Tidilite Industries: Sales Force Alignment

Year 2013 annual sales figure has come. Kapil Shah, the area manager of Tidilite Industries, has
suffered the first hit in his 7 years of selling career for achieving less than 75% sales target and
less than 60% of the profit target. Moreover, the outcome customer satisfaction survey conducted
by the company to find distributors satisfaction also gives a negative picture.
Tidilite Industries Limited is a major adhesive manufacturer in India. Tidilite's most famous
product is the Tevicol range of adhesives. Its other famous brands are " Tevikwik", Dr. Tixit,, T
seal and Tacron. Tidilite go to market strategy is based on an extensive coverage of dealers and
big retailers. From the dealers the products move to retail and to final consumers. The company
caters to the need of the big retailers.
Kapil is in charge of the entire West Bengal region. The sale get registered as the company
authorized dealers invoices the range of products from the company. The goods reach the dealers
and big retailers through the C&FA located in Kolkata. Kapil has 5 sales executives in his team
and their total sales id the sales of the region and attributed to Kapils performance. Each
territory has multiple distributors overseen by the sales executives. The payment policy for the
distributors and big retails is by post dated cheques with 30 days credit period. As per the
companys policy in a case of any payment default by any intermediary, company keeps the
party on advanced draft i.e. in such cases for three months the party needs to do business on
advanced payment of the entire invoices.
West Bengal territory historically has a record of interstate infiltration. In the pre vat era, where
states had differential tax regimes, wholesale parties of the adjacent states used to lift goods from
border areas of West Bengal especially from Burdwan district. The Asansol city was known for
catering to outside states and in this process enjoyed a substantial amount of pseudo sales for
demand generated outside the territories. This pseudo sales has become an important
component of the Asansol sales target and to achieve the target a lot of effort as well as skilled
dealing with the distributors has become imperative.
Table 1 presents the details of the territories, No. of Se, number of company authorized
distributors, wholesale, infiltration extent, performance, distributors credit history.
Sr No. No
. of
SE
Name of
the SE
Territory
covered
Size Authori
zed
Dist
Wholesa
le/
Retails
Dis t
Credit
history
(Rating)
Infiltration Quota
Contr.
To
total
region
sales
target
Perf
2013 Last 2
years
1
2 Paul/Raj A +++ 2 120 2 ++++ 33% 55% 85%
2
1 Javed B +++++ 3 235 2 ++ 15% 70% 80%
3
1 Ravi C + 3 70 5 Nil 18% 100% 100%
4
1 Ram D + 3 65 5 + 20% 91% 90%
5
1 Jatin E ++++ 5 100 3 ++++ 14% 100% 100%

Credit history: 1-very bad; 2-bad; 3-o.k.; 4-good, 5-very good.
Table 2: The experience data of team members
Name Sales Experience Average perf (last
5 years)
Paul 1 year 55%
Raj NIL NA
Javed 1 yr 95%
Ravi 10 yrs 150%
Ram 9 years 115%
Jatin 3 years 105%

Table 3: Cultural Background and competency of team members
Name Cultural background Strategic action
competency
Coaching
competency
Self-
management
Paul Goan, mother tongue English + + ++++
Raj Bengali, mother tongue Bengali + + ++
Javed From Lucknow, mother tongue-Hindi ++ + +
Ravi Bengali, mother tongue Bengali ++++ +++ ++
Ram Bengali, mother tongue Bengali +++ +++ ++
Jatin From Lucknow, mother tongue-Hindi ++ ++ ++



Table 3 : Infiltration Path

Inter-territory distance
From To Travel Time
A D +++
A E +++++
A B +++++
B C ++
B D +++++
B E ++++
C D +++
C E ++++++
D E +++

Dr. Nirmalya Bandyopadhyay prepared this case, as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate
either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. The case, though based on real events is
fictionalized, and any resemblances to actual persons and entities are coincidental. There are occasional
references of the actual companies in the narration.