Guest Lecture by Mr. Vivek Bhatnagar

On the 4^th of September, the Alumni Committee welcomed Mr. Vivek Bhatnagar, an alumnus of the 1994 batch, for a guest lecture to address the junior batch. Mr. Vivek Bhatnagar has more than two decades of experience in sales and marketing and is currently the General Manager at Johnson & Johnson Vision care.

The topic of discussion for the session was ‘Sales Channel’. Sir explained the concept of ‘Sales channel’ by giving an analogy that sales channel is like a fluid flowing through pipes and that, size of the pipe, velocity of the fluid and other aspects should be balanced so as to make the flow smooth. Likewise, balancing of types of Sales channel is a must. Sir defined Sales channel as a conduit that helps bring product or service to a place where the customer may buy from. Types of sales channel such as traditional retail, wholesale, e-commerce, door to door, B2B and B2C, modern trade were discussed. This discussion was followed by an explanation on various features of all the types of Sales Channels and their role in describing product features, helping trials, experiencing the product, providing assortment, providing complimentary products, defraying cost pre/ during/ post purchase support.

This discussion was then followed by an interesting task given by Sir. The batch was divided into two groups; both the groups were asked to decide the best sales channel for the product assigned to them which were, 300gram dove soap and new body deodorant, respectively. The groups came up with satisfactory strategies and Sir added value to their solutions by giving inputs.

By sharing his real life experiences Sir explained that products that are well established can be sold through all channels and also discussed various methods of selecting the right channel for a product. The session concluded with Sir explaining the importance of balance of sales channel, strategies to place product and planning to avoid channel conflicts.

Students raised doubts pertaining to various methodologies used for channeling products in to the market which were answered by Sir by giving practical examples. The batch thoroughly enjoyed the session. We thank Mr. Bhatnagar for visiting the campus and sharing his valuable insights.