Every sales expert would agree about the volume business India offers with its ever expanding middle class and to that extent the sheer number of citizen in the country. Keeping this as the base of our comment lets discuss how to tackle this vast market and try to present the reasoning behind the need of a ‘sales expert’ in India.

Well, the idea of the market itself needs a comprehensive study into, in order to understand what we are dealing with? It would be unwise to jump into this market without any expert advice and oversight. Initial years of landing with the right partners becomes crucial in a way for the brand to rightly value itself, which otherwise falls prey to the lousy picture portrayed by the so called ‘Sales Managers’ or ‘Strategic Partners’ or ‘distributors’, which never materialises because of the inability of these local partners; which otherwise could have been avoided if a right evaluation was conducted by the export manager.

This evaluation is a task in hand for many due to various reasons like geographical boundaries, social & cultural & even language barriers, Budget constraints, time constraints so on and so forth. The reasons can be many but the ultimate price is paid by the brand – which doesn’t resonate in the sales figure they deserved to reach. This opportunity cost is huge for those who do not work through local experts to qualify for the right partners to work with. Many times it’s hard to predict what is in the store just by looking at the website and in a market like India, which traditionally remains family based businesses, we ‘MUST’ always verify the claims made by the prospects through personal visits and vendors & customers feedback. A little digging into their history and physical verification of it is always helpful. This is where experts like MCG come into play.

Doing business in India

Still India on ground need many reforms in order to match the letter & spirit gap of the politicians. India still lags behind in terms of on-ground implementation of policies and overall corporate facilitation. Let’s look at the general picture of Indian business environment for anyone wishing to do business here.

We start with Business Registration (approximately a month).

Construction permits – involves 34 procedures and taking 196 days. Obtaining Intimation of Disapproval from the Building Proposal Office and paying fees takes around a month, and NOCs must be sought from the Tree Authority, the Storm Water and Drain Department, the Sewerage Department, the Electric Department, the Environmental Department, the Traffic & Coordination Department and the CFO.

Electricity – cost of electricity is less compared to South Asia but the number of procedures involved can be rather daunting. What’s more, each procedure is in itself quite time constraining, taking around eight days to receive an external site inspection and three weeks to get externally connected, have a meter installed and conduct a test installation.

Property Registration – Registering a property requires quite a bit of legwork and can also incur substantial charges. Stamp duty of 5% of the property and a 1% charge on the market value of the property incurred at the Sub-Registrar of Assurances are the two fees to look out for, although the lawyer charges and fees at the Land & Survey Office can also pinch.

Credit Access – India performs the best of all South Asian economies for ease of getting credit, ranking 23rd in the world according to the World Bank and International Finance Corporation. Despite this a local banker contact is what will make it more hassle free than a direct approach.

Investor protection – Enforcing contracts will also be an area that must be looked at; India ranks as one of the worst countries in the world for the ability to enforce a contract, taking an average of 1,420 days.

Taxes – Businesses operating in India are required to make 33 tax payments a year, taking 243 hours’ worth of attention. The headline corporation tax rate stands at 30%, but companies can also incur charges in the form of a central sales tax, dividend tax, property tax, fuel tax, vehicle tax, VAT and excise duty.

Trading Across Borders – Despite India opening its borders to international trade, there are still several hurdles to overcome when importing and exporting goods. Several layers of bureaucracy make it very challenging to move goods efficiently, and companies must file a long list of documents before moving goods across borders.

Resolving Insolvency – It takes 4.3 years to resolve insolvency in India, far longer than the South Asian and OECD average. The laborious court system can often slow business relations.

Why MCG?

We work on a success fee bases. We don’t want our clients to pay beforehand without seeing the results. We don’t want to put extra burden on the export managers to convince the management about spending before the sales pick up. Therefore, we stand by them in this quest by working only on the commission bases if/ when the sales pick up. This way it’s a win-win for both the parties and ultimately we take the responsibility of the sales. 

Marstian Consultancy (MCG) is patient enough to grow together and work for longer period rather than short term profit booking & leave philosophy. We handhold our clients for longer period till they reach a mature stage of sales in India. Thus, we are supporting businesses from seed to fruit stages with an arrangement which doesn’t pinch to the export managers.

How to start?Just drop in a ‘hi’ and we’ll take it over from there. We will clear the doubts pertaining the India market and clarify extended dilemmas – all this without any fees!