Twiga shifted its sales model after restructuring operations that eradicated inner sales groups. It has the best to terminate working relationships with underperforming unbiased contractors.
Twiga Foods, a business-to-business (B2B) platform that connects farmers and meals distributors, has confirmed that it now not has an in-house sales team after a cost-cutting transfer it applied final yr. The cost-cutting transfer was a spherical of layoffs in October 2022 that affected 211 folks, and the corporate’s CEO Peter Njonjo has clarified that opposite to some claims, there have been no new in-house workforce cuts. However, he shared that Twiga has modified its sales model and now works with a number of unbiased brokers as an alternative of full-time salespeople.
In an e mail to TechCabal, Njonjo mentioned, “We made the changes to our commercial team last year in October. We wanted to convert the role of a salesperson from that of an employee to a free agent. We made redundant the role of a Trade Development Representative and thus impacted 211 people. We paid all dues as per the Kenyan Employment Act. Other big companies followed suit in Kenya.”
The layoffs imply that Twiga now not has a sales division staffed with full-timers. Njonjo defended the firings as changing the salespeople to ‘free agents.’ “We no longer have dedicated sales agents in Twiga,” mentioned Njonjo.
Twiga’s new agent model
According to Njonjo, Twiga stopped working with a number of sales brokers following a efficiency analysis. “Under the new agent model we rolled out last year, we are always reviewing sub-optimal sales territories, and it has been quite an iterative process. The decision to merge sales clusters drove the reduction in the number of agents, mainly driven by the viability of those clusters (driven by performance over time). The agents are independent actors, where in most cases they don’t work exclusively for the company, so this was based on the viability of those clusters,” added the CEO. Njonjo’s Twiga didn’t disclose the precise variety of affected sales brokers.
One of the unbiased brokers advised TechCabal that Twiga assigns areas they need to cowl. The supply additionally confirmed that Twiga doesn’t prohibit brokers in phrases of corporations they work with. Still, they’ve to fulfill set objectives to proceed contracting for the corporate.
Twiga assesses the brokers month-to-month. If they don’t serve their shoppers satisfactorily, they’re changed by a ready record of latest candidates. Njonjo says a ready record of 2000 folks is able to be onboarded as sales brokers. This is probably going why Twiga is stringent in dealing with brokers as a result of if they can not carry out, a brand new set of brokers would exchange them.
This enterprise model has maybe led to an internet dialogue faulting Twiga for firings. While that is perhaps the case, Twiga has not laid off any everlasting workers. Adopting the model makes it clear that underperforming unbiased brokers will proceed to be laid off.
Last week, Twiga transferred its rights on the Galana-Kulalu Scheme to Selu Limited. Selu Limited has been arrange as a specialised entity to take a position in the irrigation mission. The intention is to develop 20,000 acres of land for maize manufacturing, utilising progressive and sustainable farming strategies.
Towards the top of 2021, Twiga Foods secured $50 million in new funding to assist its East and West Africa enlargement efforts. The funding was raised by its current traders, together with the International Finance Corporation, TLcom Capital, Creadev, Juven, and DOB Equity.
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