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Strategic Selling Platform

Role and importance of strategic selling platforms

 

Winning manufacturers have long recognized the importance of collaborating with their key retail partners to drive optimal performance of their brands and categories.  A well-articulated and credible category leadership "story” is a price of entry for manufacturers to get a seat at the table and an opportunity to influence how retailers execute in store.  Strategic selling platforms provide the tools to elevate the dialogue from brand-centric to one of category thought leadership and mutual wins.

Typical elements of strategic selling platforms

A high-level module to articulate the manufacturer’s vision for leading and growing category and retailer’s role in that vision including:

• Where we want to go: Manufacturer’s unique selling proposition (USP) and credentials for successfully delivering on category vision.
• How we get there together: Roadmap of retail execution imperatives to support delivery of the vision.
• Size of the prize: Dollarized to quantify the category upside available to the retailer for realizing the vision.

 

An innovation module profiling the manufacturer’s new item launches in a category context including:

• Category-based rationale for launch
• Consumer/shopper response to new items in testing or test market as a success proof point
• Profile of shopper segment or target shopper consumer for innovation
• Dollarized projections for new item total sales and incremental impact on category sales

 

Selected retail best practice modules providing prescriptive roadmaps to guide and influence retail execution. Recommendations in this module are developed via extensive retail analysis of POS, panel or other available data combined with shopper insights gleaned from existing or new shopper research studies. Topics within this module usually include:

• Optimal assortment
• Efficient and effective promotion
• Optimal everyday and promotional pricing
• Shopper-driven merchandising
• Category-building innovation

 

Strategic selling platforms are typically developed in PowerPoint and are customizable for the opportunity at each key retailer.  They are built to be multi-year tools with a periodic data refresh capability.

 

Additional supporting tools

• Retail best practice modules may also be supported by custom tools that can enable manufacturers to more efficiently lead best-in-class execution. These stand alone tools can include:

                   -  Optimal assortment models/calculators

                   -  Promotion optimizer and ROI quantification

                   -  Efficient ordering and inventory management 

                       models

• A mutual manufacturer/retailer scorecard to measure the in-market impact of execution and mark progress toward the vision

                     -   Typically includes metrics such as sales, profit, 

                         and retail productivity that are deemed most vital

                         to retailer and manufacturer partners.

• Most strategic selling platforms are supported by a significant training program to ensure organization is equipped to succeed with their new tools and capabilities

Key benefits of strategic selling platforms:

• Forces concise articulation of brand and category goals and priorities – both internally and in manufacturer/retailer dialogue
• Enables compelling and consistent discussions between manufacturer personnel and their retailer counter-parts                                                                                                                 
• Establishes high-level goals and themes that can be continually reinforced in retailer discussions drive compliance and alignment over time

                -  Avoids "theme of the month” syndrome which dilutes

                    manufacturer credibility

• Provides a unifying envelope in which manufacturer can position all key initiatives

                 - Initiatives shift from being viewed as a string of one-

                   offs to building blocks toward a higher level growth

                   vision

• Provides clear and data/shopper-based rationale to influence retailer execution across key in store elements
• Enables productive and consistent retailer engagement that can significantly elevate a manufacturer’s category thought leadership stature in the eyes of their key retailer partners
  

Getting Started

To learn more about how GfK Strategic Selling Platforms can help you elevate your thought leadership with retailers and grow your business,  contact us today.