How To Boost Secondary Sales Effectiveness

Why Secondary Sales Management is More Important Than Primary Sales

Primary sales can sometimes be forced. You can give extra scheme to your distributor and he will buy more stock. But you cannot force a retailer to buy if his shelf is already full and consumers are not buying.

Secondary sales tells you the truth.

1. It shows true demand

If secondary sales are growing, it means retailers see demand from consumers. If primary is high but secondary is low, it means you are just dumping stock at distributor level. Sooner or later it will come back as return or expiry.

2. It helps you find growth areas

When you track secondary sales shop by shop, you know which areas and which beats are weak. You can find white spaces – areas where your product is not available at all. India has more than 12 million kirana outlets. No brand can cover all on day one. Secondary tracking helps you expand step by step.

3. It keeps your product available on shelf

In retail, if your product is not on shelf, you lose the sale in 5 seconds. Customer will buy competitor brand. Good secondary sales management ensures your product does not go out of stock. Your SR books order before stock finishes.

4. It builds retailer trust

A small retailer in India keeps 300-400 brands in his small shop. He will push only those brands where he gets regular service, correct billing, and timely scheme payment. When your SR visits regularly, listens to him, and solves his issues, he gives you better shelf space.

5. It decides success of new product launches

You launch a new mango drink. Where do you launch first? Which 500 shops should get it? Did the retailer understand the scheme? Is the poster placed? Without a strong secondary sales process, even good products fail because they never reach enough shops properly.

Your Secondary Sales Team Structure – Who Does What

To manage secondary sales, you need a clear team. In most Indian FMCG and distribution companies, the structure looks like this:

Sales Rep (SR) or Territory Sales Incharge (TSI):
He is your company employee. His main job is to go to the market daily on a fixed beat, meet 30-40 retailers, take orders, and pass them to distributor for supply. He is the face of your company in the market.

Distributor Sales Rep (DSR):
He is hired by the distributor, but many companies pay his salary or part of it. He also goes to market with your SR or alone to take orders. He is very important because he knows local language and local retailers well.

Area Sales Manager (ASM):
He manages 4-6 SRs in a district or area. He sets daily targets, checks beat coverage, trains SRs, and solves distributor issues.

Regional Sales Manager (RSM):
He manages 4-5 ASMs in a state or big region. He looks at overall sales, stock, and distributor performance.

National Sales Head (NSH):
He looks after sales for entire India – budgets, incentives, new distributor appointments, and national strategy.

Distributor:
He is an independent business owner. He invests money, keeps your stock, supplies to retailers, and collects payments. He is your partner, not just a customer.

When all these people work with clear roles and daily discipline, secondary sales grows automatically.

Importance of Secondary Sales Management

In any commercial commodity secondary sales management is an important aspect of the sales life cycle, especially for new product launches. Here is everything that makes secondary sales an essential part of any FMCG/CPG/F&B sales strategy:

Coverage and Placement

One of the important ways to boost sales growth is to place proliferate products in new outlets on a regular basis. An understanding of potential new markets that need to be explored is critical to realize this. 

Product Availability on Shelf and Adequate Replenishment

Once the finished product has been placed in relevant outlets and regions, there is always a risk of it running out of stock during instances of high demand or peak season. Therefore, reorder booking and replenishment cycle must be accordingly well planned to be consistent.  The frequency of ordering may differ from one product to another or from outlet to outlet. 

Product Positioning and Brand recall factor

In an outlet placing the product on the shelf is only half the story. Equally, it is also necessary to ensure that the product moves off the shelf. For this action, it has to follow certain norms to maximize its awareness amongst customers. For instance, product must be placed at the eye level of the customer to ensure that it is easily visible to them.

Retailer Relationship and Trust

Even after diligently following all the previous steps, there is no assurance that everything will go as per the plan. In the sales funnel every retailer or shopkeeper is a vital influencer and there can be many reasons why they might be favouring one product over another. And this is possible even after the margins are good enough. 

Product Launches

Companies regularly launch new products and some of them take off and are successful, others fail. There can be various reasons for the success and failure of a product, such as issues with the area/outlet chosen to launch the product, effort spent in activating tertiary sales, retailer and distributor knowledge of the product and schemes, lack of efforts in collecting and understanding customer feedback in time, and many more.

Optimize Inventory

In order to handle higher product throughput within a diverse as well as a competitive market, it is necessary to acknowledge the noteworthy role of sales growth. The cost implications of handling and monitoring old stock in warehouses, managing returns, detecting expiration, and addressing retailer concerns cannot be left unattended. Hence, for well-established brands, it becomes essential to consistently update their inventory at every level. Provided the dynamic nature of the market with new brands and retailers entering rapidly, it’s challenging to predetermine specific inventory levels in any given situation.

Enhance Sales Performance

Evolving into a robust strategy to connect with fresh leads in a mature market can be a daunting work, frequently leading to minimal sales increases. Rather than exclusively targeting top-performing accounts, ensure targeting underserved accounts with minimal sales ratios. Maintaining a strong market position necessitates concerted efforts from sales team members, supervisors, distributors, and promoters to improve the complete sales cycle.

Assessing the Sales Team and Distributors

In a diverse market, to provide distinct value to your product, it’s require to implement a comprehensive marketing strategy that relies heavily on channel partners and sales team members. Hence, when companies invest considerable amounts of resources in evaluating and hiring the accurate partners and employees, involving consultant fees, it is imperative to ensure a consistent demand for their services. However, the focus should shift from merely maintaining these relationships to continuously assessing their performance to ensure alignment with your business objectives. Regular performance evaluations are beneficial.

9 Proven Practices to Boost Secondary Sales Effectiveness

Now let us come to the practical part. How do you actually increase secondary sales?

1. Do Proper Sales Planning and Beat Planning

You cannot cover all shops daily. You need a plan.

• Make a list of all retail outlets in your territory – name, location, type, phone number.
• Divide them into beats – Monday – Kankarbagh area, Tuesday – Boring Road area, and so on.
• Fix a Permanent Journey Plan (PJP) for each SR and DSR. PJP means which beat he will cover on which day. It should repeat every week or every two weeks.
• Classify shops – Class A shops give you high business, visit them twice a week. Class C shops give low business, visit once in two weeks.

Example: Your SR in Lucknow was visiting shops randomly. Some shops he visited 3 times a week, some he never visited. You make a proper beat plan of 200 shops divided into 6 beats. Now he meets 35 shops daily in a fixed route. In 15 days, coverage becomes 95%.

Without beat planning, you work hard but sales does not grow.

2. Train Your Team on Sales Call Process and Product Knowledge

A sales call is not just taking order. There is a small process.

• Greet the retailer and check old stock and expiry.
• Ask if he has any issues with payment or scheme.
• Tell him about new products or new offers.
• Suggest order quantity based on his past sale – do not over-push.
• Take order and confirm delivery time.
• Place your product properly on shelf and put poster or dangler if allowed.

Train your SRs on this every week. Also train them on product. Why is your soap better? What is the benefit for consumer? If SR knows only price, retailer will bargain only on price.

Do small role-plays in morning meetings. It helps a lot.

3. Master the Art of Product Placement

You placed your product in the shop. That is only 50% work. The next 50% is placing it correctly on the shelf.

• Try to get eye-level placement. Studies show eye-level shelves sell 40% more.
• Keep your full range together, not scattered.
• Keep old stock in front, new stock behind – so old stock goes first.
• Keep your product facing front, not sideways.

Give your SR a small target for merchandising – take one photo of shelf before and after his visit. This creates discipline.

4. Understand and Serve Different Retail Channels Differently

All shops are not same.

• General Trade / Kirana: Needs small packs, frequent visits, credit.
• Wholesale: Needs big packs, good margin, bulk schemes.
• Modern Trade / Supermarket: Needs proper billing, barcode, offers.
• HORECA – Hotel, Restaurant, Catering: Needs different pack sizes and delivery timing.

Do not use same strategy for all. Make separate plans for each channel. For example, for kirana you focus on availability and relationship. For wholesale you focus on margin and volume.

5. Use Smart Marketing and Merchandising at Shop Level

You do not need big TV ads to boost secondary sales at shop level.

• Use small posters, shelf strips, price stickers, and small danglers.
• Give retailer a small rack or counter-top stand for your product if possible.
• Run sampling in 20-30 high-footfall shops when you launch new product. Let consumers taste or try.

Even a Rs. 20 poster placed well can increase visibility more than a big hoarding far away.

6. Run Trade Promotions That Retailer Actually Understands

Schemes and trade promotions are very powerful, but only if they are simple and reach on time.

• Keep schemes simple – Buy 12 get 2 free is better than complex slab schemes.
• Communicate scheme clearly to SR, DSR, distributor, and retailer. Many times retailer does not even know scheme exists.
• Pay scheme claims quickly. If you promise free goods but give after 2 months, retailer loses trust.
• Avoid too many schemes at same time. One good scheme per month is enough.

Always track scheme-wise secondary sales. Did your sales increase during scheme period? Did it drop after scheme stopped? This tells you if scheme really worked.

7. Track Performance with Clear KPIs and KRAs

You cannot improve what you do not measure. Set simple daily and monthly numbers for your team.

Important KPIs for secondary sales:

• Coverage: How many unique outlets billed in a month
• Productivity: How many bills per day per SR
• Line per bill: How many different products in one bill
• Average bill value: Total secondary sale / number of bills
• Strike rate: Orders taken / shops visited
• Stock availability at distributor: Days of stock left

Review these numbers every morning for 15 minutes. Do not wait for month-end. Ask – why coverage is low in Patna beat? Why line per bill is only 1.2 in one area?

8. Build a Strong Work Culture and Manage People Well

Secondary sales is a field job. It is tough. SRs travel 30-40 km daily in heat and rain.

• Start day with a short 15-minute huddle – what is plan for today?
• Appreciate good work in front of team.
• Go to market with SRs at least twice a month. Do not just sit in office and see reports.
• Pay incentives on time. If you promise Rs. 5000 incentive for achieving target, pay it on time. Delayed incentive kills motivation.
• Listen to field problems – stock issue, distributor not giving delivery, retailer credit issue. Solve quickly.

A happy SR takes care of retailer. A frustrated SR just makes fake bills.

9. Use the Right Technology – DMS and SFA Tools

You cannot manage 5000 retailers, 20 distributors, and 10 SRs on Excel and WhatsApp calls.

You need two tools:

Sales Force Automation (SFA) App: This is an app on SR’s mobile. He logs his attendance, starts his beat, marks each shop visit with GPS, takes order, captures shelf photo, and marks his day close. You see live field data.