Driving Your Field Team to Fight for the 'First Moment of Truth'

In my last post I focused on the First Moment of Truth, when the consumer makes the decision to buy your product over a competitor’s, and the 3 F’s (Featured, Fresh and Findable) that position you to win that moment.  Today I’ll talk about execution, and how you can develop your field team fight for that moment of truth as hard as you do when you are in the field.

Of course, it all starts with a plan.  You need to know what you want to get accomplished in the field in order to manage your team effectively.  You need to have great packaging, specific in-store promotion plans, and an understanding of where on the shelf and in the store your product will perform best. Additionally, you need to know exactly what actions you want taken in the store to make your product win that first moment of truth. Once you have these pieces in place, you can put your field team on a mission to fight the battle at the retail shelf.  Your job at this point is to organize, coach and inspire your field team to compete with as much drive and enthusiasm as you would if you were able to visit every outlet yourself. You can do this through: Precise Communication, Coaching and Accountability.

Precise Communication

Your reps need to know exactly what is expected of them. Your directions need to be precise and measurable, and you need to communicate them in a way that your reps can easily digest and understand. Don’t make the mistake of spending time and money creating in-depth documentation about every task that your reps need to complete. Instead, create light-weight instructions and review them with your reps in a team meeting, on a web or phone conference, or one-on-one when you do your ride-alongs.  A best practice is to send out simple instructions ahead of time.  The key here is to keep them simple to make sure they actually get reviewed in full, then review and discuss them in an environment where your reps can ask as many questions as they need to fully understand the tasks.

Equip your reps with checklists covering all of the most important details that they need to address on every retail visit they make. Ideally, these checklists are simple to use electronic forms that provide you with instant visibility to exactly what they are completing in the field. These checklists should augment any data collection forms that your reps are filling out, and should be designed to act as reminders for them.  For example, your may include items like “Checked in with manager”, “Reviewed Cross-Sell Strategy with Manager”, and “Requested additional position in Bakery Aisle”. Just seeing these items on the checklist will reinforce your rep’s attention to getting them done. In this way, your data collection tools and processes can be structured to communicate priorities and develop positive work patterns for your reps. 

Coaching

Good coaching is the most effective way to build great reps who will represent your products just as passionately as you do. Spending one-on-one time with your reps gives you the opportunity to observe the subtleties of how they work, and identify changes they can make to improve both productivity and performance. Make it a point to conduct field ride-alongs with your reps, particularly in the early days of a new program. When you do, spend most of the first visit or two observing, taking note of the things that your rep does well, as well as the pieces that they need to work on. Review specific observations with them, making sure that they understand the impact of the changes that you are prescribing, and then demonstrate best practices on the next store visit. This will ensure that your communication is clear and unambiguous.

When you can’t go on physical ride-alongs with your reps, simulate them by reviewing the call notes and forms from their visits in detail. Make it part of your process to have reps take before and after photos of their activities (Shelf merchandising, POP placement, Display building…).  These will serve as documentation of their work, but more importantly will give you visibility to exactly how they are completing their tasks.  Coach remotely by providing direct feedback on what you see in their notes, photos and forms, and give them the opportunity to ask for clarification or additional direction.

Accountability

Finally, have a plan for accountability!  Make sure that you can measure what your reps do in the field, both quantitatively (e.g.; how many visits, or how many pieces of POP placed), and qualitatively (e.g.; visual appeal of displays, or relative value of placements gained in a store).  Take these measures regularly, and review your findings with your reps. If you put target measures in place, and your reps know that you care enough to take these measurements, they will be much more likely to perform to the standards that you set.

Create a scorecard for each rep that reports the most important metrics, and use this scorecard to drive your coaching sessions. This will reinforce a culture of accountability, and will give reps a concrete way to see their own progress.  Posting these scorecards in a team accessible place (on-line or on a wall) works well to amplify the sense of responsibility that each rep has to the team, and can actually build a competitive spirit across the organization.  Consider posting ‘Rep Standings’ as part of your accountability plan.

Focusing on these three keys: Precise Communication, Coaching and Accountability will drive your field team to effectively and passionately fight the battle of the shelf, and help you win that first moment of truth.