How to Achieve Superior Beverage Sales in 2021

With another year underway, we turn our sights toward ensuring this year’s sales effectiveness and efficiency efforts can endure through a climate of constant change. Whether your sales organization has 2 or 2,000 people, we’re certain that focusing on the following activities will give you the leverage you need to achieve superior beverage sales.

• Focus goals on leading indicators that strategically drive your sales – like Key Accounts sold, National Account authorizations, displays installed, placement features, supporting POS, or staff trainings conducted (virtual or in-person).

• Make results versus goals visible to reps and execs alike.

• Define your brand’s “Perfect Account”; support this methodology with survey scores and goals to measure progress.

• Utilize Account attributes via CRM to segment and target your efforts. With a changing marketplace your brand priorities are evolving. Track Key Accounts that are open, note who’s offering curbside pickup or delivery, hosting virtual events, or doing online sales.

• Capture names and email addresses of key people in the trade to keep them up-to-date with relevant content on a regular basis, such as seasonal releases, new product information, invitations to virtual events and tastings, etc.

• Analyze activities executed versus Account sales data to determine which activities are driving your business and which ones are just eating up time and budget.

• Expect Sales and Marketing teams to plan and detail their trade and Distributor programming in advance to provide visibility to everyone in the organization and tie activities to budgets.

• Set your pricing support strategy through the 3-tier system all the way to the consumer. Track prices and depletion allowances by channel. Use dashboards and reports to find opportunities.

• Prioritize visibility into how much an account paid for a product, including the no-discount price. This will save time and avoid surprise bill backs from your distributors.