Every time you step inside a store at the mall, you’re welcomed by many young sales staff members. Do you wonder why and how they got that sales job?
Whenever we go out to a mall, what is the most important thing we do? We start looking at the stores and buying things. What I mean is that the first thing we do at a shopping mall is shop from a retail shop. Then post the shopping, people usually go to the supermarket, where we tend to shop further.
For shopping for apparel, we have big brands including Pantaloons, Reliance, Westside, Max, Shoppers Stop, etc. In the supermarket section, we have choices like Spencer’s and Big Bazaar, to name a few. What is common at all these places is that you will find youths in uniform standing beside you to help you. Or you may find them on the billing counter managing a large volume of items that customers are purchasing. But do you ever think about how difficult their job must be?
Before explaining it to you, let me tell you how the hierarchy of retail works. The head of the shop is always the Store Manager. In small stores, there will be one Store Manager and one or two Sales Associates who are actually salespersons. In big stores like Pantaloons and Reliance, to name a few, the Store Manager will be the head of the store, and under them will be the Assistant Store Manager, under whom will be the Department Managers or Floor Managers, who will look after Sales Associates.
The duty and responsibilities of the various managers change from organisation to organisation. Above the Store Manager will be an Area Manager or Area Sales Manager (for small formats), over whom will be a Zonal Head, who is further answerable to the Country Head. And over them would most likely be the CEO, that is if the company is not looking for an over-budget. Higher the position of an employee, lesser the foul words or shouting they have to hear. I will discuss more about it. But the Sales Associate’s job does not change. They are a salesperson at the beginning and the end of the day.
Now I will discuss retail from my point of view. Back in 2009, before I passed my final year of BCom from Andhra University, I decided to pursue MBA for which I gave the XAT exam. But before I could get my graduation result, my XAT result was published and I had got a low percentile. Nevertheless, with that result, I got called for a good institute in Bhubaneswar for an MBA interview. My interview went well and soon I got selected.
I had opted for an MBA in Finance and when I got my selection letter, I got an MBA in Retail, which I least expected. I will talk about my MBA classes in another article. The whole year, we got to hear about only one topic, that you have to stand on your feet for 12 hours. And finally, in 2010 came the internship-cum-placement phase.
The first company that had come for our placement was Shoppers’ Stop, which was recruiting Sales Associates for its new stores in Gurgaon. What became a running joke on campus was that we went for the interview in tie and blazer, as if we were going for an interview for the CEO position.
When the person with the first roll number came out of the interview room, we asked him about the questions that were asked of him. He told us they asked about what global count is. Now, this was an uncommon topic for us as in one year of our academics, we had not been taught anything like this. When my turn came, I was simply asked to introduce myself, how much I had scored in college, about my personal background, etc.
The next day, when the interview result was announced, only 29 out of 60 students from our batch were selected. But the shocker came when we learnt about the names of the selected students. Some of them were not good communicators and their spoken English was bad. But we learnt an important lesson: you have to be good-looking to get selected, as all those who had got in were fair and handsome-looking, and from the company’s perspective, they could make big tickets (bills) for the brand.
Later, we came to know that only 11 were finally shortlisted. About me and one of my batchmates Sanjeev, we got placed in a company in Kota. At that time, I did not have any idea of Kota and how its climate is. Remember, this was the pre-Google and pre-smartphone era and everything was to be checked on the laptop. So most of the guys, like me, did not have any idea about our upcoming future. Moreover, I was not on good terms with Sanjeev, as I personally did not like him because of his behaviour. Even sharing the same space with him became a nightmare.
I reached Kota on September 14, 2010, and I was supposed to report for my job the next day. One of my father’s knowhow arranged a hostel room for me, along with breakfast and dinner. I do not remember how and when Sanjeev contacted me, but the next morning, at around 10 am, we reached the store together.