Vantage Point: New Year, New Business?
By Harris Fogel, President, Americas, Quofore
Wow, we made it to 2010! Now what? Tough question? Probably not. My guess is, you and your company have mapped strategic goals and objectives for the year that you are now executing against. I presume that one of the major goals revolves around sales growth. Am I right?
Wow, we made it to 2010! Now what? Tough question? Probably not. My guess is, you and your company have mapped strategic goals and objectives for the year that you are now executing against. I presume that one of the major goals revolves around sales growth. Am I right?
If growing sales is one of your major goals, can you answer the following questions?
1. What key performance indicators (KPIs) are you focused on to achieve sales growth?
2. What is your company's three- to five-year strategic roadmap for sales execution?
3. What processes need to be improved or integrated to help achieve these goals?
4. What technologies will be used to enable the processes?
5. How are you going to measure and track the KPIs to determine if your strategies are achieving the desired objectives?
Over the past few years, many of the leading consumer goods companies we have been fortunate to work with or speak to have asked for our perspective on what areas they should be focused on in leveraging technology to drive sales growth. The thought behind the question they asked is the fact that we work across many different companies in geographies around the world and therefore, have observed "best or next" practices that could be leveraged.
As you can imagine, there is no one-size-fits-all answer that can be drawn for you on the storyboard. Each company, while operating in the same industry, is unique in its own way. Consequently, we took a different approach in answering the question by posing a series of our own questions to the companies. The objective became not to answer the question for them but rather, to lead them through a workshop to help them create their own strategic three- to five-year sales execution roadmap based on their unique goals and objectives. Simultaneously, we aimed to share best practices and trends that could be leveraged in the "thinking or planning." The result, we predict, is a shared vision and strategic roadmap by which the company we are working with can "flush out" over time to create a differentiation and thus, sales growth in the marketplace.
Back to those daunting questions. Consider a few tips for devising an honest and thorough response to each. When you have the answers, your company will then be steps closer to that desired state of growth.
What KPIs are you focused on to achieve sales growth? This will be specific for your company, but examples include:
-- Reduced out-of-stocks
-- Increased display or promotional compliance
-- Reduced time per call resulting in more calls per day
What is your three- to five-year strategic roadmap for sales execution? Based on where you are today, where do you envision the company being in the long term? Examples could be:
-- Predictive and optimized execution based on POS and historical data
-- Adaptive in-store execution organization and call coverage based on current conditions
-- Advanced sales (eg, merchandising and compliance) processes incorporated into your van sales or DSD organization
What processes need to be improved or integrated to help achieve these goals?
Every company has existing processes in place. Have you documented them? Are you satisfied with these processes or should they be improved? If so, what is your desired "to be" state? We would highly suggest that you take the time to focus on these as there is nothing worse than a "fast bad process" and nothing better than a great process that yields instant results or instant field intelligenceSM.
What technologies will be used to enable the to-be state? Just like as with the processes, we need to take an inventory of existing systems to understand how best to enable the to-be state. From an end user's perspective, the goal should be seamless integration of systems to make their lives more productive and effective -- regardless of the integration that takes place behind the scenes.
How are you going to measure and track the KPIs to determine if your strategies are achieving the desired objectives?
Back to the first question. You have created your KPIs, strategic vision and roadmap, reengineered your processes and enabled them with world-class technology. Congratulations! Was the effort worth it? Only if you track and measure the results versus a baseline on a consistent basis will you truly know.
I wish you all a prosperous and successful 2010 filled with flawless execution of your vision and roadmap backed up by results that are tracked and measured via your KPIs.
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Harris Fogel is responsible for Quofore's Americas operations,which he launched January 2006. For more than 20 years, Fogel has worked closely with consumer goods companies, improving their sales and marketing processes through enabling technologies. He is an active member and past chairman of the Grocery Manufacturers of America's Associate Member Council. For more information, visit www.quofore.com.
Harris Fogel is responsible for Quofore's Americas operations,which he launched January 2006. For more than 20 years, Fogel has worked closely with consumer goods companies, improving their sales and marketing processes through enabling technologies. He is an active member and past chairman of the Grocery Manufacturers of America's Associate Member Council. For more information, visit www.quofore.com.