Is Your Field Team Making The Most Out Of Their Retail Store Visits?
By Matt Talbot, CEO, Co-Founder, GoSpotCheck
Field teams form a powerful front line— visiting retail accounts, collecting critical data and communicating intelligence back to management. However they are conducting their business in silos, unaware of how their work plays a part in the larger enterprise. All too often field teams are simply going through the motions—asking prescribed questions without knowing the importance behind them.
In today’s unpredictable and volatile marketplace, it is critical that field teams be proactive to deliver actionable value. Here’s how you can ensure your field team has the right tools and ancillary support they need to make the most out of their retail store visits.
As a manager, provide a clear picture of the information needed to make impactful business decisions. Make sure your field team knows exactly what kind of information they need to be collecting, and why the business needs access to this insight. Having a clear picture of the end goal or result incentivizes field teams to collect the most accurate and thorough data possible.
Storing data from previous visits also allows field teams to build on information gleaned from previous visits. This boosts efficiencies and enables field teams to drive superior value.
Empower your field team with rich, structured data. Field representatives can be proactive when they conduct account visits when armed with shareable, clear data sets and quantitative evidence to support brand goals. With illuminating data at their fingertips in a mobile data collection application, field teams can even go one step further—generating reports in real time for retail partners, revealing sales trends and planogram compliance shortfalls. Armed with rich, structured data like this, reps can contribute to important decisions about product placement, activating particular SKUs and more.
Arming your field reps with the information necessary to obtain optimal shelf space and product exposure can also ensure team members are making the most out of their retail visits. With mobile data collection, field teams can conduct compliance reviews to ensure that planograms and merchandising tactics are being executed correctly. This means reps can identify problems such as stockouts or hidden items that can back up their arguments with proof while they’re on site. It also allows them the opportunity to proactively respond to the issue at hand. Historically, third parties such as distributors and merchandisers carried out such reviews. But now, with structured data and analysis of in-store planograms and benchmarks, field reps can pinpoint issues and lobby for more attractive and favorable product placement directly.
Lastly, offer data capture opportunities for special events. With customized data field inputs like day of week, top items sold per day, and special media-rich features, brands and reps can quantify their presence and value at new store launches like never before. It’s invaluable intelligence that reps can bring to their management teams internally and to their retail partners, offering insight-driving data that enables improved preparation for future key events.
No matter your mission, make sure you arm your field team with the information they need to make the most out of their retail visits.