Offerings

The customers for Zomato are the food place owners who want people to know about their joint.
Zomato offers these people various slots on its page with the highest being of Rs. 30,000. This
means that whenever someone searches on Zomato website for restaurants in a particular
location, the list comes up, with the restaurant in that area which has paid the maximum amount
on the top. This also works on FCFS model as once the top position is taken by a restaurant it
cannot be given to another restaurant.

Zomato does B2B sales and the end customers are not their direct customers. For the restaurant
owners Zomato has 3 sales options1. Zomato for business
2. Advertisement in their website
3. Online ordering
The restaurant owners can use either of the above options or a combination of the three
depending on their business.

Organization Structure

COO
Global Business
Vertical Heads

Country
Business
HeadsHHeads

City Sales
Heads

Area Sales
Managers

Key Account
Managers

Sales
Managers

Country
Business Heads

Product/Technolo
gy

Sales

Marketin
g

HR

Recruitin
Content Finance
g

There are a total of 7 ASM in NCR and on an average every ASM has 12-15 KAMs and SMs
under him. Mr. Pravir Kalra, ASM North Delhi has 11 sales managers and KAMs under him. He
is responsible for ad sales services that Zomato provides its customers.

Role of ASM
1. Forming and leading the sales team
Every ASM on an average has 12-15 salespeople under him. One of the most important
tasks of sales manager is to build his sales team which would at the end of the quarter
help him fulfill the targets given to him. In order to do that he needs to understand the
strengths of each of his sales person and assign them responsibilities as per what they are
best capable of doing.

2. Develop selling process

As the area sales manager at one point has been a sales person he needs to help organize a
selling process for the team which would best help gain customers for the company. He
makes a list of the dos and donts which his team should follow at all times.
3. Provide target time and territory to each sales person
The span of control under each area sales manager keeps increasing as more and more
restaurants come up, thus it is very important to allocate the territories in an organized
manner so that territories of salespeople do not intersect with each other and also so that
none of the territory is left unassigned. The time and target needs to be decided keeping
in mind the number ofS customers each territory has as these might be differing from
territory to territory. ASM of north Delhi has to cover areas like Rohini, Pitampura, etc.
Number of salespeople assigned for different locations can be different depending on the
size and the frequency of restaurants in the area.
4. Understanding customer needs in his region
The sales person needs to have proper knowledge about the customer needs and the
correct way to pitch to them in order to get them to pay the highest amount. For them to
get a restaurant to pay high amount they should be able to convince the company on how
investing a high amount would benefit them. Thus proper knowledge of the customer
would enable the manager to better formulate a selling process for the team. The ASM is
also responsible to gather feedback from his sales team and pass the data to the
development team.
5. Achieve sales objectives
The sales manager needs to ensure that the sales target given to the individuals and the
team are achieved at the end of every quarter. Thus he needs to inform and monitor target
of each sales person under him, which would in turn fulfill the target provided by the
head office to the particular ASM.
6. Act as a link between customer and product/service development team
The salesperson is directly in contact with the prospective customers. Many a times they
also get a no from the restaurants because the kind of involvement they require is not
available with Zomato. Thus this feedback is given to the area sales manager who
carefully analyses all the requirements received from the sales team and informs the
marketing department about the kind of marketing the restaurants are looking for so that
they can be added and the interests of the customers are well catered to. ASM in Zomato
is the only link between the salespeople and higher management.
7. After sales process

Achieving sales target is not the only job for the sales manager. Once the sales process
has completed he needs to ensure that everything demanded to the customer is provided
in the stipulated time and they are satisfied with the work done and if not, any deviation
from what was promised is corrected and provided for.
8. Asset management
For a salesperson to go out he would be needing transportation or compensation for it,
also proper means for communication, a mobile phone and a laptop to show his
presentation to the prospective clients for the company. He needs to provide the
salesperson with a basic infrastructure which is necessary for him to get positive output.
9. Providing feedback and conducting appraisal
The sales manager needs to ensure that the selling process is being followed with all the
leads being generated by the sales team. Based on how each person has performed they
need to be given proper feedback on how they can improve the selling process. Appraisal
for the sales people are conducted every quarter by the ASM and based on that proper
incentives are given.
10. Handling key customers
The ASM is also responsible for handling the sales process and accounts of key
franchisees.

Role of key account managers and sales managers

Key account managers are responsible for handling the account of big restaurant chains across
their particular area. Each ASM need not have KAMs working under them and it is solely based
on requirement. KAMs handling a particular chain of restaurants are responsible for managing
the account of that chain and all the sales bookings are done through that particular KAM. Thus
the sales process for KAMs is as follows1.
2.
3.
4.

Cold calling to generate leads

Developing product knowledge
Selling all the three products to restaurant chains
Taking feedback from the customers and reporting to the ASM

The sales managers have the same duty as the KAMs but they cater to the needs of individual
and separate restaurants in their territory rather than a whole restaurant chain or franchisee.

Marketing and sales strategy

Zomato does not invest much on B2B marketing and rather invests on B2C marketing to increase
the visibility of their page. Being a startup and having first mover advantage they are the only
company that provide such services to restaurants. Thus rather than the customers coming to
them they prefer their sales force to contact restaurants and generate sales. So the company
prefers on investing more on sales force rather than marketing its services. Whole business for
Zomato depends on search engine optimization. Thus most of the effort is directed towards
improving the ranking of Zomato web page. Zomato diverts its marketing attention to the
website users and the customers of restaurants to increase the visibility of their page. More the
footfall on Zomato webpage more will be the interest of restaurants to use their service.
Apart from this during early years of company they did their marketing with paper
advertisements and they provided free listing of websites. They also generated awareness among
users by organizing various food fests in major cities. Now Zomato uses restaurant space for
posters to make the end customers aware.
The products are frequently customized to meet the needs of customers. Product modifications
are implemented after assessing the feedback provided by the sales managers.
Since their expansion into various countries they have adopted the acquiring strategy.
Rather than spending on marketing, Zomato believes in keeping a strong sales force. They invest
heavily on their sales team and keep enough sales managers for every territory. Zomato spends a
good amount to train their sales people about the products and the sales strategy. Currently the
sales force is responsible for making contact with new and existing restaurants in their area and
selling an existing plan to them. The sales managers are given a list of restaurants in their area in
every 15 days. The sales team has to contact the list and a new list is given to them every
fortnight. Zomato spends a lot in research to generate fresh leads. Good incentive plans have also
been devised to keep the sales staff happy.
Zomato spends very less amount on B2B marketing and more on B2C marketing. Thus ASM has
very little role to play in promotions. Objective of ASM is to link the sales strategy in his
territory with the upcoming marketing strategy of Zomato. The marketing team gives their plan
for the quarter to the city sales head which are forwarded to the ASM during the planning
process. The ASMs align their sales managers with the promotion strategy. Sales managers are
also directly in contact with the marketing department to know of the latest promotional offers by
Zomato.

Assignment 2

Quarterly Sales Planning Process

In Zomato the sales planning is done quarterly and attended by the city sales
head and all the area sales managers of the city. Decisions on following key
areas are taken during the annual sales planning process of Zomato.

Territory target planning- each area sales manager is reviewed on the

performance of his territory in the previous quarter and the targets for
the next 3 months are set. This also includes forecasting for the
territory. Forecast depends on the territory growth in terms of new food
joints coming up in the area.
Increasing product/service category- every ASM discusses on the
customer feedback and based on those any new services that can be
provided to the customers are then reviewed.
Identifying key accounts- segmenting the customers on the basis of
revenue generated from them to identify the possible key accounts.
This also includes identifying the risks and opportunities involved in
making an account a key account.
Budgeting- comparison of costs incurred in every territory to cut back
on costs and improve efficiency.
Communication- the existing communication plan between ASMs, city
heads and SMs are reviewed. This includes discussion on any new
technology to be adopted for better communication. Currently Zomato
uses Google sheets and Google drives for communication, but they are
planning on developing in-built software to improve the communication
system between different levels.
Identifying top performers - from every territory the best salesmen are
identified and among them the prospective salesmen to be promoted
in the hierarchy are determined. Any training if to be provided is
discussed upon.
Milestones- the SMs and KAMs are provided targets every 15 days.
The decision on how much to increase the target every quarter is taken
in these sales meetings.
Resource allocation- resources allocated to every territory are reviewed
and if required seeing the growth in the area new resources are added.
The city head informs the ASMs about the marketing teams plans and
thus restructuring of sales program in line with marketing strategy if
required is discussed.
Reviewing the salary and commissions of sales managers.

STMO objectives and targets

Every area sales manager is given his sales targets on the basis of previous
quarter sales in his territory and the forecast for sales in the next quarter.
The ASM is responsible for developing the selling process to achieve the
targets. Another objective for ASM is to divide the territory for each
salesperson and divide the overall target into achievable and measurable
milestones among the different sales managers under him. This is done in
the quarterly sales planning process based on the performance of each sales
manager. ASM in the sales meeting also decides on who will handle the key
accounts that have been realized due to their previous tie-ups with Zomato.
Mr. Pravir Kalra is ASM for north Delhi and has 11 SMs under him. He
distributes the restaurants to his sales person to minimize the travel time.
The maximum SMs have been allotted to Rohini and Pitampura.
Every ASM is also responsible for justifying the budget that was allotted to
him in the previous Quarter. The amount spent by each SM and KAM under
every ASM is noted and any outliers are brought to the notice of ASM. The
ASM can be given a target to reduce the travel cost of sales managers in his
territories if it is too ahead of the city average. This is an essential part of
quarterly meetings. Since Zomato charges only a fixed amount for every slot,
the profit can go down if the cost increases. Thus a major responsibility of
the ASM is to keep the cost under check and thus improve profits.
Zomato spends very less amount on B2B marketing and more on B2C
marketing. Thus ASM has very little role to play in promotions. Objective of
ASM is to link the sales strategy in his territory with the upcoming marketing
strategy of Zomato. The marketing team gives their plan for the quarter to
the city sales head which are forwarded to the ASM during the planning
process. The ASMs align their sales managers with the promotion strategy.
Sales managers are also directly in contact with the marketing department to
know of the latest promotional offers by Zomato.
The ASMs also plan every quarter on how to increase the penetration in their
territory. If the coverage in North Delhi is 75% then a plan is made on how to
capture the remaining 25% market. Every ASM comes up with a plan to bring
in the restaurants that have used the service previously but discontinued
using Zomato over previous few quarters due to dissatisfaction in the
service.

Implementation, Evaluation and Control

ASM is responsible for providing budgets and dividing territory amongst his
sales managers. He provides his sales managers with accounts that they
have to handle in the next 15 days and provides feedbacks to them every
fortnight. ASM in Zomato is responsible for implementing the sales process
that he has designed by making his sales force aware of the task they have
to accomplish. The ASM does not plan out the route for his salesmen and
that is left up to them. They are expected to contact all the restaurants in
their list and keep updating the ASM on how talks went with the different
customers. They can do this via telephone, personnel meets or Google
sheets.
Zomato analyses the sales performance of their sales team by conducting
sales evaluation fortnightly and providing feedbacks to them every 2 weeks
to improve their efficiency. They have a 3 month performance appraisal
system for sales managers, while the Key account managers have a 6 month
appraisal period.
Zomato does not have a scorecard in place for evaluation of their sales force
and the evaluation is done on following two measures How many calls an employee makes in a given period of time.
How many calls an employee is able to convert.
The evaluation in Zomato is done on the basis of how many calls the SM is
able to convert. If in a fortnight he has been given a list of 10 restaurants
then the incentive plan is as follows If he converts all accounts then he gets 10*6000 as incentive. This is
called as bumper bonus.
If he converts 7-9 accounts then he is given x*3000 as incentive,
where x is the number of accounts he converts.
If the SM converts 5 or 6 accounts then he is given x*2000 as
incentive, where x is the number of accounts he converts.
Apart from this the SM and KAMs are paid basic salary and no yearly bonus
is given to them.
Sales team is also rewarded by promotions, every 9 months to a high
performer 12 months to a low performer. Zomato can afford to give
promotion in such short interval because of high attrition rate and flexible
organizational structure of the company.
Zomato follows 360 degree feedback system and the feedback from
customers and peers also play a vital role in the appraisal of a SM and KAM.
This is the only qualitative measure included in the evaluation of SMs. ASMs

train the sales managers on the field by accompanying them on sales call
and providing them feedback. They are given comments on their
performance every fortnight.
Earlier Zomato followed a revenue model where the appraisal for sales
managers depended on the revenue that they generate. But now they follow
the merchant model for evaluation and the conversion rate is given priority
during appraisals.
The ASM does not control the performance of sales managers but empower
their performance. Every SM has to get in contact with his ASM twice in a
week. This can be done by the sales managers anytime during the week.
ASM has to get in touch with city sales head once in every two weeks and no
fixed time is allotted even for that. There is also a conference call between
ASM, city sales head and country sales head once every month.
There is no interference by the HR department in the evaluation and control
of the SMs and the whole process is carried out by the ASM himself.

Documentation,
management

Automation

and

Information

Zomato being a new company has not implemented any automation process.
They use Google sheets to transfer sales data. Every Zomato employee has a
login password and can view the sales data. A sales manager in Delhi with
authentication code can view the daily sales data of London.
Every day the sales managers update their Google sheet with the list of
restaurants that he/she is going to visit. They can update the status of how
their meeting went at the end of the day or after each meeting. This sheet
can be viewed by any higher authority also. Every fortnight a new sheet is
generated for every territory which contains all the data of the restaurants
that have to be covered by the different sales managers.
They use excel sheets only for all the sales documentation and information
management.
Currently Zomato is considering of developing in-house data storage and
communication software.
Also every day a Google sheet is uploaded for every territory where at the
end of the day every sales manager submits his DSR (Daily sales report).

Recommendations

A scorecard should be developed for better evaluation of the sales

force. Other parameters must also be considered for bonuses.
Seeing the growth of Zomato and the company being a service
providing company should opt for CRM. Zomato has two customers
with one being the restaurants and the other being the website users.
To manage all the data, the company can also opt for cloud data
storage.
Currently ASMs play no role in deciding the path of the sales manager
for the fortnight. This should be changed to optimize their time on the
field.
Zomato should include annual bonus for sales force keeping in mind
the attrition rate of the company.
Zomato promotes most of its employees at the end of every year. With
the exception being the top performers who are promoted in 9
months. This practice should be stopped because promotions can act
as a motivational tool for the sales managers.