Pouring over data: transforming sales data into strategy
“Numbers don’t lie.” It’s a common expression, and it may well be true. But one thing is sure: The data’s truths aren’t always obvious.
“Data mining” is an apt term for our discussion here. Identifying patterns and relationships in data that can help solve business problems is a skill rapidly becoming invaluable in our industry (although that fact is not always obvious either).
Data is just as important as product knowledge!
The wine and spirits industry is so intensely focused on the product that it attracts people with a passion and deep knowledge of the products.
Consider how much we revere knowledge certifications we proudly display in our bios.
With so many headwinds tamping down sales expectations, the need to leverage technology and data has never been more needed.
But here is the GOOD NEWS 🗞️: the data can help you sell more!
How data helps you sell
If you focus only on the product’s features and benefits, you will be acting like hundreds of other people who are doing the exact same thing.
Differentiation is challenging to come by UNLESS you bring more to the party besides your product knowledge.
Here are some practical, tangible ways data helps salespeople sell their products.
It helps you fish where the fish are 🐟
It is estimated that more than half a million licensed accounts in the USA can purchase wine. But this is a hard fact: 20% of the accounts purchase 80% of all wine and spirits!
The 80/20 Rule is absolute, and you must pay attention to it in your account selection to ensure you stay within your annual sales goals.
Most salespeople need to spend more time analyzing the account base to see where the richest opportunities lay.
Some of the data points worth pondering are:
- The amount of foot traffic the account receives can be determined by its number of Google reviews, Yelp reviews, and other publicly available statistics. A perfect correlation exists between the number of reviews and the corresponding foot traffic.
- To identify high-volume on-premise accounts, study whether or not the account does lots of private events (see their website where this information is obvious). Restaurants with lots of outdoor seating do far more volume than those without.
- Regarding off-premise, see if the account prioritizes email marketing and social media presence. Do they clearly focus on eCommerce sales? Many independent package stores sell more online than they do in their brick-and-mortar stores!
- Regional chains are particularly attractive account types to target, as one “call point” translates to multiple locations.
- Sales mix (another key metric) is the percentage of total sales that alcohol makes up. Spirits, wine, and beer “sales mix” can further break this down.
- Another great data point for on-premise is to look closely at their “day parts.” Day parts go well beyond breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They include happy hour, brunch, and late night. If you are selling champagne or sparkling wines, for example, places that do a massive brunch business are perfect places to hunt.
Focus on accounts that invest in their own success
Nowadays, it is easy to discover whether or not an account is investing in its own success.
There are several places to obtain this information, including:
- Social media feeds. Study the posts thoroughly to see how, what, and when the account promotes wine or spirits. This is a strategy that is vastly underutilized by most sales pros.
- Use tools like Meta’s Ads Library to see what ads an account is running. This is a goldmine of valuable information!
- Google searches like “best happy hour in Cleveland” will display the results in descending order of popularity.
- Quarterly earnings reportscontain amazing amounts of information about the company’s investments in growth. Are they opening new stores? If so, how many, when and where?
- Company websites like this one for Thunderdome Restaurant Groupalmost always contain information about store locations and promotional efforts. Sign up to be on their email list, and your inbox will soon be filled regularly with information about an account’s promotions.
Study your own sales data intensely
The key metric you want to zero in on here is “velocity,” which is sales per POD. Take a look at your top ten independent off-premise accounts. Strive to discover what about this account causes them to purchase as much product (volume) as they do and then find other accounts with those attributes.
- Do they have multiple locations?
- Do they do regular events?
- Are they heavily invested in eCommerce sales? (Hint: Do they aggressively promote the growth of their email list?)
- Are they using the product in their banquets and events?
- Do they spend money on advertising?
Time spent on this type of “comparative analysis” yields rich rewards in creating key account target lists!
Do your best to write down the “attributes” of the account. Your own sales data can help you better understand which accounts you should look for that are similar to the ones doing lots of business with you now.
Focus on leading indicators of volume (not lagging indicators)
As you study your own sales data, look for “patterns.”
If you have wine-by-the-glass placements, those will produce more volume than simply being listed on the wine list.
Also, please look at display activity, cold box placements, and cross-promotional activities for off-premise.
You must measure where and how many of these leading indicators produce volume for you and do it diligently and consistently.
A modern sales execution platformis excellent for providing you with the leading volume indicators.
In addition to the KPIs listed above, measure the number of presentations made and the outcomes of each. You should also have an airtight system for measuring order commitments and the successful fulfillment of those orders. Please don’t leave this up to your distributors alone to track.
Due to the swollen nature of your distributors’ portfolios, we are in the DIY age. Brands must make the necessary investments in their own data and then use it.
These days, every salesperson should be an “ad person”
Ad people study ads, but so should modern salespeople. Having a system in place to monitor the advertising efforts of your top customers can yield many insights.
The line between what a marketing function is and what a sales function is is blurred more than ever. These two key departments must work closely together, and the best way to do that is for both departments to study what’s going on with retail ads, scans, and promotional activities.
Patterns will emerge as you consistently study your customers’ (and competitors’) promotional efforts.
Let the data show you the way to sales success!
If your sales team has fallen into the all-too-common trap of making lots of sales calls and presentations without preparing to sell, you will not consistently achieve your sales and revenue goals.
Data and the tools to analyze it are no longer “nice to have.” They are a must!
If you’d like to learn more about this and see what the “mountaintop” of sales success looks like, we invite you to contact one of our sales execution experts here. Operators are standing by!
And while you are here, please grab our free checklist called “Turning Data Into Revenue!
