With another year underway, we turn our sights toward ensuring this year’s sales effectiveness and efficiency efforts can endure through a climate of constant change. Whether your sales organization has 2 or 2,000 people, we’re certain that focusing on the following activities will give you the leverage you need to achieve superior beverage sales.
3 Objectives to Achieve Superior Beverage Sales
1. Set Better Goals and Establish Strong Metrics for Reporting on Results
Focus goals on leading indicators that strategically drive your sales – like Key Accounts sold, National Account authorizations, displays installed, placement features, supporting POS, or staff trainings conducted (virtual or in-person).
Make results versus goals visible to reps and execs alike.
Define your brand’s “Perfect Account”; support this methodology with survey scores and goals to measure progress.
Additional Resources:
- White Paper: Not Just More, But Better Sales – Moving Beyond Depletions
- Blog: Spread Too Thin? Keep Goals Manageable and Simple to Win
- Our Solutions: Sales Execution Analytics & Sales Goal Management
2. Improve Account Relationships with Best Practices
Utilize Account attributes via CRM to segment and target your efforts. With a changing marketplace your brand priorities are evolving. Track Key Accounts that are open, note who’s offering curbside pickup or delivery, hosting virtual events, or doing online sales.
Capture names and email addresses of key people in the trade to keep them up-to-date with relevant content on a regular basis, such as seasonal releases, new product information, invitations to virtual events and tastings, etc.
Analyze activities executed versus Account sales data to determine which activities are driving your business and which ones are just eating up time and budget.
Additional Resources:
- Blog: Leverage CRM to Boost Your Sales Strategy Now and Post-Coronavirus Closures
- Our Solution: Beverage Alcohol CRM and Workflow
3. Strategically Execute Spend to Drive Growth
Expect Sales and Marketing teams to plan and detail their trade and Distributor programming in advance to provide visibility to everyone in the organization and tie activities to budgets.
Set your pricing support strategy through the 3-tier system all the way to the consumer. Track prices and depletion allowances by channel. Use dashboards and reports to find opportunities.
Prioritize visibility into how much an account paid for a product, including the no-discount price. This will save time and avoid surprise bill backs from your distributors.
Additional Resources:
- White Paper: Driving Sales and Trade Marketing Success in the Global Beverage Industry
- Our Solution: Trade Promotion Management
Remember, we all had to crawl before we could walk. Selling in an evolving marketplace is challenging, but the opportunities are still there. The most important thing is to start. Dig into one best practice and build from there. You and your team can do this! Use technology to your advantage to achieve superior beverage sales!
