Try to imagine this scenario:
You have a manufacturer with:
• 500 products;
• 50 reps on his sales team
• Distributes in more than 2000 locations at the large retailers.
NOW, try and imagine the many kinds of reports that the reps, the Account Directors, the Managers, and the Vice President are subjected to viewing … and this…maybe on a Daily basis. Then you have the various elements they need to see: sales by categories, by product/SKU, by store, by rep, new product intros, promotions, etc. The list goes on…
How does one end up fully optimizing the use of this information? How can we be sure each will benefit and utilize relevant data which will have a positive influence on his/her tasks for augmented /improved sales in the face of the numerous reports?
One effective method is the Drill Down Strategy. It requires for the various users to be trained correctly in order to fully benefit from this and it DOES pay off.
The strategy depends on the user’s needs. It is based on a pre-determined set of concrete and chronologically defined questions. Goals and objectives are given a clear context and opportunities can easily appear.
Please see below a simplified grid for a rep to illustrate:
Obviously, the strategy needs to consider a Sales Director’s viewing needs. It would be incumbent to display companywide and more broader sets of results as he/she would take into account territories, individual reps’ performances, etc.
A well thought strategy will inevitably allow:
A significant reduction in time to detect gaps in results relative to the established goals
To structure and standardize the sales team’s actionable items that are priorities
Simplify the sales analysis process
Quite often, sales teams have access to a number of reports. However, in almost all cases, we have discovered that none ever used the reports in the same way one from the other AND without the same commonly aligned set of guidelines to respect the strategic objectives.
Don’t let your team “drown” in a sea of confusion or ambiguity.
The purpose of a drill down strategy is to allow EVERYONE to apply best practices in terms of analysis.
By offering your team(s) a more user friendly and structured sales data access, you increase substantially your chances of augmenting and improving your sales’ results.