Sales Tracking Harding Food Services sells a variety of snack foods. Management has seen substantial growth in sales since establishing the business 10 years ago, but a recent leveling-off of sales has made the sales team wonder if they're missing out on something that can help them grow to higher levels yet. By mapping out its sales results, Harding can gain a fresh perspective on its operations.
The first step Harding takes is to map out the sales of each of its three main products throughout its sales region. In doing so, Harding's management notices that few of its products do well in all markets. In places where crackers are good sellers, potato chips in particular often do much more poorly. Likewise, communities where potato chips sell well are often tough markets for crackers.
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These findings help Harding's sales team to see what's happening from a new perspective. It helps them to ask questions that can help them get back on the track to sales growth: What is it about some markets that make pretzels sell so well there? Are there other ways of promoting potato chips in these markets that will drive up their sales there too? Are there some markets where pretzels should sell well, according to overall patterns, but don't?
The ability of location analysis to rapidly analyze and display large amounts of information makes it a natural for helping the sales team come up with new ideas to increase sales. |
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