How to create a winning local sales team in India
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Amazon, Walmart and Apple. Since 2020, all three have set their sights on one of the fastest growing economies in the world: India. So how do you build a successful sales team in India?
Source: Worldbank
In short, this is a good time to enter the Indian market. To make your market entry a success, you need a good sales team. The country is almost as big as Europe, so without local support in sales and distribution you will not be able to serve all regions in India. Knowledge of international sales is not enough. An example like Uber, which had to sell its Indian UberEats branch to its main Indian competitor Zomato, shows that you need to understand the Indian consumer well to be successful as a company. How would you best organize your sales then?
How do you start a sales team in India?
A traditional sales team in India normally consists of different managers: national, regional and local sales managers. At the top of the chain are the national sales managers who set the sales strategy, maintain relationships with important customers and coordinate the entire sales process. The coordination of and negotiations with distributors, after-sales and inventory lies with the regional sales manager. Because India is so large, sales managers often divide the country into 4 regions: North, West, South and East. The regional sales managers are responsible for one of these regions and appoint local managers within them, who have the responsibility ‘on the ground’.
Find a manager who can find Indian customers
If you are just taking your first steps on the Indian market, you will usually not start with such a large team. It is therefore crucial that you work with a local manager in the start-up phase, who not only has a lot of experience with your specific product segment, but also understands how that product should be marketed in India. The fact that this manager has never worked as a national sales manager before does not matter that much. It is more important that this person can find Indian customers, can set up (online) sales, knows how distribution works in India and dares to take responsibility himself instead of delegating tasks to others.
Selling in India without a national sales manager?
If you have found the right sales person, do not immediately give this manager the title of national sales manager. Not even if he or she will eventually lead the sales team. In India, these titles are linked to a specific salary. For example, the national sales manager has an average income of more than €50,000 per year. In addition, you create the expectation that he or she will be supported in his or her work by a team of regional and local managers, while you want to wait a little longer with that.
What are the alternatives? Give this first salesperson the title of business development manager. In India, this position has exactly the same tasks as a national sales manager, but without the generous price tag and the expectation of support from a structured sales organization. In this way, your first man or woman can gain experience to eventually reach the position of national sales manager and there is money left over to slowly grow the sales team.
Another option is to opt for a business incubator. This is an accessible and cost-efficient way to set up a sales office in India without having to register your own entity. You can fully rely on the existing structures and people we have in India for export to India and internal sales processes, you are not legally responsible and do not have to make any costs (compliance, audits, etc.) that are normally associated with setting up an office. It is therefore the safest way to explore the Indian market and to be able to grow in a flexible way.
