Linking Brand & Category Strategy To Customer Strategy
The Sales Execution Playbook includes both strategic and tactical content. It provides a set of guidelines that serve as both guidance and gold standard best practice to ensure consistent execution. Think of this living document as the category ‘instruction manual’ or ‘song-sheet’ for all sales associates. It is used to link strategic category vision to in-store execution tactics. It is an invaluable tool to ensure that key account managers leverage the strategic selling story of a category while translating this into language and actions that a retailer executes. It acts as an essential bridge between marketing and sales and involves collaborative work efforts of both functions to complete and execute successfully.
The Downside Of Not Having A Sales Execution Playbook
Consumer experience at shelf is inconsistent.
Best practice is not communicated clearly or at all.
Pricing is all over the map and may not make sense in certain retail channels relative to others.
Core skus are not listed and on-shelf at every retailer you visit.
Flyer promotions are mostly decided by the retailer in terms of frequency and depth.
Old packaging appears in flyer ad shots.
Sales managers recommend product listings or priorities based on their preferences.
Promotions are simply repeated since they were run at same time last year.
Solid performing skus get discontinued because they show poor total market performance due to inconsistent listings and execution.
Any of this sound familiar?
Key Elements of the Sales Execution Playbook (in project scope)
4P Expectations Are Well Defined
SRPs and FSPs are defined by channel for all skus. Promotional frequency and depth best practice guidelines are defined by channel. Product SKU priority list is complete by range/size of POG.
Placement Strategy Is Clear
Gold standard POG placement strategy is defined including location on shelf, facings and adjacencies. Equally importantly, the shopper & consumer rational is included to supports the gold standard recommendations.
Category Vision Is An Anchor
Each category playbook begins with the brand and category vision and is written in customer friendly language and format. This serves as the anchor for the tactical guidelines.
The Playbook is Documented
An actual powerpoint deck is created as the playbook. It is written so that any new associate to pick it up and start selling and executing. It is an internal document that is updated annually.
What this project entails
I will lead the following work either wholly or in-part, and work with key stakeholders to achieve the following outputs:
What I Bring
experience
I have led many sales teams for major CPG branded companies and I’ve seen how this playbook can really bring Marketing and Sales together to better manage expectations and results. I’ve implemented this playbook on several occasions with successful results.
knowledge
I’ve managed over 28 categories during my sales career and have a hands-on knowledge of the 4P’s from both a vendor and customer perspective. I have an advanced knowledge of consumption data sources and have called on every grocery, mass and drug customer across all regions of Canada.
best practice
I have seen best in class examples of this playbook and have worked with them as a leader of sales teams. I started my sales career with one of the best branded executors (PepsiCo) and have implemented the playbook at two other major branded manufacturers.
passion
Execution is the ability to combine strategy with reality, align individuals with goals, and achieve committed results. I’ve seen the playbook work. Having gold standard defined and communicated in such a way that sales can get behind and execute is a game changer.
Project Scope and Breadth
The scope of this project can vary quite a bit depending on a number of factors. These factors are the degree to which the 4Ps are defined already at your company and also the degree to which market reality differs from marketing and category management theory. The project can start with capturing the components that exist today in your organization. It can also include a whole host of offspring project work that could include full analysis of your promotions to arrive upon best practice in this area. Based on what I’ve seen at various companies, the sku priority list typically requires a fair amount of work to reflect current state and a comprehensive list of all skus. This list can also differ a lot from theory to practical reality. So this assessment is often required and the list adjusted once this work has been done. This also applies to pricing where I’ve seen SRPs coming from marketing that are dramatically different from market reality. When this occurs, it speaks to the need for a playbook but also requires a bit more time to complete the work.