We live in a consumer-driven world where virtually unlimited buying options can meet shoppers’ ever-changing preferences. To succeed in this environment, sales teams and merchandisers need perfect retail execution that delivers the right product at the right time and the right place. Within the SAP Sales Cloud there is a Retail Execution module named Perfect Store Execution and it is included in the Enterprise edition. Live since 2018, SAP has continuously worked to improve the functionality. Let's have a look at the current state.
Beer, the heart of Belgium
To explain the Perfect Store Execution we need a real world business case and what is a better case than a fantastic Belgian brewery. Meet CanguBrew. A Brewery that has around 100 employees and is really positioning itself firmly in the Belgian market. With 3 beer in their core product catalog, CanguBrew has steady sales over the whole country.
But this does not mean there is no room for innovation, on the contrary. CanguBrew releases new beers regularly and if they are a success they are picked up into the core products. If not, they remain only in the memories of the consumers.
Selling at a retail partner
For CanguBrew to be sold all over the country, they work with numerous retail partners in Belgium. Such are, but not limited to, Beershops, supermarkets, and grocery stores.
Selling at a retail location has it's challenges. Foremost, you need to compete with other brands for the customer's attention. To achieve this, CanguBrew has made agreements with the retail partners to sell the beers at a specific price, to place them in a specific location on the shelve, and place marketing material when needed (think of the regular new beer launches).
But even though having a agreement with the retail partners it doesn't necessarily mean the execution is perfect. Think of a small store that has no shelve space left and places the products at the bottom or limits the facings (quantity of products you see in the shelve). To follow up on the store's execution CanguBrew sends out it's Sales Reps in the field to perform store visits, lets call the perfect store visits.
Perfect Store, a continuous improvement
To capture all the data, a sales rep generates during a perfect store visit, CanguBrew has opted for SAP's Perfect Store Execution. Out of the box this functionality has the capabilities to guide, rate and follow up on each retail's location performance. A performance that is measured by predefined KPIs. Decided by the management and sales reps.
Lets follow our Sales Rep during his day visiting one of the retail locations.
Planning the route and visits
Within SAP our Sales Rep can plan his visits using the routing tool. By setting up a template he can reuse the same visit planning on a regular basis, but it is not limiting. Meaning adding, removing and reordering the visits is always possible.
When the route has been setup, the sales rep lets SAP Sales Cloud generate the visits and populate the agenda.
Visiting the store
When visiting the store our sales rep "checks in". This capture the start and end (when he checks out) of the visit, which in turn can be used for planning purposes. The check in is also only possible when he is physically at the location, this is achieved by using the GPS of the device used (an optional feature that can be turned off).
After the visit our sales rep opens up the perfect store execution and looks at the engagement points he will need to complete.
Engage!
The functionality speaks of an engagement map and engagement points. In short the map is the actual store layout and houses the engagement points. The engagement points are physical locations inside the store, where the sales rep needs to complete a task, survey, and/or individual question.
How is the store performing
When going through the engagement map, our sales rep fills out surveys, performs tasks and answers individual questions. The Surveys and Question are then in turn used to calculate KPI's and an overall score to reflect the stores performance. This gives CanguBrew an insight on the store's performance and adherence to the agreements.
The use of this real-time data and analytics allows CanguBrew to transform the way their sales reps engage with retailers and how to make pricing, promotion, and placement decisions.
Don't say but do
Reporting and generating KPI's is not the end of this functionality. Far from it. The exciting part is the follow up, to improve the performance and thus improve the customer's experience. Elevating the sales of CanguBrew's products.
Based on the performance of, either the KPI's individually or the store as a whole, follow up actions have been defined by CanguBrew. The severity of the scores are linked to specific mandatory or optional tasks, that the Sales Rep needs to complete before checking out the visit.
Next to tasks, the sales rep has the possibility to generate a qoute or order, if products are out of stock (information that is captured in the surveys).
This immediately closes the loop and allows the store to elevate it's performance, improve the customers experience with CanguBrew's products and boost the sales.
How about you?
Interested how we can help you setup the perfect store execution inside your SAP Sales Cloud or other SAP products. Give us a call and our experts will set up a game plan to improve your Customer Experience!
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