We had helped to increase Coca-Cola sales by 6%. Want to know how?

TL;DR: SFA is an app/system which can increase sales, eliminate out-of-stocks, fix shelf share problems, boost promo (secondary placement) results and gives you control over all field employees activities (whether they are merchandisers, sales representatives, BDs or med reps).

For example, when we first started implementing EasyMerch in Coca-Cola Hellenic Russia, latter had conducted an independent audit, proving 6% sales increase in regions with our SFA implemented compared to regions with previous SFA (which brings us to the question “Not all yogurts oh.. SFA systems are equally healthy” which we will cover in another post).

Sales Force Automation system (or Field Force) is an essential daily tool to use in many FMCG departments which frequently covers up to 100% of daily activities.

This always starts with such easy things as trip plan execution control then goes to more sophisticated things as OSA (On Shelf Availability) and Shelf Share control using Image Recognition (merchandiser makes a photo of a shelf and results are calculated automatically), covers Promo Activation information and Ordering but infrequently goes far beyond to full automation of things like "Refrigerator Installation" or "Client Credit Limit Change" processes.

But is it always like that? What is a typical pitfall?

90% of SFA installations collect lots of data which goes nowhere and produces no impact. Why does this happen? 

SFA system must cover not only merchandiser activities, but also superiors' activities, and supply easy-to-read data to adjacent departments (Sales, Marketing, Trade Marketing, Execution etc) - this is the only way for a company to thrive from using an SFA system.

For example, KAM, responsible for national retail chain (say Auchan or Waitrose), must have an easy and comprehensible dashboard showing Shelf Share and Promo activation status, with ability to drill-down to in whatever direction one needs - be that Cities, Channels and individual Stores or Categories and Brands or Secondary Placement failure reasons.

Supervisor of merchandisers of Sales Reps must have at his fingertips the ability to control subordinates, change their trip plans online using mobile app and have specialized dashboards and analytics.

So, next time when you start looking for a new SFA system, always keep in mind questions: How far will a new system go beyond? Will it keep scaling with our needs? Will every department prosper from it?

Sometimes it can cover many more things than you ever imagined at the start of the journey - for example, hiring and onboarding automation.

Examples can be many, like HR filling in a request which goes to the supervisor to check new merchandiser prospects, fill in forms and return with a hiring confirmation or a bounce reason.

Sales Force Automation by EasyMerch

The SFA block allows you to automate field teams - whether they are merchandisers, sales or medical representatives, service workers, repairmen or engineers.

We provide the system as an application for field workers and a web portal for office workers, which in 99% of cases allows us to cover all the activities of employees in all areas (not only field work, but also training, coaching, motivation, etc.).

To better match your business processes, the system is customized to your needs and integrates with external systems - field employees receive customized questionnaires containing only those fields and reports that match your business, while executives and supervisors receive advanced analytics based on your KPI calculation methods.

As an example of our clients, a careful and precise implementation of EasyMerch brought following results, citation:

1. Increased availability (cooler occupancy raised from 44% to 75%) and increased assortment sold to the store 2.5 times
2. Helped to control field team and to organise sales representative’s work
3. Managed to conquest and sign in new clients and to install new fridges
4. Full merchandisers control merchandisers which saved lots of money
5. Stores coverage greatly increased (redistributed people and trip plans), share of active clients increased by 50%