Effective Sales and Depletion Reporting is More than Just “Cases Sold”
If you’re not leveraging contemporary best practices for sales and depletion reporting in today’s hyper-competitive beverage marketplace, you’re falling behind. Things have changed and old, volume-focused depletion incentives are no longer sufficient to motivate proper sales team behaviors. In fact, this outdated practice can even have an erosive effect on profit margins. Better metrics are now available than the old “cases sold” numbers and savvy producers are using them to drive profits. Want to know more?
Top performing producers have been adopting and implementing innovative best practices and strategies leveraging new ideas about incentive programs and cutting edge technologies to execute and measure said programs. As we detailed in an earlier post, the “cases sold” metric is backward looking and provides little value as a means for driving better sales. By the time you review the cases sold data, the opportunity to improve sales volume has already passed you by.
Best practices call for directing sales reps to focus on the leading success indicators, incentivizing the behaviors and activities that are your brand’s strategic sales drivers, rather than the lagging indicator of number of cases sold. For detailed information on how to create incentives based on leading indicators, register to download our white paper, “Not Just More, But Better Sales – Moving Beyond Depletion Reporting as the Measure of Sales Success”.
From a high level view, the new paradigm for sales and depletion reporting focuses much more intently on embracing brand equity-building activities and other qualitative drivers of sales. Additionally, it works toward better enforcement of correct pricing, customer/channel mix, product mix, product visibility and key account activation.
You may be asking, “How does my old depletion reporting tool address and accommodate this new way of looking at depletion reporting?” The answer sadly is, “It does not!” But don’t fret, because GreatVines delivers cutting edge technology and an industry specific solution enabling producers to codify and enforce these new kinds of depletion strategies. Contemporary tools provide all the features and functionality to administer and manage the kind of innovative contemporary sales incentive and reporting programs needed to achieve competitive advantage in the marketplace. They even provide mobile access to sales teams operating in the field.
It is easy to see that the way business is transacted has changed significantly as technology continues to impact traditional processes and practice. It is something that has affected nearly every single industry. Now is the time for the beverage sales industry to evolve in step with times. The good news is, the tools needed to do so are already available for the taking.
