Ashok Khanna first started his career at the sales and marketing department at Toshiba Anand in New Delhi after completing graduation from Himachal University in 1972. Khanna, who has also worked for Dunlop India, came to Nepal in 2004 and has worked at Gorakhkali Tyres and Chaudhary Group—where he served as a senior manager at the electronics division. Khanna currently serves as a CEO of Smart Appliances—the electronic division of KL Dugar Group, which is the authorised distributor of electronic appliance brands such as Electrolux and Skyworth. In this interview with the Post’s Alisha Sijapati, Khanna shares his views on the marketing of emerging products and some of his management mantras. Excerpts:

What is your take on the current state of sales and marketing industry in Nepal?

There are only about four to five big brands in Nepal, which focuses on marketing their products diligently whereas; the other stores are merely just selling products as is. The big companies in Nepal are competitive and they constantly come up with good marketing schemes. One problem, however, is that because of the open market, you get any kind of brands and products here and most of them are not even bothered about the continuity of the product. Having worked in this field in Nepal for about a decade now, what I have realised is that the consumers here have slowly become brand conscious and most of them are tech savvy now; they know what kind of products they need and that is definitely an advantage for the industry. Also, previously the market was solely depended on Kathmandu and Pokhara but now the market is scattered all over the country and it is a good moment for the industry.

Now that the Nepali market is slowly shifting towards online and digital platforms, what are some things Nepali brands need to be on the lookout for?

Online or digital platforms have just begun taking baby steps in this market. They do have a long way to go. If you look at how e-commerce has boomed all over the world, Nepal has maybe only managed to take up five percent of the market and 90 percent of the customers here still visit the stores to purchase products. For instance, in India, about 60 percent of the companies and showrooms are linked to online portals which lead to 30 to 40 percent sales. If you compare it with Nepal, it will at least take five years for e-commerce to gain a strong foothold in the market.  What I have observed with Nepali customers is they believe in buying things first-hand. They like to see the product by themselves, understand and compare and buy it in the showroom itself. Although online portals are getting a positive response, it will still take a time for Nepali consumers to shift online.

In today’s highly competitive world, brands are considered one of the primary assets of a company. In that context, how important is it for a company to maintain its brand?

It is very important to sustain a brand. Whenever, you enter a market, you need to have a long term vision—you need to produce quality products and be confident about selling it. To sustain yourself in a market, there needs to be constant upgrading of knowledge and technology and work according to the changing times and tastes. Brands are not made overnight, there is a lot of hard work that takes place behind the scenes—it takes years and years to create and maintain it.

What are the three key things that a brand manager or a business owner must think about before advertising their product?

First of all, if you are doing an advertisement of a product, you need to be supremely confident about it. Advertisements should always be based on these three things—product, price and position. You need to think about what product you are going to sell, what the targeted price is and who your target customers are. You cannot promote products replicating adverts because each and every product has their own uniqueness. So, before you go for any advertisement you need to decide on your targeted customers. Your product must be good and pricing must be fantastic and most importantly, those people who are at the front representing the products need to reflect the company’s values as well.

As your business relies heavily on sales, what are the qualities you look at when hiring a salesperson?

Salesperson has to be very presentable. The person needs to have good communication skills.  A person who knows the product inside out can only become a good salesman because they knows what could be the best option to sell to the customers according to their preferences. But even before selling a product, the salesperson needs to be an expert on the product. Customers can ask hundreds questions and you need to have an answer for each and every question.

In your career, you have created and led several teams, what are the qualities every leader must have?

When you work with a team, you need to take a team with you—you need to grow with them. A leader cannot sit in his/her room and instruct people without looking at the ground realities. If that becomes the case, they are not good leaders. A leader has to be with their team and push them. The team and the leader must understand each other and work together in sync.

How do you value teamwork, what are the best ways to keeping a team motivated?

When you are working in a team, you need to assign work according to the strength and weaknesses of a team member. When you are the team leader, you need assign responsibilities where the subordinate can perform to his or her best abilities and also get along with other teammates. If the person is not trained properly, you need to give them extra attention and guide them accordingly. A leader must pass his knowledge to the team. Clear cut communication and coordination is crucial for a team to grow—that is how teams are built.

What advice do you have for young graduates looking to get into the sales and marketing industry?

In the Nepali context, what my experience has been is that the younger generation is not sticking to their jobs. Currently nobody seems to stick with a company for more than one year—this is a disadvantage to the company because our training investment goes down the drain. For professionals like me, who have worked in such big companies, it sometimes gets very challenging but now I have come to a situation where I have to compromise. What I would suggest to young graduates is to maintain a strong relationship with your colleagues and leaders so, that there is constant communication. Nepal has a lot of opportunities, with many companies begin to emerge; the youth need to come out of their comfort zones and shine.