Transforming a field sales team for success — Independent Liquor (NZ)

Transforming a field sales team for success - Independent Liquor (NZ)

ILNZ, now known as Asahi Beverages NZ, was first to pioneer RTD beverages 25 years ago. Founded by Kiwi entrepreneur Michael Erceg, ILNZ challenged the dominant two beverage companies by creating innovative products such as Woodstock, which is now the highest selling RTD beverage in New Zealand.

UNDERSTANDING THE SITUATION

The Challenge

Faced with a highly competitive sales environment and just 10 months to turn it around, ILNZ sales director Brendan Smith approached Insightful.Mobi to partner in transforming ILNZ’s field sales team approach.

In early 2014 much of ILNZ’s sales process was paper based. It was out of date, prone to errors and inconsistencies, and hid much of the data that sales representatives could use to service their clients efficiently.

The Opportunity

Advances in digital connectivity and app development have created revolutionary new ways for field staff to interact with clients. By identifying the limitations of the old system, ILNZ understood that an app-based sales system could open up many new opportunities to improve the process, eliminate errors, and produce efficiencies that would ultimately increase sales.

INSIGHTFUL.MOBI

Field Sales Solution Providers

ILNZ contacted Insightful.Mobi, New Zealand’s leading field sales solution provider to develop a cutting-edge mobile solution for their field staff. Insightful.Mobi had already proven itself in the beverages market having transformed of the majority of non-alcoholic beverage distributors across Australia & New Zealand. The project was set up to be a collaborative solution right from the start, with ILNZ sales teams leading the requirement in close collaboration with Insightful.Mobi.

Working Together

This close collaboration ensured the teams mapped out every process required, and how it needed to interface with existing enterprise systems. Working this closely together clearly defined the overall requirements for the new field sales tool.

QUANTIFIABLE COMMERCIAL RESULTS

Realising the Rewards

After 10 months in development, Insightful.Mobi and the ILNZ sales team had a working app, which underwent extensive field-testing. The benefits of the new system were immediately evident:

Higher profitability - reps have become order makers, not just order takers, now selling the most profitable products to the right customers

Improved Sales Volumes – having appropriate data available in the field meant the reps could optimise stock levels for each client by identifying stock ranging gaps

26% Boost in Rep Productivity – the old paper based sales process was complicated, inefficient and slow to enter orders. Reps now have more time for up-selling clients, improving store compliance and being focused on retail sell out

Merchandiser coordination – the app allows merchandisers to coordinate more succinctly with sales reps’ activities

65% jump infield sales order taking – Better tools in the hands of the sales reps have transformed their ability to place orders in the field, increasing from 30% of customer in store calls to 95%. This frees up precious inbound call centre resources to focus on outbound sales

Large reduction in keying errors – the system reduced errors made at point of sale by due to simplicity and immediate processing of customer requests

PATH TO SUCCESS

What Made the Difference?

Comprehensive understanding

Insightful.Mobi focuses first on identifying the business challenge and the best opportunities to fix it rather than rushing out to buy or develop tools before the problem has been identified

Collaborative approach

There is no substitute for the inside knowledge that comes from the sales team. They are set up to own and run the project. IT can provide support and capability, but Insightful.Mobi recognise these projects are a sales challenge

Intuitive usability

By engaging the end users in the design phase we were confident we could instil intuitive usability characteristics by building sales tools that were designed by users for users

Experienced Leadership

Partnering with New Zealand’s leading field sales solution providers Insightful.Mobi and the selection Vodafone as its mobility partner

Give Your Team the EdgeIf you want to move your field sales team to next level of capability, contact the fields sales solutions specialists at Insightful.Mobi.