Plan Globally. Execute Locally. Collaborate Socially. Mobile-y.

It is said that all politics are local. The same concept applies to optimizing retail execution – it goes all the way down to the individual neighborhood store. Knowing not just the store manager and category personnel but also the unique demographics of the shoppers themselves can make the difference between success and failure. This can be true even when the store is executed exactly like the national plan was outlined and approved by account HQ.

 

The insights gained from shoppers of each individual store can significantly change the perspective of a national brand and account plan. The goal is to create a selling environment in the store that establishes a connection to the brand and delivers an experience that is consistent with the brand’s identity for that store’s shopper demographic.

 

For example, if a store is in a Lebanese neighborhood, a yogurt manufacturer’s rep needs to make sure that plain yogurt in quart containers is also in the meat section since the Lebanese marinate their meat in plain yogurt. This selling environment is perfectly consistent with the shoppers desired experience but it wouldn’t be on any national plan or any account authorization. Yet the store manager and his team would know and approve.

 

So optimal retail execution is no longer sales reps perfectly executing the national account plan ensuring the major sku’s are in stock, at the right price, merchandised on the shelf properly, etc. To win the war in the store today it must be done neighborhood by neighborhood on a store-by-store basis. But this requires the ability to provide sales reps the tools and empower them to make decisions to customize the brand experience in each store.

 

Fortunately technology today has enabled the sales rep to be connected in real time to anyone in the organization from mobile devices. The ability to communicate and collaborate with the brand or category manager can now be done instantaneously providing the sales rep the ability to monitor the store environment, suggest a change in the plan to address each store’s shoppers’ unique characteristics complete with photos taken in store, and get feedback and approval from HQ brand / category and or sales management to adapt and adjust the national account plan for that store.  The new technology has created a closed loop tool (see below) where the store manager, the rep with him or her, and HQ collaborate mobile-y in real time to maximize sales of that brand in that particular store with the people who know it best.


 

Retail execution has, therefore, progressed further along the evolutionary spectrum of collaboration. Social and mobile tools, in conjunction with sophisticated but easy to use Retail Execution solutions, have enabled the brand or category manager to basically collaborate with a particular store via the rep in the store in real time to select what’s right for that store. The data that the store manager or category manager provides as feedback to support a particular approach for the brand’s optimal assortment is more customized to the store and can then be both saved and shared with other sales reps in other regions or for the next rep after the incumbent moves on.

 

Today, like never before, mobile retail execution collaboration and productivity has progressed to a place that it can significantly impact retail sales performance store by store. New mobile Retail Execution solutions with social capabilities in the cloud include the following benefits:
 

One integrated retail execution system for the entire organization (as authorized) to see information in real time significantly improves communication for everyone since it’s from one source. This provides all team members visibility to manage, collaborate and share information with each other and the store personnel. This also dramatically reduces errors since there is no need to reenter information from one report to another – it’s all in one place where it can be aggregated collated or categorized as desired.  Finally, once in the system, the information, presentation and call reports can be saved and shared for all to see for as long as necessary so that a customized store program executed by one rep doesn’t get lost with a personnel change.

Every organization analyzes and manages their business differently so a Retail Execution product should not be just one rigid format. It needs to allow the organization to allocate goals and resources, by market, by product, or by volume potential right down to the store level with the flexibility for it to be configured to select the approach that’s right for each organization.

Ever changing market dynamics require a retail execution product that can change quickly when a sales team needs new information or to communicate a new directive. It must be easy to change direction or insert a new priority. For example, launch a survey in the morning to all sales reps about a new competitive product in the market and get results back in real time so by the end of the day HQ has a total snapshot from the sales team collaborating with each store about what’s going on for the priority project.

Overall it gives a sales team more time for selling with less time required for administration. A real-time product allows a sales force to be more efficient by reducing time wasted filling out forms, consolidating reports, or driving inefficient call routing. This can all be communicated and accessed on mobile (i-Pad, I-phone, BB) applications.

At the end of the day it must help drive retail execution results. It should be an easy to use integrated solution to address DSMP goals, reduce OOS, decrease time it takes to get products, promotions or research to market, and improve promotion compliance to ensure retailers are executing promotional programs at retail according to contracts and agreements.

The concept of planning globally and execute locally have been around for a long time. However, now the technology has caught up so that real time social collaboration can be achieved down to the store level from mobile devices in the store. Time will tell but this has the potential to be a major game changer for progressive CPG companies.