SALES MANAGEMENT

DIGITAL ASSIGNMENT: 1

Sales practices in Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd

By: S.G.SAI SARATH

15BBA0036

Slot: G2

Name of the faculty: Prof Siva Kumar A

COMPANY AND INDUSTRY BACKGROUND

SUN DIRECT DTH, one of the fastest growing DTH service providers in the country, having
garnered 10+ millions subscribers since its inception in December 2007, aims to become one of the
leading players in the DTH space. SUN DIRECT DTH transmits digital satellite television signals
across the length and breadth of India.

History
Sun Direct is a joint venture between the Maran's Sun Network family and the Astro Group of
Malaysia. Sun TV entered into a MoU with the Astro group on 27 January 1997, when Aircel was not
in existence, but since the government of India did not allow the use of KU band transponders for
DTH services the project was put on hold, the firm said in a statement. After the DTH policy was
announced by the government in December 2007, Astro picked up a 20% stake in Sun Direct TV, the
stake was valued at approximately $115 million Sun Direct TV was registered on 16 February 2005.
However, the failed launch of Sun Direct INSAT 4C resulted in Sun Direct lack of transponders,
delaying the launch. The service was finally launched on 18 Jan 2008 after availability of
transponders from INSAT 4B

Sun Direct offered subscribers a satellite dish and Set-top box for free and basic monthly plan as low
as 75 (approximately). Currently basic monthly plan costs 159.

Sun Direct spread rapidly all over the country owing to lowest pricing of any DTH services in India.
In December 2009, Sun Direct was launched in Mumbai, country's financial capital and announced its
pan India launch. By 2009 it became the leading DTH provider with 3 million subscribers. This
makes it the second largest DTH service provider of India. In April 2010 Sun Direct became the No.1
DTH service provider of India with 5.8 million subscribers and soon launched its HD service in India.

As of January 2015, Sun Direct crossed the 10 million subscriber mark.

Mission and Vision

To be the best value DTH platform in the country

To bring DTH services within the reach of everybody

To make services available at arm's reach through extensive distribution networking

Milestones

SUN DIRECT DTH was launched on December, 2007 with MPEG 4 technology, the first DTH
service to provide it in India
The first one million subscriber mark was achieved in just 200 days from launch
SUN DIRECT DTH was the first DTH service provider to bring HD channels to India in 2009
SUN DIRECT DTH launched exclusive movie services in 4 different languages in the year 2011.
These services are played from the biggest library of south Indian Cinemas and offered a break-
free movie experience throughout the day
SUN DIRECT DTH launched the USB recording feature on HD boxes and made it a standard
feature on all HD boxes. Coming in at a nominal premium, this once again redefined the HD
segment of buyers in true SUN DIRECT DTH style.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SALES MANAGER'S POSITION

Name of the manager: Chandra Sekhar Palakodeti

Name of the organization: Sun Direct TV Private ltd

Region: Andhra Pradesh

Qualification: MBA in Marketing; Advanced Program for marketing professionals, Marketing at IIM
Kolkata

Designation: Regional Manager

Previous work experience:

Regional manager- Sales & Distribution at Sun Direct - April 2015 to April 2017
Regional sales manager at Sun Direct August 2013 to April 2015
General Manager in sales at Sistema Shyam Tele Services Ltd March 2012 to May 2013
DGM Sales at Uninor April 2009 to March 2012
DGM retail operation at Reliance Communications March 2008 to April 2009
Retail Head at TATA Tele Services Ltd March 2005 to March 2008
Retail Training & rollout manager at Reliance- oil & energy October 2003 to March 2005
Store Manager at ITC Ltd April 2001 to October 2003
 Store Manager at Spencers Retail Ltd April 1997 to March 2001

No of years of experience: Mr Chandra Sekhar has 21 years of experience in Sales

No of people working under Mr Chandra Sekhar: 150 Members

Allotment of time spent by the Manger:

80% of time is spent with representatives and 20% of time is spent on office paper work

Role as regional manager:

Ensure the EBITA (Earnings before interest taxes & amortization) is positive for the region through
sales retention and reaching revenue targets.

SALES PLANNING AND FORECASTING

Sales forecasting period and accuracy
Sales forecasting is done monthly once in the branch office. The work plan is further divided from
monthly to weekly and further to day wise. The forecasted results match up to 95% of the actual
outcome.

Sales forecasting tools

The company uses quantitative measures and data analysis for forecasting sales of the company.

Sales force strategy compared to key competitors

The company is having a complete different sales strategy compared to that of their competitors.

Their sales strategy is divided into two types i.e., Price Strategy and Scheme Strategy. The internal
strategy is that they follow some price and later on they will implement schemes to reach an expected
figure. The external strategy is that they will conduct several meetings with all the stake holders of the
company.

Sales quotas
The company does not have sales quotas for specific products or for territories.

Determining number of sales representatives required

The company appoints sales representatives based on the sales and revenue generated from an area.
Recently the number of sales representatives has increased as the potential for new customers have
increased.