Nutrabolt Leans into Retail Technology Through COVID

While it may be commonplace for CPG brands to leverage their retail execution platforms to drive sales performance in the field, Nutrabolt – one of the most globally well-recognized energy brands – has uncovered benefits from using their retail execution platform to promote connectivity and recognition throughout the company.

Hagen Panton, VP of Global Retail Development & Training at Nutrabolt explained that while their retail execution platforms, like Repsly, helps provide visibility for sales leaders and executives to understand what’s taking place in the field, “the biggest benefit we’ve unlocked for our team, especially this year, is connectivity and recognition of the amazing work our field team accomplishes,” Panton said.

Since 2002, Nutrabolt has been on a mission to innovate, inspire, and make products that maximize human potential accessible to all, and since partnering with Repsly in 2019, Nutrabolt’s field sales teams have been able to continue embodying their mission every day in the field. How? By leveraging insights from key data sources to hold competitions, coach, collaborate, and celebrate the work of their field teams in real-time.

Increased Connectivity

Before new technology came into play, Nutrabolt struggled to track their reps actions in the field. “Our rep managers had no visibility into what other reps were doing,” Panton said. “You need field and retail execution technology to put everything in one place for everybody to see, in a format that everybody can see it,” he added. “You need and want your executives, managers, and reps to see photos from the field, and rather than being isolated on a handful of different phones, it’s all stored in one place. My CEO can now pick up the Repsly app on a Sunday morning and scroll through and comment on photos whenever he feels like it.”

The Nutrabolt team also has introduced the idea of coaching opportunities through the comments and alerts in the Repsly app, and consistently shares best practices surrounding feedback from the field. Managers also have near real-time visibility into the team and program performance against goals, and Nutrabolt can now quickly spin up weekly, monthly, or quarterly sales competitions to drive focus (and results) on important initiatives.

Panton says he is always looking to exchange creative displays and ideas between territories. “If the team in California came up with a fantastic display, I can quickly share that idea with our Florida team. “We’re always spreading ideas around, allowing the creativity of the team to be visible to everyone.”

Recognition of Work

Nutrabolt has also found that by making their retail data easily available to everyone in the organization, it has enabled many team members to proactively pull reports when and where they need them, and quickly pivot with that data in hand. And through the comment and chat functionalities, Nutrabolt’s entire organization can celebrate and recognize their field team wins.

“A day in the life of a field rep can be a lonely role, so when a VP or manager comments on their work, regardless of it being positive or negative, at least they feel their work is being recognized,” Panton said. “I love commenting ‘Hey, that’s a killer display!’ That recognition and feeling like someone is taking an interest in your work and celebrating your wins truly makes all the difference. None of that happens without Repsly. It’s made everybody better, recognizing that someone cares about their success and is noticing their work.”

This uplifting strategy has shown impressive results so far, as the company maintained 100 percent sales rep retention since partnering with Repsly.

“It’s been my goal to make our reps as productive as possible, but by fighting for and speaking on the behalf of them,” said Panton. “I motivate by recognizing and incentivizing our field team. If someone questions why reps can’t hit more stores, I show them their mileage log. Everyone from top to bottom at Nutrabolt has recognized that we’re using Repsly the right way.”

Click here to read the full Nutrabolt case study to discover how their field team uses retail data to promote recognition, collaboration, and employee retention.