Too often, businesses which sell their products through distributors and other retailers spend significant resources calling on accounts serviced by them, trying to avoid a black box effect.
However, they do so without knowing exactly if they are doing it in the most efficient way, thus missing opportunities to target the accounts with the most potential.
Siloed stakeholders, uncoordinated spending, lack of visibility into profitability and no tracking of marketing and commercial actions lead to frustration from the accounts and eventually to lost business.
In this document, we present how a winning account-centric strategy creates a system where all stakeholders work efficiently to grow share at the accounts, renewing their competitive advantage, fueling profitable growth and generating overall better ROI on marketing and sales expenditures.
“No one really knows everything that’s going on with an account.”
“I don’t know what works to grow share in the various accounts we serve.”
“We have a lot of different people visiting the same accounts. I have the feeling that some of them would be better used elsewhere .”
“The Sales team and the Marketing team don’t speak to each other.”
“I don’t know how many people should visit our accounts.”
“Our promotional program is essentially what we did last year.”
The right assortment of products is pushed to the right accounts and the right consumer pools
The sales force and market spend are adequately sized and that resources are focused on what works for/at the account
Time and money is either spent focusing on profitable accounts and making others profitable, or cut (unless the account is used, exceptionally, as a brand or image-building tool)
All stakeholders (sales, marketing, distributors, third-parties, accounts, etc.) speak the same language and work towards the same goals
Quantitative and qualitative data (internal data, distributor data, online providers, social media, field surveys, interviews, etc.) are leveraged to base decisions on comprehensive facts and figures, not habits or personal relationships
Identify new business opportunities and accounts with profitable growth prospects
Beat the competition by leveraging relative strengths and correcting weaknesses from the account’s perspective
Make sure that field and HQ resources (people and cash) are used in the most efficient manner
Improve profitability at the account level
Increase distributor efficiency to lower costs and/or increase outreach and impact
Break down silos between Sales, Marketing and all stakeholders along the route-to-market
Align local execution with brand strategies and portfolio objectives (i.e. in which accounts to activate which brands)
It creates segments and priorities to be shared and utilized by all Route-To-Market stakeholders, most importantly brands and field teams
Define relevant segment criteria & attributes and select data sources for each
Collect and harmonize data from automatable and reliable sources (internal data, online data, e.g. social media, distributor data)
Assess the relevance and reliability of data and assign thresholds and weights
Tag accounts with attributes and assign them to segments
Use current volume and “opportunity to gain share” to prioritize accounts and define the best sales strategy for each of them
Vet priorities with brand marketing and local sales force (pilot regions/teams can be considered)
Pull data into analytical engine
Create user-friendly interface or integrate directly into existing system
Introduce this account segmentation tool to sales, marketing and all other stakeholders
Conduct national operational rollout
Interview accounts with various profiles (large/small, new/established, satisfied/unsatisfied, etc.)
Get feedback on their needs
Benchmark performance vs. competition
Identify which accounts are called on and how frequently
Map who calls on which accounts (i.e. account coverage by resource type)
Summarize how accounts are called on and cost to serve (incl. A&P spend and time)
Assess pain points throughout the RTM
Design ways of working based on account feedback and market realities
Create playbook for account visits with guidelines and KPIs for call coverage and frequency
Define spend allocation guidelines
Increase account profitability by redesigning the way they are served
Redesign the main processes (e.g. budgeting, performance tracking & control, etc.)
Define decision rights and control rights, including third-parties (e.g. distributors, wholesalers)
Missed opportunities with highest potential accounts
Siloed Sales and Marketing teams with misaligned priorities
Uncoordinated efforts between HQ and field teams, distributor and third-party partners
Lack of visibility into spend, time management and account profitability
Little or no ROI tracking and measuring of A&P and marketing activations efficiency and effectiveness
Greater bang for the buck in the field
Opportunity-driven sales strategies
Increased profitability at the account level
Alignment between stakeholders on processes and prioritization
Collaborative ways of working between all parties along the RTM
Streamlined management and control over resources in market
Success measuring and execution evaluation for programs and events
