When megalin India acquired Neocooler, it also took on 15members of the

old sales team. But that led to the perpetuation of certain questionable
practices. Pritish Guha looked at the dealer report before him.Fourteen
dealers across Delhi and UP were uniquely demanding identical
‘conveniences’ from Megalin Ltd. Bill us by all means, but we won’t take
delivery. Pritish was the sales director of Megalin India, manufacturers of an
international brand of refrigerators.
Early in the year, Megalin was offered the plants of Neocooler India,which
was closing its refrigeration division, on condition that Megalin also take on
the division’s sales and technical staff. While Megalin’s then country
manager, Karl Fitzgerald, did see that as advantageous in a new market, he
had said: At this stage we will take on15 salesmen and the remaining 35 at the
end of the year. Failing which Megalin was to bear the cost of retiring them.
As the year-end approached, the rush to clock targets assumed a frenzy in a
market where innumerable brands, both Indian and foreign, were vying with
one another to offer price-offs and free gifts. It was in such a market that
Megalin’s sales team, which now included the 15 Neocooler men, confronted
dealers who would not take physical delivery
When Debu Moitra, a senior area sales head, sought Pritish’s consent to
book ‘forward’ sales (sales that will occur next year but the credit for which
would be taken this year in the books), Pritish winced.I don’t see what is
wrong, said Debu. At Neocooler we periodically accommodate our dealers.
We must understand. The dealer doesn’t have the warehous space to keep
products; but for sales tax and excise reasons, you’ve to move the stocks out
of the company godown. All we need to do is hire another godown, where the
billed stocks can be held.