps, Service output demand vs. Text: Chapter 21
Service output supply, Vertical integration vis-à-vis
channel outsourcing
12 Managing multichannel and omnichannel C8: Ingersol Rand
strategies - The Channel conflict, Channel Power,
Text: Chapter 22
and operational issues in channel management

13 S&D audit presentations Text: Chapter 25

(2 hrs) Course Wrap up & Review

Cases Assignment Questions

Case 1: Mediquip
Case assignment question: Why did Mediquip lose the sale? Any solution?

Case 2: Cottle -Taylor: Expanding the oral care group in India

Case assignment question: Forecast the top-line and bottom-line for Cottle Taylor.

Case 3: Image Int’l

Case assignment question: Is Reynold a good sales leader? How can you say?

Case 4: Hanover Bates Chemical Corporation

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Case assignment question: Evaluate the performance of districts, rank them, and compare
their performance.

Case 5: Snacko India Ltd.: Leveraging Trade promotions for competitive advantage
Case assignment question: Analyze the promotion schemes and evaluate the trade
promotion by Snacko.

Case 6: An Irate Distributor- The question of profitability

Case assignment question: How to tap the territory’s potential in FMCG distribution when
the company and the distributor have different perspectives?

Case 7: D.Light Design: Marketing Channel Strategies In India

Case assignment question: What channel structure do you propose for D. Light?

Case 8: Ingersol Rand (A)

Case assignment question: Which channel Centac 200 should go to and why?

Review of Readings:

1. Ending the war between sales and marketing

2. What makes a good salesman
3. Four behaviors that boost inbound sales
4. Mastering the digital transformation of sales
5. Selling after the crisis
6. The domino effect: How sales leaders are reinventing go-to-market in the next normal
7. How to shift from selling products to services
8. Dismantling the sales machine
9. Now is the time to shake up your sales process
10. Redirecting direct selling
11. Salesperson failure: A case of sales manager risk and responsibility
12. The ultimately accountable job: Leading today’s sales organization
13. The new science of sales force productivity
14. How right should your customer be?
15. Customer-driven distribution systems

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 16. The customer has escaped
17. Don’t let platforms commoditize your business.
18. Brand or availability: What took prominence during the pandemic? ET Brand Equity,
13 July 2020, Available at
https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/marketing/brand-or-
availability-what-took-prominence-during-the-pandemic/76921011

OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION

1. Class participation
Before the interaction session, go through the assigned readings, cases, and relevant text.
Class participation, including student attitude, demonstrated ability to work in remote teams,
and enthusiasm, would determine the final grade.
2. Group project or Term paper on a contemporary trend
Student groups will pick a product/service and conduct a sales and distribution audit. You
can scope and analyze any S&D aspect- the organization’s sales process, systems, the
channel gaps. Please make feasible recommendations for improving the S&D. Students are
free to include the elements of the organization’s sales management processes, systems,
territory management, or channel management practices.
Other student groups will write term papers on changes in the domain of sales and
distribution. They must capture how firms and distribution businesses in India are gearing up
to the trends, e.g., D2C channel, remote selling, inbound sales, digital transformation, and
online retailing.
3. End-term examination
The end-term examination will be a closed book. The course coordinator will let the class
know the exam pattern during the last session.