How Amul survived the pandemic?

As soon as lock-down was announced in the country, households panicked and rushed to grocery stores to stock up on essentials even after Prime Minister announced that the essential services would be exempted from the lock-down whereas crowd gathered outside warehouse and the company did not had any options left but to do retail sales, to everyone surprise there were no disruptions the next morning and the milk truck arrived on time.

India imposed a strict lock-down between 25 March and 7 June but there were no instances of shortage of dairy products or customers being extra charged. In contrast, essential items which are perishables such as fruits and vegetables experienced regular fluctuations in price and availability.

The pandemic has proved the intrinsic strengths of the cooperative dairy industry and the resilient supply chain of Amul. Amul works on trust and disciplined supply chain built on social innovation model. Pandemic or no pandemic, given the fact that milk is a highly perishable product, it has never back off from the commitment of a stable price for both consumers and farmers.

The Amul brand is connected with 3.6 million farmers where the products of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation or GCMMF is sold under Amul brand. Milk is brought by 2.6 million farmers twice a day from 18,600 villages and then the milk is processed, packed after transporting it to district milk unions. 10,000 distributors and a million retailers deliver the products to billion consumers daily.

Once the lock-down was imposed, Amul declared cash incentives for staff at dairy plants, drivers, sales executives, distributors and retailers. Although casual workers received extra cash aid for working during a pandemic between 100 - 125, distributors received an additional 35 paisa incentive per litre of milk. Food and stay arrangements were made to avoid any labour shortages for employees inside dairy plants.

Around the same time, the firm reached out to the Union home ministry and state departments of animal husbandry to arrange passes for its employees and ensured that empty trucks were permitted to return (after supplying milk products).

It coordinated with the district collectors where packaging factories were situated to ensure continuous supply of packaging materials. Amul also arranged for cattle feed to be exported to Gujarat for its farmers from states such as Punjab and Haryana. Nearly 45 percent of the goods were shipped by freight trains, which reduced travel time.

Amul continued to take extra care of their staff, planning their meals and stay plus cash incentives. From warm water for drinking to Ayurvedic medicines (to boost immunity), all was successfully done, there was not a single recorded case of infection among plant workers and not a single litre of milk was wasted. The plant could handle more than 500,000 litres of milk it received daily.

The lock-down led small dairies and unorganized trade withdrawal from the supply of milk, Amul received 15-17 % more milk from farmers as households preferred a trustworthy brand over unbranded or loose milk, demand for Amul 's liquid packed milk increased by 5-7 % relative to Pre-Covid days.

Given the closing of hotels and restaurants, demand for cheese and paneer is at least 30 % higher, while sales of butter and ghee are up 10-20 %. During the shutdown, demand for ice creams plummet but Amul was able to shift the ice cream distribution network into other product segments. The lockdown and the pandemic fear led consumers trust in Amul in addition to this the uninterrupted delivery helped them rise. Amul managed to bring some 12,000-crore cash into the hands of the dairy farmers who supplied them with raw milk, while many corporations failed to sustain their production chains and product sales during the pandemic, Amul will definitely gain market share.

Even in such time, Amul has introduced 'Ginger' and 'Tulsi' milk to improve immunity in the Covid-19 pandemic as coronavirus vaccine is yet to arrive, their latest variants of milk will ensure that people have adequate immunity before them to combat the deadly virus. Such drinks can be enjoyed daily by any age group at any time. They come for 125mL easy-open-end can, at a price of just Rs 25. At room temperature, the packages have a shelf life of 6 months. Amul introduced Haldi milk earlier in April which is known for its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.

 Thus, we can see that the brand value and trust has certainly helped Amul to survive such a pandemic with strong supply chain of farmers and distributors whereas the benefit of the Amul cooperative model is that profit is not a business goal where they never drive away a farmer and the primary aim is to provide products to the consumer for the lowest possible price. It has done a fantastic job (during the lockdown) leveraging its work culture and its image. Amul has not only kept its promise of delivery of its products but has achieved a growth which seems impossible in current period with lock-down and global recession round the corner also the GCMMF has sat a goal to achieve business turnover of 1 lakh crore by 2024-25 by targeting a spot in the world's top three dairy players.

How the Sales will look post Covid?

Massive disruption is being seen in the process of selling; sales teams are now planning for the Post-Covid-19 world to overcome the pandemic by learning the art of closing deals in video calls to engaging clients on social media platforms. If it comes to what's happening in the economy today as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, there are two rates of instability of industry. First, routine sales meet & travel, and softer aspect of finalizing a deal, especially for B2B sales where a face-to-face discussion with key stakeholders or a dine and meeting is key to ironing out a deal's contours. Second, a decline in consumer demand in some industries, such as travel, hospitality, aviation, will see a resulting sharp decrease in their level of desire to proceed with other business functions. And any other sector should be more conservative and less likely to invest.

The blueprint for post-Covid era sales requires the search for innovative product lines but also shifting to alternative platforms to hold on to customers and explore with various retail formats. In industries such as real estate and technology services, there has been a large-scale digitization of business operations — including remote selling through webinars and gamified virtual walkthroughs.

For example, the regular day of a traditional salesperson involved visiting two or three potential clients, over breakfast, lunch or dinner to discuss products or services. Closing deals needs another few meeting personal touch was always important to customers before closing deals, but the sales team's adoption of digital for customer access has significantly increased. This meant that traditional sales strategy will have to be reworked and that teams will now need to leverage technology to engage with customers. Even after current travel restrictions are lifted, the new model is more or less likely to remain in place.

Travel is going to decline and companies will do things differently. So sales people are still going to travel, but not for the same reason as they used to. Sales person will visit clients, but instead of visiting clients three days a week they would visit them once and the rest of the time they would be using virtual calls however, this new paradigm pushes sales department to be more responsive because the campaign success can be measured in virtual meetings unlike physical ones.

Digital sales are becoming a global phenomenon. McKinsey and Company recently completed surveys of B2B businesses across 11 countries. In a study entitled The B2B Digital Inflection Point: How sales have changed during Covid-19, the company stated: "Nearly 90 percent of sales switched to a video conference / phone / web sales model, and while there remains some doubt, more than half agree that this is equivalent or more successful than sales models used before Covid-19."

In India, the pandemic has forced many businesses to re-examine their existing distribution strategies. Some sale will undoubtedly be affected due to fresh worries around hygiene, physical contact, social distancing, traveling to locations that are not sanitized, but there are also broader problems. How sustainable will this trend be when the pandemic is contained? Wouldn't people just revert to their old ways?

The human desire for physical contact, where seeing and believing will never go away. Many companies require live demonstrations, physical presence, convincing one-on-one.This would, however, minimize to a significant degree, for example vehicle sales would also involve a car inspection, a test drive. Yet a customer would do more of the online research, and the test drive would be a finale.

Changes which firms will do post Covid to manage sales are as follows

Connecting with new channels: - Orders will be collected via phone which was earlier taken from physical sales. The company's e-commerce website will witness a major traffic shift. Consumers will consolidate shopping into one or two days a month instead of four times a month, and Bigger-format retailers and aggregators will prosper. Firms like Tupperware India has moved from direct sales to what it calls "social selling" where each direct seller is given a URL that they can share within their peer group. Direct sellers typically send them to their Whats App and other contacts via social media. When clicked the URL it will take buyers to company website.

Remote Selling: - Covid-19 is refashioning how at this moment the organization handles its retailers and distributors, for example A real estate firm, creates leads via its website where members of the customer service get in contact with potential property customers by phone or mail. The company's brokers contact prospective investors and then tour the real estate sites before selecting a property to invest in. Part of this buying process has moved remote also organizing webinars for developers where videos of the property, the locality are displayed to prospective buyers and within the session of webinar various queries of customer is taken by sales executives.

New demand: - While, five-star and luxury hotels are working with delivery firms to send delicacies at home as well as hotels are offering quarantine services, while both quarantine demand and home delivery opportunities for luxury hotels are for the short term, they need to look at potential new revenue opportunities that are more viable by re-calibrating business models.

Re-invest your time: - The time saved on travel will now be used for up-skilling or learning about a new sector or industry to which you previously did not cater too. Getting a good knowledge of the organisation of your clients helps you stand out from the competitors.

Educate your customers: - Start a newsletter or podcast to share positive stories with your product / solutions about how your other clients are having success. It will offer your prospects confidence and keep you in mind while proving that your business is still alive and kicking.

The keys to navigate the next normal are speed, agility and a new understanding of consumer values. Sales leaders need to operate through three horizons simultaneously: navigating the crisis now, planning for recovery and leading the next normal.

Source: - From Article Leading with purpose by McKinsey & Company 

Sales leader should follow the quote “actions demonstrates commitment, so leaders must respond to the immediate needs of the sales organization beyond health and safety”.

Companies will adopt “SHAPE” model to lead sales post Covid

Start-up mindset: - The start-up mindset biases action over research and testing over analysis start-up leaders set an agile standard by daily team check-ins, weekly 30-minute CEO reviews and two-week sprint reviews.

Human at the core: - Organizations would need to reconsider their business model to push rapid change, develop it on how your employees work effectively, which may need a whole new level of coordination which coaching between front-line selling staff and leadership to meet customer standards.

Accelerate digital, tech, and analytics: - The best companies will respond swiftly to develop and extend their digital channels by using advanced analytics to combine new and innovative sources of data

Purpose-driven customer playbook: - Keeping customers at the center of business is a long-established concept, but post-corona-virus companies will need to reconsider decision-making processes to consider what consumers now value and design new use cases and customer experiences based on those insights and then segment clients.

Ecosystems to drive adaptability: - The disruptions in supply chains and retail purchasing networks have made adaptability essential not just for sustainability but also for quick exposure to opportunities. Adaptability will mean how businesses operate with organizations and investors in the short term but it may take new partnerships and non-traditional collaborations in the long run, including strategic M&A.

Steps need to be taken to increase the sales during pandemic are

1. Increase revenue through up-selling
2. Experiment with the cold call scripts and email templates
3. Sell longer contracts
4. Get more referral sales

Thus, trying something new which is mentioned above will certainly boost the sales of the organisation and will convert dry pipeline into a well of golden opportunities.