Being in FMCG sales for two years now, I have always fancied what kind of Sales Mangers would Modi and Amit Shah be! After their resounding victory in the 2019 general elections, I have been keen than ever before to take this thought further and document it.
Several times, on work trips or during “good month ends”, I have had this conversation with my friends and colleagues as to what kind of a conversation would a Modi (hypothetically a Regional Sales Manager or a Marketing Head) and an Amit Shah (an Area Sales Manager) have and at all such times have we unearthed interesting sales lessons from this almost indomitable pair of Indian politics.
Starting your campaign? Attack wholesale!
The biggest reason why BJP came to power in 2014 with a complete majority on its own was – Uttar Pradesh – biggest state of India with highest number of Lok Sabha seats! Anyone who understands numbers well, would attack the biggest pie first – wholesale – in case of FMCG sales. Wholesale helps you reach even the the farthest and the remotest of the consumers indirectly and the numbers/reach that wholesale offers even today in India is magnanimous! Modi-Shah understood it very well and because of a landslide victory in UP, not only did they bag 72 seats in this state, but also saffronize the Hindi heartland – Bihar, MP, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh.
Effective Range Selling and Coverage Expansion
All of us know that BJP has an extremely strong core voter base in – Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and MP. There is little that can go wrong for them in these states with Modi and Shah at the helm of affairs. Having known this, since they have already achieved the maximum possible in these states and the mighty Uttar Pradesh, how is the BJP supposed to increase their number of seats? They go to the untapped and newer states (new for BJP) of East and North East. This proved to be one of the main reasons why BJP was able to effectively increase its tally in 2019 – West Bengal, Odisha and North East.
In 2019, BJP left no corner of the country left to mark its presence. It has already established itself well in North-East and now East. It has begun its campaign well in South with 4 seats in Telangana and a sweep in Karnataka. Next time around, it is just going to grow greatly on smaller bases of these newer states (categories)
Time and again in sales, I have realized, there is only so much of our core products that we can sell and hence our incremental growth comes from the newer, less penetrated range and territories!
Big Bases? No worries
As sales guys, one of the foremost things that we check when we approach our targets is – BASES (Last Year-Last Month Sales). We probably start losing our sleep nights before we are approaching a month with high bases. But here we have Mr. Shah, absolutely killing it even fighting with huge bases of Uttar Pradesh of 2014 elections. Here’s a hypothetical conversation that would have happened between Modi (RSM) and Shah (his ASM):
Modi: Amitbhai, is baar 300 paar!
Shah: Saheb, koshish puri rahegi, but UP ka base bahot high hai – 72 ka base hai saheb!
Modi: Arre, jab 72 kiya tha tab incentive bhi to bada liya tha na? Rashtriya Adhyaksh bane ki nahi?
Shah: Arre bilkul saheb, wo to aapki kripa rahi to ho gaya.
Modi: To is baar bhi number to karna hi hai, drop nahi lunga main!
Shah: Saheb, puri koshish karunga. Worst case, agar UP mein base touch nahi hua to shortfall dusri jagah se cover kar lunga, par number to hoga!
With this spirit of “Number to hoga”, Mr. Shah set out before 2019 elections, well aware of his high bases in UP. Despite the high base, despite intense activity from competition (The Maha Gathbandhan), Mr. Shah puts on a stellar performance of 60+ seats in UP and covers this shortfall from Odisha and West Bengal to not just meet his base but also better his tally!
Never give up, no matter how tough the competition!
I have to admit, I have grown to be a bigger fan of Mr. Amit Shah when it comes to his “never say die” attitude, his relentlessness and hunger for victory. West Bengal was a target that Amit Shah had set for himself along with UP in 2014. He could not make significant inroads there, neither in 2014 general elections nor in the state assembly elections later nor in the municipal corporation elections. However, Mr. Shah refuses to give up. On his failures and resistance from a stubborn and irritating competition like Trinamool Congress, Shah fights back even harder.
Not allowed rallies in the state – No problem. His chopper not allowed to land at the rally venue – No Problem. CBI not allowed to investigate scams – No Problem. Violence at an election rally – No Problem! Amit Shah, just didn’t give up and that probably paid off, fetching the BJP around 18 out of 42 seats in 2019 elections! It’s just a matter of time before the BJP sweeps the state assembly elections there to be held early next year. On the other hand, Congress, after a few failures doesn’t even try hard enough. BJP bastions like Gujarat, MP, Maharashtra are classic examples of the stark difference.
Parallely, we have several territories in sales which are not our strongholds conventionally. Mr. Shah says, we should just try harder and harder there till we pull off of a West Bengal there 😉
Market leaders set the agenda, not the followers/competition!
Unlike most other democracies in the world where the opposition sets the tone and agenda of the elections with complaints and grievances against the incumbent, BJP has just changed that in India.
Rather than heeding to Congress’ Chowkidaar campaign too much, Mr. Modi put forth its own agendas of National Security and Decisive Leadership in front of people and played to his own strengths. This doesn’t imply turning arrogant or over-confident.
At all times, Modi – Shah appeared to be working after each state, every single segment of voter there is and bettered their own deals – promising to quash Article 370, keeping Pakistan in check, farmer welfare, more jobs, development, etc. Market leader brands too must stick to their own paths and agendas rather than trying to counter followers/competition on what they are good at!
I am by no means a Bhakt. In fact, people who know me well often consider me Anti-Modi. However, I am neither a Bhakt nor Anti-Modi. I am just one of the 130 crores Indians, who doesn’t have a choice right now. Having said this, as a sales professional thriving on the high of numbers, I have to admit that I am a fan of the rigor to win that Modi and Shah represent!
Disclaimer: Views expressed in the blog are completely personal!
