How to Drive Results by Optimizing Retail Execution
Successful manufacturers know that creating and shipping products is only the first step to securing sales. Beyond that, results are driven by optimizing retail execution. Once items are already out in the field, the goal is to create a strategy that puts your brand and its products in front of as many consumers as possible — and proves compelling enough to sell them on it.
Brand managers are often tasked with this endeavor, visiting retailers and confirming products are properly stocked, displayed, and promoted to potential customers. However, not all field visits are created equal. Manufacturers must make sure they’re getting the most out of their retail execution efforts.
So, how do you know if your field visits are driving the results your company wants? If you have the appropriate systems in place to measure your outcomes, you can see where your efforts are paying off and where they require improvement.
Let’s take a look at three key issues that we’ve discussed with our clients:
How to make sure your brand managers are performing quality visits
Using Salesforce to marry data and field execution
The importance of field tracking
Make Sure You’re Getting the Most Out of Field Visits
Before diving into the data behind your company’s retail execution, it’s important to get your representatives on the same page about what field visits should entail. If they aren’t conducting high-quality visits, your company could be wasting time and resources.
So, what constitutes a quality visit? These are a few things brand managers should be doing:
Confirming shelves are properly stocked and organized
Setting up product displays to better display items in promotion or high margin items
Discussing high-volume products
Competitor intelligence gathering
Analyze floor and shelf space against planogram
Educating clients and retail partners
The goal of field visits is to strengthen relationships with clients and ensure your products are well placed. If the items your company is shipping to a retail establishment aren’t on the floor at all, or don’t have adequate amount of floor space, you’ll lose money.
Brand managers are responsible for determining what products should be on the floor, then making sure that they are.
Educating the employees at the retail establishments is also a critical aspect of their role. Ideally, your field representatives should spend the majority of their work time meeting face to face with the people selling your products.
The more educated retailers are about your items, the more likely they are to sell. With a proper rundown, they’ll be able to explain the strengths of your lineup to their customers Likewise, they’ll know when promotions are underway and can act accordingly.
Salesforce Tools Can Optimize Field Execution
Once your company has established its criteria for a quality field visit, it’s time to start tracking your progress. Knowing what a quality visit entails doesn’t automatically equate to optimized retail execution. Ultimately, the outcome is more important than the process.
With the proper data, your company can determine whether your strategy works as intended. Not only will you be able to see how field visits are impacting your profits, but you can pinpoint ways to optimize them in the future.
Salesforce allows companies to obtain this kind of information through a number of different integrations. Implementing tools like Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, Salesforce Maps, and TableauCRM allows your company to track all the important details about your field execution.
Consumer Goods Cloud offers managers a big picture look at key account information. It shows current promotions, orders, and sales goals — all of which can highlight where field reps should boost their efforts.
This integration also eases the burden on brand managers, allowing them to access important data on the go. By using Salesforce, they’ll have all the following information to better plan their visits:
Retail location and contacts such as buyers
Route details
Promotions
New Product information
Purchase history
Reported client issues so they can be immediately addressed – e.g., Order issues
Previous visit details including who, what and when
Salesforce Maps enhances field strategy, giving brand managers the tools, they need to plan their routes. They can maximize their productivity, and companies can determine where to assign each representative.
Lastly, through TableauCRM, manufacturers can access and analyze company data. This is where you’ll get answers about KPIs, which can demonstrate if your efforts are paying off.
Field Tracking Is Critical
Are you promoting products in locations where they aren’t selling or not getting enough face time with retailers? Is your brand managers spend more time on the road than with your clients? Are you sending reps to promote high-priced products in low-income areas likely won’t boost your bottom line?
These are just a few examples of how productivity can be lost if data isn’t driving your decision-making. Such instances not only waste company time and resources, but they can result in a loss of revenue.
Keeping tabs on key data enables your business to improve decision-making when it comes to field visits. If the data indicates that a brand manager is spending too much time traveling, their route can be altered. If products aren’t selling in a specific area, efforts can be increased elsewhere.
Implementing Salesforce for field tracking delivers important data when it’s needed most. Manufacturers will learn how and where their brand managers are spending their time and be equipped with the right information to make changes that increase sales.
Final Thoughts
Optimizing your company’s field execution is well worth the time and effort. Our clients have retail strategies that play to their strengths so they don’t worry about losing money from field visits. Instead, they are in a position to increase the revenue their brand managers bring in. Our clients field teams have also noted that Salesforce integrations make their jobs easier, too.
If you’re interested in learning more about optimizing your field teams with Salesforce, contact me today so we can discuss how to use the numbers to drive your revenue forward.