Malawi’s TMs in S2B Training
Total Malawi’s Territory Managers participated in a Stick to Basics (S2B) training which was held between 28th January and 1st February 2019 in Blantyre and aims to improve their productivity on the job.
The training is part of the grow and perform focus area of the Retail Marketing and Sales strategy. It was conducted by Stuart Lofthouse, International Trainer for Africa, who observed that most TMs are not trained and the training was designed to act as a formal training for them.
“The idea is to upscale the TMs and to ensure there is a standard way of doing business in Africa,” he said.
Participant in the training and Territory Manager for the Central Region, Mayamiko Chitsanya, appreciated the insights shared in the training and commented that one of the things learnt was that the role of the TM is not just to sale but to understand the business and the territory.
“We used to think that our responsibility was the forecourt but we have learnt that it is also the shop, the QSR and even the Car Wash. As a station you can make much profit on the forecourt and yet lose it all in the shop or the QSR. So, this training helps us realise this and re-align ourselves to the scope of our work,” he said.
In addition, he noted that there were some bad practices that were inherited when one became a TM and carried forward and the training has taught them how to do things the right way.
Among other things the TM’s learnt stock management, profit and loss forecast, income optimization to increase profitability of a site and expense optimization to decrease expenses of a site.