Patanjali Ayurveda Limited is an Indian multi-million-dollar FMCG company selling and promoting country-made products. Patanjali Ayurveda Limited produces quality herbomineral preparations and provides products such as organic packed-food, organic digestives, ayurvedic medicines, herbal home care & cosmetics, etc. The term 'Ayurveda' comes from the world's oldest language from India, Sanskrit. 'Ayurveda' is a historical medicine system which was developed in India. According to experts, the theory and practice of Ayurveda are pseudoscientific. The company incorporated in the year 2006 and doubled its turnovers, and profits year-on-year. Today, we will see how Patanjali manages their Salesforce and what is the role of channel partners.
Role of Channel Partners:
Despite the economic slowdown and the Covid19 pandemic, Patanjali Ayurveda Limited left a tremendous impression on the market by showing continuous growth year-on-year. When other big FMCG companies like Emami, HUL, and P&G found it difficult to generate revenues, Patanjali posted ₹3562 crores in revenue in the third quarter of the last financial year. Patanjali is expected to triple its revenues by the year 2021. Moreover, Patanjali is among the top 10 world's most influential brands.
Patanjali turnover:
2012 - 450 crore
2013 - 850 crore
2014 - 1200 crore
2015 - 2000 crore
2016 - 5000 crore
2017 - 10,500 crore
2018 - 15000 crore
But, how Patanjali Ayurveda Limited has managed to grow and the role the channel partners:
As Patanjali is among the top 5 brands in India in terms of highest recall value, providing quality of goods and services would be the priority of the company, and the distribution channel plays a crucial role in delivering all products to consumers from factories. Patanjali Ayurveda has five significant modes of distribution.
1) Chikitsalaya
2) Arogya Kendra
3) Swadesi Kendra
4) Patanjali Mega Store
5) Other majors
Patanjali provides individuals and stores a member card and a certification, which certifies them and helps the brand to build trust. In Patanjali Chikitsalaya and Arogya Kendra, doctors and chemists provide a variety of products including ayurvedic medicines, healthy milk powders, organic honey, chavanprash, etc; while Patanjali Swadesi Kendra and megastores provide all categories of country-made products. Also, big shopping malls like Big Bazar, Reliance Retail, Star Bazar, Hypercity, D-mart, Apollo pharmacy, and an official e-commerce website provides a large category of Patanjali brands. In addition, after India’s ‘vocal for local’ initiative which is led by the PM Modi to build ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, Patanjali launched an application that is known as ‘Patanjali order me’ which allows customers to order country-made products online from the nearest stores.
This type of strong distribution shows the dominance of Patanjali in the Indian market which helped them to double their turnover year-on-year. In addition, Patanjali said to save huge costs of a long supply chain. A core team directly reporting the company's CEO takes care of all distribution-related work.
Salesforce Management:
Salesforce management is an information system used in employee relationship management that helps to automate daily activities and tracks the performances of individuals.
Patanjali uses software that allows employees to track their respective activities. Patanjali’s Salesforce software focuses on four major functions:
1. Visits
2. Activities
3. Performances
4. Attendance Column
The main feature of the software is production or order tracking comes in a performance category that allows employees or distributors or shopkeepers to track their respective performances. This feature also helps to manage customer relationships.
Patanjali manages this software through a subsidiary company – Bharuwa Solutions. With four patents in hand, Bharuwa Solutions is registered as a startup under the ‘startup initiative’ by the Modi government. Led by Patanjali CEO Acharya Balkrishna, it is involved in designing solutions to digitally manage production planning, salesforce, and loyalty programmes.
