Your weekly disruption

Last week we outlined the ‘Superior Integrated Way’. Refer to blog http://www.superiorsales.com.au/welcome-to-the-superior-integrated-way/ The Superior Integrated Way builds on the premise that to ensure that the customer is at the heart of everything that we do, the Sales function has to be a vital cog from annual planning through to monthly cycle planning and a driver of business improvement reviews.

Today we are going to delve into the elements of where Sales can influence the Annual Planning process. Specifically where our business needs to play. Many moons ago we were both fortunate to work with businesses that had the mantra that “the sales plan was just as vital as the marketing plan”. Unfortunately over the ensuing years this ethos has been lost and in many companies the Sales function has viewed as an execution arm only. Thanks to many progressive companies, it is pleasing to see that Sales and in particular the ‘customer’ is now at the heart of everything we do.

Where to play is one of the most important decisions a business makes. It is here that the senior leadership takes responsibility for the direction of the business over the next 3-5 years. They define where in the market there is value to be captured and how we can put our assets to work to best capture the value. Every choice made here filters down to the rest of the business; making it imperative that we get this right.

In the complex markets in which we operate, our businesses face an endless number of opportunities and risks. But to effectively utilize our assets and capabilities to extract the maximum value for our business, we can only focus on a few opportunities and risks in a three to five year period. It is vital that the voice of the customer drives this decision-making.

Category Opportunity Assessment in the Superior Integrated Way process helps senior leaders identify and understand the largest value opportunities in the market and then prioritize those where the business can best capture that value. Too often the temptation is to go after the biggest, most attractive areas of absolute value in the market without taking into consideration our ability to win in those areas. These opportunities can be Sales led or Marketing led.

It is important to realize the Superior Integrated Way process focuses on the commercial aspects of the business strategy only. Improving business performance, however, is not down to commercial activities alone. There are inorganic growth opportunities such as acquisitions, ways of changing the rules of the game in the market (e.g. by building new routes to market) or ways of improving business economics (e.g. by finding new ways to make manufacturing more efficient). The Executive Team will have developed an overall Business Strategy, a high level understanding of profit pools and the value chain, and an in-depth understanding of what drives business profitability. This would be used in order to make choices about how to improve business performance from all perspectives, including a set of commercial priorities that should drive the thinking in Where to Play. The Business Strategy therefore provides critical context for Where to Play.

Where to Play is not just about where value sits in the market. How we go after that value with the assets of the business is just as important. In Category Opportunity Assessment we would ideally select prioritized growth opportunities / risks and define how to address these in Portfolio Strategy, organizing our assets (brands, packs, and channels), innovation and resources in the most impactful way.

However, as with every step in the Superior Integrated Way, it is possible to learn more in a subsequent step that makes you question the choices made previously. Therefore priorities are not cast in stone until the budgetshave been allocated and the organization has aligned behind the choices made.

Deciding Where to Play is complex; it is where we align multiple brands, in multiple packs through multiple channels at multiple price points.