“Flexibility and speed in the application of new processes is an important quality for a market player,” said Svetlana Mikhno, Head of Sales Development at Nestle in Ukraine.

Paying attention to the main thing and always being where your customer is are the invariable elements of the strategies used by international companies. You can read about what tools Nestle is using in in Ukraine to keep abreast and set trends, how to automate and streamline the search for insights, in a blitz interview with the Head of the Sales Development Department Svetlana Mikhno.

Svetlana, why did the Nestle team in Ukraine choose effie> and IPLAND to manage the processes of trade marketing and chains sales?

The service provider has shown good results, and teamwork is consistent with our policies. Also, an important role was played by recommendations from outsourcing companies, merchandising agencies. In addition, the functions of effie> service, which were presented by IPLAND company assist to solve emerging problems or new challenges rapidly. We use the effie> functions to automate quality control of agreement implementation at retail chains and analyze the situation on the shelves.

Can you give an example of process changes?

Store-checks in retail chains, which are an integral part of our work, have become more planned. Thanks to analytics they are aimed at identifying of the specific problems in the chain or in a separate POS. This helps to ensure that our products are available in retail chains.

What service tools do you consider to be its "highlight"?

The service has a useful function - to fill the program independently. Thus, we determine the effectiveness of the tools and decide whether it is needed in the program. 

Analytics system. What reports do you use? What tasks do you solve with their help? What decisions do you make based on the data? What report do you start with?

The main reporting for our team is reporting on determining the correctness of the activity matrix implementation at the point of sale, the presence of POSM and additional points of sales (APS). These reports allow us to see the effect of the entire sales teamwork within the project. Based on this, we make decisions in the negotiations process with customers and with regard to the implementation of existing agreements.

We know that you are using effie> for the Inspector project. Please tell us more about it.

The Inspector is Nestle's corporate project in Ukraine. With its help company seeks insights and areas for directly improvement at points of sale. To do this, Sales Development Department employees come to store-checks in different areas, covering a large territory of Ukraine.

At the store locations, the work is carried out in several directions: monitoring the availability of Nestlé products, activities and Nestlé equipment in Ukrainian stores, as well as communication with both the local sales team (sales representatives, merchandisers and their managers), and the sellers themselves. This makes it possible to comprehensively assess the situation at the immediate point of sale and identify best practices or areas for improvement.

When the "Inspector" was conducted for the first time, the process was not automated and, accordingly, required more time, first to prepare, then to fill out various questionnaires manually, and then additional time to transfer and aggregate the data. Thus, during the business trip itself, the employee had less time to communicate with the sales team and staff in the stores.

The stage of processing and analyzing information was also stretched due to the limited time and the presence of many other tasks, which, accordingly, reduced the value of the information received at the stage of discussion and decision making.

At the first stage, through the effie> mobile application, the most routine part of the process was automated, monitoring the presence of Nestlé products in retail chains. This made it possible to save time for both audit and results processing significantly.

The obtained data allows us to build all kinds of ratings and determine new KPIs, which make it possible to obtain any sections of information and use them to correct situations on the spot. This is successfully used by the Nestle team in Ukraine. Based on the collected information, a rating was compiled with regard to the Company's products that were not available in retail chains depending on the reason.

As a result, the automation of the point of sale audit process allowed the Nestle auditors in Ukraine to effectively use the time available to solve other problems. For example, the number of communications with local staff, including with employees of retail chains, has significantly increased.

Company Information:

Nestlé is the largest Company in the world in the production of food products and beverages, which is represented in 189 countries with 308 thousand employees working for the achievement of the overall objectives of Nestlé - to improve the quality of life and contribute to a healthy future. Nestlé offers a wide range of products and services for families and pets. It has more than 2,000 brands: from world famous brands such as NESCAFÉ or Nespresso to local market leaders such as Torchin and Svitoch. The Company's results are driven by a strategy for creating shared values for society.