Case Study 1:
Make Your Sales Force Into Hunters,
Rather Than Gatherers

Situation:

Pepsi-Cola has over 200 independent franchises, each a separate business entity. These locally-grown companies were not increasing the rate of sales as much as they could. One franchisee said, “We have truck drivers, not sales people. They fill orders and drop off product; they don’t initiate sales. We need to upskill our people and make it worth their while to sell.”

Solution:

We implemented a Management Sales Performance System (MSPS).  MSPS had several parts:  Role clarification to convert those order fillers into sales reps.  Job descriptions that clearly outline all responsibilities.  New company-wide procedures that provided integration of various functions and accountability for all.  And sales objectives of several kinds – more space or better space on the shelf or in the coolers, temporary displays, permanent displays, larger displays, better product position, resetting the products, placing cold space.  Salary would be based not only on case sales, but also on meeting these growth goals.

We coached top management at each franchise on the implementation of MSPS.  Top management meetings helped to decide on appropriate roles and procedures resulting in systems that fit each franchise.  Then these were cascaded to the next tier of management and on to front-line employees.

MSPS also had a follow-up element.  Six to 12 months after implementation, the MSPS follow-up assessed how well the franchise was developing their new sales culture and provided suggestions for improvement and growth.

Results:

The program had legs. MSPS bottlers still had the goal-setting and reporting boards posted in their sales rooms five years after the initial MSPS installation. The front line embraced having transparent sales objectives. Now their focus was on beating each other to the top of the sales ladder.

Case Study 2:
How Do We Stop Beating Up On Competition And Serve The Customer? A culture change wins the cola wars.

Situation:

The Cola Wars were battering each other while the customer’s needs were being ignored.  Sales people were confounded by common objections – “You cost me money when I run you as a loss leader.”  “Your margins aren’t good enough.”  And “Your competitor will do it for me if you don’t.”

Pepsi-Cola took a different approach to win the war.  They wanted their front-line employees to focus on the retail food store customer.  At the store level, this is the store manager.  At the chain level, the buyer.  In both cases, what mattered to the customer was how much money they made, how much traffic an ad generated, how much more each customer filled their shopping cart.  But the sales force didn’t know how to sell.  They knew only how to trade favors.

Solution:

We developed a two-prong approach.  First, we designed a sales training workshop that focused on customer communications.  The workshop was named PROFITS for step in the sales call:

• Prepare your objectives

• Relate to the customer

• Open with a need

• Feature benefits

• Interact

• Tackle Objections

• Seal the deal

PROFITS focused on identifying proactive, incremental sales objectives – more space on the shelf or cold space, another temporary display, larger displays, better product position, resetting the products.

The second part of the solution was to demonstrate results in the customer’s terms — the results and compared to the benchmarks in the grocery industry.  The business reviews showed profit per square foot, turn, volume, cash flow, and return on inventory invested.  Low margins were offset by rapid turn.  Direct-store delivery service added another 8% to the margin.  Wow!  Pepsi-Cola sales people sounded like food retailers – in the store and in the buyer’s office.

Results:

To analyze the effectiveness of this training, Pepsi compared those franchises with training and without.  Those with training had better sales results than those without training.

Case Study 3:
Upskilling as you move up the ladder.

Situation:

Four primary lines of business – grocery, convenience, restaurants, and vending. Each line of business has different needs, competition, objections. And each line of business has different distribution and sales practices.

Solution:

We developed the training courses for the Pepsi-Cola Management Institute and for Pepsi-Cola International.  We started with PROFITS and customized it for each line of business.  We continued with the business review program for the retailer and his management.  Then we continued up the chain of command to the Trade Management program.  This a team-building and business-building experience that got groups of franchisees to collaborate on large marketing programs without stepping over the line of price collusion.

To shore up these skills in the field, we developed COACH which taught front-line managers how to supervise their people.  This workshop consisted of 16 units, each taught by internal management and each providing an application exercise to ensure that the skills were used on the job.

For Pepsi International, sales training needed to be even more flexible and modularized so it would meet the various cultural differences in selling practices around the world.  It also needed to provide the skills, product knowledge, responses to objections for the seven primary international sales objectives.

Results:

 It’s difficult to measure results if all sales indicators go up. Which bottlers had a sales increase because of the training? To find that out, Pepsi conducted a “ring analysis” in which all the market conditions were the same for bottlers together in close proximity. Same market position. Same marketing dollars. Same product line and promotions. The findings – the bottlers with training had better sales results.