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the
brand license holder for Philips Monitors, aims to become one of
the top 5 players in the monitors' space in India. In order to gain
the #1 position, the company is looking to improve its products'
image in the channel partner community. MMD India currently has
direct sales presence in most of the major cities where the company
is represented by regional sales managers reporting to the national
sales manager. At MMD India, Guatam Ghosh, country director is the
head of overall operations. Ghosh is assisted by national sales
manager, Kuldeep Ramaiya, who is responsible for attaining stipulated
sales targets at the same time keeping an eye on product P&L.
works closely with channel and sales partners to develop business
initiatives to enhance MMD's customer base in order to strengthen
its sales and distribution position of Philips Monitors in India.
Managing Rds, channel partners across India, and supervising regional
sales team are some of the key roles of the national sales manager.
Besides, his other responsibilities include implementing various
strategies and continuously tracking competition activities that help
him generate swift constant sales with profitability for the entire
channel. “I am very fervent to explore the opportunities in the
market for Philips Monitors, which were absent from the market for
the last few years. But, now we are all geared up to revitalize the
Philips brand with products that are future-ready and better, if we
compare them with peers,” said Ramaiya. “Currently, the company's
focus is on retail sales which is a part of its distribution and
sales strategy. It plans to cover and work closely with all the LFRs
in India. We are still in the developing stage and we are looking to
capture the space in the IT retail segment. Philips is a known brand
to consumer in the electronics segment and to capitalize on this
belief, we have adopted the retail sales strategy and therefore plan
to reach the consumer through IT retail shops,” said Ghosh. Ghosh
further added, “Moreover, few models of Philips Monitors come with
key salient features which are unique when com pared to others, hence
it becomes very important that such feature-enriched pro ducts are
well communicated to the end consumers and you can pass the
information to the end-user via retail showrooms. Philips has
qualitative monitors to offer that are high in standards and
technology. Our range of monitors start from 15.6-inch to 27-inch.”
ECOSYSTEM
one hand, the company plans to streng then its capabilities to sell
high-end monitors in channels by offering unique features and
technology, on the other hand, for better product penetration, its
products are distributed in channels through regional distribution
system. The reason for adopting such distribution system is that the
company believes that each region in India has its own different
requirement in terms of monitors' features, size, prices, etc. And
to effectively cater to this regional need, MMD India has adopted a
two-tier distribution model in the Indian market, wherein it has
appointed four RDs, who in turn, directly sell to retailers.
four RDs for Phillips monitors are Global Infonet for North India,
Nook Micro Distribution-a subsidiary of Redington for South, Roop
Technologies looking after the West, and Technocrat Infotech for East
India market. Moreover, the company is presently cater ing to about
700 IT retailers through its RDs. It also encourages sales to
SIs/tier-2 channel partners directly through these RDs. It is
currently working with around 800 Sis. Meanwhile, in terms of partner
rating, certifications and accreditation, the company is still in the
process of finalizing the rating system. To give a preview, Ghosh
said that the company is planning to call the rating system as
Brilliance Partners and will rate partners as Brilliance Partners
Star 1, Star 2 and so on. Furthermore, the categorization will be on
the basis of their business for Philips monitors. “The term
'Brilliance' is our promise of a monitor that delivers the best
picture quality, made possible by advance Philips proprietary
technology and expertise,” added Ghosh.
PROGRAMS
India had flagged off channel meets and training programs in 4 cities
in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, in April/May, 2011. Channel
meets and training programs have started from April 27 in Delhi,
April 29 in Mumbai, May 2 in Chennai and May 4 in Kolkata. This
initiative was an attempt to reach out to the channel partners in
metro cities. And through these initiatives, the company has not only
introduced Philips range of monitors, but has also provided
demonstrations to all partners about the latest Philips monitor
range. “This initiative reaches out to our channel partners in
metro cities. The program was aimed at educating and informing our
potential partners about Philips monitors so that we can jointly
exploit more avenues and take MMD to the next level of growth. We
also hope to have tieups with more retailers and expand our base in
these cities,” added Ghosh. “Our product mangers provide training
on the latest features and benefits of the products to channel
partners. By training programs, partners are made aware of the USPs
of all our products and their ease of use. At MMD India, we try to
educate and update partners regularly for our latest range of
products. MMD is also planning to organize another distributor
training program in Bangkok from August 2-3, 2011, where they will be
updated with our recent products and will have hands on experience on
the products as well,” pointed out Ghosh. The company believes that
it is very important to create the excitement around its products and
in order to continuously appreciate the loyalty of all its reliable
retail channel partners, it has recently offered channel schemes
across India through its RDs and even received an over whelming
response from them. In time to come, MMD India would focus on B2B
business and corporate sales. However, it will continue to penetrate
through retail and would focus on the retail sale which is part of
its distribution and sales strategy. It is also planning to work
closely with all the LFRs in India.