QUICK FIX TO DRIVE SALES .... INCREASE DISTRIBUTION

For a Consumer Packaged Goods Company, one of the most obvious ways to drive sales is to increase the distribution of its existing skus. Makes sense doesn't it? If your product is on shelf and available in more stores (we will assume for the moment there is consumer demand and it's in the right part of the store) more people will see it, and you will convert more shopper's to buyers.

Sounds easy doesn't it??? OK, Sales Team, go out and get 100% distribution!!!

However every sales person will role their eyes (I might even get a nasty note) and rightly so, when their business leaders have the NERVE to say that! Their answer back to the Business Leaders? How? Or, perhaps worse, they will just tune out the request (depending on the people) and figure it's just business leaders making unreasonable requests again!!!

So today, I am going to tell YOU, the business leaders, marketers, and sales team, how to increase distribution. And yes, it's easy, but you would be surprised how few companies are doing this.....

PRIORITIZE Your SKUS!

Yes you heard me, that's what I said, PRIORITIZE. OK, OK you're right it's a bit more complicated than that. I will explain. But before I do, business leaders, marketers, here's the challenge: if your business has 100 unique products (SKU's) and the average grocery store only carries 50 SKUs in the category , we should all agree that you are NEVER going to get 100% distribution on all 100 products.

Do we all agree?!

So does it mean you should cut the number of SKUs? No, not necessarily. It does mean that the business must adjust it's expectations. The business cannot get 100% Distribution on all 100 Skus. However, you could get 100% distribution on your top 5 or so skus (presuming they are all round solid sellers). And I would bet that there are probably a lot of top SKUS that are not 100% in distribution. And understand this, that by increasing the distribution on just these 5 skus, you will drive significant increase in sales (they are after all the top sellers!). You'll have to do your own calculations, but it can be significant!

So how do you improve it?

STEP 1: Gain alignment from Marketing/Sales/Retail Sales/Retailers - on the top 5 skus. (Not always an easy task depending brand marketers etc.)
STEP 2: ACTIVATE as outlined below:

a) 100% of all planograms MUST have all 5 SKUS included (from the biggest to the smallest set) at all customers
b) You must Prepare a List of the 5 SKUS (let's call it the CORE SKU List) for Sales, Retail Sales and Inside Sales
c) You must then measure your distribution of the skus and track the improvement
d) You then must reward your team for achieving these objectives.

I promise you, if you all get aligned and focused on this objective and follow these relatively simple steps you will definitely improve distribution AND you will increase your sales!

So what are you waiting for??????