Does This Sound Familiar?

• Filling out time-consuming manual in-store surveys
• Converting field photos into PowerPoint recaps
• Collecting incentive results from 15+ different markets in 15+ different formats
• Juggling numerous emails to distribute and recap KPI results
• Recapping results in outdated, error-prone excel spreadsheets
• Receiving KPI recaps weeks after the program run-time

If you’re nodding your head, you’ve experienced some of the many challenges of communicating and recapping Sales Execution within the Beverage Alcohol industry. These tasks can be overwhelming, yet they are crucial for tracking performance, aligning efforts, measuring success, making informed decisions, and staying competitive.

However, managing and driving results through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be complicated due to the nature of collecting field-level data points from multiple sources, and juggling information between various tools and formats. That is why effective sales execution now requires more communication, oversight, and visibility from the field-level than ever before. 

Yet, many suppliers and distributors still rely on time-consuming analogue systems. Relying on outdated methods to communicate and recap KPIs can no longer cut it in today’s fast-paced market. 

STOP the confusing and time-consuming KPI back-and-forth.

The OLD way of managing this capability is inefficient, error-prone, and lacks real time insights. Which is why transitioning to a modern KPI collaboration system allows for better scalability and proactive decision making, providing a significant competitive advantage.

Why Is Sales Execution So Challenging?

Sales execution is multi-layered, with numerous touch points throughout the sales operations process that require alignment. Here are some of the critical layers that need to be managed & tracked for your brand’s success:

• Out of Stocks: This means not only the short-term loss of a sale but also the potential loss of a hard-earned shelf placement. Proactive field insights are necessary to manage stock levels effectively.
• Shelf Position: Product visibility is crucial. Double-facing placements and strategic positioning next to competitive brands drive more sales. Planogram compliance and optimal shelf positioning are key.
• Validate Trade Promotion Execution: Millions are spent annually on trade promotions like sales incentives and merchandising materials. With the high costs of these promotions, monitoring compliance and measuring the effectiveness of these programs is vital.
• Competition: Analyzing market share from syndicated reports is not enough to measure competition. In-market intel is necessary to understand competitors’ activities, such as pricing, POS, packaging, and line extensions. Tools that use digitized in-market surveys simplify this process, and bring transparency to what is happening in the market.
• High Sales Rep Turnover: This leads to the loss of key information in the field. Maintaining consistent performance through sales rep turnover is challenging. It is highly valuable to preserve critical account information, to continue momentum in accounts where there has been turnover.

Traditionally, each of these sales activities would be communicated and recapped by several different tools and formats. This fragmented approach often leads to inefficiencies, miscommunication, and a lack of cohesive strategy. This is why optimizing KPI communication is essential to ensure seamless coordination, enhance productivity, and achieve strategic alignment between suppliers, wholesalers, and agencies.

Why Are KPIs So Important?

Let’s review the benefits of setting-up an effective KPIs system, and why it is essential for your success in field execution:

• Focus on Key Objectives: KPIs help your sales team focus on the most important objectives, ensuring everyone involved is aligned with strategic goals.
• Measure Progress: They offer a tangible way to measure real-time progress toward specific goals, providing clear benchmarks.
• Enhance Decision-Making: KPIs provide evidence of what’s working and what isn’t, moving your strategic planning beyond gut-instincts.
• Boost Accountability: By setting clear expectations, KPIs help everyone understand their responsibilities and stay on track.
• Facilitate Communication: They provide a common language and clear metrics that everyone in the organization can understand and follow.
• Optimize Resources: KPIs help you identify where to allocate resources, ensuring efforts and investments are focused on the most impactful areas.
• Drive Continuous Improvement: They enable you to continually refine and improve your strategies and execution.

Now that we have reviewed the challenges of sales execution and how KPIs can help drive results, how do we optimize such a complex, yet essential capability without the traditional analog methods?

Alas! Andavi Solutions has created a platform where KPI Communication can be optimized using ONE TOOL.

Revolutionizing KPI Collaboration with ONE TOOL

BevPath was created to help you work more closely with your wholesalers by allowing you to easily enter, approve, and review KPIs, all in one place. With real-time submissions and instant connectivity, you can see the results as they happen, making it a powerful tool for improved communication and achieving your goals together.

Leveraging BevPath’s platform provides real-time visibility to the execution of your KPIs, and the provides clarity in communication and recapping of these KPIs. Implementing a robust collaborative environment leveraging a system like BevPath will allow you to:

• Create and share consistent brand KPIs
• Quickly analyze performance and results
• Build efficient planning and reporting across your supply chain
• Improve strategic alignment across multiple markets
• Automate approvals and reporting through industry-leading analytic and dashboard tools
• Save time and improve sales with thorough communication
• Harness real-time digital collaboration at your fingertips 

Align Your Entire Distribution Team

Through this integrated software solution, BevPath enables you to execute & communicate strategic KPI activities more effectively through key factors like in-market surveys, images, sales, shelf placement, and marketing material usage. These data points are then consolidated into Reports & Dashboards so you can have real-time visibility to KPI execution.

Here are some real-world examples of how leveraging BevPath drives better sales execution through KPI collaboration:

• Target Accounts: Use BevPath’s dynamic account attributes to share KPIs related to your unique Target Account list.
• Merchandisable Accounts: Target merchandisable accounts, save costs on POS materials, and measure the effectiveness of merchandising programs.
• Shelf Placements: Collect in-market evidence of accounts with limited product facings, adjust KPIs accordingly, and increase product visibility on shelves to boost sales velocity.
• Menu Execution: Ensure menu placement KPIs are effectively executed and adjust future KPIs programming to drive sales.

Goodbye Manual KPI Recaps, Hello BevPath!

Gone are the days of relying on Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, email back-and-forth, and manual data gathering to recap KPIs. This capability has been modernized! BevPath is a powerful tool that facilitates high-level KPI collaboration between suppliers & wholesalers, fostering more impactful KPI programming and execution. 

By offering a streamlined approach to KPI collaboration, BevPath ensures that all stakeholders work together more effectively, make smarter decisions, and ultimately drive better business outcomes.

Once you integrate this improved way of collaborating on KPIs, you will wonder what you would ever do without it!

A Final Word of Advice

Transitioning to a data-rich world is a journey. It starts with buy-in from top executive stakeholders, your supplier and wholesaler partners, and most importantly, your sales team. By leveraging the new technology, data, and tools available, you will position your brand for greater success.

Ready to revolutionize your KPI Collaboration? Contact our team today to learn more about how BevPath can transform your sales execution using ONE TOOL.

Author: Heidi Mingo, BevAlc Technology Advisor