The POI’s Recommendations Mirror GreatVines
A widely regarded report from an influential industry analyst organization contained recommendations for suppliers and distributors that could have easily been cribbed from the pages of GreatVines papers, studies and posts. Read on for the details about this illuminating report and the very sound advice it offers to sales and marketing professionals.
The Promotion Optimization Institute (POI) 2017 Retail Execution Vendor Panorama report has been released and GreatVines is included in the esteemed report for the second time in as many years. The POI is a respected industry association serving members comprised of manufacturers and retailers. The POI’s Vendor Panorama provides qualitative analysis into a market – in this case solutions for retail promotions optimization – and its direction, maturity and participants. This year’s report contained a section on recommendations for organizations seeking to optimize retail promotions performance, and the GreatVines team was pleased to note the extent to which they address each of the recommendations. Here’s what the POI recommends and how GreatVines is already helping its customers to achieve them.
The recommendation most notable for its direct correlation to GreatVines’ own strategies begins, “Continue to prioritize capabilities that will help users be more effective, i.e. to ‘sell more’.’” With the organizational tagline, “Sell More. Better.”, GreatVines is known for embracing the notion that capabilities should take precedence over other concerns. This idea is best expressed by GreatVines’ focus on emphasizing leading indicators of sales as opposed to lagging indicators, e.g., Leading Indicators Turn Good Sales Reps into Great Ones and Ditch Depletion Incentives for Sales Reps!? Why You Should Focus on Leading Indicators. For a more detailed dive into this strategy, readers should download the GreatVines white paper, “Not Just More, But Better Sales” available here. It was particularly interesting to note that this year’s survey showed about 75% of respondents presently lack “sell more” capabilities in their operations. As the POI notes, pursuing such capabilities delivers “significant competitive advantage to those who attain them.”
The Vendor Panorama Report also recommends continuing focus on the requirements of non-field users like managers and other office-based support personnel. The report notes that not all solutions provide the means for collaborative processes between the salesforce and those in administrative roles. The report basically describes the functionality already baked into GreatVines platform allowing non-field users to, “manage the configuration of your retail execution, create reports, add users, add fields, or perform other such tasks without involving the IT organization or the vendor.” It seems intuitive to the community of GreatVines users that this is a critical success factor. Yet, there are clearly many other solutions that do not deliver this highly advantageous capability.
The last recommendation from the POI survey notes that, “only 26% [of respondents] felt that they had received best practices in accordance to their solution” from their chosen provider and that most only offered as much upon request. GreatVines makes it a core facet of its solution and service delivery to regularly engage in business reviews, generate materials conveying best practices and effective strategies for success. From this blog, to to the studies, papers and infographics in GreatVines’ resource library, to the Sales Execution Summit and numerous other events hosted and/or attended by our industry experts, GreatVines places a high premium on arming our community of users with all the knowledge, perspectives and techniques they need to succeed.
While there is always plenty of opportunity for improvement and growth, GreatVines is proud to be included in this year’s POI Vendor Panorama and is especially gratified to see that the POI’s recommendations align so closely to those they make to customers on a regular basis.
