Distributor

Depletions matter. Unlock distribution optimization.

No surprise here, but distributors are caught in the middle. They ship products to stores who resell them. Sometimes these stores share or publish their consumption data, often they do not. As such, often a distributor's best source if market intelligence are their own activities - daily-level, item-level, outlet-level depletions data. At the same time, the supplier-clients of these distributors need to know how their brands are performing in non-tracked channels (like on-premise in the alcohol market). How can a distributor glean the most insights from their depletions data and facilitate secure data sharing with suppliers? TABS Analytics.

At TABS Analytics, we use industry specific knowledge to develop metrics and methodologies to gain insights from your depletions. The tools that we develop allow the user to quickly determine how they want to examine the data and then make decisions based on historical data or strategies that are put in place at the Executive level. Measure performance against budget targets or supplier goals. Absolutely know, well in advance, if you are not tracking to your forecast, and intelligently identify where. Layer in other data sources for more insights - like demographics data or your selling organization.to personalize the depletions insights to your team. Bench-mark performance against state or national averages to uncover opportunities for improvement. Change the conversation from "pushing cases" to "optimizing profitable distribution."

Imagine what happens when management conversations transition from, "Let's get out there and sling cases!" to "You are under-performing on this brand versus state velocity averages in casual dining with this assortment. The Washington team is crushing it in that space, let's drill in and see how they are doing that."

Data Integration - True edge on the competition

While stand-alone tools can be very impactful to the distributor and brands business, the integration of data sources is the next frontier and TABS Analytics is leading the way in terms of those joins and what that brings to the decision makers. At the top of the list for every stakeholder in the value chain is the intersection of depletions from the distributor to the retailer along with syndicated data to show consumption at the retail point.

The benefits of linking up the two sources are many with supply chain and inventory management leading the way along with the ability to push additional sales, better understanding of your channel strategies and execution as well as a way to measure overall strategic planning. For the larger distributors, TABS Analytics has models developed which will track store-level data and be able to add that granularity to make decisions on promotional effectiveness, merchandising, pricing, new product innovation, and more.

Add significant value to your supplier relationships. Differentiate with shared analytics.

As a distributor, managing a portfolio of suppliers and brands is a monumental task. There are so many variables and forces that contribute to the performance of your team and that of the suppliers. Central to a distributor's success are the relationships they maintain with their supplier partners. Most challenging to these relationships is the visibility gap between distributor actions and supplier results. More than anything, your suppliers want to know what activity is happening with their brands, and whether or not the plan is going to be met. At TABS Analytics, we convert that tension into loyalty by letting you share performance to goal insights in real time.

Easily create and manage supplier-specific analytics portals with auto-refreshing reports and dashboards to foster true partnership, fact-based and realistic planning, and measurement against shared objectives. Doing so will add real value to the already valuable services you provide. Most importantly, suppliers will respond with appreciation and their own ideas for how collectively you can identify and close distribution gaps. Supplier information needs are so important that you may discover that providing shared insights is one of the best supplier recruitment tools you have! TABS Analytics provides an opportunity for distributors differentiate in a personalized manner. Anyone can buy trucks, but your partnership and insights commitment to suppliers extends deeper.

Maximizing Every Day

What is your Sales team’s most valuable asset? Their time. The typical distributor has so many inefficiencies built into their daily operation due to the complexity of the logistics, the massive size and scope of the market, and the lack of preparation of hard facts that could have led to an easy deal being closed. One of our latest tools at TABS Analytics, the Distribution Opportunity Assessment, can help to vastly improve all of these variables and maximize everyone’s time and resources.

Imagine if your sales team member received a list each morning of where they were headed for their daily visits and it was backed with cutting edge analytics and reports to empower them to advise the outlet on what SKUs they should order both in their portfolio and outside of it. The form will be very easy to read and share with the buyers and illustrate the potential gains from executing the recommendations. We have pushed the envelope on new technologies to make those daily email bursts hit the right inboxes, and give the teams the best arsenal at their disposal to win in the trenches.

Know where you are going, and when you get there

Road trips without maps are called 'wandering,' which is fine for a vacation, but terrible for business.

For many distributors, the forecasting and goal setting process with suppliers is often a one-way street where suppliers communicate their desired growth, independently from real-time knowledge about remaining distribution value. With TABS Analytics, we advocate for fact-based assessments of potential distribution coupled with weighted velocity projections on remaining distribution. We call that an Opportunity Assessment model, and it informs in very real terms, the remaining distribution and sales potential of a brand in a given channel or geography. When distributors aid their supplier partners in identifying the true potential, both parties can come together on responsible and achievable goals by channel, state, salesperson and more.

Further, our depletions insights will identify the most productive channels, regions, and even customers for a given brand or category, allowing for a targeted effort against specific opportunities. We can provide a rank report of unsold customers for an item, in descending order by projected sales. Only then can the distributor and supplier have a discussion around the investment required to secure the remaining distribution, as we all know that last 5% of distribution is by far the most expensive to get. Hunting is a lot easier when you know where to look.

Let's have a conversation about informed forecasting, goal setting, and the Opportunity Assessment process.