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If you are in the food service industry, this white paper shared by Jim Klass may offer insight into the data you need to measure and how to get more value from it.

Lack of Operator Visibility Threatens Growth

Think about the burning questions you have about your foodservice business – the ones whose

answers have always been out of reach. That list likely includes at least some of the following:

 How is our volume spread across operator segments, and how are those trending?

Which trade programs with my distributors and contracted customers are driving

business growth, and which are not?

Where do we have untapped cross-sell opportunities?

How will operators react to our changes in our prices and trade terms?

How much does it cost us to acquire new business when all of the marketing programs are netted out?

So what keeps you from answering these questions?

Most likely it involves being disconnected from the operator, having information spread across multiple systems, and too much manual effort required to analyze your data. Operator end-unit information is fragmented across deviated price claims from multiple distributors, rebate claims from contract customers, loyalty program redemptions, and others. Without a way to link operator information across sources, getting a complete picture of any single operator’s behavior is difficult. Despite these obstacles, manufacturers must find a way to piece their overall demand picture together.

Tailoring sales, marketing and assortment decisions to operators’ preferences demands accurate knowledge of where your business is and how it is changing. The combination of slower industry growth and rising obligations to both distributors and operators makes it even more critical to improve decision making in these areas. The present situation in which manufacturers spend nearly twenty cents out of every dollar earned on trade programs whose effectiveness cannot be measured.

Key points include:

• Continuously refreshing your view of the market
• Advanced analytics to make information actionable
• Going beyond insights to results-driven execution

Access the full white paper, Putting the Operator into Focus, on MarketIntelligence.Solutions.com.