What Winter Olympics and Beverage Sales Have in Common
As a competitive skier myself, I’m attracted to the Alpine Skiing events such as the Giant Slalom and the Downhill time trials. I can attest that success in these events is not just about speed. An Olympian’s success in these trials is closely linked to the ability to maintain visibility and control while operating at top speeds. The same factors are also crucial for the beverage distributor seeking to crush KPIs while increasing points of distribution. With the goal of expanding existing markets and making forays into new ones, the same two factors are at a premium. With the enterprise beverage sales platform fielded by GreatVines, a distributor can plan the best path to take and navigate the twists and turns of executing it with real-time insights into rep and key account performance, trade marketing activity, goals and objectives.
When it comes to efficiency of movement, few winter sports are more exacting than Short Track Speed Skating. In this event, the difference between Gold, Silver and Bronze is often measured in fractions of a second. With such tight tolerances between winning and losing, every single minute motion of the skater’s body has to occur with the utmost efficiency. There is simply very little room for waste and redundant effort. The same could be said of sales processes for wholesalers operating on thin margins. My mindset as an erstwhile competitive skier explains why I have become such a champion of GreatVines. It is simply the very best tool I have experienced in my career for wholesalers seeking better processes that enable more strategic execution with greater results in the least amount of time.
The sport of Figure Skating is a bit different than many other winter sports in that success is not measured by times or distances like it is in ski racing, ski jumping, bobsledding, luge and others. Instead, the athletes’ success relies on the scores of trained judges who apply the deep expertise they gain through years of reviewing performance on technical and artistic merit.
Similarly, beverage wholesalers look to historic performance to glean insights from data and to use this data to improve future performance. Like a skater reviewing their own past performance and the scores they received, GreatVines users are afforded a full suite of packaged analytic capabilities for every module within the platform. GreatVines also delivers GoodData’s Advanced Analytics Query Engine to help understand how sales activities directly affect sales volumes (and the bonuses frequently tied to this metric). Improved data and analytics provide the flexibility a distributor needs to track and measure a variety of field sales activities. For example, the ability to track displace incentives, ensuring the most creative, eye-catching and effective installations can be replicated and poor performers weeded out.
Bringing home the Gold is a lifelong dream for the young athletes of the Olympic Games. It is a pursuit that defines their passion. In the same way, producers and distributors of wines, brews and spirits are motivated to produce excellence and to extend fame and fortune across their competitive arena.
We wish the utmost success for all these promising young athletes although our wishes are all we can offer to them. For those wholesalers of fine beverages, we also wish profound triumph and achievement. In their case, we have a material way to contribute to their accomplishment. If you’re seeking gold medal-worthy solutions for beverage sales execution and management, let us know and we’d be happy to help you rise to the top of your field of competition.
Having first-hand experience navigating both black diamond ski runs and 3-tier sales execution I can tell you, it takes a deep well of dedication, perseverance, perspective and hard work to excel in either pursuit.” These traits are all very well-known quantities to the talented and tireless athletes who ascend from the best their respective countries have to offer to compete in the Olympic Games every four years. As the athletes of the 2018 Winter Olympics sharpen their edges and focus on winning in their respective fields, we’re busy sharpening our products, services and best-practices to help wholesalers perform at their highest level too.
