September 2018
Hello, are you ready to elevate and align your organization through fact-based presentations and storytelling skills? Starting with category management foundations will support your success.
The last year has been a blast for our CMKG team, with much of our time spent working with suppliers and distributors in building their organization’s approach to fact-based presentations and storytelling.
I say "organization’s approach" for a purpose – it’s not just the sales team that has an opportunity to build their skills – it should include category management and marketing teams as well. A fact-based approach can be a catalyst to create organizational alignment and break down silos that are inherent in many companies.
One of our clients referred to it as pressing the “RESET” button to get everyone on the same page.
Sales organizations are realizing that their traditional approach to selling in their latest initiative – whether it’s a new product, a promotion or new idea – isn’t working as well as it did in the past. Marketing and branding develop the initiatives and then set objectives for the sales teams (typically with limited understanding about retailers or their categories or Shoppers), while Sales is responsible for achieving those objectives.
A traditional approach is problematic in today’s world of more educated and data-savvy retailers who are looking for Shopper solutions that will help grow their overall business and not just brand-focused solutions.
So what can we do? Change the current approach to a more strategic one that includes:
A move to a fact-based presentation and storytelling approach starts with the category management foundations.
Once these foundational category management skills are developed, the opportunity is to teach folks how to incorporate the relevant insights into a strategic, fact-based presentation that has logic and flow.
The truth is, most of us struggle to develop and deliver succinct, persuasive presentations because we lack a properly defined purpose for the presentation, good PowerPoint skills, ability to create logic and flow, helpful design skills to create the best charts and slides, and/or the judgment about which slides are most relevant — to name a few.
Consider our online training that focuses on improving your fact-based presentation and strategic sales understanding:
From Trend Watching: You’re obsessed with the future of retail. We’re obsessed with the future of retail. Every CEO, senior executive, CMO and CIO is obsessed. Every trend firm, every consultancy. Everyone. Right?
Read more: The Future of Retail
From The Hartman Group: It's long been the belief that “Mom” is solely responsible for a household’s grocery shopping. But The Hartman Group’s Food Shopping in America 2017 report is once again proving that men may be increasingly more gatherer than hunter.
From Catalina: New shopper and trip-based research from Catalina shows that: Center store categories remain strong at 60 annual trips per shopper, per store. This is down just one trip per shopper per year, despite the onslaught of ecommerce and discount retailers.
From Nielsen: Today, nearly 30% of Americans buy groceries online. That number is expected to grow to 70% in less than 10 years.
But in planning for the future, we can’t ignore the present. Shoppers today buy according to their current needs: meal planning, health, value and convenience.
And more than ever, consumers are turning to fresh foods. This is why viewing fresh foods in the context of the rest of the FMCG universe is essential.
From RetailWire: A new study from the University of South Florida finds that loud music in a restaurant or grocery store leads to more unhealthy food choices, while quieter music leads to heathier ones. Ambient music can influence healthy or unhealthy food buying, according to the researchers, because it directly impacts heart rate and arousal. Softer music has a calming effect, making people more mindful of what people order in a restaurant. Louder environments increase stimulation and stress, leading to less-mindful choices.
From cpgdatainsights.com: Here’s a recent question we received from a CPG Data Insights reader:
“I know that ACV is not additive, but is there a way to calculate total ACV for a Brand when you have 5 UPCs with ACV measure? Can you average the ACV of the 5 UPCs for total Brand ACV?”
Before I answer the question, let me answer another question that some of you may have: Why would somebody ask this?
From Progressive Grocer: Nielsen has launched what it calls the “earliest read into the retail and consumer goods marketplace” through its new Friday morning data delivery, with the intent of helping companies identify and move faster on market trends. The new service is provided to reduce the wait time for weekly retail sales performance data, which, industry-wide, often carries through the weekend and into the early days of the following week.
From Chain Store Age (CSA): Consumers prefer to shop in brick-and-mortar stores when it comes to the second-biggest shopping season of the year. Mass merchant stores remain the No. 1 back-to-school shopping destination, drawing 83% of respondents in Deloitte’s annual “Back-to-School” survey, followed by dollar stores (38%), online-only retailers (36%) and off-price stores (32%).
From Supermarket News: With the grocery channel challenged for growth, the health & beauty care (HBC) and general merchandise (GM) categories offer high development opportunities, attractive shopper demographics and high-ticket value visits, according to the second annual “The Power of GM and HBC in Grocery” report released yesterday by Acosta and the Food Marketing Institute (FMI). Combined, more than $80 billion is spent each year on HBC and general merchandise in brick-and-mortar stores, yet shoppers are spending the majority of their money on those categories in other channels.
Tips for Reading the Room Before a Meeting or Presentation
6 Ways to Look More Confident During a Presentation
Presentations have become the de facto business communication tool. Companies are started, products are launched, audiences are educated, in small or large part because of the quality of presentations. Likewise, ideas, endeavors and even careers can be cut short due to ineffective communication. Out of the millions of presentations delivered each day, only a small percentage are really delivered well. Read more.
Selling is a requirement in any business. In the retail industry, selling takes place both internally and externally for Retailers and Vendors across departments and teams. Read More
All 2018 and more than 15 additional webinar recordings are available in your online Training & Resource Center.
You can watch the latest recording by signing up for our Free-Level Membership, where you’ll also be able to check out other training resources.
Presentation skills continue to be an area that we can all improve on, and it’s a topic that we’ve been working on with a lot of clients through live and webinar-based training sessions.
At our upcoming webinar, join Sue Nicholls of CMKG for great tips to draw insights and craft better stories through fact-based presentations. Plus, she’ll share a new storyboarding tool that’s brand new. Hope to see you there.
You have several options for Category Management Membership on a monthly, bi-annual, or annual subscription:
Our library of accredited courses has a new, refreshed look, new tools, and more resources and content! This is a huge undertaking that takes a vast amount of resources and time – but we are always upgrading and enhancing to keep training relevant and new. UPDATE: 75% of courses have been upgraded. All others will be completed by the end of October 2018.
We have developed and launched a unique, customized live training program that can be one or two days long (depending on your priorities), with “Data to Insights” and “Fact-Based Presentations” incorporating an awesome program that is specifically tailored to on-premise teams.
We're a global training company in Canada, dedicated to retailers, suppliers and solution providers. Whether you're a category manager or part of a sales or marketing team, our personalized programs, for organizations, teams and individuals, are tailored to elevate your skills.